SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW - MY BLOODY VALENTINE - Map Ref. 41N 93W (1996) + SHANA FALANA - IN THE LIGHT (2012)

With the good news that Kevin Shields is releasing a 'new' MY BLOODY VALENTINE record in the upcoming year, after eons of waiting amongst their hunger starved fans, here is one of the last 'new' tracks they released, a cover of a WIRE song on a compilation known as 'Whore' which was released in 1996. Which is simply stratospheric in terms of sound. Let's hope we can soon add My Bloody Valentine to the 'New' Category :-p

 

From more recent pastures we have Rosendale, New York resident (via San Francisco) SHANA FALANA with her dreamy-esque type of modern (at times chant-driven) dreampop that ebbs under your skin and lifts up the wings you didn't know you had. One example being this song, which is one of the most uplifting beautiful songs that I've heard in my young life. A positive vortex of dreampop sound. Pretty cool video shot in upstate NY as well.

Something Old, Something New - DEUX FILLES - "THE LETTER" (1982) + ELECTRIC ASSEMBLY - "CAN CARE BE WRONG" (2006/2007)

Here is an beautiful, haunting, early instrumental example of what can be termed 'dreampop'. Deux Filles were Simon Fisher Turner, former child star/teen idol and future soundtrack composer, and his mate Colin Lloyd Tucker. Turner and Tucker left an early incarnation of The The in 1981 to pursue another musical direction. Turner claims that the idea of Deux Filles came to him in a dream, and he and Tucker strictly maintained the fiction throughout the duo's career. Not only did they pose in drag for the album covers, the duo once even played live without the audience realizing that the tragic French girls on-stage were actually a pair of blokes from south London having a giggle. Deux Filles released two albums through Turner and Tucker's Papier Mache label, 1982's Silence & Wisdom and 1983's Double Happiness. After that, the duo scrapped the Deux Filles concept and released two ambient pop albums as Jeremy's Secret."

...and from just a few years back we have Londoners THE ELECTRIC ASSEMBLY with a lovely shoegaze inflected tune "CAN CARE BE WRONG". These guys were led by my friend David McHugh.