Does Chapterhouse's 'Whirpool' stand up today?

I'm aware of that - I have the last issue somewhere (The Wonderstuff are on the cover). I was just jamming Sounds in there to complete the thought.

i'm real surprised how much this stuff stands up.

slowdive on the other hand...

http://www.stylusmagazine.com/reviews/chapterhouse/whirlpool.htm

Does anyone know if this is remastered as well? Don't think it needs it but was wondering none-the-less. Also wondering what seven songs were added to this, as Amazon doesn't say?

And yet another reissue... This time from Space Age Recordings

CAT NO: ORBIT047CD
FORMAT: CD
PRICE: £10.00
RELEASE DATE: 27th APRIL 2009

PRE-ORDERS TAKEN NOW FOR DISPATCH ON MONDAY 20th APRIL

PRE-ORDER NOW

INFORMATION:

Hailing from Reading in the late 80's/early 90's, Chapterhouse were leaders in the British Shoegazing movement. Rehearsing for well over a year before committing anything to demo for record companies, Chapterhouse quickly reached the top of their game with their peak arguably being a performance following Nirvana at the 1991 Reading Festival.

Releases from Chapterhouse have been very hard to track down, due to being out-of-print for many years. Thankfully Space Age Recordings is about to rectify this. A re-issue of the original Whirlpool recordings from VHF Studios Rugby, Sawmills Cornwall, Stoneroom Studios London and Refuge in Reading is set to be released for physical distribution and via iTunes. Featuring three extra tracks, including the never before released 'Thrasher' and longer/alternate mixes of 'Something More', 'Rain' and 'Guilt'.

Tracklist:

1. Breather
2. Pearl
3. Autosleeper
4. Treasure
5. Falling Down
6. April
7. Guilt
8. If You Want Me
9. Something More (ambient version)
10. Rain (alternative version)
11. Thrasher
12. Guilt (long version)

Not sure too many people regard that as their peak.

I was about to say, from what I recall most of the reaction to that show made it seem the band went 'great, we have to follow Nirvana mere nano-seconds after they perform and right when "Smells Like Teen Spirit" got released'

the other Whirlpool that was released in 1991...
http://www.kompaktkiste.de/cd/_123/_1/15911912.jpg

Saw 'em live in 93 or so and they pwned, tho it is probably pretty hard not to sound awesome in a cavernous room with three guitarists and a bazillion effects pedals.

Oh God! Dr Phibes, I really loved that band, they were great live too, didn't Howard the singer/guitarist kill his mother or something?

Wow, wasn't Dr. Phibes House of Wax Equations or something? They had a decent single, if memory serves.

Chapterhouse's "Pearl" still stand up, despite dated-sounding, at the time de-rigeur breathy vox.

yes, Howard King killed his ma, and yes, they had a decent single ("Hazy Lazy Hologram")...I wanted to love them more than I did, mainly because of their name and image...

That's the one ("Hazy Lazy..."). I have a live recording of it on some compilation. He killed his mother? Jeez.

Haha! Dr. Phibes. I'm delighted someone else remembers that record besides me. I really dug it back in the day. I used to have it on cassette but got it on vinyl only a couple years ago. I think I'll pull out my CD-R in a minute here. Don't want to think about the guy killing his mother, though.

I saw Chapterhouse live back then and they were awesome. I was really poor at the time and I remember thinking "do I really want to go to this, or spend the money on food" because I was really hungry. I decided to go to the gig anyway. Spitfire opened, if memory serves. They weren't a particularly remarkable band.

There should be a Microsoft Word macro/wizard for these press releases now. Clippy says "I see you are reforming a band, would you like some assistance?"

October 12, 2009:: Chapterhouse tour information
The band has told me that they will play in the US and Japan in 2010. "It will be a very concise tour of the major cities" in the US, New York, California and Williamsburg(!) are probable areas. No dates have been announced as they aren't sure if they will be playing the US in February or May of 2010. They will be playing Japan in April 2010. Once I get info about UK dates, I will let you know. Here is what Stephen said, "We never anticipated doing this but we are doing it for the enjoyment of playing together again and for fans of the band to see us play live once more".

The band asked me to spread the word. "This is a one-off thing for us so we hope to get it out to as many people as possible within our limited timescale".

weird... i bought this album yesterday in a bargain bin for 1 euro..

i never bought it at the time, despite seeing them live at least once. My initial listen tells me the drum machines sound a little dated.

http://www.brooklynvegan.com/archives/2010/02/reformed_chapte.html

Chapterhouse play Japan in April before heading to America. May 3, 2010 show at the Bell House in Brooklyn is the only U.S. show announced so far but expect more cities soon.

the london show : 18th march @ the scala with engineers according to advert in new mojo.

I still haven't seen the reformed Chapterhouse. I'm kinda scared. I'm tempted by the Engineers support, but hasn't half the band quite/been sacked since the last show? (I know they seem to do this every few years off and on but still.)

From the official site:

2010 Shows

UK

18th March - Scala, London (with Engineers & Air Formation) **BUY TICKETS**

JAPAN

6th April - Ebisu Liquid Room, Tokyo, Japan (with Ulrich Schnauss)

8th April - Osaka, Japan (with Ulrich Schnauss)

9th April - Super Deluxe, Tokyo, Japan (with Ulrich Schnauss)

USA

1st May- Horseshoe Tavern, Toronto (with Ulrich Schnauss)

3rd May - The Bell House, Brooklyn, NY (with Ulrich Schnauss)

5th May - Lincoln Hall, Chicago (with Ulrich Schnauss)

6th May - Tractor Tavern, Seattle (with Ulrich Schnauss)

7th May - Troubadour, LA (with Ulrich Schnauss)

8th May - Mezzanine, San Francisco (with Ulrich Schnauss)

(The band have tried to fit as many US dates as possible into the limited time they have available & apologise that these dates are so few in number. Now the gigs are confirmed we hope that fans will make an effort to travel to their nearest show)

Whoa!

and SUPER DUPER UGH at the realization that I have three classes and two papers to hand in on May 3

I'm going to the London show on Thurs.

I don't know anything about the Engineers, but people seem to like them.

really intriguing band. i recently came across a song of theirs called 'come heaven'. it sounds like radiohead's 'street spirit' dragged through a storm cloud. obviously it's far more interesting as a result.

whirlpool is quite the loose canon. it comes stocked with a slew of curve balls and never quite snags a uniform feel or sound. i think it benefits as a result. while it borrows from other bands' sounds, it also defies the one-trick method, which was often applied in the shoegaze genre to stagnating effect. 'breather', for instance, fuses the flat-out verve and urgency of ride's best work with the languor of just for a day era slowdive, forging something quite unique in the process.

I wonder sometimes if they would have just been captured best live.

i think they have all the elements in place to be an exhilarating live band. i'm sorry i wasn't able to catch one of their shows last year.

i think this was the first thread i ever started on ILM

i love whirlpool. that's all. it all went wrong when the drummer mentioned that he had a song.

I wonder sometimes if they would have just been captured best live.

After seeing them last year, I would agree.

when the drummer mentioned that he had a song.

i hope you mean bates and not simon scott

I'm generally not too big on the Blood Music-era recordings either, but, echoing the sentiments of others, those songs sounded pretty terrific live iirc.

right well the version of Something More on the reissue isn't the one that was on the original CD/ tape. and it's not the ambient version, that's something else.

THIS version, is nowhere to be found

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vJghdFjk7g

W and indeed TF?

i guess the reissue switched the (Guthrie produced?) album version for the single mix which is this and which i'd NEVER heard until just now. 20 years after it came out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tpDpgiyzf4

they did a re-recording of pearl for a japan floods benefit album. it's serviceable

this album really needs to be polled

were it polled, pearl would surely win by a substantial margin.

Something More is the correct answer, tho

yeah.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-DkizO0o88

I played it many times over about a fortnight ago. It holds up marvellously if you like this kind of thing. In fact maybe it sounds better now than it did then?

i think this is the first thread i ever started on ILXor, did post in other already started threads before this one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OMoJl2Q41c

Chapterhouse - live at The Reading Festival, UK 23rd August 1991

i was there. memories are that the sound got blown around by the wind and it wasn't great. the t-shirts were though.

(can't find a picture. think classic motorhead tshirt but with the face of a kitten instead of the skull)

You can hear the sound moving around, period festival recordings off the floor are rarely good.

(the band before were nirvana, the band after were mudhoney, neither of which i remember)