Saturday, February 2, 2013

My Bloody Valentine - m b v - Live Review

OH MY GOD BASED GOD

Thank you Based Kevin Shields.


Loveless came out on November 4th, 1991

That's 7761 days ago.


21 years, 2 months and 29 days.

For contrast I am 7967 days old

I have been waiting for m b v for 7761 days.


Not really though.

Am I dreaming? Am I alive? Is it actually really happening?

Doubt it.


An elaborate hoax? A conspiracy?

Or by some holy alignment of the stars... is it actually happening?


Real talk: you'd still prefer a full length LSD and the Search for God album, wouldn't you?

...yes.


But anyways, HERE WE GO.



My Bloody Valentine - m b v

1. she found now
This is it. This is the great godfather/God of shoegaze DESCENDING AGAIN. The SECOND COMING. and I am sinking RIGHT DOWN INTO IT. Within 30 seconds we get that first melancholy bend down slightly minor, just to set you on... some sort of inner edge. My favorite shoegaze is the sort of stuff that seems swirly, melty, bloody, and this is it. There's a volume you can listen to this stuff where it is absolutely all encompassing but under the threshold of pain. I have no idea what he's saying but that's alright, I know he's saying the right things. Welcome home Kevin Shields. This long "oooo" like 2 min is just bliss, absolute bliss. And the way some of the backing track bends is hypnotic. I'm probably gonna say hypnotic like twenty times this review. I still can't believe this is happening. I love the pulse of that one chord. I love these track titles, getting so hype. With stuff like rap reviews I can go crazy quoting and stuff but I think for long periods of this review I'm probably gonna not have a whole lot to say, or I will be stunned into silence. Hmm. Like now all I can say about this slight buildup I'm feeling is HOLY DAMN and that's not like... an insight. I feel like something big and fuzzy is melting all around me, snow that melts into snow. Ahhhhh~~~~~.... Good start. *

2. only tomorrow
Ah, yes, this more kickin' sorta music. So odd to think how much MBV influenced the sound of like, new wave noise surfrock sorta stuff almost... incidentally. I'm loving these kicks, that rollicking sorta rhythm, but always that layer of just lovely lovely gazey noise. Somewhere in the back there there's a piano just hammering out chords and ahhh, it's a very nice effect to be sure. And oh man this transition at like 1:30ish ahhhh, wow. Amazing, really amazing. I love that specific sound of static, the stuff that sounds so lo-rez and yet so absolutely perfect. And the feeling of the guitar being "at the end of it's rope", amazing. And the way that vocal comes back in woaaaaah, nice. "into the heart" I think he's saying. Makes sense to me to quote him only in lowercase. I love when it just pauses for a second. Just the huge surge/release of tension, oh man. Oh man, at 3:20ish, something PRETTY INTERESTING IS HAPPENING. These big big sounds and the way the one guitar sound seems like it is "corrupting" or just like... breaking down. This isn't just like, shoegaze revival, this is genuine shoegaze innovation happening here too. SUGOI. And oh man, the triumph! Such a triumphant feeling! I still can't believe this is happening. I'm so happy it's also good. And that drum pattern! It's stayed so consistent! So amazing. And this "riff" here oh man, this is so raffed, this riff is so raffed. OH MAN WHEN THE OTHER GUITARS CAME ALONG TO PLAY IN RHYTHM WITH THE MAIN ONE, and this sudden dropoff of volume oh man. **


3. who sees you
Haha that intro. Wait, haha? That's just intense. Those bends! I dunno if there's a better word for them but I think you know what I mean. The shoegaze bendy thing. I don't know anything about guitars. I believe it is a "pedal" or "petal" or something. Anyways this song is blooming into something pretty wonderful. This is a really solid shoegazey sorta riff, and then boom, the vocal just blossoms into it. i dunno what's with these flower analogies. Just seems to fit?? "how could it be?" shields asks and I don't know the answer. Oh man, I just can't get over the way these notes bend, it is something like... I dunno, heartrending? Like, something aches when I hear them. "say goodbye..." ah, no. I wonder if mbv is back on the album cycle now? Or is it gonna be another 20+ years, holy shit 20+ years. HOLY SHIT THIS SOUND AT 3:10ish, OH MAN. It just keeps going! The gaze pile doesn't stop from growing taller. It feels so strained and at the edge of things and yet so ethered, so infinitely down and deep... I love when the drums go into a really basic straight rhythm, the suspense is amazing. "how does it feel?" shields asks and I don't know the answer. And then they go into this idea of buildup again but it is EVEN MORE INTENSE SOMEHOW? As if such a thing is possible... Oh man, I love love love this ending. I am not "loveless" in any way ha ha ha ha ha aahaaaaaaaaaa ah aha. **


4. is this and yes
I love this song title. I love this intro, woooah. Space organ. Space base cathedral. Super interesting! Now where the hecko is this going. I love the three speeds of movement between the two synths and the drums. This feels very like, post-scared. Some interesting noise is knocking in my right ear, hmmm... Ahhhhhh, the vocal come on is so smooth, so warm. I love how it is brought in at first just as tones, warm, healthy vibrato tones, but feeling so hollow in this context. Oh man, it occurs to me now that this is gonna be the whole song. Ain't no intro, this the song! I really like that actually. I really like that he's able to come up with a concept so enthralling that it like, operates in near stasis and yet works. And that he is able to cherish his own creation to the extent that he doesn't feel the need to overwork it, which is like THE mbv problem if what I've read is to be believed. OH MAN, SECOND VOCAL PART. It occurs to me now that I really really want to see Burial x mbv... somehow. 'Cause this is cool but the addition of some like, 2-step sorta thing, then it'd have just, I dunno, some sort of drive component. Not that it'd be necessarily better but more up my alley. This really isn't the sort of music you frantically type to, mind you. I really ought to just be getting more and more strung out on organsound, wishing I could sit up to type the words in my head... S


5. if i am

Well that's a contrast. AND OH MAN. The pulsing synth from the last song is BACK LIKE 8 TRACK over some of the most bendy chords yet. This like like... wonky. Amazing. This is actually the "drive hard" version of the previous song I was trying to picture, TYBKS. This is really really hypnothic. Typo but I like how it sounds. I love this upper sort of synth sounds emerging at like 1:30ish. And these really hollow echoing drum patterns, this is almost some sigur ros type shit going. This is the first song where the complexity is really in your face apparent, like, the rest of the songs everything blended hard but here the individual parts are really distinct. "Alternating subtle and explicit pressure", the sacred technique of fighting games applies here as well! I wish this was much much longer, but I guess it is in the nature of songs that are more about like, emerging/retreating components than a single forward "narrative" structure to either be hella long or short. I love that outro. *

6. new you
Well hey this sound like it could be on the radio! I'm feeling gooood with this one! Ah, but there's that... subtly too sweet bend... what is it doing in the depths of my brain? And then this unnerving sensation of... well, I can't even describe. regardless this does seem way happier than most past songs. The beat is downright poppy, and the focus on beat just screams "listen to me in less than ideal conditions". It's crunchy, crisp. And yet still so gazey. What an ingenious combination. I love that the album has stuff like this that really feels more like "song qua song" rather than "aesthetic manifestation". Not that this isn't super interesting and complex and such too, but it seems like it was done just to be enjoyed versus like... ruminated upon via an addiction. I'm gonna call it right now: this shit is "groovy". Maybe a lot more old mbv was like this too and I just don't remember it as well... that seems likely, now that I think of it. "do do doo" but man I can't make that up. So nice. Ahhhhhhhh, yes. I feel like SINGING ALONG to this! Sugoi. etc. Kawaii? Or something. Elelegent. ah, but the title? Does some sort of... sinister statement type thing lurk behind? Cause that title reminds me (is actually?) of a Swans song, which would not tolerate this sort of glee without DESPAIR lurking right behind. For now I will just viiiiibe ouuuut. S+

7. in another way

woAoawoAOoOWoAOwoAoOwoOAoOWoOaOowOAooaWOaOaoOaoOaoaoo whatttttt is this. Cool. Ah oh my god. They just resurrected the great wall of sound in like half a second. And now they're putting like, battlements and stuff. From which we can wage war on... all preconceptions of how good this album could be. I love these drums, the way they sorta roll into patterns out of beats, aha. And these vocals are just bliss. WWWWWWWWWWAAAAA at 1:30 we go into like a REALLY AMAZING THING. Pulsing giving away to pulsing. The beat within the beat. Etc. The structure of so many of these songs is lost to me as I am so wrapped up in the moment. Like, is this a bridge? I dunno. IT'S AMAZING IS WHAT IT IS. Wwoowaooaoah. These waves and waves of sound. The wall of sound has become the ocean. I can't get enough of these vocals by the way. I want some lyrics cause I have no idea what's being said. And then we go back to the pusling sorta section but now it feels... denser, more substantial? Am I crazy? We have gone from pulse to pulsar. And those decending piano? Synth sounds? Ah, tybks. This is so... sweet? I don't even know. I feel like somebody loves me. Like, this combination of rolling beats and pulsing synths and long descinding chords, this is music made because someone loves music and loves people who love music and finally loves himself and put out an album after 20 years because of all this love, love, love, love. Rounds. *


8. nothing is

Oh man... this seems... scary? Oh man. Sudden burst of chaos! Like... almost Carolinerish? But a rhythm establishes itself... This sort of nauseating push-pull sort of thing. It is shaking me up hard. Where is this going? To hell or heaven from this purgatory? Ah, the drums build up now... or is this a penultimate experimentation of loop and form? Oh man it just might be, that's insane. GETTING PRETTY INTENSE NOW, like, 15 auditory Gs? Ahh. Surging is the word I would use. And yup it seems like it's just this. I'm okay with that, more than okay. It is something like this that gives albums an everlasting mystique, and you can call out plebs by not liking it. It is also where the song by song review system sorta breaks down. Still this is super interesting. I love how the piano has come in. I love how it is making me rethink what I think when I think "loud". I love how I am just absolutely thrilled about the FINAL TRACK coming up. Seriously though I am getting some Swans-type feelings in my gut, not as bad as like, Doomjazz. And then that outro, WOAH. S-

9. wonder 2

WWWWWWWOAH, they DID GET BURIAL on this OR SOMETHING? Seriously, that intro, especially with the "tinkling sound"... and then a absolute torrent of guitars. And we are in OUTER SPACE. And what are those drums doing???? That's like... breakbeat! ABSURD. You are a crazy man, kevin. You probably spent twenty years just coming up with how this combination could possibly work ever ever. I can't even tell where this track is emotionally. It is like... too strong, too intense. It's subtleties are too deep with in me. Meaning is evident but inextricable. These guitar sounds though OH MAN, so beautiful.... It sounds like a whole new instrument. maybe it is a whole new instrument and I am dumb and cannot recognize instruments. And I SIMPLY CANNOT GET OVER THE DRUMS. This sounds just way way way ahead of anything anyone else would try under these circumstances. And then the stuff here like... these vocals and such, sheesh. Sheeeeesh. This sounds insane, like, actually insane, like the sort of product of a mind just absolutely overburdened with a genius and a passion and a dream that OH MAN, it can ONLY BURST OUT LIKE IT DOES AT 3:20, where noise simply transcends form, if that makes ANY SENSE, I am aware that very little of this makes ANY SENSE. This is like the end of "Surf's Up" y'know like you know you are just witnessing the rare occasion where one of those super-deep down inexpressible ideas of what a sound could sound like, it finally actually manifests itself. Just going absolutely off the rails into space, deeper and deeper space. And this breakdown man, guitar sound becomes airplane sound. I had a very haunting dream about airports recently. Amazing. **

Well that's it

During my review like five people came into my room and I didn't notice so I'm gonna do stuff with them but with the knowledge that I just listened to the AOTYAOTY AOTYAOTY AOTYAOTY AOTYAOTY AOTYAOTY AOTYAOTY AOTYAOTY AOTYAOTY AOTYAOTY AOTYAOTY AOTYAOTY AOTYAOTY AOTYAOTY AOTYAOTY AOTYAOTY AOTYAOTY AOTYAOTY AOTYAOTY AOTYAOTY

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