Moon Elevator share’s their top ten picks for modern shoegaze classics of cosmic wonder and melancholy
When I first discovered My Bloody Valentine’s classic shoegaze album loveless as a teenager growing up in Australian suburbia, it blew my mind. Since then I’ve been fascinated by the genre.
Leaning into abstraction and impressionism, the best shoegaze songs bypass intellectual critique and go straight to the heart and the body, tapping into universal emotions in their many different shades – vulnerability, desire, menace, joy, cosmic wonder and melancholy. Everything curves away from literal storytelling into a landscape of dream logic.
As a guitarist & singer, I’ve also been deeply influenced by how shoegaze artists avoided displays of technical prowess and ego in favour of melody, texture and spaciousness.
For me, it upended the traditional way I thought about how to play guitar or use my voice, opening my imagination to bending & stretching notes into many different forms – a shimmery colourful haze, an exploding wall of noise, a warble of crunched tension.
There are so many great artists drawing inspiration from shoegaze today. Here’s a list of 10 shoegaze gems from the 2020s that were inspiring as I wrote & recorded Moon Elevator’s debut EP “All Bridges Burn Behind You”.
MINT FIELD – Sensibilidad dormida
I love discovering a band that feels like they’ve curated their sound just for you, filling a gap in your record collection that you didn’t know existed. Discovering Mexico City duo MINT FIELD last year was one such a moment for me and I found myself listening to them a lot while mixing Moon Elevator’s debut release.
On Sensibilidad dormida, singer and guitarist Estrella del Sol builds chimes and harmonic textures into a lo-fi crescendo of fuzz, singing gently in Spanish while the song pulses along to a melodic bassline. Right at the end the song, everything disintegrates into a sleepy, wonky chord progression. It feels like waking up from an intense, surreal dream.
Slowdive – shanty
Any list of current shoegazers would be remiss without including the recent work by Slowdive. One of the original innovators of the genre during the 90s, it’s been so exciting to see Slowdive return for a second act and create some of their most evocative music while in their 50s.
Pairing their trademark shimmery guitar wash and Rachel Goswell’s ghostly vocals with propulsive, robotic synths, this track remakes their sound for a new era without abandoning any of what made their 90s albums so distinctive. That combination of shoegaze shimmer and circling synthesisers became a key part of Moon Elevator’s sound.
DIIV – Little Birds
As a guitarist, one of the ideas I find exciting most about shoegaze is the freedom to use the guitar in a very different way to the hyper masculine pose of the rock guitar hero. Drive and fuzz is used to create colour and dissonance that tap into gentler, kinder feelings even as they blow out into noise and feedback.
Zachary Smith from DIIV is a guitarist who epitomises this approach in his songwriting. When I first began working on the demos that became Moon Elevator I was thinking a lot about how he creates so much ambience with guitar lines that are often breathtakingly minimal.
Just Mustard – 23
Another innovation in shoegaze that has been central to my own approach to music production with Moon Elevator is the idea that reverb doesn’t have to be just a “nice” effect added to create a sense of space. A lot of classic shoegaze bands put reverb at the start of their pedalboard and then fed the reverb into a distortion pedal. And did the same thing to the bass. And the drums. And everything else on the track until the whole sound starts to warp and buckle in the best way.
The opening track from Ireland’s Just Mustard’s brilliant record is a great example. It contrasts a soft, melancholy vocal refrain worthy of Mazzy Star – “I could have cherished” – against serrated guitars that fill the whole room with an aggressive dissonance. The whole track is drowning in reverb and that’s kind of the point – the sound of the song mirroring the feeling of being overwhelmed by a wave of longing and regret. You can hear a similar approach on Moon Elevator’s opening track Washed Away.
Blonde Redhead – Kiss Her Kiss Her
NYC trio Blonde Redhead have been consistent innovators since the 90s but their latest record is their perhaps their best yet. I recently saw them perform in Paris and from the moment they hit the stage it was a vibe. I’ve taken a lot of inspiration from them in how Moon Elevator is approaching performing our live set as a three piece.
Kiss Her Kiss Her is their vibe condensed down into a single song. A wash of guitar chimes bubble underneath dream pop ambience and theatre. The left field vocals by Kazu Makino avoids any pretence and goes straight for the big feels. “You wear your heart on your sleeve, you know I do the same.”
Sans Merit – Weathered Man
Now based in LA, Sans Merit hails from Melbourne and curates songs like a crate digging DJ, finding interesting points of connection between different genres and sounds. His debut mines the textures of shoegaze and slathers a gauzy haze across a mixtape of day-glo 80s synths, glitchy electronic beats and dolewave guitar jangle. What inspired me personally about Sans Merit is the fearless use of distinctive genre motifs combined with the refusal to be tied down to any particular label – something I’ve tried to bring to Moon Elevator.
Alvvays – Tom Verlaine
This sweet burst of Canadian indie pop might be named after punk band Television’s iconic guitarist but it probably should have been named after Kevin Shields instead. The whole song hinges around a shoegaze guitar technique made famous by the My Bloody Valentine’s frontman – subtle “glides” on the whammy bar around the start of a chord, creating gentle waves of colour that are so much more interesting than using a chorus or vibrato pedal. I use this trick with my Fender Jaguar across a few tracks on Moon Elevator’s EP, thanks for the inspiration Kevin!
Film School – Tape Rewind
For me, this song by Film School – survivors from the original “indie sleaze” era who are still making fantastic records – is pretty much the classic shoegaze template condensed into it’s purest form. The guitars bend and swoon, alternating between shimmer and menace. The ascending bassline pulls you through with an insistent melody. Drums splash and roll but never waver from the beat. Sugary harmonies dissolve together in a repeated chorus: “Don’t fear, it’s your body. Desire, there’s no shame here.”
Nabihah Iqbal – Closer Lover
This is how to make a starry eyed love song sound cinematic rather than schmaltzy. On the closing track from her most recent record, British artist Nabihah Iqbal – who also curates a fantastic show on NTS radio – layers and overlaps her vocals and guitars with the urgency of new lovers. The whole track glimmers and sparkles with echo, ambient textures and desire.
HTRK – Straight To Hell
Would Jonnine & Nigel object to being on a shoegaze list? Maybe. But for me, the approach of these Melbourne icons on their recent work leans so beautifully into texture, abstraction and intimacy that it hews closer to the ambient end of shoegaze rather than the post-punk label that’s been attached to them. And how do you shoegaze with an acoustic guitar? Take a listen to Nigel’s playing on their brilliant album Rhinestones.
Cheers for the read, words and thoughts by Moon Elevator. Check out their spotify below for more.
