Reggae legend Toots Hibbert, of Toots & The Maytals, has died at age 77.
The number of Reggae tracks in regular rotation on my iTunes is pretty finite, but “Pressure Drop” is one of them:
I also liked their cover of Radiohead’s “Let Down” off the Radiodread, the complete reggae cover album of OK Computer.
Here’s another dose of The Telewire, with “Slower” off their Airport EP.
Been a long time since I featured something from The Telewire, but “Head on Straioght” is part of my regular Shoegaze rotation.
Legendary film score composer Ennio Morricone has died at age 91. The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, John Carpenter’s The Thing and The Hateful Eight all had scores by him, among the 500+(!) he composed.
Here’s probably my favorite piece by him, from his soundtrack to Once Upon A Time In The West:
This is from Deserta ‘s new album Black Aura My Sun, which is already making a lot of people’s “Best Shoegaze albums of 2020” list. They remind a little bit of Highspire.
Here’s a pleasant one off the Saint Marie Records Static Daydream sampler.
Ringo Deathstarr is a Shoegaze band that on paper I should like more than I do. An Austin band with redheaded female bassist? I should be all over that. But for some reason they’ve never really clicked with me.
But they just dropped a new, self-titled album, and this track sounds like a homage to not only Pink Floyd’s “Brain Damage,” but also The Beatles at their most psychedelic.
I picked up SPC ECO’s Fifteen album, and if you like sort of steady-state, trancy shoegaze with beautiful female vocals sort of floating on top, I recommend it. Here’s “The Heart and Soul”:
I’d never heard Sara Rachele before I went looking for covers of “Fade Into You.” She’s good enough to provide a close approximation of Hope Sandoval’s voice. The arrangement is more sparse and lonely than the Mazzy Star original, accentuating the sad, twangy, “coming home from a honky tonk alone at 3 AM” vibe of the song.
David Roback, half of duo Mazzy Star, has died at age 61. He co-wrote their one hit, the haunting “Fade Into You”:
Mazzy Star got called Shoegaze because there wasn’t anything else to call them, but their twangy guitar sound, and Hope Sandoval’s breathy, honey-and-bourbon vocals, were like nothing else on the scene.