The story of my bloody valentine is a masterclass in slowburn. From origins as early as the late 70s to their modern status as innovators of shoegaze and dream pop, the band have completely rewritten the possibilities of experimental rock music. Guitarist Kevin Shields and drummer Colm Ó Cíosóig's fateful meeting in Dublin initiated a stint of post-punk bands before they began releasing music as my bloody valentine in 1985. What followed were shifting lineups, moves across Europe, and mercurial records before their sound solidified in London with bassist Debbie Googe and vocalist/guitarist Bilinda Butcher.
1988's Isn't Anything, originally released on Creation Records, is the insatiable first taste of what would become one of the most unique voices to arise from the independent scene. Drifting between raw and drenched in effects, noisy rock ragers and hallucinative abstract visions, the album forms a dense thicket of thrashing guitar tones, snares that hit like a bullet, and discordant rumbles rubbing against angelic vocals. The band's lovelorn pop sensibilities and intimate knowledge of how to turn pedal effects into limitless moments of splendour propelled them into the sphere of shoegaze fame.
Hurling the band into the amniotic abyss of sound, loveless was the masterpiece that followed in 1991. Recorded across three years in countless studios, this elemental record is a product of perfectionism that paid off, lauded as a visionary reinvention of guitar music. Frissons of energy reverberate through the body as unthinkable stacks of amplifiers jack wispy intimate songs up to staggeringly universal levels with brutally blissful tracks like ‘sometimes’ contrasting acoustic-driven bedroom aesthetics with constant streams of voltage that never lose their footing.
my bloody valentine's legacy was left to gestate for decades, until out of the blue came m b v in 2013, upending the sonic landscape once again with experiments in tone and texture, landslides of strums in hypnotic long-form journeys through grit and growl. Billowing with scorched sweetness, the album's noise monsoon carries cascades of blasting percussion and delicate vocals, endlessly galloping through the motorik eruptions and quaking Gaian bass of ‘nothing is’ while 'wonder 2' sounds like they've run the pedals through a jet engine of fluctuating breakbeat rhythms.
my bloody valentine boast a galaxy-brained trilogy of records, and it's hard to find a scene or style untouched by the immense influence of their sonic capabilities.
