Manufactured Recordings Issuing Trio Of Shoegaze Reissues
Releases From KG, Alison's Halo and Bethany Curve Out May 19
May 19 will see Manufactured Recordings add to their exemplary Shoegaze Archive Series with the addition of 3 new releases; Alison Halo's Eyedazzler, KG's Come Closer, We're Cool,and Mee-Eaux, the debut release from Santa Cruz post-shoegazers, Bethany Curve.
Alison's Halo were born in Phoenix 2 decades ago and were led by spouses Adam and Catherine Cooper. The Big Takeover's Jack Rabid notes, "Alison's Halo trafficked in spectacular, effects-laden, ethereal guitar majesties, but were distinguished by Catherine's lovely vocals as shimmering as their six-string mélanges." They recorded two demo cassettes, Slug and Halo and in 1995 their debut single, "Dozen" was released on Independent Project Records. Alison Halo's first album, Eyedazzler 1992-1996, was a CD compilation of songs the band wrote created between those years and was released in 1998. Listen to "Out Of The Clear here.
Alison's Halo pre-orders:
Come Closer, We're Cool, is a collection of early 90's fuzzy noise pop by KG, the longtime project of Mulhouse, France's Rémy Bux. Started in 1988 as a solo bedroom project, Bux's early experiments involved a two-track recorder, a rigged synthesizer, and a great deal of ingenuity. Eventually procuring a four-track recorder, Bux began recording more seriously. Following a move to Strasbourg near France's German border to study musicology in 1991, it wasn't until 1993 that Bux went into Strasbourg's Downtown Studio to record the first KG 7". A second single co-released by Lo-Fi and Orgasm Records featuring the same line up was released in 1996.Come Closer, We're Cool compiles these early singles as well as tracks from a shelved release on Slumberland Records and other unreleased tracks. While similarities to Isn't Anything-era My Bloody Valentine and the Jesus & Mary Chain's Psychocandy abound, KG's approach is markedly different by blending the swirling textures of shoegaze and dream pop with the immediacy and minimalism of punk. Come Closer, We're Cool showcases one of the underrated greats of the 2nd wave of shoegaze. Listen to "Love Me Forever' here.
Mee-Eaux was the debut release from 90's second wave shoegaze band Bethany Curve. The band takes their name from a street sign near the cliffs of the Monterey Bay in Santa Cruz where they formed in 1994. Mee-Eaux, originallyself-released on cassette only, was a 45 minute, 10 track introduction to Bethany Curve's dark space-rock approach to the droning, melancholic, distorted, and ethereal tones that had come to be associated with the shoegaze sound. The band's motto, Atmosphere | Arrangement | Sound | Layering | Noise, is a perfect reflection of Bethany Curve's compositional and performative approach to their debut effort, and remained so through the release of three more LPs: Skies a Crossed Sky(1996), Gold (1998), and You Brought Us Here (2001) on Unit Circle, and their final release, the Flaxen EP (2003), released on Kitchen Whore Records. Final track "Mey Voy" appeared on Cherry Red's 2016 shoegaze compilation, Still In A Dream: A Story Of Shoegaze 1988-1995, and the band also appeared on Dewdrop Records' 2002 compilationHalf Gifts: A Tribute To The Cocteau Twins with a cover of "Ivo." Listen to "Dozen" here.
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