If it wasn't before, Ecstasy of Saint Theresa is your new favorite Czech shoegaze band. When I think of shoegaze as a genre or movement one sound always comes to mind; this is the swirling guitars, orchestral samples and drifting vocals of My Bloody Valentine's Loveless . In 1989 Kevin Shields set out to make his masterpiece. Two years, 19 recording studios and a handful of defunct sound engineers later, Shields emerged with Loveless, one of the best albums of the decade and the seminal "shoegaze" record.
Go back a few years in the My Bloody Valentine catalogue and you will find a much different sound. MBV's first LP was 1988's Isn't Anything . Although some of MBV's distinctive sound stands out on this early release (most notably Shields's shifting chords played with the tremelo bar), Isn't Anything is in many ways the anti-Loveless. Loveless was recorded over the span of two years; Isn't Anything was made in just two weeks. Where Loveless is ethereal, Isn't Anything is raw--the guitars are bone-crushing instead of shimmering, the drums aggressive. Hell, some of it kind of sounds like a band from the Czech Republic called Ecstasy of Saint Theresa.
On Susurrate (1992), Ecstasy of Saint Theresa lays down shoegaze in the same grain as some tracks from Isn't Anything--bruising guitars, aggressive drums, everything blaring and percussive. But while Isn't Anything sounds a bit unsure, capturing a band en route to its full potential and defining sound, Susurrate shows a band taking this bone-crushing style of shoegaze and running with it--the result is stunning. I guess what I'm trying to say is Susurrate sounds like a better, more focused version of Isn't Anything's driving shoegaze--a better version of the best shoegaze band's first album.
So in this post I have:
a) mentioned a lesser-known shoegaze band only to write about the most obvious shoegaze band ever for two paragraphs,
b) succumbed to shoegaze elitism by measuring every shoegaze album against Loveless, and
c) written seriously about a pseudogenre, making indiscriminate use of the term "shoegaze".
...to the gallows. But hey, if you worked the late shift at a desolate hotel front desk you might start thinking about these things too.
Here are a couple of tracks by Ecstasy of Saint Theresa, all of them but "What's" from the aforementioned album Susurrate. Thanks to youcantgohomeagain for suggesting this band.
Ecstasy of Saint Theresa - What's
Ecstasy of Saint Theresa - Thorn In Yer Grip
Ecstasy of Saint Theresa - Ice Cream Star
Ecstasy of Saint Theresa - To Alison
