PRAISE be, the sonic cathedral is open for worship once more in the form of a lavish new five-disc compilation dedicated to that most unfairly derided of indie rock genres, shoegaze.
Released today by Cherry Red, Still In A Dream: A Story of Shoegaze 1988 -1995 offers a chronological and impressively thorough 87 (!) track mop-up of the movers, shakers, stars, nearly-weres and also-rans who doled out lashings of shimmering, effects pedal-enhanced rock during the years in question.
It's a long overdue exercise because, let's face it, most of the bands included here fell into the latter two categories of recognition and lack thereof: For every Lush, RIDE, Swervedriver and Slowdive there were a dozen Honey Smugglers, Spitfires, See See Riders and Drops in this much maligned 'scene' which stubbornly refused to crawl away and die when the fickle London music press demanded it should.
With the aforementioned leading lights all now reunited and raking it in on the comeback circuit (RIDE were simply immense at the Glasgow Barrowlands last year, since you didn't ask) and their influence on scores of modern atmospheric rockers being repeatedly acknowledged, now is the perfect time to offer up such a collection.
However, you'll note the canny lack of a definitive article in its title: no 'story of shoegaze' could possibly be complete without the inclusion of mighty Irish-Anglo outfit My Bloody Valentine, whose 1988 debut LP Isn't Anything and its hugely over-rated 1991 follow-up Loveless provided tempting templates for noise-obsessed pop kids everywhere to attempt to emulate.
I'd also make the case for key MBV influences Sonic Youth and Dinosaur Jr to be in the mix: in any case, this trio of highly influential bands are excluded, perhaps due to licensing problems.
However, it's testament to the compilers' passion that they've featured pretty much every other shoegaze/dreampop (as the Americans love to call it) act I've ever come across, along with plenty of bands who merely flirted with a swirled-out sound at some stage: Loop, Cocteau Twins, Telescopes, Pale Saints, Boo Radleys, Adorable, Chapterhouse, Curve, Kitchens of Distinction, Dr Phibes, Drop, Bleach, Catherine Wheel, Moose, Moonshake, Revolver, Drop Nineteens, The Swirlies, Bardo Pond, Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev, Galaxie 500 and Spacemen 3 (plus 'off-shoots' Sonic Boom and Spiritualized) are all present and correct.
About the only other notable absentee I can think of is Levitation, Terry Bickers's post-House of Love project, and perhaps The Cure, whose 1992 LP Wish was heavily influenced by RIDE and other 'gazers of the era.
It's great to find a couple of Irish acts representing: take a bow Whipping Boy, whose marvellous Switchblade Smile marks them out as the MBV and Sonic Youth obsessives they very obviously were around the time of debut LP Submarine, and it's nice to see that I'm not the only one who remembers Rollerskate Skinny, Jimi 'brother of Kevin' Shields's band, who briefly ploughed their own intriguingly skewed alt-rock furrow during the mid-90s.
There's several hours worth of blissed-out listening here, but it's entirely apt that Still in A Dream kicks off with the glorious fuzz pop groove of Rollercoaster by Glasgow's finest noisemakers (no, not Mogwai) The Jesus and Mary Chain: the Reid brothers' original formula of melody-laced guitar-based chaos is surely one of the most influential musical fetishes in alternative rock history.
From that starting point, you can't go far wrong.
Indeed, if you have any affection for shoegaze rock, you need Still In A Dream in your record collection.
Here's a 'starter kit' playlist to help you get stuck into its box of dazed delights.
THIS WEEK'S MOST ANNOYING NOISES
Mercy Seat – Ultra Vivid Scene
Kaleidoscope – The Boo Radleys
Switchblade Smile – Whipping Boy
