Lovesliescrushing - Bloweyelashwish

Crushing

You can tell this is from 92 or 93. It's just before the last remaining stragglers of the second wave succumb to a divergent crossroads and intermingle further flavours to dilute the purity of their shoegazery. At this moment though it's just an unadulterated distorted dream haze with a disorienting undertow. To get such an incredible sound out of a 4 track Scott Cortez musta be some kind of whizz. 

The awfully named Lovesliescrushing were an American shoegaze duo. I remember this cd from the 90s because an ex-girlfriend had it and the clunky aesthetics of the project used to capture my attention. It was just not quite right, almost a parody, with all these frou-frou song titles with words joined together (like the band's name) ie. babysbreath, darkglassdolleyes, youreyesimmaculate, bloweyelashwish etc. Perhaps it now has ironic charm. Having said that I think the cover is a pretty cool 4AD knockoff. 

Anyway LLC were very competent with their My Bloody Valentine and Cocteau-y replicas. It's like we're listening to this wall of sound from inside the amp. They were admirably on sonic point but there was something a bit too distant about their approach though. When you listen to Kevin Shields and Belinda Butcher you feel like you know where they're at however Lovesliescrushing seem a bit cold and aloof. Then again perhaps being slightly alien was the point.

The spectacular sounding bloweyelashwish (1994) LP has its fans though and has had several reissues over the years making it a cult item amongst the shoegazery fraternity.

Iwantyou

I like how Lovesliescrushing don't only just adhere to the Loveless template. This fabulous track takes its inspiration from the rumbling dubby bass of Debbie Goodge circa My Bloody Valentine's Isn't Anything and Feed Me With Your Kiss EP. An entire album in this style might have been mind blowing but the rest of the tunes mostly stick to a highly distorted Loveless & Cocteaus through the lens of Slowdive recipe with even the occasional hint of prog. 

If you're into your superfluous shoegaze and just need way more of it in your life, then bloweyelashwish is probably gonna be for you if it isn't already.