research into Ethereal Goth and Dreampop (and other stuff for fans of early 4AD and Projekt)

I talked about this stuff a fair bit on one of the rolling goth threads and I made this thread a few years ago looking for this stuff...
Bands that Could/Should have been on PROJEKT records
...but I'd like a regular place to write about this stuff, and I think this stuff could have a much bigger audience than it does, or at least I hope so. Also, there hasnt been much discussion of it lately and I miss it.

The obvious roots of these genres are The Cure, Siouxsie And The Banshees, Cocteau Twins, This Mortal Coil, Clan Of Xymox, The Church, Chameleons, Cranes, His Name Is Alive, Slowdive, Chapterhouse, Red House Painters (first 3 albums) and Dead Can Dance. All these bands are big enough to have their own threads but bands like Trance To The Sun get ignored if I only discuss them in their own thread because they have so little recognition. There are a lot of goth bands I'd like to talk about more who probably fall a bit too far away from these styles and a lot of them have their own threads that are thankfully not empty. I was unsure just how gothy to keep it, because I'm tempted to include lots of shoegazing/dreampop stuff that could be discussed in other threads but I'm just going to include anything that seems like something these sort of fans would probably like. Neoclassical Darkwave is often lumped in here even though it is very different. I'm sure some people will find my groupings incoherent but I hope enough people think they make sense and if you want to contribute any bands to this just ask yourself if the average Projekt fan would like it and if the beauty element is a dominant one.

I've found this chart a lot of help for finding some of this stuff. Some of it super obscure.
http://rateyourmusic.com/customchart?page=1&chart_type=top&type=album&year=alltime&genre_include=1&genres=Ethereal+Wave&include_child_genres=t&include=both&limit=none&countries=

I recently done a lot of research into japanese stuff and most of it wasnt interesting at all but I will post some links to the more promising stuff.

There is loads of stuff I've been meaning to listen to for years, so I hope I can update this fairly often with more bands.

LYCIA

Of all the smaller gothy ethereal bands, Lycia probably has more fans on this forum than any other. They have a really strong vision that stays with you and will make your next walk in the countryside seem all the more magical. It has a fetishistic obsession with atmospheric enviroments. When I think of 2007, I always think of the way my discovery of Lycia permeated that time.
The full 2 disc version (make sure you get that one and not the single disc) of Burning Circle And Then Dust is my favorite double album I've ever heard, I dont know of many other things you can so fully immerse yourself in for so long. 2 hours of moody contemplative bliss.
Cold, Ionia, Day In The Stark Corner, Bleak - Vane and the Estraya ep are the next best things in my view, some of the earlier stuff is a bit harsher and heavier in a really satisfying way.
I never really got into the Mike Van Portfleet solo album, it was far more ambient than I'm used to. The Tara Vanflower solo albums are really good, in the second one she made a really distinct sound with looping parts and vivid imagery. I listened to one David Galas album and I thought it taken just too much from 90s Michael Gira.

Steve Roach is a fan and I think he helped produce some of their stuff. Xasthur covered one of their songs.

They have a new album out that I'm eager to hear and here is a recent interview far more extensive than any other I've seen...

http://www.themortonreport.com/entertainment/music/a-personal-and-candid-talk-with-mike-van-portfleet-of-lycia/

TRANCE TO THE SUN

Often associated with Lycia, they knew each other but Trance To The Sun changed a lot more, had more detours into hard rocking and sometimes dancey elements while sacrificing none of their atmosphere and exotic dark fantasy. They have this glorious bass sound that I might call voluptuous, I'm pretty sure that is Ashkelon Sain, he does the majority of everything you hear in the band. They had a succession of three different female vocalists and once had Gordon Sharp from Cindytalk (I dont know if they recorded anything with him) and Sain sang some songs too.
I like the lyrics a lot, they paint strange little scenes, the first song on Delirious has this story about trying to make rain come and there is something really wonderful and strange about it.
It's really impossible to choose a favorite album, Ashkelon Sain is one of my music heroes. His Myspace used to have quite a few tracks of his solo guitar recordings but I think Myspace is gutted now, there is only one on Soundcloud. After Trance he was in a more democratic sounding band called Submarine Fleet which was good but I much prefer him as a dominant force; I saw in interviews that he done solo improvised guitar shows under the Submarine Fleet name. He has been with a band called Soriah recently, I heard lots of good things about that but not heard the albums yet.

Robert Rich was involved with some Trance To The Sun albums. One of their vocalists has her own project called Scarlet Slipping that I'd really like to hear.
It might be a wild guess but I'd like to ask Ashkelon Sain if he was influenced at all by the poet and short story writer Clark Ashton Smith, because he creates these similar, dark yet colorful and lush exotic worlds.
If I hadnt made it clear already, Trance To The Sun are one of my favorite bands ever. They recently funded a new album on Kickstarter, their previous studio album was more than 10 years ago.

RISE AND FALL OF A DECADE

This band is very different from any other listed here, they make songs which are more straight forward in structure and lentgh and they have this sort of intellectual, highly cultured lyrical aspect; I think they could have and should have been much bigger, the singer died sadly. Their first 3 albums are total gold to me. They are my favorite band that I discovered on this forum (in the thread I linked to).
They started off with a heavy Cocteau Twins influence, the compilation sadly is a mixture between a best of and a rarities collection, I wish it had collected all the non album tracks because those early Cocteau/neoclassical mixtures are incredible and the original various artists compilation sources are very hard to find. There is also a track by side project Trees Dance on that RaFoaD compilation, a really amazing one too but I cant find the album it came from. There is another side project called Cube Like People which was far more electronic (the last two RaFoaD albums were more electronic if I recall correcly) but I dont think it was all that great.
Yes, the first 3 albums are gorgeous and I cant recommend them highly enough.

FAITH AND DISEASE

I have 3 of their albums, kind of runners up to my top bands above. Fortune His Sleep is my favorite so far and very very dreamy, it has a cover of The Cure's "All Cats Are Grey" which is fine but I think that song is a bit too special to cover; but their cover of Renaissance's "Ashes Are Burning" is as good as the original.
The more folky Beneath These Trees is often seen as their best album.

FAITH AND THE MUSE

Only heard their debut, I like it a lot. Has a much stronger goth element than most of these bands.

STRANGE BOUTIQUE

The singer from Faith And The Muse, Monica Richards was in this band, far more dreampoppy. Heard only the debut album, a few very good tracks but mostly by the numbers filler.
I read that they were originally called Madhouse but Prince bought the name from them because he wanted a band called that so badly. Strange Boutique is a way better name than Madhouse.

TWELFTH OF NEVER

I managed to find Things That Were, a pretty good dreamy goth album with some clearly Lycia inspired moments, also a bit of a metal. The band had a really unstable lineup and the main guy (who was in several metal bands) sadly killed himself not so long ago.

ESBEN AND THE WITCH

A few very strong tracks from the first album had a slightly Lycia/Trance To The Sun thing going on (no idea if they actually listen to those bands) and I bought the second album a few days ago, I'm optimistic about them.

THIS ASCENSION

I've got all 4 of their albums. First is pretty rough and uninteresting in places but has enough tracks of really nice rainy gloom; second feels like a compilation, some really good songs but it lacks something; third is their classic Walk Softly, A Dream Lies Here; fourth/last has two really brilliant songs better than anything they done before, which makes this essential to me on the strength of them.

MIRANDA SEX GARDEN

I like Suspiria a lot but cant remember much about it, havent heard any Medieval Baebes albums yet.

MORS SYPHILITICA/REQUIEM IN WHITE

Requiem In White came first and it had this slightly doomy desolate thing that Mors didnt have even though it was still pretty music. Mors Syphilitica's Feather and Fate is one of my favorite gothic dreampop albums. Still havent got Primrose, which some say is more eclectic and better.
I'd like to know what Lisa Hammer's later bands were like.

BLACK TAPE FOR A BLUE GIRL

I've got 5 of their early albums and they are all very similar and that is not a bad thing in their case. I'd say they resemble This Mortal Coil quite a lot. Some people find wont get on with their serious preoccupation with depression and romance; the vocalists are not everyone's cup of tea either but I like them a lot.

BEL CANTO

From hearing Birds Of Passage they sound like a more tropical Dead Can Dance to me. Does that sound accurate?

AND ALSO THE TREES

Somewhere between The Cure and Chameleons.

AETHER

Found them on the RYM chart above. Not sure they fit there entirely. Their only album is Smoke From Vanished Kisses; I wonder if they wanted to do more? Soul(?) influenced vocals and harp music. Quite original, nothing like most of this music.

JUDGEMENT OF PARIS

I bought one of their albums mostly because Sam Rosenthal said it was the most underrated album on his label. It is really good, it isnt avant garde or anything but I'm not sure how to describe it.

MELLONTA TAUTA

From Argentina. Their debut had a stunning opening track and a very good closing track but was mostly poor man's Cocteau Twins inbetween. I just checked and saw that they have a new album out this year, their first since 1995!

AREA/MOON SEVEN TIMES

They had a thread on this forum recently. Wonderful vocalist. Watery tender nostalgic soundscapes. Very good stuff.
Guitarist went onto his own thing in Lanterna.

BREATHLESS

Got one album a year ago and they had a new album recently after a very long absence. I adored the vocalist when he was in This Mortal Coil. He sings very down to earth and personal more than a lot of these other bands.

HEX

A side project of The Church and the vocalist of Game Theory (who I know nothing about). I heard the song "Diviner" in the film Tarnation and was blown away. That and another song on the debut are perfect dreampop but the second album as a whole is superior.

LOWLIFE

I was a big fan of Heggie's bass on Cocteau Twins but Lowlife are totally different. I saw that there was a documentary being made but I dont know if it ever taken off. Great band.

MISTLE THRUSH

I was attracted to this band because their early ep reminded me a bit of Just For A Day era Slowdive and I like anything that reminds me of that, but in retrospect I'm not so sure how similar it is. They changed quite a lot later. They have some really good songs.

CON DOLORE/POLAR

(I taken this description from another thread I posted on and slightly changed it)
Con Dolore - This Sad Movie. This is something I think I've only heard 4 times but it totally blown me away. It really lives up to the title and cover art, it's a dreampoppy/shoegazey story of a romance that I found very powerful, it has some incredibly sweet and beautiful sad songs. I was totally gutted when I found out they had split up (but the second album wasnt nearly as good, maybe they were running out of steam).
Years later I finally tracked down cds of the earlier Moss/Ballinger project Polar. The difficulty was there are several bands called Polar and their discography somehow always gets listed and mixed up with a slowcore band of the same name. Their two albums are A Future History Of The Frigid Polar Night and Lies Set By The Polar Mob. I've seen listing of an album called Begins The Frigid Night but cant confirm it really exists.
They were both well worth the tracking down and have lots of mesmerizing moments. Several sites have them on mp3, the second album harder to find. I think Con Dolore/Polar deserve to be very high among the dreampop/shoegaze canon.
Kirsty Moss was in a band called Les Enfants but I'm not sure they managed to get anything out. Yet another band name that is difficult to search and there being several other bands called that!

LOVESLIESCRUSHING

Ideal shoeagazing to submerge yourself into the haze.

ALISON'S HALO

I payed 90 pounds for Eyedazzler and didnt regret it. One of the best shoegazing albums, incredibly sweet vocals. I'm hoping the followup band Locheed finally comes out someday.

SAD LOVERS AND GIANTS

Mixed feelings from the debut. I liked it but it lacks something, I'll probably get more.

SIANSPHERIC

I think the first two albums are some of the best hazeysoftdeepwaves shoegazing I've ever heard.

UNTO ASHES

"The Blood Of My Lady" is an amazing song. I've only got that album.

PIETER NOOTEN AND MICHAEL BROOK

I seen some immensely enthusiastic recommendations for Sleeps With Fishes and it was totally amazing and beautiful. I have to echo all recommendations I've heard.

BAT FOR LASHES

I think she fits in fairly well into this world. I heard her 3 albums recently and she is one of the few current popular artists I like.

MIRA

I liked a few songs from their debut album. Do the later albums improve?

COLFAX ABBEY

A bit like Chapterhouse.

LOVE SPIRALS DOWNWARDS

Very pretty and sometimes it sounded ideal but from hearing the first two albums only, I felt they lacked something. "Write In Water" was great.

SOUL WHIRLING SOMEWHERE

I often felt he taken far too much from Red House Painters, that his voice is better when buried in echo and that sometimes his need to get his heartache story out exceeded the quality of songwriting; but just enough of the time the music was very powerful. I think of him as the quintessential sad 90s musician even if he isnt the best. But some of his songs really are devastating. "I Will Never Let Go" is lovely and bitterly horrible at the same time.

HTRK

I like this band a lot but I wouldnt have listed them here until the most recent album. They remind me of Wolfgang Press a bit.

Joy Division not an influence?

Yes, definitely but I often tend to forget them because they were immensely influential to so many indie bands. It is strange that they are often listed as the first goth band, because I dont think of them as gothy individuals.
Durutti Column would be a big influence on a lot of these bands.

I forgot Julee Cruise, I think she sits well here.

no, that's how i see it too. they were not visually gothy, but you can hear them in a lot of goth bands, especially the vocals.

is this where I mention that both Pieter Nooten and Anka Wolbert have overlooked solo albums?

Good grief, Robert, did you rob my record collection or something? Also that's a pretty huge sprawl of bands and decades there! Offhand one missing entry is In the Nursery. I'd fallen out of touch with And Also the Trees in recent years so was pleased to see they're still keeping on.

yeah this reads like a list of all the bands I was haphazardly checking out in the 90's once I'd exhausted all the usual suspects. Retrospectively I think the only one I really liked was Miranda Sex Garden - they never quite delivered on record but live they were quite something.

Oh bugger, I forgot In The Nursery, I made a thread about them a few months ago.

Katherine says "is this where I mention that both Pieter Nooten and Anka Wolbert have overlooked solo albums?"

I'd never heard of them, do go on please.

I recently found out that one of the female singers from the second This Mortal Coil album has her own band and I think I might have forgotten to take note of the band name.

2/3 of the Clan of Xymox ended up on the same smallish label a few years ago. This is pretty representative of Anka's album:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZzbyENUE3s

Pieter Nooten's album, off the same label:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icmFI3Vuc5E

And correction, Pieter Nooten apparently has MULTIPLE solo albums (different label though) including 2012 and 2013(!) releases.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rr7A22a7UQI

And apparently Anka and Toni Halliday(!!) were working on a project together and at some point mp3s of either the tracks proper or demos were posted online, but they're more or less lost forever. (believe me, I've checked.)

I was always under the impression that Nooten's last thing was Sleeps With Fishes.

Ned, you were a bit of a catalyst in me getting into some of these bands. I'm sure you've got four or five times more of this stuff than I do. This music is just small enough a niche that I could probably eventually get most of the stuff I want but I've been a very bad music fan for the past few years and I should have more of this stuff. Big gaps in my Dead Can Dance and Banshees collection, and I only have a one or two albums by most of the bands.
I was hoping more would spring to your mind because I'd like to think I've more great bands to discover. Among the wants I want to hear are Angels Of Venice, Eden, Pale Cocoon, Jack Or Jive, Autumn's Grey Solace, Hungry Lucy, Claire Voyant, Speaking Silence, Chandeen, Dark Orange, Basque, Frolic, Love Is Colder Than Death, Weep, The Shroud, Mirabilis, Arcana, Melodyguild, Loreena McKennitt, Collection D'Arnell Andrea and Sleep ∞ Over.
Do any of these bands compare favorably?

I love Sleep ∞ Over!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_L_NN7sS_Y

Laura Sheeran is another newer act that is very much down this particular alley:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnBLUh6eo7U

Only just catching up with the last Esben & the Witch album. First one left me cold, but this next one is pretty good. Kind of annoyed with myself for having missed it tbh, they're a local band too.

also gonna leave this tag here: http://ectoguide.org/genre/ethereal

Also: Stare, Dark Sanctuary, Aenima, Human Drama, Arcanta, Autumn, Deleyaman, Siddal, Ostia.

xpost -- Ha! I was just noting Arcanta below, actually. So to edit/add on the post as I typed it.

There's a fell swoop of bands up there a few posts back. Of the ones I've heard:

Eden -- VERY DCD. To the point some called them the Australian tribute band to DCD. But enjoyable.

Autumn's Grey Solace -- another post-Cocteaus duo but a nice clutch of albums. Mood music.

Chandeen -- I know I have AN album of theirs around...maybe I reviewed it for the AMG?

Basque -- have the one album, I think; interesting but I'll need to revisit it.

Love Is Colder Than Death -- have an album, no immediate impression.

Weep -- think I've reviewed their most recent. One of the guys who does voices for Venture Bros or something?

Mirabilis -- VAGUE memory of hearing something.

Arcana -- always got them and Arcanta confused early on. Both good but I am more of an Arcanta fan; friendly fellow -- sent me his final album under the name a couple of years back.

Melodyguild -- Suzanne from LSD's band after that, though they only had the one EP I think?

Loreena McKennitt -- more in her own universe, I thought? Somewhere between Jane Siberry, Enya and DCD. HUGE among a lot of people I remember being Mercedes Lackey fans.

Siddal -- DC Cocteausy stuff, nice enough.

Human Drama -- their own thing! Goth trappings, downbeat rock and roll inspirations, early hyperdrama turned into elegant performances, some great unexpected covers, continuing into the follow-on band (can't remember the name right now) and Johnny Indovina's solo career. Great guy, actually. Robert Smith asked him to open up for the Cure in Mexico City earlier this year! Always found it interesting what sticks with Mr. Smith over the years.

Have we mentioned the Hypnos label yet? Or AE Records, who released Lucid? Both curious/cryptic labels that always seemed to skate under the radar; odd in Hypnos's case because they released a slew of things. As for acts, there's always Unto Ashes as well -- prolific as well, great covers/reworkings. Of course if we go that route then full on into acid folk via Tim Renner and Stone Breath...

i always want to love a lot of this stuff but i never end up loving it like i love the original artists that stuff like this is built on. most of the time the reason for this is lack of great songs. or they've got the spirit but lose the feeling. lycia are pretty great though. and also the trees don't really remind me of any of this music though i'm sure if anyone listens to them it would be goths. this is more for goth diehards, i guess. people who stay current with industrial or EBM. people like ned. i find that everything i love about early 80's/4AD/first wave goth/ambient is more than ably covered by metal sub-genres. goth ambient shoegazer metal is everywhere and it just feels stronger to me then anything i've heard by someone like moon seven times or other like-minded groups. i've tried too. listened. bought CDs. in theory i am all for sad boy and girl ambient/gaze. would love to hear something GREAT. whereas my reaction is usually to quote ned above: "nice enough".

i LOVE the cindytalk stuff that has come out in recent years. that to me is evolution and truly great ambient art.

and this is the part where i tell people to listen to Troller:

http://troller.bandcamp.com/album/troller

this thread might have some pointers:

Women in drone and psych

Oh yeah, don't forget the whole Ventricle Records axis - Mauve Sideshow, Mistress Of Strands, Torn Curtain, Angel Provocateur, etc...
― sleeve (sleeve), Wednesday, March 8, 2006 10:40 PM

It is true that a lot of these bands are somewhere between Cocteau Twins and Dead Can Dance with not much to call their own and it is dispiriting to know that my journeys will mostly be into derivative stuff way more than original good stuff. But not many other people are going to do the work and I am very interested in finding good stuff.
I love shoegazing but there is legions of mediocre stuff and I just don't have it in me (or the time!) to dig heavily as others might. It is also a bit depressing that some genre that was exciting at the start tends to get boring at the further reaches.

Also, I think a lot of bands sound derivative first time you hear them but years later you wonder why you thought that. I think a lot of genres sound samey when you first start exploring. I like Black Metal but even a lot of the b-list bands sound too samey to me.
If any metal bands seem to fit well enough in here, go for it. Scott, do you mean Alcest and stuff like that. I've heard Angelic Process are quite metally.

I really do think Lycia, Trance To The Sun, Rise And Fall Of A Decade, In The Nursery are great bands, visionaries and just as good and better than some of the originators. I also think Con Dolore/Polar, Alison's Halo, Lovesliescrushing and Sianspheric are close to the very top shoegazing, personally I'd put these guys ahead of Lush, Ride and Pale Saints (who I also love).

Any other Rise And Fall Of A Decade fans? I urge you!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bWl2Ckj1a98

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NX7Ibk5EkSU

Maybe more ideas here [http://everynoise.com/engenremap-darkwave.html] and here [http://everynoise.com/engenremap-etherealwave.html].

Does Virginia Astley belong here?

Love Breathless, have all their albums.

i LOVE the cindytalk stuff that has come out in recent years. that to me is evolution and truly great ambient art.

Very, very true. A powerful act still, finding new ways.

That Every Noise At Once site is pretty cool, but listening to samples has made me less optimistic about finding good stuff. Rosewater Elizabeth sounds pretty good, but they are another that has been on my shopping list a while.

http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/thevyllies

I saw a couple of Vyllies music videos roughly two years ago and was highly impressed, but their music was bafflingly hard to find for a band who weren't totally obscure. Turns out their complete recordings got put out on 2cd collection very recently. Hooray, I bought it.

A trio of women, not totally derivative, for a few years in the 80s.

the pieter nooten albums beyond sleeps with the fishes are quite good! he's got about half a dozen total, I think?

Thank you thread for namechecking the Vyllies and Cindytalk... LOVING these later Cindytalk albums right now.

"i always want to love a lot of this stuff but i never end up loving it like i love the original artists that stuff like this is built on."

I have exactly the same problem, especially with "shoegaze"

I'm beating a dead horse here a bit but while I think it is generally true that the original stuff is better (as is the case for most genres of anything), I think some of the newer bands I mentioned can be equally as powerful. I hope I didn't give the impression that I fully endorse all those bands I listed above, but I did think all of them were interesting enough to mention if only for a handful of songs.

Some fans say "I love this style so much that I even enjoy the mediocre bands" and some say "I love this style so much that I cant stand to hear it done less than brilliant"; I'm somewhere between those two spots.
I recall when I was just getting into shoegazing and several other genres, the idea of hearing increasingly less potent versions of something I loved was pretty scary. I always like to think back to when I started each genre and think of how sky high my expectations were for the other bands. I thought maybe I should just have stopped buying more and just dreamed of what I would liked to have heard. But even though you get lots of disappointment from exploring, you also get surprises which enrich your life.
Another aspect is that I can come into a genre with expectations I so badly want to see fulfilled, but I have to respect that most bands probably had totally different ambitions and although I love genre labels, you really have to judge a band as an individual thing apart from what you want from a genre.

I think Sianspheric and Lovesliescrushing gave me something I wanted that some of the earlier bands didn't do for me (again, they have no obligation to guess what people might want). I love their expansive lush haziness... actually it's difficult to describe these bands in a way really differentiates between other bands. Because you can write a million reviews for shoegazing, ambient and extreme metal bands and easily make them all sound the same. But when I hear those first 2 Sianspheric albums, it is crystal clear why this works for me and why I think it is way better than most other bands attempts at a similar thing.
Loads of reviews of these bands get compared to all the usual suspects and while I don't want to hear that "this band sounds like Cocteau Twins and Dead Can Dance, but obviously not as good", I do have a craving for bands with similar goals because all these bands make you see areas you'd like to be explored a bit more.

In some ways I feel I'm kind of selling some of these bands short by lumping them in together. I think HTRK, Aether and The Vyllies do something substantially different from a lot of these bands (not to sell the other bands short that are closer to the originals) but I put them here because I feel they have enough in common and I'd like an excuse to talk about them.

I feel like a bit of a goth traitor/blasphemer here because while I do consider myself a fan of Siouxsie And The Banshees and adore individual songs, I've always been lukewarm about their albums as wholes. Having said that, I have only 5 of their albums: Scream, Juju, Kiss In The Dreamhouse, Hyaena, Peepshow. Peepshow is my favourite.
Some might call them the key band, Robert Smith has often gave me the impression that they sort of wakened him up and made him see possibilities and most of the other bands were fans of them.

you need Kaleidoscope!

i love the albums. i love the singles. lots of love. this is the stuff i really got excited by this year:

do you guys like GRAVE BABIES? the nu-jesus&marychain goth underground champs

Siouxie has never really grabbed, although you can see the influence on Garlands, which I love. I can only dream of how good that album would have sounded with a mature Raymonde, rather than Will Heggie, who seems to be doing a permanent one man Primary impersonation.

make that 'grabbed me'

I'll need to get some Grave Babies samples.

When we had that massive Cocteau Twins poll recently I was surprised at the range of contrasting opinions. I adore Will Heggie's contribution so much that I wish he did another 2 albums with them. What he did with Lowlife is very different. Did that Lowlife documentary ever get off the ground?
I've not good at spotting instruments so I've never been able to spot what Raymonde did because he is very subtle and his work blends in way more, so I cant always hear him distinctly; I just assume he is great because he is on so many good records.

As an example of an original influence on this style I think Echo And The Bunnymen's Ocean Rain is extremely underwhelming. I think it has 2 or 3 great songs but the rest is pretty forgettable.

Heaven Up Here would be a better reference point. I like hearing it a lot these days. Sounds great.

Yeah that one is my favorite of the original four in the end.

Just my reviews for RateYourMusic and Amazon, repeats some of the info I gushed at the top of the thread...

TRANCE TO THE SUN – GHOST FOREST

Ashkelon Sain was previously in This Ascension and Blade Fetish for a brief time but Trance To The Sun has him as the dominant force but not quite solo since the female singers were a defining aspect of their sound.

This first album is different enough to set them apart from other ethereal goth bands but before they became truly distinct. It is dark, meanders mysteriously and evocatively with almost ghostly vocals but doesn’t have the exotic colour and “oomph” of the later albums.
I wish I could hear the words better because I catch interesting things here and there; maybe the remastered version is clearer. I love the song title “Lend Me Your Most Vile”.

“August Rain” had previously appeared as a This Ascension song and Trance To The Sun would return to it later again.

TRANCE TO THE SUN – BLOOM FLOWERS BLOOM!

The characteristic sounds of the band come in here a bit more and better quality tracks in general. Probably succeeds more as an atmospheric journey too.
“Gira Sola” is dedicated to someone in the sleeve notes, it sounds like it was for someone who passed away and it is one of the most beautiful things in any of their albums, easily the best thing on this album.

TRANCE TO THE SUN – VENOMOUS EVE

I think this is when they started being a properly brilliant band. There aren’t many bands where I struggle to choose an essential “if you only get one, get this” record, or picking an ideal introduction album. A lot of my favourite bands maybe have two contenders at most, with exceptions like Swans, REM or Beach Boys there might be as many as 5 I could choose. I feel that way about this band. Venomous Eve, Delirious, Azalean Sea, Urchin Tear Soda and Atrocious Virgin all seem like contenders for a best album of theirs.

The previous two had this feeling of wandering around in dark vague landscapes with hypnotic distant echoes drawing you around. This one really nails their early sound but adds lots of odd touches. A lot more is done with the vocals, quite soft but also banshee like (I don’t mean Siouxsie), and Sain’s fantastic voluptuous bass sound really comes into its own.

The sounds make me think of large tall subterranean dark caverns, while slightly less vague than previous and with more detailed visions, is still filled with suggestive, ominous mystery. The ending that gets louder and really strange is a brilliant finisher.
There might be quite a number of ethereal atmospheric goth albums but I don’t think there is much else quite like this. I don’t think this is territory already explored by earlier similar bands; this underworld is a different place they are luring you to (although I imagine other people imagine totally different places not underground).

Vocalist Zoe Alexandra Wakefield left after this album (there were still tracks of her that appeared on later compilations) and from most interviews I’ve seen with the band members, it seems nobody knows where she went.

TRANCE TO THE SUN – DELIRIOUS

This is probably the their album that excites me most when I think about it in retrospect and the one I have the most urge to replay; that might be because it was the first album I got by the band but I’m not sure.
I’ve seen it listed as an EP but I’m sure it is a full length album and I wouldn’t like people to think it was any less important than the rest. It is very different from anything else they did, a lot brighter and more colourful than the previous albums. I might be influenced by the cover art but I tend to think of oceans of glaring purple/pink lava in several songs.
Dawn Wagner is the vocalist on this one, this is the only album she was on; apparently she left because it was felt she cared about her own solo stuff much more than being in this band. I think she is really fantastic on this, so I’m eager to hear her Scarlet Slipping albums.

When I first got this, I never liked the idea of dancey goth music but I learned from this that it could be energetic and fun but still keep the atmosphere and otherworldly qualities in full force.
It taken me a while to really appreciate the first track because it feels like a slow intro before the album really kicks in, but I love the little story it tells, about this intimate obsessive couple talking about the past “do you remember when we tried to make it rain?”.
There is a really brilliant sequence of really exciting tracks, perhaps 3 or more in a row; working to an extent that I don’t hear often, it keeps a great momentum.

I really really love this album.

TRANCE TO THE SUN – AZALEAN SEA

This is a compilation of salvaged highlights from as many as four aborted albums. It is structured kind of oddly that it starts from most recent material and ending with their older songs. I’d say it was just as important as any of their albums.

Ingrid Blue became the vocalist here and I think she really established herself really well after a few vocalists came and went (including Gordon Sharp from Cindytalk but as far as I know, he didn’t record any songs with them). The songs are mostly rockier than usual, several have this really hard, satisfying, confident strutting quality.

Dara Rosenwasser (Faith and Disease) sings on a track which is strange and has this low almost brooding quality about the sounds but “brooding” really isn’t the emotional quality of the song overall; at first it seemed slapdash to me but there is something pleasingly weird about it.
Ashkelon Sain sings some of the songs himself and although he isn’t as good as the other singers, there are one or two where he manages some interesting things.

TRANCE TO THE SUN – URCHIN TEAR SODA

Much bigger album than the previous albums, more variety and more ambitious. I’m usually not one to care about lyrics that much for most bands, but the combination of sounds and lyrics creates vivid little scenes which I find really fascinating.
I think of Clark Ashton Smith’s exotic colourful lost planets but featuring strange gothy punks with mental issues inhabiting those worlds. The cover art is much better than the other albums and it gives you a fairly good clue to how it sounds.

The version of Pink Floyd’s “Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun” is really great. The end tracks have some very lengthy very psychedelic journeys with lots of different phases. I think this one takes you more different places than the other albums.

TRANCE TO THE SUN – ATROCIOUS VIRGIN

I don’t know if when they recorded this if it was meant as a final album, but it sounds that way to me. Some of the tracks have what I interpret as big celebratory feel; even something like “Homewrecker” with fairly miserable lyrics sounds like it has a sense of wonder about it. A lot of it feels like air travel across weird skies. The word “cunt” makes several appearances.

There is a spoken word piece by someone not from the band, it can be difficult to hear a lot of it but I think it is in the sleeve cards, which have quite a number of interesting paintings by Ingrid Blue; but for some reason this and the previous album are much harder to find on cd than the earlier ones, so I don’t know if people will get the images and lyrics with the mp3 version.

After this Ashkelon Sain formed Submarine Fleet and later collaborated with Soriah; I’m fairly sure Ingrid Blue was in an eccentric punky classical band called Bela Lugosi.
Trance To The Sun got together for some later gigs and I think they are working on a new album now.

SUBMARINE FLEET – IN A CASE OF FIRE

Ashkelon Sain got back with Mark (Marc?) Linder, quite some time after Blade Fetish (though he was in some Trance To The Sun stuff). This sounds far more collaborative for Sain than his previous band; which might be why I’m not quite as into it as Trance To The Sun; but it is good stuff all the same.

SUBMARINE FLEET – A VERY STRANGE SIGHT IN THE DISTANCE

Quite a bit more adventurous than the previous EP. Some really lovely colourful ethereal tracks on this and I do recommend it but I’m glad Sain went onto different things after this. I think he used the name Submarine Fleet for solo improvised shows. I haven’t heard his Soriah collaborations yet but I’m very much looking forward to that.

Finished listening to the second Esben And The Witch album. It is much better than the first, but I think "When That Head Splits" is disproportionately better than everything else, a really amazing track.

Finished listening to the second Esben And The Witch album. It is much better than the first

Yes, definitely! Took me ages to get round to listening to it cos the first one was so boring but I have become unreasonably obsessed with the second since I heard it. Very post-4AD, kinda reminds me of early Lush, Piano Magic circa Low Birth Weight, even maybe early period Disco Inferno. Love 'When That Head Splits', but I love the opening song too and this one is also lovely:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w61LU6AvvPo

I've been meaning to check out Disco Inferno forever.

the stuff compiled on In Debt is the most relevant to this thread, but it's the sampled-based music that came afterwards that they're acclaimed for

Also been listening to that complete Vyllies collection. Starts off very punky and then more elegant synth later on, several horror themed tracks, pleasantly sinister. Some of it more poppy.

Also the Rosewater Elizabeth album Le Petit Mort. The first dreampop album I've ever seen that warns you about the frequencies possibly damaging your sound system. Unusually for an obscure ethereal goth band, the production sounds really expensive and it has a nice depth to it.

not be all plug-y but some of you may like this band i play bass in
https://soundcloud.com/stealthistrack/shatter-mp3

pretty! dunno if it's just the power of suggestion just cos yr in the band tyler, but the chorus sounds a bit neil youngish, like only love can break your heart or something, that kind of lilting voice hanging over things

ha, well, i didn't have anything to do with the writing, but I'll take it as a compliment!

I've been meaning to check out Disco Inferno forever.

Rightly so.

but of course! it's an interesting blend of styles xp

I've been thinking of starting a thread listing all the bands I've wanted to hear for years (some as long ago as a decade) but I'm not sure if there is a point other than getting to shout at each other "drop everything and listen to them now!"

Probably isnt a good idea, I could probably list 200 bands that I've wanted to hear for years. Gordon Lightfoot is probably the one longest ago that I still havent got around to.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79lLJsk8CqU

good one - who are these guys?

Yeah great track.

Pointers to some artists conspicuous in their absence above:

80s: Hetch Hetchy, Hugo Largo
90s: Anymore, Breath of Life, The Changelings, Collection d'Arnell-Andrea (I cheated, here), Elysium, Orange, Perfume Tree, Scala, Skinner Box
00s: Aisth, Au Revoir Borealis, Halou, Rhea's Obsession, School of Seven Bells (sadly), Sol Seppy, Violet Indiana
Current: A Sunny Day in Glasgow, 2:54, Exitmusic, Gazelle Twin, Zambri

xp: White Poppy is Crystal Dorval from Canada, she's got a bunch of stuff on bandcamp and the album that song's from is out on Not Not Fun (CD and LP). Apparently she's touring Europe in March. Lucky Euros.

Velour 100?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKSidApDmTc

Majesty Crush

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKZKBW752k4

Thanks to everyone (especially Sanpaku) for the contributions. Quite a few of them are already on my shopping lists but Hetchy Hetchy, Anymore, Breath Of Life, Skinner Box, Zambri and White Poppy are all new to me, thanks.

Does Hetchy Hetchy really have Michael Stipe's sister? Surely they would have been more famous for that alone?

=========================
Rosewater Elizabeth's Le Petit Mort is far more unusual than it appeared to me at first. It has lots of nice recurring moments and I love the way the songs seem to emerge out a deep space; some really gorgeous sparkly moments in there. It does have one or two typical goth moments but it's actually quite avant-garde. I know people might say this about a lot of ethereal music but you can really sink into this album and lose track of time.
Looking forward to the earlier album, hope I can get it on cd but it is on mp3.

The Vyllies collection was really good. The sinister horror tracks are easily the best thing on it. Some of it is actually quite spooky.
It is all remastered but I've never heard the originals (they are very rare it seems). I know next to nothing about the techie side of music so I'm not sure if I find the production lacking or if the instruments aren't good enough but I feel like the song material had the potential for more and deserved better sound.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jymp9Jdy8T4

I was watching the latest new Trance To The Sun live video and I saw a band called Solemn Meant Walks down the sidebar. Pretty good stuff.

http://solemnmeantwalks.bandcamp.com/

Finished listening to STARE - Haunted.
Pleasingly murky/swampy with those virtuous heroine vocals you hear in goth and metal bands often(this band surely calls themselves Goths), a few tracks I really liked but otherwise passable/okay. It has a cover of a Glove song.

Glad someone mentioned Sol Seppy up above. I have that album (well, mp3s) and it's really intriguing. Know nothing else about her/them, seem to have vanished completely.

http://trancetothesun.bandcamp.com/

There's a limited edition EP with 2 exclusive tracks, one being a live version of an old song. The album is supposed to be out very soon.

Need more of this stuff in my life, I'll probably get This Lush Garden Within by Black Tape For A Blue Girl.

Can anyone tell me about the Black Tape For A Blue Girl EPs? If they're proper releases or just previews for albums or skippable alternate versions of songs.

IIRC, they're a mix of album samples, live tracks, and outtakes/ephemera. Same issues as with all the BTFABG: melodically thin, interchangeable guest vocals, glacial pacing. Rosenthal will be better remembered for Projekt, especially for defining the genre in its mail-catalog and its reissue program.

I really love the 5 BTFABG albums I have, and after several years of going into these genres I appreciate them all the more. I think a few of the guest vocalists were very good, especially the amazing guy who sung "I Wish You Could Smile", I've always wanted to know if he sung on any other recorded music, I could easily imagine him being theatre singer.

Oddly enough when I remember Portishead's "The Rip" sometimes I mistake it for BTFABG for a few seconds.

I have the Heavenly Voices comp box set somewhere which is full of this stuff

These guys, Oake, are more on the dark and electronic side of things (somewhere between Succour-era Seefeel and the stuff from the Chasing Voices thread), but I figured someone else might dig this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=370XllR0yBQ

I tend to think of BTFABG as a band that came after all the famous goth bands died down a bit. But I always have to remind myself that they started in 1986 but it's hard for me to picture their three 80s albums coming out at the same time as everything else that happened at that time (not that I'm disputing it).
I just think of all that stuff (including earliest Lycia and This Ascension) is hard to place in that time. It always feels to me like it was all happening in a separate world (that they weren't popular in either). I guess that might be a part of the appeal. Same goes for a lot of goth, industrial and oddball bands.

It has been written that David Lynch was a fan of BTFABG. In the unlikely event I ever meet him, that's the first thing I'll ask. I should have went to that Q&A years ago.

Certainly the only reason I checked BTFABG out in the early 90s is that 4AD's focus shifted from annual releases from gothy stalwarts (CT/DCD) towards a Pixie/Throwing Muses/UVS and related bands focus in the 90s. After tracking down fellow travellers like Area, Bel Canto, Strange Boutique things thinned out quite a bit. Even C'est La Mort had slowed its release schedule down a bit in the early 90s.

There were a number of Euro bands in the Projekt mail catalogs that hit my buttons in ways BTFABG never did. I recall Hyperium and Hall Of Sermon being akin to 80s 4AD, though with quality control issues that 4AD managed to overcome during its classic period.

Album by album Trance To The Sun reviews in this thread! Elon was one of my flatmates sophomore year of college at UCSB. He was a good guy. Very serious. Not surprised at all he's still going strong, guy was obviously in it for life. Always had quality sounds coming out of his room. This Ascension was ok but Trance was definitely when things clicked.

What a cool story! Small world, really.

Had a chance to finally hang out with Sam R. in Portland back in April for dinner. Great guy! Dry as hell sense of humor.

That is cool Milton! Trance To The Sun really are one of the biggest bands for me.
I've been thinking a lot about the sort of fantasy worlds that bands create, it'll be different for every listener but I think a lot of bands deserve more credit for creating unique fascinating worlds. Trance To The Sun stands out in that regard.

Sanpaku- can you remember the European bands? I always want more of this stuff.

I've always admired BTFABG because there seems to be either a defiance/rebellion or (perhaps preferably) an obliviousness about how much their extreme sensibility would be hated and mocked by most music journalists, but it's difficult to imagine many bands not having that awareness.
I wonder how the band would have coped if they had wide enough exposure to have been written about in the main music papers? They probably would have got it 10 times worse than Slowdive.

To anyone who hasn't heard them, I'd describe them as having an old-fashioned theatricality, romantic poetry tropes (many would say cliches), full on seriously and lovingly depicted depression, baroque elegance and spacious sumptuous dark ambience.

You always have bands who try to even it out and say "it isn't all sad stuff that we do, we're funny guys, we like to have a laugh too" but then you get slowcore bands that that unashamedly go for the sad stuff and don't care what people think. I think Black Tape are kind of like that.
I mean, Black Tape, Slowdive, Red House Painters and Low have shown they have a sense of humour (whether in the music or otherwise), but I don't think anyone should have to prove it in their music. I've never understood why people get so offended by complete seriousness in a piece of work or why that should suggest the artists have a dangerous lack of humour.

There is happiness in their music too though, just like most "sad" bands.

Love that song they did about the drowning sailor, that was really atmospheric.

I have the same feeling as Robert, the Projekt stuff seemed to exist in a parallel universe to the other alt music stuff back then... I liked college and indie stuff and mined the music press for information about it (pre-Internet), but the Projekt catalog was a totally separate thing. I didn't really *want* to see that stuff reviewed, because it seemed to come from another place entirely.

Sam is posting some really interesting stuff to the Projekt mailing list lately about the label's history and how it operates, how the Internet has changed things for record labels. Glad he's willing to share on the subject.

RAG: To be honest, my fandom departed to more easily grazed pastures after the early 90s. Shoegaze/Trip-hop/IDM etc. There are a few artists unmentioned so far in this thread worthy of spelunking expeditions. Speaking Silence, Aude, Boudoir, for example. For the most part though, this genre has unencouraging hit/miss ratio for me: too many operatic dropouts, too few clever sound engineers.

Thanks. I haven't heard of Boudoir or Aude. Speaking Silence is familiar.

Very pleased I managed to get a CD of Lycia's Quiet Moments (can't believe this came out 2013, it doesn't seem that long ago). It starts off much like 90s Lycia then becomes very different in most of the later tracks. Surprised this is basically a VanPortfleet solo album; Vanflower has backing vocals in one track then fully sings the final track.
So glad they finally used "The Soil Is Dead" because it was easily the standout of all the new tracks they shown on MySpace years ago.

There's a book on this type of music by David D'Halleine called La Croche Lune. In French only, so I can't read it.

Hmmm. Looking through the Amazon preview it's more like a book of lists. Looks easy enough to follow but I'm not sure this would offer much more than online databases.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sda-3rIPrYs

I've really been digging Isabel's Dream lately — Canadian dreampop with drum & bass beats, kinda reminiscent of Seefeel. they only released one EP (2000's Monomara) and one mp3.com release (Blue, which contributes 2 additional tracks), and nobody seems to know what became of them.

^^^ Nice song. Always weird when a band just disappears.

Chasms:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5PQNnRiSyQ

Finished listening to Black Tape For A Blue Girl - This Lush Garden Within. It's far more brooding, solemn, and at times oppressively humid than the previous albums. I don't remember the orientalist fantasy in the previous albums either. I bloody love Oscar Herrera.

http://chasmssf.bandcamp.com/

Chasms stuff is quite nice.

What about Ataraxia, Die Verbannten Kinder Evas, Dark Sanctuary, Elend, Ashram, Puissance, Autopsia, even some Wappenbund - darkwave for sure but perhaps not "ethereal" enough?

Thankyou, I'll have to look a lot of them up.

I have an Ataraxia album (Paris Spleen), it's pretty good, I believe they started more ethereal then later on shifted in various different directions, definitely some Dead Can Dance in them.

I've heard a bit of Elend, I think it was neoclassical stuff with kind of a folky flavour.

Can't recall what Dark Sanctuary sounds like.

A lot of it falls into neoclassical darkwave which I guess is where most of the Projekt/4AD fanbase ended up after the 90s. On the Cocteau Twins - Dead Can Dance axis all that stuff is firmly on the DCD side of things, not much "pop" in there.

Sixth Comm - Content With Blood (1987) also recommended btw, definitely falls into the "ethereal goth" category.

Relatively recent stuff like Chelsea Wolfe, Grimes, Eskimeaux, Breathless (old band but got much more 'ethereal'), Autumn's Grey Solace, The Eden House, Esben & The Witch, Sylvaine.

Sixth Comm, Eskimeaux and Sylvaine are new to me, thanks.

I've got the three Esben And The Witch albums and to be honest I only really like three or four songs.
Never dug Eden House or Chelsea Wolfe much.

Sixth Comm is/was basically Patrick Leagas who was a former member of Death in June. Content With Blood is the only thing I've heard by them and I like it very much, although it seems to me very much a follow-up to DIJ's Nada! album (which showed Leagas' influence to a great extent). It's more neofolk with some electronic beats than ethereal goth imho.

Yeah, never thought of 6th Comm in that category - indeed it's a continuation of the more eletronic side of mid-late 80's DIJ. Nothing earth-shattering

The Eskimeaux s/t could be yr cup of tea though - it was a bit of a one-off as her newer stuff isn't very ethereal or gothy, and neither is the old collage-type material before it.

Listening to some songs from Mors Syphilitica - Feather And Fate, "Hues Of Longing" and "Galatea" are totally stunning. One of my favourite albums in the genre. Really wish Primrose would get reissued, it's supposed to be one of their best releases.

Forgotten to mention ambient artist Dark Muse. She has one officially released album called Sounds From Beyond The Silver Wheel. She made a crazy amount of albums in a short time.
I remember when she had a MySpace and was sending out burned CDs but now she has a bandcamp.
http://darkmuse.com/
"Haunting etheral ritual dark ambient experimental"

Are there any of those you can actually listen to before you buy? I just clicked through like ten and none will play.

Don't know. Sounds From Beyond The Silver Wheel should have samples on Amazon.

Ah yeah there it is. Not bad!

Forgot to mention Heavenly Bodies, with one of my favourite This Mortal Coil vocalists Caroline Seaman.
Should have bought their Celestial album earlier because it's very pricy right now. I've wanted to hear it quite a while.

A thread for them here
am i the only person who still listens to that heavenly bodies album from 1988?

Finished listening to Lycia - Quiet Moments, it's very good. "Spring Trees" is such a happy optimistic song for them, really beautiful. The last four tracks are a departure, they're so crackly, distorted and noisy.

Ashrae Fax

Holy moly! I have A LOT to talk about in this thread! It's my favorite genre, and I used to consider myself an expert on it, but I've fallen out of touch with it in recent years.

Anyway, just a thought, I'm curious as to what band we might consider as the first fully realized ethereal one. If we agree that the Twins/This Mortal Coil/etc. were just laying the groundwork for Projekt, Hyperium, and so forth, then...

Ummm. Let's try an analogy, though I doubt there's enough crossover for most in this thread to understand it.

Heavenly Bodies : Schooly D :: Love is Colder Than Death : NWA

I guess Heavenly Bodies were the first fully realized ethereal band, but things only really got going with Love is Colder Than Death.
I mean, even early black tape were only playing around with gothy ambient at first - not completely realized ethereal.

(Yes, although all the ancient 4AD and related things are truly ethereal, I still consider it all a little more experimental in the first place. Kind of like how some say The Beatles were the first rock band.)

I have A LOT to talk about in this thread! It's my favorite genre

Cool, go ahead. I haven't heard Love Is Colder Than Death yet. I'd appreciate if you gave a breakdown on their albums and any other bands you want to talk about.

I haven't listened to much recently but soon I should be listening to the new Lycia album.

You're my bro, Robert! Thanks for starting this thread!

No time to post much right now, but: There was some talk upthread about Elysium, Orange, and Dewdrops records, and I would like to emphasize how important all of this is.
Everything you can get your hands on by Elysium and Orange is absolutely essential, though extremely obscure.

Elysium's album, 'Glisten', is wonderful. That chick just had such a beautiful voice, and it's similar to Lynn Canfield's of Area/Moon Seven Times. Well, the album is a little MOR for the ethereal genre, but the song, "Glistening Ganache" is a heart-stopper. It's one of my favorite songs ever, and it's the first song on the album -- the rest of the album is a very pleasant comedown.

Orange were like a happier, softer Cranes. Their eponymous album is just exquisite. The production's a bit lo-fi and dirty, but the songs themselves are as ethereal and poppy as imaginable. Start with "Starwheel" and "Feijoa" from that album. Also search their "Pearl/Grey Rooms" single. "Grey Rooms" is basically everything that early Cranes ever strived for. Wonderful.

Just for clarity: that Orange single is actually called 'Auto De Fé' (and it contains "Pearl" and "Grey Rooms").

This more properly belongs on a thread for "neoclassical darkwave" ala Dead Can Dance, but the new Irfan album The Eternal Return is the best thing in ages spotify (maybe in Bulgaria), youtube, bandcamp.

A fair number of Neoclassical darkwave bands have come up and it has basically the same audience so I think this thread is this best place for it, unless it suddenly and unexpectedly becomes a huge phenomenon that swallows the thread.

Monster Mash- Listened to those suggested tracks (though couldn't find anything from Auto De Fé). Somebody must have linked "Feijoa" by Orange upthread because I knowhow heard that, it's very nice.

I haven't heard Love Is Colder Than Death yet. I'd appreciate if you gave a breakdown on their albums

I can't quite do that, but, believe me: You need their first ep and first album NOW. I tuned out after their second album, when they went all dance-y - but I should give it another chance.
If you like Dead Can Dance, you might like them. They're actually one of the better DCD imitations, as far as I know. However much you like or dislike Love is Colder Than Death, they're very important to the small history of this genre.

I'm about to go all fourfa.com on you now, and blow yr mind.

This is a somewhat contentious issue, and it took me about five years to figure it out, and wrap my head around it (I wasn't there at the time):

There are two "dark-waves".

There is "dark wave", and then there is "darkwave".

Dark wave just means Clan of Xymox/Xymox, 80s bands on Third Mind, and so on. It just means dance-y goth, usually with treated guitars and drum machines (but it doesn't approach EBM, necessarily).

Darkwave is just a catch-all term for goth in general. It was started by Sam Rosenthal of black tape, either in his 80s zine or the Projekt catalog (can't quite recall atm). It includes actual dark wave, old-school goth, dark cabaret, post-dark ambient, and every other gothy-related genre.

It's kind of like. . . ever cat is a mammal, but not every mammal is a cat.

Just, if you read old zines and ancient things online (like I do), it's easy to get the terms confused. "Darkwave" became the word in the mid-90s, just as actual "dark wave" was on the decline, anyway.

Darkwave just means bloody goth, now. If you ever need actual modern dark wave, start with industrial rock and industrial dance, or even the Alpha Matrix label, but it's basically all hard, hard, hard, post-EBM, now.

So, yeah. This is why we call bands from black tape to Cranes to DCD to Love Spirals Downwards darkwave, now.

and, it isn't off topic!
as far as this thread goes, i just call this genre -ethereal- period. (because i'm american. i think they call it "etheric" in non-english speaking countries). i call it ethereal darkwave when i have to differentiate/be very specific.
(but sometimes, i think it's funny to call it swirly goth!)
(i think nabisco once said that darkwave can only be pronounced correctly by whispering it (shush: darkwave: shush) - he was joking and rad!)
but, in any case, it's a subset of darkwave now, thanks to sam rosenthal, who i love.

It includes actual dark wave, old-school goth, dark cabaret, post-dark ambient, and every other gothy-related genre.

Darkwave just means bloody goth, now.

Doesn't that mean the meaning has stayed the same if it was already an all-encompassing term? Or are you saying "darkwave" only means basic goth now?

I always assumed "darkwave" excluded death rock and the other punkier, harder and metally stuff.

Ethereal Wave is the most common term I hear for most of the music on this thread.

Doesn't that mean the meaning has stayed the same if it was already an all-encompassing term? Or are you saying "darkwave" only means basic goth now?

that's what's so confusing about it all, is that the terms overlap. it's probably not worth getting into in this thread, but it's just something i needed to get off my chest. it was "dark wave" (and meant bands like clan of xymox, handful of snowdrops, beautiful pea green boat, etc. (all of which i'm sure you'd like)) in the 80s, and because of mr. rosenthal and the projekt catalog, it morphed into "darkwave" by the early/mid-90s and its meaning became diluted, as it became an all encompassing term for goth in general.

this is actually probably the wrong thread for this discussion, and it's a pretty complicated history to go over -- especially as all of these odd little genres barely even exist in the first place.

yeah, as an american, i just call the bands we're talking about in this thread either "ethereal", "ethereal wave", or "ethereal darkwave" (but usually just "ethereal" for short. from what i can tell, "etheric" or "heavenly voices" were popular terms as well, especially in europe in the 90s.

anyway, we're pretty in the weeds now. i just really wanted to put these ideas out there on ilm, though.

--

ANYWAY: i'll get around to talking more about other great, obscure ethereal records here at some point. but, for now, i just wanna say how wonderful it is that lycia has finally gained a wider audience now outside of the goth-o-sphere. everyone loves them, now. seems odd to me that that's not yet happened with love spirals downwards or soul whirling somewhere yet, but hopefully it will someday, and hopefully threads like this on ilm will help.

I tuned out after their second album, when they went all dance-y - but I should give it another chance.

Two of my all-time favorite songs to hear in a club are "Wild World" and "Down and Out"!

I'm definitely quite sure I'd really like later Love is Colder Than Death now! I was just enamored with their early DCD-aping material (early LICTD sounded so evil! it was a ton of fun!), and so I was a little put off when they got all dance-y. I've definitely come around to the dance-y side of goth/darkwave/etc. now. I know I'll get a big kick out of later LICTD when I eventually get around to it!

Probably said this above but Delirious by Trance To The Sun was when I learned that dancey stuff could be as gorgeous as the standard ethereal mode. That and parts of Azalean Sea are the only time Trance To The Sun went very dancey I think. I think Skinny Puppy has something in common with that, even though they are very different.
Early Lycia vocals are a bit like Skinny Puppy.

I thought that Sisters Of Mercy were probably didn't have much influence on these bands but "Colours" could be a Lycia track.

I think Soul Whirling Somewhere are too derivative of Red House Painters to find major favour. I think their best stuff is incredible though.

Still only got the first 2 Love Spirals Downwards albums and I like them too, but again, not as original or contending for Lycia level greatness.

But I've said early on in this thread who I do think deserve comparable acclaim.

I really need to learn to stop typing "I think" more than once a paragraph.

What is up with Lycia/Projekt's refusal to reissue Ionia, anyway? Do they disavow it or something? Not figure they can move enough to make repressing it worthwhile?

i would ask the same question about so many obscure, ethereal goth records that projekt never had anything to do with, but could easily press and make some money on (there's more c'est la mort and third mind bands, besides are (who i love) that sam r. could make some money on).

funny thing. i'm definitely not interested in an 'ionia' remaster. let that old album sound dirty and scratchy! it's supposed to sound that way!

Just seems like an iconic early Projekt release... all the other early 90s Projekt releases are still pretty much available!

really pissed me off that there was not ONE projekt released song on that rhino box about 10 years ago.

it was a great box, but... how the hell could they leave off lycia!!! or, black tape or lsd!?

Was gonna repeat myself and point at the Heavenly Voices as manna of this genre

Wonder how many of these bands ever did anything else (sorry for the bad formatting)

1-1 –Rise And Fall Of A Decade Pure Hands 3:22
1-2 –The Moon Seven Times Giannis 2:59
1-3 –Stoa Infant Joy 2:43
1-4 –Love Spirals Downwards Love's Labour Lost 4:19
1-5 –Chandeen Journey To The Land Of Wisdom 3:38
1-6 –Eventide Ave Gloriosa Mater 3:40
1-7 –Gitane Demone Gloomy Sunday 3:40
1-8 –Speaking Silence Immunity 3:15
1-9 –Ordo Equitum Solis Playing With The Fire 3:48
1-10 –Black Rose (2) Liebe 4:33
1-11 –It's A Secret (2) Gabriella 3:15
1-12 –Die Form Cantique 3:48
1-13 –Manic P. Lost In Silence 4:33
1-14 –Jack Or Jive Behind The Line 3:15
1-15 –Sabotage - Qu 'Est - Que C'Est?* Fait De L'Er 3:48
1-16 –Mellonta Tauta Pull The Carriot 4:14
1-17 –Attrition I Am 2:54
1-18 –Malka Spigel Yesitney 4:06
1-19 –Annabell's Garden* Winter Moon Descents 5:57
2-1 –Love Is Colder Than Death Oxeia 2:58
2-2 –Collection D'Arnell Andrea* L'Aulne + Lamort 4:34
2-3 –24 Hours [Dark Orange]* The Sea Is My Soul 4:46
2-4 –In The Nursery Sesudient 4:19
2-5 –black tape for a blue girl Overwhelmed Beneath Me 3:23
2-6 –Pupilla Jealousy 3:11
2-7 –Sleeping Dogs Wake Swan Song 5:55
2-8 –Sunwheel Walk Upon The Grass 7:36
2-9 –Kirlian Camera Twilight Fields 1:24
2-10 –Donna Regina Siren Call 5:13
2-11 –Anchorage Abandoned 6:22
2-12 –Taras Bulba Barune 4:51
2-13 –Bel Am* Winter Lanterns 2:16
2-14 –Dreamscape (3) Finally Through 3:47
2-15 –Kosova Republike Sleep Silent 4:44
2-16 –View (2) Bike Ride 4:29
2-17 –Eleven Shadows 56 In 81 2:49
2-18 –Andromeda Complex Where Has It Gone The Kitten? 4:41

The Moon Seven Times (and its precursor, Area) would be considered "dream pop" today, filed alongside Beach House. LSD mimicked Cocteau Twin's instrumental sound, but had a choir girl instead of Liz Fraser. Mellonta Tauta's album was essentially Argentine (or Italian?) shoegaze. Malka Spigel was doing things with hubby Colin Newman, so be considered Wire ephemera. LiCtD is great in small doses, but tiresome at length. The real gem I discovered through the Heavenly Voices comp was Collection D'Arnell Andrea. Both Les Marronniers (1992) and Villers-aux-Vents (Février 1916) (1994) are legit classics of the genre. Unfortunately, they thereafter veered into less striking dance beat driven music.

^ might be

My kingdom for a 1 minute editing window.

First two Chandeen albums are really good, and Ordo Equitum Solis are kind of fun. Swan Song by Sleeping Dogs Wake never fails to crack me up, the chorus is top tier goth poetry.

impressive new ethereal track

Acre Tarn - Lantern

http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/new-music/song-of-the-day/acre-tarn-lanterns

Continuing in the distinguished vein stretching through from the likes of Kate Bush and the Cocteau Twins up to Bat For Lashes, Cumbria’s ACRE TARN, the electronic art pop project of Anna-Louisa Etherington, lays her own fine brick on that road with her latest single, “Lanterns”.

soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/acre-tarn/lanterns-1

additional, there is a single track from earlier this year from Acre Tarn

Acre Tarn - Flex
https://open.spotify.com/track/6nZ7zvxaR5RKIlzhDRblPg

and remix

Acre Tarn - Flex - saycet remix
https://open.spotify.com/track/5uy0xsmrFKwTHs6cUJpJEB

Another new find:

Kria from Iceland

there is a transcendental, immersive ethereal purity to this track as reflected in the video

KRÍA : hiding
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2Z-fc5NhEw

3 track ep on spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/album/3H5Pj7oTO9Yjd8aGqbhbuM

=== Also Posted on: Johnny Fever's Not Pop Not Indie Shambhala 2015

Hope to check out those samples soon.

Lycia's new album is surprisingly loud and rocky in places.

The Moon Seven Times (and its precursor, Area) would be considered "dream pop" today, filed alongside Beach House. LSD mimicked Cocteau Twin's instrumental sound, but had a choir girl instead of Liz Fraser. Mellonta Tauta's album was essentially Argentine (or Italian?) shoegaze. Malka Spigel was doing things with hubby Colin Newman, so be considered Wire ephemera. LiCtD is great in small doses, but tiresome at length. The real gem I discovered through the Heavenly Voices comp was Collection D'Arnell Andrea. Both Les Marronniers (1992) and Villers-aux-Vents (Février 1916) (1994) are legit classics of the genre. Unfortunately, they thereafter veered into less striking dance beat driven music.

― Humean froth (Sanpaku), Tuesday, November 17, 2015 11:40 AM (2 days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

sorry for such an early repeated post, but this one is worth emphasizing. this post is pretty spot on.

M7X and Area are beautiful. For Moon Seven Times, search: first album, "Her House", "Miranda", "This and That" "Straw Donkeys", "Crybaby", and their Area cover of "Anyway".
For Area, search: the 'Between Purple and Pink" album, for it is the softest and sweetest and prettiest dark wave you will ever hear. Also: "Anyway", "OUR CORNER DROWNING", "Michael Writes His Parents", "All There Is", and so on.

M7X and Area are basically dream pop by today's standards, but, this is complicated. Both bands are ethereal, at least, and both of their associations with darkwave in general have to do with record labels and such. Both bands were part of the 'scene' if you will (which, admittedly, barely ever existed).

^ Both bands are two of my favorites. I love Lynn Canfield's voice to pieces.

Collection D'Arnell Andrea are wonderful. Such gothy fun.

Mellont Tauta: "Pull the Charriot". This is one of my favorite songs ever, and the epitome of the genre. Damn:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSr1JkGADO0

all of mellonta tauta's other songs sound shoegaze, though.

The gothiest thing about Area was the cover of their second album:

http://www.projekt.com/store/wp-content/uploads/ARC00016.jpg

Granted, the goth/darkwave "scene" in 1986 Urbana-Champaign likely would have fit into a modest bedroom.

Personally, I'm more a fan of Radio Caroline (1987, pictured) and The Perfect Dream (1988) than the two albums produced by the keyboardist and Canfield after guitarist Henry Frayne left. M7x initially came off as a Frayne/Canfield reunion, with big/real drums. I've followed Frayne's intrumental project Lanterna off and on for two decades now, and he deserved a way higher profile amongst American "post-rockers".

yeah, area/moon seven times definitely weren't really goth/darkwave, exactly, at least in the sense of this thread (but they're both associated with the 'scene'). however, if you'd like to define the goth thing in terms of excessive-romantic-ness and torch songs, they fit in. this also has a lot to do with projekt re-issuing all the area albums and also redefining the darkwave category through its catalog.

i'm deeply, deeply, ashamed to admit this. . . i never did get around to sitting down and listening to a lanterna album. i feel like i know what to expect, that it would be wonderful, that it's probably something very important missing from my life (i always absolutely loved the area/m7x guitars), etc. but, which album to begin with? which is the most tuneful and also ethereal (in the sense of wisely used reverb)?

I've only got Elm Street but it's beautiful.

xxpost: mr. sam rosenthal of projekt is definitely gonna see this thread now, for you hotlinked that area image!
oh, i hope i didn't say anything too bad/weird about him. i frickin' love him and black tape. i guess we sort of disagree on what "dark wave" and "darkwave" should be/could be/and is, but:
cheers, sam, when you see this!

As the first post indicates, I welcome dreampop that that early 4AD and Projekt fans would probably be into.

LSD mimicked Cocteau Twin's instrumental sound, but had a choir girl instead of Liz Fraser

I don't agree with this entirely. I'm listening to 'Idylls' right now, and Love Spirals Downwards always had a much larger, more expansive, fluid sound to them. Now and then, it'd even topple over into this really over-the-top ethereal-new age-ambient territory (which I doubt they'd even take my saying so as an insult), and they navigated it better than any other ethereal band. The Twins never really went there except for their collaboration with Harold Budd (which, as the Twins/Budd/and everyone else seems to agree, that album only sounds like four Cocteau Twins songs and four Harold Budd songs, anyway).

^ First two albums ('Idylls' and 'Ardor) are absolutely essential, obviously. After that, eh. 'Ever' is nice if you like trip-hop/'Flux' is nice if you like jungle/d'n'b.

This reminds me, I always wished Ryan Lum of LSD would make a solo ethereal-new age-ambient album himself, in the vein of those early LSD instrumentals.

I think Soul Whirling Somewhere are too derivative of Red House Painters [...]

I definitely disagree with this, with all due respect. Everyone says this, but I've never heard much similarity between the two. Sure, they're both extreme sad sacks with acoustic guitars, and I'll even grant that Michael Plaster of SWS is very likely a big RHP/Mark Kozelek fan, but it always sounded to me like they were coming at it from different angles. Kozelek is more of a sad-sack folk-rocker, almost Elliott Smith-type, with a some small dream pop flourishes early on in his career, whereas SWS always seemed like such a depressive affair that it would actually just collapse unto itself and morph into full-blown, slow motion ambient, with electronic flourishes and much more guitar treatment to boot. I mean, I guess I might agree that SWS sounds like RHP with about 10 X more reverb/20 BPM lower.

I'm glad you said you still really like Soul Whirling Somewhere anyway though, Robert. I still hate for people to think their a Red House Painter clone, though - I've just never heard them that way.

(forgive my type-os/misspellings/grammar above. i really need to start re-reading my posts before hitting submit.)

but, which (Lanterna) album to begin with?

The first self-titled one, originally on IPR but re-released by Ryko and easily found for cheap... it's by far the best one, although the later albums are all quite strong.

oops, the first Lanterna album was on Parasol, just the packaging was done by IPR... and they have new album called Backyards I haven't heard!

Oh, and btw, sorry, but I really wish Michael Plaster of Soul Whirling Somewhere would just do a full-blown instrumental ambient-ethereal album, as well. Or, better yet, perhaps, a similar kind of collaboration with Ryan Lum of Love Spirals Downwards. I'm surprised nothing of the sort has ever happened, actually. I always hoped Plaster or Lum would take a cue from Mike VanPortfleet of Lycia and just do it.

VanPortfleet's solo ambient album, 'Beyond the Horizon Line' is fantastic, by the way.

Jeez, now I also have to mention how wonderful Sam Rosenthal's (of Black Tape for a Blue Girl) first instrumental/progressive electronic solo album, 'Before the Buildings Fell' is, too! I never did hear 'Tanzmusik', though. Is that one any good? Rosenthal's other solo ambient material, including As Lonely as Dave Bowman, is stellar as well. Although pleasant, that old Terrace of Memories album definitely isn't essential, but if you like the other stuff here, you'd may as well go for it.

xp, thanks, f. hazel! i think i actually have that lanterna album sitting around on my hard drive somewhere? i have an album of mp3s, transferred from a cassette release, and it's 90 minutes long, and i know it's kind of ancient - never have listened to it, though. in any case, i'll assume i should start with the earliest stuff, especially since i was always just enamored by the area/m7x guitar sound, so i'm sure whatever's closer to that time period is what'll do it for me.

Oh, and while I'm still rambling about ethereal-ambient, I should also take this time to mention a random/obscure album called 'The Witch's Garden' by Abandoned Toys. It came out six or seven years ago, and it's by no means actually important or anything (I only checked it out on a whim because it was advertised at the projekt:darkwave webshop). However, if you love mid-period ambient Black Tape as much as I do (a la "Fitful", "Wings Tattered, Fallen", etc.), then you're definitely gonna wanna hear it. It's a wonderful, wonderful lost little ambient-ethereal album.

It is true they really are very different but I think in a lot of songs Plaster seems to mimic aspects of Kozelek's voice. In some songs he doesn't. This isn't a problem in the first album because of all the effects.
I read that he was planning a new album for a long time. Even scrapped an album about finding happiness, because that happiness ended before he could finish an album. I think he said he wanted it to be the final album, but I may be wrong.
To balance this out with praise, Hope Was has a few of the most crushingly sad songs I've ever heard. That song about him refusing to emotionally let go of the girl on the cover art is totally heartbreaking. Then that ambient piece about waking up, that sound of reality sinking in. I really should revisit his albums soon.
I still need 2 releases.

I'll probably need to return to VanPortfleet's 'Beyond The Horizon Line' someday. I'm not as comfortable with pure ambient. The title track was brilliant tho.

How about Lum's Lovespirals?

Do you like Rise And Fall Of A Decade and Trance To The Sun as much as I do?

I love Rise and Fall of a Decade AND Trance to the Sun! Would I be here otherwise!? :-)

Lovespirals never really did it for me, though... :-(

You, unfortunately, just reminded me something about Soul Whirling Somewhere/Michael Plaster... yeah, I love the guy, but some of his songs about women/the woman are definitely a little problematic. I mean, yeah, 90% of lyrics ever are about relationships, but when you have a song entitled "Every Female Werewolf Ever, Listed Alphabetically By Crime", you're definitely crossing a line. Don't hang that kind of shit on a girl just because she doesn't love you back!

^ BUT, it's easy to forgive it. He's only human, heartbroken, trying to figure shit out inside his own songs, etc. And, actually, I KNOW I read somewhere that he refused to release the last recorded SWS album precisely because he no longer felt it was cool to lay that kind of shit on a/the woman that didn't love him back - so good of him. (Eh, I'm not Googling for 15 minutes to find the source - this is casual conversation/do it yourself).

I guess this whole post was an aside.

(i'm not sure that last sws album was totally finished or merely abandoned in the recording process. but, projekt had been advertising it for a couple years, it never came out, then i was wondering about it and i found the interview with plaster in which he actually talked about it.)

I think that werewolf thing was just a throwaway joke title. Doesn't look like a wise choice on albums about girls you broken up with but I don't remember anything angry in those albums.

Plaster is also in an electronic band called Mr Meeble. I remember them listing Jamiroquai as an influence! Their album is called Never Trust The Chinese. Apparently that's not to be taken seriously either.

hah, man! there definitely comes a point after which you can no longer just have sad song after sad song after sad song about the same girl without crossing a line! i mean, at some point you gotta be a man and just step back from it and let it rest! otherwise, you're just being a jerk, after a while. it's hard enough as it is to be a woman without some guy obsessed with you writing -dozens- of sad songs about you!

we're definitely on a tangent now! gotta drop it.

x-post: ooh, i always meant to check out plaster's post-soul whirling somewhere stuff? have you heard it? anyone know if it's good or bad? i know plaster was a really big global communication fan! which, you can actually hear on the sws albums, if you listen. lol, nothing wrong with jamiroquai hahahh

I haven't heard Mr Meeble.

i feel like i've directed this thread toward too much slightly goth stuff. let's get back to the real goth stuff.

how's STOA doing?

THIS ASCENSION threatened a reunion six or seven years ago, but it didn't really happen, i guess. i love their first three albums dearly... don't feel like talking about their very last album, though...

that first AMBER ASYLUM album is a classic. search: "cupid", the first song on 'natural philosophy of love'. also search the amg review for said album, because it's classic one.

loving the dedication you guys are showing - would love to have an "intro to ILX ethereal goth" schooling.

Why don't you like the last This Ascension album, Sever? It has two of their greatest songs and I'd rate it above everything but their third album.

"intro to ILX ethereal goth" schooling.

good starting point, if you have spotify / apple music stick a few tracks on a playlist from each of these albums (if available) then play on shuffle

top rated Ethereal Wave albums on rym
https://rateyourmusic.com/customchart?page=1&chart_type=top&type=album&year=alltime&genre_include=1&genres=Ethereal+Wave&include_child_genres=t&include=both&limit=none&countries=

Ethereal Wave
https://rateyourmusic.com/genre/Ethereal+Wave/

This year's Anneli Drecker album (which seems to have made no waves whatsoever but is excellent) is definitely ethereal.

Here's the Sound of Ethereal Wave from my genre series:

https://open.spotify.com/user/thesoundsofspotify/playlist/54eDlcyhSBrHMt6dbHyFWp

Anyone spent any time with that Anka Wolbert solo album that was produced by Pieter Nooten? Cocoon Time? Is it worth tracking down?

it's probably important to take a moment, and be cognizant of the fact, that, Bimble would have loved this thread.

St. Bimble.

Getting in late to the Lanterna discussion... The original cassette release of the first Lanterna album has several extra tracks - including one with Lynn Canfield on vocals - which further blurs the lines between all that. The first s/t and Sands are the ones to get.

Always wanted to hear those extra six tracks from the cassette release... only 17 of 23 made it onto the CD versions.

x-post. i had no idea lynn canfield collaborated with lanterna!

Controversial opinion: Nicole Sabouné's Miman is a better 2015 goth album than Chelsea Wolfe's Abyss.

there are probably no good goth albums in 2015, unless they were made by lycia or other old-schoolers.

except, maybe? a few people have come in here, (and, bless their hearts), talking about things that really have nothing to do with goth or ethereal.

kalinkaland is p. f-ing cool, though.

everything is dark cabaret now, even the last black tape album. it isn't my thing. i'm still waiting for it to pass, and looking forward to the incredible ethereal albums that will come out in 2020, after people get over this phase.

the best album on projekt in 2015 was by forrest fang

i bet you're correct, f. hazel.

i feel like i've been talking too much about projekt and hyperium in this thread, and not living up to my promise of sharing other wonderful, obscure ethereal with y'all.

but, yeah, when it comes to really wonderful darki-ish ambient stuff, projekt is the first place to start. the hypnos label needs more love, too (but that hasn't much to do with this thread).

hyperium and hypnos are different labels, just to make sure to absolutely clarify for ya'll.

Is this Hyperium the same label as the acclaimed classical label?

um. not quite sure. it's basically the 90s european version of projekt. you know that!

anyway, gonna make a post in a moment, brother.

also: i'm sure most people in this thread already know; the Heavenly Voices compilations are essential. only I-III were good, and the IV and V were just kind of... not very good (but you need all of them).

^ it's hard to talk about those Heavenly Voices compilations, actually. there's SO much garbage on them, mixed with a few extremely wonderful songs, here and there. bleurgh. people need to listen for themselves, and then decide. there's one secret, however: on Heavenly Voices II, there's a band called Pupilla with a song called "Jealousy". it features caroline seaman from this mortal coil's filigree & shadow ("alone" on that album). (she also did a song with 808 state called "europa").

I'd like to make an apology to Robert. I feel like I've taken this thread off track, and that I'm not being goth enough. Lol!

See, ethereal darkwave is my thing. It's my home-base. We can talk about bands like Love Spirals Downwards, Lycia, Black Tape for a Blue Girl, Cocteau Twins, and This Mortal Coil all day.
I'm not very interested in that, however. That's basically Ethereal 101 for Freshman.

I'm a little more interested in bands with an ethereal base, which go beyond and take it elsewhere. That's why I love Area/M7X (they mixed it with indie rock), Orange (they mixed it with indie pop/and were quite unnerving as they did), Soul Whirling Somewhere (mixed it with sadcore/slowcore), etc.

Understand? Accept my apology, Mr. Gilmour!

Anyway, I just listened to this, for the first time in 8 years, and, I don't even know how to describe it. But, it's certainly ethereal:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7I2Vy3T_Bo

And, then I listened to the Heavenly Voices I version of Attrition's "I Am" (one of my favorite songs).

that In The Nursery song almost made me cry, this morning.

Yeah I love that track.

The classical label I was thinking of is actually called Hyperion.

Where the Hell is Ned R.? He needs to sort us out.

Really! I'd like his opinion on all of this!

Re,e,ber Bimble

Someone else had better join me in remembering him.

He would have gone crazy all over this thread.

The Chandeen Christmas album is kind of nice.

Also, let me amend my earlier statement: The Stratosphere album Projekt released in 2015 is also damn good.

I'm glad I'm among friends in this thread, and I do apologize for the events of the other night.

Skinner Box were another wonderful, lost ethereal band. I don't really know much about them, other than that they had two great songs on ancient Projekt compilation, called 'From Across This Gray Land, Vol. 2'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrnCTGxqS-o

Sure, it's a little cheesy, but... still fantastic.

I have a couple albums of their's/her's sitting on my hard drive. By the way, I don't know if they're officially called "Skinner Box" or "skinner.box".

Also search the beautiful instrumental track called "Isola" from the aforementioned compilation.

I know it's a long shot, but I'd like to request some discussion on Ventricle records.
The website/webstore went down a few years ago (it was probably only a p.o. box, anyway), but here's the Discogs page:

http://www.discogs.com/label/17754-Ventricle

I was always extremely interested in this label. Most of their releases, from what I can remember, had ethereal female vocals backed by avant-garde instrumentation -- and all of this was done to an unnerving effect -- and actually almost scary (think 'Marble Index' or Diamanda Galas, but more ethereal). That's what I know from their 30 second mp3 samples, on their old/abandoned/taken down site.

I'd love to know more about the releases on this label. All I have is a Mauve Sideshow album, called "Meet Me in the Wasteland". It is wonderful.

Concerning Ventricle: their webstore used to have so much more stuff from other labels (than discogs.com shows). They had all the scarier stuff at their shop!

Monster Mash says

"I'm glad I'm among friends in this thread, and I do apologize for the events of the other night."

Don't know anything about this.

Unfortunately none of that Skinner Box stuff appears to be on CD. Sounds very nice.

Just by chance caught the sight of Mephisto Walz on a sidebar and listened. I thought they were more straight deathrock but it sounds mostly quite fitting with this thread.
Here's "Icarus" from the Immmersion album
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zC110H5ua7c

I put too many "M"s on Immersion.

Unfortunately none of that Skinner Box stuff appears to be on CD.

I have The one CD, currently mouldering in a climate controlled storage unit with most of my possessions.

Here's a not-so-great quality mp3 rip I've had for 15 years. Someday I'll get around to FLACifying my library.

again, i must apologize for only talking about the big/successful ethereal stars (lsd, lycia, black tape, etc).

especially when i promised to talk about/share with ya'll, other lost and wonderful ethereal bands/albums.

i did that a little, at least.

i'm curious about "Live" by Love Spirals Downwards, though (by the way, their name is grammatically incorrect, which they've acknowledged in an interview, and is very funny).

about "Live", however. this is a live, acoustic album by LSD. it's wonderful. they're live stuff is wonderful - it's quite surprising how much those two were capable of with only an acoustic guitar, a voice, and reverb.

i have an mp3 copy of it from soulseek, but the files are defective and have hiccups. does anyone else around here have a good rip of it they could share? i mean, it probably went out of print in 2000. i'd love a good mp3-album of it.

their* dammit.

Well those bands aren't soon in danger of overexposure so there's no reason we cant talk about them as much as we want.

I just noticed after over a decade, all of my mp3 tags are for Love Spirals Downwards.

That strikethrough on the final 's' is less visible than I hoped.

by the way, i always disliked bel canto, except for "the glassmaker", which sounds like cocteau twins on crack.

i want to be persuaded to like bel canto! everyone else likes them! i have 'birds of passage', but i've only ever listened to it a few times, eight years ago!

which songs should i try again with?

*from any album

I've only got Birds Of Passage and I like it a lot.

i w9sh you could smile/

i wish you could smile.

i heard the most beautiful music in a dream, the other night. it was ethereal.

--> it's hard to explain, and it might sound funny: it sounded like a cross between Loop/that Daring Buds' album called 'Erotica'/'Nowhere' by Ride/Hum/Love Spirals Downwards.

I don't know how to explain it, but it was the most beautiful thing I've ever heard, in a dream.

Dream pop, dream rock, post-rock, ethereal wave, etc. It sounded like "universe pop". it was the most beautiful thing i ever heard.

the closest it comes to is 'loveless', but much more, at once, poppy and ethereal with female vocals.

help. i need to hear this again.

re: Dream pop, dream rock, post-rock, ethereal wave, etc. It sounded like "universe pop". it was the most beautiful thing i ever heard.

I discovered this 2015 album by British band, Midas Fall that fits your description, earlier this week. and the album is highly recommended.

discovered via:
Abysmal Hymns - the Top 10 Goth Albums of 2015
http://abysmalhymns.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/top-10-goth-albums-of-2015.html

6-Midas Fall : " the Menagerie Inside"

These guys have assembled pieces of many genres and pasted them together into something that is very much their own.The dramatic piano intro was unexpected as I assumed this was going to be more of a indie rock thing than some weird progressive goth. I can hear a slight Tori Amos influence , but the vocally are very over wrought and passionate and not so Kate Bush tinged.No the same time she she is not a goth singer in the vein of Siouxise either, but more along the lines of a less operatic Nightwish or the Gathering. Her influences seem all over the place as their is even a country tinge to her voice on "After Fall". It is draped in majestic elegance. The guitar twinkle around the song rather than going for the typical chug. This a real solid listen that grows on me with every spin and will make its way over the the sacred iPod, fans of bands like Marriages ...this is a must.

Midas Fall – The Menagerie Inside (CD Album – Monotreme)
http://www.side-line.com/midas-fall-the-menagerie-inside-cd-album-monotreme/
Genre/Influences: Post-shoegaze, gothronica, ethereal-psy-rock.

From the very first notes of the first song you’ll discover the heavenly sound universe refined by piano arrangements and the passionate, ethereal like female vocals.

and

Conclusion: Midas Fall is certainly not the most familiar name, but I can assure you that their new opus has the grace and beauty to make them immortal. This is without a shadow of a doubt one of the most poignant and artistic albums of 2015!

Apparently they were formed in Edinburgh and now based in Manchester.

Official website:

Midas Fall
http://www.midasfall.com/

Described as "chiming vocal-led post-rock", Midas Fall have carved a unique sound, combining elements of electronica, post-rock and alt-goth to create "powerful yet fragile, devastatingly beautiful and beautifully devastating" music (Founder Magazine)

This year Midas Fall released their third album 'the Menagerie Inside' on Monotreme Records.

press
http://www.midasfall.com/press

The Menagerie Inside

'The Menagerie Inside will not disappoint. Sit down, plug in, and be prepared for an onslaught on your emotions. Both musically and lyrically.” – Echoes and Dust

“Their best and most accomplished album yet…I hope this is the record that finally takes Midas Fall to the heights of commercial success they so richly deserve. 4.5/5.” – 17 Seconds

“A beautiful, lonely, haunting, abrasive, intelligent set of songs by a band who really do deserve the future to be theirs. 9/10.” – Reflections of Darkness

"The Menagerie Inside bridges prog and dreampop in a way that hasn't quite been done this way before…a splendid album.” – Pop Matters

“Taut, emotive instrumental drama pervading the album is balanced by Heaton’s rich, bright tone…a breathtaking album…” – Factory Worker Media

"Concrete compositions and gripping performances" - Rocking GR

Midas Fall - The Menagerie Inside

spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/album/72q4NMDbRBzyhdZSHE6yy1

Piccadilly records:
http://www.piccadillyrecords.com/prod/MidasFall-TheMenagerieInside-MonotremeRecords-104822.html

Described as "powerful yet fragile, devastatingly beautiful and beautifully devastating" by The Founder Magazine, UK-based quartet MIDAS FALL have carved a distinctive and captivating sound, fusing elements of electronica, post-rock, shoegaze and alternative rock with progressive and gothic undertones to create taut, shimmering soundscapes led by the hauntingly melancholic vocals of Elizabeth Heaton. Forged in Edinburgh, Scotland and now based in the north of England, the eclectic collective – founding members Heaton and Rowan Burn (guitar, piano) with Steven Pellatt (drums/percussion/piano) and Chris Holland (bass) – has spent the past year composing the follow-up to their 2013-issued Wilderness full-length.

Titled The Menagerie Inside, MIDAS FALL’s third long player was captured live at Red Wall Studios, mastered by Seattle legendary engineer Ed Brooks (Pearl Jam, Caspian, Fleet Foxes et al) and offers up ten sprawling tracks of sonic enormity. From the sorrowing echo of wilting violins in “Counting Colours,” to the emotionally gutting close of “Circus Performer,” the forty-six-minute epic is as heavy sonically as it is cerebrally. An introspective journey through dark and light, The Menagerie Inside is at once graceful, urgent and star-gazingly compelling. Cascading riffs ebb, flow and surge into rich, ethereal piano crescendos, the weight of Heaton’s delicate angelic resonance adding depth to her every echoing word. With The Menagerie Inside, MIDAS FALL manifests a sound and atmosphere that’s organic, emotionally stirring and habitually awe-inspiring, further verifying the strength of their songcraft and musicianship.

rym:

Midas Fall - The Menagerie Inside
https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/midas_fall/the_menagerie_inside/

Elizabeth Heaton
vocals, guitar, piano, synthesizer, recording engineer, mixing engineer

Rowan Burn
guitar, piano

Steven Pellatt
drums, percussion, piano

Chris Holland
bass

Ed Brooks
mastering engineer

Midas Fall
songwriting

Joni Fuller
strings

via ILM search

their only previous mention on ILM was by Glenn Mcdonand on New and Noteworthy Additions to US Spotify on board I Love Music on Sep 18, 2015

honestly, i got a serious drinking problem, and i'm probably not fit for ilx, anymore... anyway, i'm doing my best to stay straight in this thread (it's my favorite genre and the main thing i care about on ilm).

as promised, i'd like to key you guys in on another obscure, ethereal band, called:

Velvet Belly

(they must have taken the name from This Mortal Coil).
check them out on Discogs, here: http://www.discogs.com/artist/82221-Velvet-Belly

i felt sentimental about this band from day one... and, i'm not quite sure why. i don't even love them or anything, but they really are a special little band, in their own way.
i don't have too much to say, there's just something about them, though.

they're another one of those bands that straddle the line between actual ethereal wave and actual dream pop (with some indie pop flourishes).
i must have all of their albums -- i'd say just start with the first and work from there.

for fans of: Area/Moon Seven Times, Ars Poetica, Elysium, Johanna's House of Glamour

i'm not exactly sure how i found out about them, but i suspect it may have been through the Ectophiles' Guide: http://ectoguide.org/genre/ethereal
(which is, actually, a really good resource for ethereal goth if you take your time with it).

Also: projekt really, REALLY, needs to reissue that Heavenly Bodies album. I'm guessing it's the sax that turns Mr. Rosenthal off.

Anyway, projekt fans would love it, and it's an absolutely essential piece of the history of this genre (it featured Caroline Seaman of This Mortal Coil on main vox).

More importantly, however (I know, I've said this before), it's the first fully realized ethereal goth album not on 4AD. Yes, yes, 4AD had the ethereal goth thing going for a while before this album, and a few non-4AD bands did similar things too, but for me, this album is really where the genre takes off and, how to say this... makes it OK to be a 4AD band not on 4AD.

I really want that Heavenly Bodies album. Hard to find at a good price.

Well, I'm quite drunk now, but I did my part today, by talking about a couple of old, obscure, wonderful ethereal bands.

Now i'm a break it down and tell a little story
Straight out the box, from the gothic category

^ That's an Eazy-E reference, but I don't know if anyone gets it here. ANYWAY.

So, I decided to go to Goth Night a few months ago, for the first time [I will not say at what club/location, for personal reasons].
I don't even have any irl "goth" friends, so I decided to just go on my own, since I was drinking, bored, and curious.

So, I went alone.

I'm more of a death rocker and ethereal waver, although those two have nothing to do with each other, if that makes sense, if it matters.

Anyway. So, I get to the club alone. It's a club I go to often, but I've never been there on Goth Night.
So, I don't really know anyone there, except for the bouncers and barkeeps.
I just hang around in the backroom for a while - smoking, drinking cheap beer, mingling, joining and leaving groups, having an all-around OK time.

After a while, jeez, I must have been really drunk, I entered into a suspicious circle.

All I remember is this girl asking if she could bite my neck. I was probably just like ". . . O. . . K. . . If you must".
So, I let her bite my neck really,REALLY, REALLY, hard. I can't believe she didn't draw blood.
(She said she was an expert at not drawing blood.)
The thing is, she bit my right side... I felt uneven... So I asked her to bite my left side.
(She did.)
She said she gets that all the time, after biting people.

I think I let her bite my wrist, too.

It isn't like any of this needed to happen, but I live without a care, so whatever.

I never saw her again. I'm not quite sure how I got home that night (it must have been an expensive, single cab).

I still feel funny remembering it.

And, that's the story. That's the story about my FEELINGS.

Robert: private message me, about, ya know, the stuff

::cough::cough::heavenly bodies::cough::cough::

I don't think I sufficiently praised Rosewater Elizabeth for their second album upthread (I still need a digital music player so I can hear their debut). It has one of the things I find most lacking in ethereal/dreampop: unusual structures. I know it's called dreamPOP and Cocteau Twins got an amazing mileage out of mostly sticking to a fairly predictable structure, but this type of music is begging for more experimental and symphonic structures. The later Trance To The Sun albums have a lot of longer tracks on them.

oh, man. i need to talk about rosewater elizabeth! i dislike them! except for "milk", which is kind of an incredible song.
i think i'll listen to it, now. it's been years.

Monsieur Gilmour, let me know if you got the stuff, ::cough::cough::heavenly bodies::cough::cough::

My favourite Rosewater Elizabeth is "If Evil Is A Hollow Man".

They turned into a band called Underwater. Listed as triphop, so I doubt I'll like them as much but their albums are ultra cheap, so I'll have to try them some time.

Then one member joined an indie folktronica band called Allegra Gellar, named after the character from eXistenZ, they even have a song called Jennifer Jason Leigh.

Death To The Demoness Allegra Gellar!

Good insights into Rosewater, Robert. And, also, great insights during your early posts here, as well.

I never liked Rosewater Elizabeth much, though. However, as I said, I love "Milk", so I feel like I should give their album another shot, and probably check out their other eps, based on the strength of that song.

I hate speaking ill of any ethereal band, and I worry that band members could see this, so... I don't want to be to critical or say anything too harsh. Overall... Rosewater just wasn't my thing, although I love their influences. Anyway, I should give them another listen. Other people like them.

too critical*

fucking hell. i'm about to listen to "pandora (for cindy)" by the twins.

i haven't heard it in some five years. this is my comfort music.

i was psychologically abused by a pathological liar and a person with actual Narcissistic Personalty Disorder. it's gone on for years, so, i drink now.

i just want to hear this song, and i just want my thoughts to fuck off (hundreds of hours of thoughts about the trauma this person caused me).

i used to listen to this song when i was a boy. i want to go back.

Don't know what to say, I have no experience with this stuff but I wish you well.

i shouldn't have said that stuff.

i'm having my last drink, right now. i will probably be back at the mental hospital by the end of the day.

i'm very ill. i'm sorry.

i'll be back back in a couple weeks. (the sundays are my favorite band! i hope you download my heavenly bodies link, robert!)

I listened to Heavenly Bodies and "An Obsession" in particular is very good.

I'm on drrugs:!! B. I love u:

Heavenly bodies is quite good

did you ever listen to Heavenly Bodies, Robert?

I'm still fucked up.

Yes, I'm enjoying it. I bought the Facing The Other Way book recently and it mentions them doing gigs among 4AD bands and that they had former Dead Can Dance members.

yeah, i was always aware of the rumor they had former dcd members, but, then again, the only real members of dcd were lisa gerrard and brendan perry. it's all a wash, but however, as i've fuck-upedly bumbled on about, - Heavenly Bodies are important - so, i'm glad we got that straight. i know it's hard to believe coming from me, but still...

randomly (importantly): search the steve roach remix of black tape for a blue girl's "kinski". it's on a "million tear-stained memories). you need this.

ah. otherwise, finish up collecting the dewdrops catalog. i don't know.

it may have sounded arrogant when i earlier called myself an expert on this genre. well, i am, but i fell out of touch with it about six years ago. Robert, you probably know as much (or perhaps more) than i do at this point.

i might need to leave ilx/ilm, but, before i leave this thread...

- check the c'est la mort discography on discogs
- as above for projekt, obviously (and the webstore especially - much of that ethereal stuff for sale isn't even on projekt)
- as above for hyperiume, obviously (discogs)
- double check third mind on discogs (it's mostly straight darkwave, with some ethereal thrown in)
- check out kalinkaland (sp?)
- check out ventricle records on discogs (mysterious, lost, ambient-ethereal-goth as hell label)
- if you want ethereal ambient, check out the Hypnos label on discogs (this has little to do with anything in this thread, unless you like sad as hell-dreamy ambient stuff)
- check out the --ethereal-- section on the Ectophile's Guide to Good Music

I might be forgetting things. I'm trying, however! I'll come back and speak plainly about it, if I recall something else (won't post anymore nonsense).

hyperium*

Thanks.

My favourite tracks from Lycia's A Line That Connects are the three that sound quite like something from Tripping Back Into The Broken Days and Time Has Come And Gone. "Blue" is particularly good. It's a great style and I wonder if they could explore it much further.

Black Tape For A Blue Girl have a new album and they've returned to their original style (weehee). Oscar came back and brought his daughter into the band.

Yup. Entertaining stuff.

Faith And The Muse - Annwyn, Beneath The Waves. Apparently all based on Welsh mythology, there's a Welsh folk song, one track takes some Goethe for the lyrics, the sleeve has lots of centuries old poetry. "The Dream Of Macsen" and "The Birds Of Rhiannon" are brilliant.
Really love this album, it's probably even better than Elyria (although my memory of it isn't too sharp). Bigger soundscapes I think.

Slightly relieved that Tara Vanflower doesn't like Trump.

Lycia uploaded a lot of pre-Wake material

https://soundcloud.com/lyciummusic-lycia

And speaking of Projekt -- interviewed Sam himself for my latest Bandcamp piece:

https://daily.bandcamp.com/2016/11/09/projekt-records-guide-sam-rosenthal-interview/

Thanks for the article. Only taken me two months to finally read it. Somehow never noticed they were going more in an ambient direction. Interesting that Plaster is on the new Black Tape album.

In the last days of 2016, Trance To The Sun's newest album Via Subterranea came out.

Faith & Disease - Insularia.

Maybe their most varied studio album (haven't heard the final one yet), taken me an unusually long time to get into this and I might need to come back to it another year to get a fuller effect from it.

"Yellow Dress" must be one of their best songs. I much prefer the first half of "Marie Don't Sleep In Your Makeup" to the second part. There's a cover of Cowboy Junkies "Witches" (not familiar with the original). I like the pairing of "Violet II" and "Space Song II".

Rosewater Elizabeth - Faint

Such a lovely album, more enjoyable overall than Le Petit Morte, but I like the latter just as much because it's more adventurous, unique and the best parts are possibly better. Not sure though. Faint is definitely more watery.
"It Swallows Me Whole" has beautiful drumming.

Great band, they should rank fairly high among the bands on this thread. Now I have to check out the band that came after: Underwater. Odds and ends of Rosewater Elizabeth are probably too hard to find right now, apart from an album of remixes which I'll pass on for now.

Quiet revive to note that Projekt, no doubt in response to my post from two years ago, have re-issued Lycia's Ionia in a limited run of 500 CDs! With t-shirts and tote bags, even, so I can bring Lycia to the farmer's market.

It sounds great, especially blasting it driving down country roads on a freezy winter night.

I've been enjoying Speaking Silence and I'll write more about them soon.

Demen - Nektyr should probably be mentioned here, TMC probably the closest comparison.

If we're rounding up thislisty albums from 2017, NOÊTA - Beyond Life And Death also merits a mention. Sounds like something on Projekt from 1996, drawing from Black Tape, DCD and a touch of Americana. The album alternates between a funereal ("Beyond Life") and more organic ("In Drowning") tracks.

rose chronicles

(kristy thirsk)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-6pP2iMggM

reminds me a lot of lush

That Demen album was among my favourites from last year. Guess I should start listening to This Mortal Coil – my knowledge of the precursors is pretty limited.

Awesome thread, btw.

Thanks guys.

Meant to note a bunch of Japanese bands but I can't remember the tracks I was going to pick.

Fiction and related bands Gille' Loves and Luci'fer Luscious Violenoue.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwWHLNb8flM
Could have swore one of them had a good song called Sepharita

Jack Or Jive (should have got one or their albums years ago, their presentation is very 4AD but with more extravagant costumes and stage design)
Pale Cocoon (very early band in this genre, probably ahead of their time for sad bedroom goth)
Funeral Party - Double Platonic Suicide
Gilles De Rais - Vampire (1981)
Kuroyuri Shimai and related band Juri Et Lisa(neoclassical leaning)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60DLx281Tv0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Uhdgz6jXy8

Interesting list here. You might need to leave the page to load for several minutes. Has a separate section for EPs. Might be a minefield because there's some obscure choices I adore and quite a few I was underwhelmed by. A lot of new bands I've never heard of. Don't know why some famous bands are listed but no Cure, they even feature a Cure clone.

https://www.dreampop.it

Demen - Nektyr should probably be mentioned here, TMC probably the closest comparison.
― Siegbran, Monday, 8 January 2018 21:30 (five days ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Thank you for this - been playing it all week. Really does sound like TMC or Dead Can Dance.

FVNERALS might fit in here, maybe:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMAdkcR-az8

I wish I had more knowledge of mixing and production because I'm not quite sure what the issues are with the two Speaking Silence albums I've listened to recently.

Their debut Speak In Silence is really good but maybe some things don't stand out as much as they should? Rise And Fall Of A Decade had a substantial part in the album and it's easy to hear (I think Trees Dance was a full collaboration between Speaking Silence and RaFoaD, it's one of my holy grails).
RaFoaD have done a couple of excellent Cocteau Twins pastiches and Speaking Silence have "The Call From Inside" which is about as good.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYmv7BTSaE0
I wish there was a youtube video of "The Lost Tale" because it's them doing their own thing and probably the best track.

I'd be surprised if the third and last album The Twilight World sounds the way it was supposed to. I found it far too dense for their style but the songs are still quite good, particularly the first two.

I just paid a bit too much for their second album, so I hope it's good and closer to the earlier more rococo style. They later joined the band Am'ganesha'n.

I recall looking up the people Rise And Fall Of A Decade mentioned in one of their songs years ago and finding a lot of them were Nazi sympathizers but on checking again I don't know why I though this was so. Back then I didn't know who most of these people were but now only half are unfamiliar: Boris Vian, Jacques Brel, Simone De Beauvior, Raymond Queneau, Robert Doisneau, Jean Paul Sartre, Bernard Blier, Michel Audiard, Antione Blondin, Juliette Greco, Serge Gainsbourg, Serge Reggiani.

huge fan of Irish artist Catscars and this EP is incredible: https://soundcloud.com/catscars/sets/ep1-faster

Years ago when I was delving into goth lists for stuff I would never find in regular music shops (really the start of my finding the sort of music this thread is about), Arcana's Dark Age Of Reason kept getting mentions, so I've wanted it for a long time. It's neoclassical and I'm sure lots of metalheads will appreciate it, sleeve art is gorgeous. But I think that the acclaim is probably mostly based on the first few tracks, but seriously, check out "Source Of Light", it's really wonderful.
https://arcana.bandcamp.com/album/dark-age-of-reason
Only a small sample of the album, "Angel Of Sorrow" is lovely too if you find the whole album.

Cantar de Procella is pretty great, album after Dark Age of Reason... I actually just bought Petrichor the other day, a collection of b-sides and other ephemerata.

I might have to resort to MP3 for Cantar de Procella. Very expensive second hand.

expensive on vinyl, you mean?

Just the CD copies

Bel Canto - Shimmering, Warm & Bright

There's a bunch of good songs, the slightly aquatic german track is lovely and "Mornixuur" is gorgeous but overall it's just okay and probably suffers from the departure of Geir.

It was a couple of years ago but the few webcam performances on Lycia's official youtube channel are worth seeing.

I totally missed this Mike VanPortfleet interview from 2013 somehow.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lS72VwlXsxQ

Orange - Complete Recordings is the length of a regular album and it's a typical case of occasionally pleasant but poorly written and extremely derivative, formulaic dreampop.

it's a better album that at least two by the cocteau twins though

than

Oooh.

I owned the original LP release in 1994 (hi Brent et al from Dewdrops Records and the 4AD-email list), and if I recall, I'd rank it as 6.5 best amongst a 9 album CT discography. Ie: Head Over Heals > Blue Bell Knoll > Treasure > Heaven or Las Vegas > Victorialand > Garlands Orange > The Moon and the Melodies > Milk & Kisses > Four-Calendar Cafe.

Orange (13) (as discogs number them) was the only 90s dreampop which really appreciated how important Ella Fitzgerald and vocal improv was to CT's formula. Most everything else at the time was morose hymns by former choir girls.

It's not all as good as the following, but this is an ideal that the Projekt folks never aspired to.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IC_KR75liQ

That said, Orange wasn't the best thing on Dewdrops. For that, I'd recommend Glisten by Elysium (4), which remains one of the best late autumnal records I've heard.

Lots of good dreampop in the mid-90s:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxFhd1k5enM

I like April March too, but at the time considered them on the shoegaze side of the fence.

But there, hear how all the vocal lines are these long things without syncopation that line up with measures? That's part of what I grew to dislike about dreampop/etherial/etc through the 90s. Even in an obscure genre indie musics there was a conscious rejection of rhythmic play, as if to syllabylize on upbeats might mean one's giving in to the urban music juggernaut. Liz Frazer may have sounded like a wounded dolphin live, but at least on the releases she sounded like she was playing against the beats. Like Ella.

that's an interesting observation!

don't sleep on rose chronicles, kirsty thirsk's former band

I think the singer for Orange has a great sounding voice but doesn't sing very well, like even the "writing" of the vocal parts just isn't very good. Almost seems like she didn't care to learn all the lyrics for the Pixies cover.

Just revisiting the two Salt Garden EP's by Fovea Hex, they haven't been mentioned on this thread. Somehow they're classified as ambient or avant-folk, but to my ears it's much closer to DCD/'ethereal goth' than anything else.

Area - Between Purple And Pink

Fantastic, I rank it above Radio Caroline but just below The Perfect Dream. "Brave Parade", "Rail", "Our Corner Drowning" and "Dry Spell" are all particularly fine.

"The only thing crueler than an emptiness is a promise winding over our heads"

"Take me where the water runs deep and chain me there so that I might sleep"

"Someone said it's getting boring, for about the hundredth time"

Sorry to Lynn Canfield if I got the lyrics wrong.

Just two Area albums to get and one more Moon Seven Times album. Then there's Shotgun Wedding and I whole bunch of Lanterna.

First Lanterna album is 100x classic (as are the first couple Moon Seven Times records... don't think I ever got Sunburnt?)

My Medicine is like the most midwestern shoegazing track ever

Faith & Disease's fifth and final studio album is a bit like Insularia (third album). I liked things about it but again it taken quite a while and never clicked as much as I wanted it to. Even Beneath These Trees (fourth album) was a similar experience but sounds distinctly different (pretty much a folk album) and features probably their best song ever. But I really prefer the first two albums.

Black Tape For A Blue Girl - As One Aflame Laid Bare By Desire

Could this be called a concept album about a Marcel Duchamp piece?

I've got quite a few albums still to get but I'll be surprised if "Given" isn't one of their top 3 songs. Marvelous.

The sequence of "Your One Wish", "Dulcinea", "The Green Box" and "Denouement/Denouncement" is a great string of tracks.

Not one of my favorite albums by them but the highlights are as strong as they've ever been before.

It's a great record yes. Any thoughts on the Black Tape and DCD records they put out this year?

Have you always been into this stuff? Only really noticed you were a fan in the last few years.

Not really as deeply as into the other stuff I post(ed) a lot about here over the years but yes I've always been into the ethereal/ambient side of it, way more than dancefloor/pop goth which most of the time gets way to hysterical for me.

I don't really know a lot about the obscure stuff and I'm not a 4AD/Projekt obsessive, but the big names I've mostly followed throughout the years, DCD/Cocteau/ITN/Black Tape, later Bel Canto, etc and later the whole Coil/NWW/DI6/C93 axis, and the neoclassical side, Amber Asylum, Elend, Vas, Arcana, DVKE etc.

Lycia?

I'm aware that they're supposed to be good but haven't tried yet.

I think they might be the best thing in this sub-genre. A lot of metalheads love them and Xasthur covered them.

Lycia's Ionia is classic, and just got reissued so it's also easy to get ahold of! Even in tote bag form.

Recently saw Dante's Inferno (about Dante Gabriel Rossetti) by Ken Russell and was pleased to discover it was the source of the clip at the start of Mors Syphilitica's debut album.

Had no idea about this band. Odd that they had 3 bands together.
https://www.discogs.com/artist/939573-The-NCS

Okay, nobody told me there was a new Lycia album out last year, In Flickers. It's even on Projekt.

Insides is probably the best Speaking Silence album by some distance, but again, could probably use a remaster/remix.

Also, recently got into Shelleyan Orphan and its a crime that they haven't been pushed harder by fans of this stuff, because it's as good as any of this stuff and competes with peak Cocteau Twins for sheer prettiness. Weird lack of praise for them.

Lisa Hammer - Dakini

I'm a fan of her work in Mors Syphilitica and Requiem In White so I was going to get this sooner or later. Detailed soundscapes with Lisa's voice (often multiplied), half of it kind of eastern sounding (sorry I cant be more specific) but going way way beyond the ambition of Dead Can Dance wannabes, whole load of instruments played, very warm and lush. Brilliant actually, it's sad so see this relatively ignored because it's the best thing I've heard with her (admittedly I haven't heard Primrose, NCS or Radiana). I understand that some fans of the more straight goth stuff will find this a stretch but it's worth it. The last three tracks are an amazing combo. One of the best Projekt style albums I've heard, please get it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWJEvi4Di8Q

Watched the 2015 Lisa Hammer interview on New York Real youtube channel. Mostly about her film work but she does talk about the band, her and Dame Darcy possibly starting the gothic Lolita movement and a vampire wanting to watch her urinate.

or bandS rather

So I'm listening to the new Chandeen (released in February 2020 looks like) and... wow. I'm not sure what I'm listening to here, but it kinda won me over. Lowy's got a passel of new-generation guest vocalists and is also breaking out some other stuff way outside of their usual gothic through-line.

https://youtu.be/5nDv-4oqk70

Any thoughts on Machine In The Garden? Surpised I can't find a single mention of them on this forum.

never really given them a listen, no real reason besides there just being too much out there to listen to!

Interesting list with a more specific slant
https://rateyourmusic.com/list/sounds_of_decay/musette-and-drums-ethereal-gothic-rock/

https://fashionbird.bandcamp.com/album/phanerothymes
Lisa Hammer (I thought she had retired that name?) is on "Hunted (Werewolves Of The Astral Plane)" and maybe some other tracks and it sounds good. It's not very gothy but I'm liking their stuff.

Idylls by Love Spirals Downwards continues to be a classic album start to finish

Yup.

in other goth news, Dark Entries is reissuing Clan of Xymox's Peel Sessions EP on vinyl and digital in a few days:

https://xymox.bandcamp.com/album/peel-sessions

Contains an amazing version of Seventh Time:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jN-__3hnUys

I guess having a new singer prompted a different band name?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ouq-r8hXr-E
https://trancetothemoon.bandcamp.com/releases

This thread is a great resource!

Cocteau heads have to hunt down Heavenly Bodies with Carolyn Seaman from This Mortal Coil...pretty essential for completists, plus it ROCKS.

Someone stole my copy years ago, so I swiped it back via soulseek.

I prefer the folk / rhythmic aspect of this music and don't much care for classical influences and am looking for suggestions on Irish / Scottish folk that uses electronics or has a more ethereal sound. Also looking for ethereal bands who use funky folk rhythms like bel canto does.

But I'm gonna queue some of this today because I have a headache.

CaroLINE Seaman, I mean. The one who sings on the 2nd TMC album.

Ha, I think I have that around...

Yeah the heavenly bodies album is worth seeking out

And I'll say another time that Lisa Hammer's Dakini is amazing

Looks like it's streaming on Apple Music at least

https://music.apple.com/us/album/celestial/1571240546

Are those sound effects, or is this Apple Music version a somewhat noisy vinyl rip (listening to the opening of "An Obsession" at the moment)?

Just want to say how much this thread has helped. Really enjoying Trance to the Sun right now...love the heavy murk guitars...reminds me of when I first head-banged to Garlands or Head Over Heels all those years ago.

They're amazing, the run of releases from Venomous Eve to Atrocious Virgin is incredible. I often think Delirious might be my favorite because they way it escalates is brilliant.

I still haven't given their last album the proper listens.

Breathless have a new album in july. I still only have Chasing Promises

There's lots to check out!

Been reading Facing The Other Way and I'm very pleased that Nooten and Brook's Sleeps With Fishes gets its due. Looking at the RYM reviews I wonder how many people discovered it through the book. A real shame Nooten and Brook didn't keep it going but I still have a bunch of Nooten era Xymox and all his solo albums to get. And of course there's so much Brook.

I wish 4AD had been better with reissues in the last 20 years, surely there's enough incentive to reissue more of its B and C-list bands?

Well, last 20 years as you said, ie the collapse of the industry and people trying to feel their way forward. The incentives are low.

At least everything I've looked for is available on digital (though I get CDs every time I can) but I wish other labels who still reissue all kinds of obscurities could get a hold of the rights or 4AD do those cheapie box sets (5 Classic/Original Albums).

There's been compilations of Lush, Colourbox, Rema-Rema and In Camera and some of them were limited editions. 4AD kept hold of everything, so I guess it's very unlikely the rights are going to shift companies.

Fairly sure more Lush reissues could have been successful

the pale saints reissue was well regarded, but they didn't repeat it with In Ribbons (30th anniversary was in march)

I'd be particularly grateful for reissues of Pale Saints, Xymox, Xmal Deutschland, Dif Juz and Wolfgang Press

nothing to add, just a thanks to RAG. dif juz mention has me revisiting for the first time in about 2 decades. i only ever heard extractions, so now that soundpool is on streaming i'm even hearing stuff for the first time ever. great way to spend a saturday afternoon.

I'm surprised I haven't talked about Scarlet Slipping's Fire In The Mist yet, it was a favorite at the start of covid. Dawn Wagner was great in Trance To The Sun (she was only on Delirious) and Scarlet Slipping was her own thing. Of course the common complaint in this thread is that the music often doesn't have a unique enough identity and I don't think that's a problem with Scarlet Slipping. Some tracks make me think of dark humid jungles and like Delirious, it's kind of dancey. I strongly recommend this album, she seems to have flown completely under the radar and has 5 albums, only 2 are easy enough to find.

Just downloaded the next album Hound and sounds good so far.

Actually she done some other Trance To The Sun stuff but Delirious was the only full album.

the pale saints reissue was well regarded, but they didn't repeat it with In Ribbons (30th anniversary was in march)

I was just talking with my friend about this album last Thursday on our way to the Spoon show in Hollywood. I need to dig out that album again as it has been a minute. 30 years has flown by...

Scarlet Slipping's bio mentions a celtic influence, I don't really hear it

in ribbons is one of my favorite albums of the 90s, you really should dig it out, bee!

I do need to, whenever I'm in the mood for Pale Saints I seem to reach for The Comforts of Madness but next time I will play In Ribbons as you and my friend suggested.

I also went over my ticket stubs recently and saw that I did get to see them live in Los Angeles. Truthfully, I can't remember that show as I was going to shows left and right in the early 90s.

I saw them in LA in 1992 the night they opened for Ride; Slowdive opened the other night, went to both shows. Missed the PS headlining at the Roxy IIRC, and the openers were Red House Painters, who had just been signed. (Maybe I'm not sad I missed that after where Kozelek ended up.)

The 4AD Xymox albums got nice CD reissues in the 90s and the deluxe edition of Twist of Shadows from a few years ago is also very good... all you need really. Subsequent Pleasures and the Peel Sessions are also readily available digitally. Wouldn't mind a deluxe reissue of Phoenix, it had a handful of solid b-sides (Twisted, Dreamhouse, Down to Earth).

Just came across the footnote that Nooten, Brook and Heidi Berry were going to make something together but practical reasons prevented it, heartbreaking.

Been looking through so many 90s band discographies and its so daunting thinking about getting the bsides and loose ends if I feel compelled to, I had totally forgotten about the ridiculous trend of copious bullshit remixes.
I thought that bsides/rarities collections were mostly a thing of the past (I miss them) but Belly released one last year.

Although I'm a CDs guy I think getting bsides on digital will keep me saner and my collection prettier

belly, boo Radleys, lush all remind me of that period of British chart history when 3 formats were eligible for chart sales so they'd always release 2cd singles and a 7", all with different b sides. and for the first week, in order to maximize entry position, they be sold cheaply. so for every a-side you'd effectively get 4 or 5 b-sides.

It was a real pain in the ass

Been thinking of arranging my discs alphabetically someday because boxing them by genre is getting impractical, but I recently opened my very broadly defined goth box and I got an amazing waft of Projekt smell. Sam Rosenthal has said he chooses paper that smells nice and I got a heady dose of that.

There is a definite quality there!

BTW, the new remaster of Area's Radio Caroline is pay-what-you-want right now: https://projektrecords.bandcamp.com/album/radio-caroline-2023-remaster

Theyre my era and style pref, yet I don’t recall them, and now I am enjoying them. The vibe of Transmitter is so spot on for me today.

I didn't know of them either, but I was a moderate fan of The Moon Seven Times which was Lynn Canfield and Henry Frayne's post-Area band.

in champaign urbana no one can hear u scream.

jk, know nothing of it. zines rekkid stores cassettes and wordamouth. they all tried i spose ha

boy are the keys settings hit or miss on this, to my (tin) ears tho