pale saints guitar sound/tone

drinking again tonight and went off on the drumming yet again but the Pale Saints are all about the guitar sound.

Fantastic band, really liked that Dum Dum Girls cover. Ian Masters post-Pale Saints work is well worth your time as well.

Time Thief is one of my favourite shoegaze songs. Pale Saints should do a reunion tour every other shoegaze band has by now. See See Rider can support them

Relistening to Comforts of Madness tonight for the first time in ages. It's brilliant.

Seems like a band that has faded away for anyone who wasn't there. A lack of reissues is probably part of the reason.

I see a lot of movies, and read a ton of books, that I really like, but can't remember a single thing about them a month later. I wished it worked this way with music, and Comforts of Madness is one of those records I'd like to forget about, so I can enjoy hearing it anew every so often.

I rocked Mrs. Dolphin yesterday. I play that one maybe once every 3 months or so, without fail.

In Ribbons is positively classic 90s dreamy British rock. I want to say Hugh Jones is a huge part of the thick guitar sound there. Comforts sounds so thin to me, not a big fan really

"Hunted" is my favorite. So so great.

Comforts of Madness is easily my favorite non-MBV shoegaze album. It's so propulsive and varied (Opal cover! Cat cover star sample at the end). Its only flaw is that the re-recorded "Sight of You" is slightly inferior to the raw-er sounding EP version. Ironically the lusher EP version of "Baby Maker" is far superior to the In Ribbons version which sounds like a demo. I'm actually not a fan of that album at all. It just makes me want to put on the earlier stuff.

I'm with you, Spencer

I bought In Ribbons and remember being slightly disappointed by it at the time, but now I can’t really remember much about the tracks on it that hadn’t already come out on EPs. Throwing Back The Apple was good and there was one with Meriel singing something like ‘between the (?) you should hold someone’ but everything else has been wiped from my memory. Whereas I remember every detail of Comforts of Madness.

I discovered them via Throw Back the Apple (from 120 minutes play I guess). Got the album and felt massively disappointed. Didn’t bother with them after that until 10 years ago or so. I’ve liked the stuff I heard since but I guess I would need to read up on them to better understand their discography

i love in ribbons so much. it is divine, an album without fault and quite varied. that misty shoegazing sound will always remind me of my late youth (late twenties). maybe it helped that i was there.

i never got into comfort of madness. which i heard about at least 20 years later.

people talking abut the Pail Saints makes me happy, i had the chance to see them two times.

1. The Comforts of Madness
2. Mrs. Dolphin
3. In Ribbons
4. Kinky Love EP
5. Slow Buildings

tho at the time i still believed in Slow Buildings. it really was a let down after Ian Masters left the band however.

Stupid auto correct Pale...

The Comfort of Madness is their master piece. Might rank it

...above Giant Steps

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Comforts-Madness-30th-Anniversary-Remaster/dp/B07ZW8VWS5/

woo!

excellent, they could do with a comprehensive singles comp too

Such a great album. I was pretty disappointed with everything else that came after, it was probably down to the Hugh Jones production. He seemed to have a knack for softening the rough (interesting) edges of a lot of 4AD and 4AD-like bands (see also Heidi Berry, Ultra Vivid Scene, Kitchens of Distinction, Frazier Chorus) of that era.

Hugh Jones did In Ribbons too!
i've said my peace (piece?) re comforts of madness

That's what made me think of him! Just more a fan of the rough edges, I suppose. Not in general but def as far as the 4AD sound goes...

In Ribbons sounds pretty great right now. I thought it slightly tepid at the time, but like it a more with the passage of years. I marginally prefer "Babymaker" here, I think, though that EP might even be their high-water mark overall.

Speaking of which, I notice 4AD has recently uploaded this nauseating video at better resolution than I've seen it before. Bless.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HU39Gu4lX_0

demos sound pretty tight, like they'd been practicing them a while. and they have starts and ends, unlike the lp versions.

that second side, from language of flowers to the end, is still quite a rush.

nothing new-new though, no new songs. and i'd've liked the diamonds and porcupines version of Sight of You on there somewhere.

The Peel sessions are good to hear, too.

Is it me or is this running ink-jet missing cat notice reminiscent of something?

https://imgur.com/qO7EEdU

7.6 on Pitchfork today is the funniest thing they've done since 8.8 for Cosmo's Factory.

Because it's too high or too low?

Too low. For my money, they're both classics and should be in the high 9s (probably 10 for Cosmo's). I hate the whole rating system anyway, though, for exactly this reason - it puts a somewhat arbitrary number on a highly personal experience.

i heard the "Sight of You" last night for the first time in may, many years. it sounded so wonderful. i think it's time to listen to The Comforts of Madness again. love this band to death!

so i had to listen, this is one of the great albums, "Insubstantial" is blowing my mind all over again and remembering why this band was so good and criminally underrated.

i had such a good time listening to this album again. i know this band is all about the shoegaze guitar sound but the drummer they had is so good. it's under all the textures of the music but man is he great. such an amazing band and made my night after a fucked day.

What Can I Do?
What Can I say?
The World Was Large
And I felt Very Small

the reissue is pretty nice, the remaster sounds good... louder, but not brickwalled, works pretty well for their sound

Yep. I bought it and I must have listened to this album more times in the last couple of weeks than at any time since 1990. Love it. 'You Tear The World In Two' is my favourite. The second CD is interesting as the songs hadn't been completely worked out at that point so there are things that just seem 'wrong' (e.g. the riff that opens 'Insubstantial' isn't there, or the clanging guitar sound at the start of each verse of 'Time Thief' is just one note instead of two. Plus Ian Masters' vocals sound much weaker without the reverb and harmonies.

I will never get over how underrated in ribbons is, I really don’t understand it. It’s absolutely perfect. Please don’t say any mean things about it.

The Spoonfed Hybrid album sounding magnificent tonight. Grim but partly prompted by reading "Boys In Zinc".

So Ian's newest collaboration Isolated Gate has a full new album out and it's lovely!

https://isolatedgate.bandcamp.com/album/universe-in-reverse

Now that's an intense illustration

what's that, my favourite LP out on my birthday?

Pale Saints - In Ribbons 30th Anniversary Expanded Edition
4AD0407

Disc 1: In Ribbons UK Version
Disc 2: Unreleased Demos & Tintwistle Brass Band Covers

Out 6 October 🎀

〰️ https://t.co/8Ea46QtIKx pic.twitter.com/L2pPCHMrqu

— 4AD (@4AD_Official) August 30, 2023

Nice!

Bandcamp preorder link (Bandcamp Friday is about here!)

https://palesaints.bandcamp.com/album/in-ribbons-30th-anniversary-reissue

I think those Tintwistle Brass Band tracks came as a 7 inch with the album when it first came out, I know I had them

They very much did.

Per Discogs: "recorded at Claptons Club, Tinwistle, 23rd February 1992."

oh wow, so happy to see this!

Oh my God, In Ribbons got a 30th year reissue today!:

https://4ad.com/news/30/8/2023/inribbons30thanniversaryreissue

I should have polled it

now it will get on all the playlists and tv shows <3

These demos are pretty interesting. Always thought this record sounded a fraction too neat and laboured over. (But I always say that sort of thing lol. Not about to claim these are the definitive renditions or anything challopsy like that.)

It feels like they’re trying a bit too hard to be funny, but at the time I think I liked it.

kind surprised that it's ian interviewing there, i had him down as some kind of recluse (even though he's been in more post pale saints bands than the others probably by a factor of 5)

Ian’s EP Kingdom of Heaven (with Warren Defever under their old ESP Summer name) from a couple of years ago is astonishing. Especially for fans of Pale Saints, if you like to play those “what if Ian stayed for the third album” games

Also, the only time I heard of Isolated Gate anywhere (and their stuff is excellent) is on this board, from Ned; not a word anywhere else, not even a side note during press for In Ribbons reissue. No wonder Ian is pissed off about that in the article.

♥️

time to hit Bandcamp while I still can

Side note: does anyone remember the Institute of Spoons website from ~20 years ago which used to load with an audio file of Ian announcing the name?

that was mostly a Friendly Science website iirc, which seemed to be a label designed to confuse

i mean in that interview Ian complains of things getting boring but if his idea of the alternative to that is this then...

https://www.discogs.com/release/925170-Various-The-Winner-Is-The-Loser

Thanks for sharing that Paste interview! It answered some questions that I had - primarily, why the studio version of "Blue Flower" wasn't on the 30th anniv edition (which was originally a bonus track for the U.S. release). I didn't know Ian didn't want it on the album and didn't think it was that good (I like it - and the Slapp Happy original and the Mazzy Star cover too). I got the CD version of the 30th anniv edition and was frankly a little baffled, thinking "there is plenty of space on the CDs for more bonus tracks!" So that's addressed in the interview:

Paste: Is that part of the reason that that song and the other b-side from the “Throwing Back The Apple” single didn’t get included in this reissue?

Ian: I think it was more or less a decision to try and keep to the tracks that were on the original LP, demos of those and the brass band recordings because it would have been too expensive to have a double LP plus 7”. Those may get put on another compilation at some point.

Having the non-demo version of "Kinky Love" would have been nice, too - but if they end up putting out another compilation, as Ian mentions, that's cool too.

I also wish the 30th anniv edition booklet had a little more effort go into it - at least, more than just a few (small) photos and three quotes from band members.

Spoonfed Hybrid album being re-released for Record Store Day with album of demo versions.

Gonna have to dig out Hibernation Shock this weekend. Found it in a used bin a few years back and have only listened to it once, I think.

Enjoy!

Rotten news -- Graeme Naysmith has passed:

RIP! The other day I was just lolling at a silly picture of him someone posted on ig.