As fall takes more warmth from the air, have you thought of following the forgotten heat and fading away, too? Well, if so, then you have come to the right place. Music is able to help a person feel a wide variety of emotions, and even experiences. Being able to feel a heavy, dissolving weight is one of the emotions that music can bring. Whenever I listen to shoegaze, that feeling seems to flow effortlessly.
What is Shoegaze?
Shoegaze is a genre of music pioneered, and cemented, by bands such as Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine. The genre is identifiable by its dense and layered textures of sounds. The vocals and instruments of shoegaze tracks are blurred in this layered noise, emitting a heavy and dream-like sound.
1. “Su JardÍn” – Giradioses
Giradioses’ song “Su JardÍn” is a comforting voyage through the unknown. Agustina Mendiburu Elicabe, lead singer of Giradioses, leads the listener with her seductive and comforting vocals. The journey of the song, as felt through its loud noise and gradual shifts, is unknown and scary, as this sound is unfamiliar to the listener. However, Elicabe guides the audience with her gentle voice through its shrouded path and leads the travelers to an intimate and secure home.
2. “Head in the Ceiling” – Title Fight
The intro guitar riff in Title Fight’s “Head in the Ceiling” feels like a mother in mourning. It captures the perfect amount of emotion, with great depth, to lead its listeners into a larger vacuum of sound later on in the song. The expansive sound is created by Title Fight through many elements: layered guitars, layered vocals, reverberated drums, a spotlighted vocalist. Because of this, the general feel of the song is the same. It is a unified feeling of comfort, only achieved through layers.
3. “Grey Type” – Pure Ghost
Pure Ghost’s track, “Grey Type”, smothers its listeners in a weighted blanket. The song, from the start, is compressed with a heavy sound that weighs just enough on its audience to immobilize. Its vocals are soothing and loft in air with light harmonies as the drums and lead guitar anchor the track to the ground. All of the elements of Grey Type work together to smother and dissolve its listeners.
4. “Blank” – Glare
The intro of “Blank”, by Glare, slowly pulls at the arm of the listener into its ever approaching wave of sound. However, this is a gradual force that feels effortless on the audience. As the track loudens, there is a sense of dissonance that lingers in its air. This is due to the reverberated vocals and many layers of sound within the track.
5. “Grounded” – Trementina
Vanessa Cea, the lead singer of Trementina, sounds like she is singing into an expansive and empty cave in their song “Grounded”. As Cea sings, or better put, hums her lyrics, the space of the song is filled with an ambient pillow that carries its listener away like a floating rug. “Grounded” was released on Trementina’s 2014 album Almost Reach the Sun.
Give them a listen this fall!
