isn't anything

My Bloody Valentine created a new musical genre with the dreamy art rock wall of sound of their seminal shoegazing debut.  Kevin Shields and Colm Ó Cíosóig had been playing music together since they were teenagers in Dublin.  They formed My Bloody Valentine with  David Conway in 1983 went through a series of lineup changes that included moving to London and bringing in bassist Debbie Googe.  Conway left in 1987 and they recruited  Bilinda Butcher to finalize their lineup.  At this point the group was having problems with their label Lazy Records and were offered a deal with Creation Records when label founder Alan McGee saw them at a show in Canterbury.  The band recorded their EP 'You Made Me Realise' in less than a week during which time they began to experiment with a style that favored sounds over songs.  

Googe recalls:    "It was largely down to Creation Records. Lazy were a bit more - I wouldn't say controlling but they had their own style if you like. I think it was easier to read the influences in much of our earlier recordings and then suddenly with 'You Made Me Realise' it goes 'Fuck that!' I'm always very loathe to talk about the band's sound because that really is Kevin's domain, but I think the fact we were given almost a free reign to do what we like gave us the impetus to try something different, and it just worked. I guess that's the most defining moment for me anyway... For me personally, the 'You Made Me Realise' EP changed everything for us as a band. It was the point where My Bloody Valentine became My Bloody Valentine, so it's always going to be very dear to my heart. There's something about that time and the making of that record where we suddenly evolved from being one thing into another. And I do love the songs as well."

The experimentation continued for the recording of their debut album 'Isn't Anything'  at Foel Studio in Llanfair Caereinion, and at Time Square Studios and Greenhouse Studio in London.  My Bloody Valentine produced the sessions themselves with engineers Dave Anderson, Steve Nunn, and Alex Russell.  The album features Kevin Shields and Bilinda Butcher on vocals and guitar; Debbie Googe on bass; and Colm Ó Cíosóig on drums and percussion.  

Butcher reveals:  "We recorded 'Isn’t Anything' really quickly in Wales...There was a feeling that we did something different. Kevin played his guitar in a different way but not only different tuning and the effects. He used the tremolo arm all the time. It started as experimenting but ended with most songs played like that. The sense of us doing something new was really strong."

Shields looks back on the process after working on the remasters:  "'Isn't Anything' came straight from analogue tape. During the cutting process I had a kind of remarkable experience listening to 'Isn't Anything'  front-to-back without stopping, which is how you have to do it when the actual record's being cut. A lot of memories came flooding back from the time of recording. A part of my brain, for lack of a better word, that made that record, there was a disconnect from the moment it was mastered and released. But hearing the true analogue, it was like when you smell something you haven't smelled since a child, it brought back memories and feelings together. Memories I hadn't thought about since I made the record. It was a time machine effect. My brain had stored these memories somewhere that could only be accessed by these analogue recordings. So I realized there really is a profound difference between analogue and digital. So I've become determined to let other people experience that too -- not that you're going to have my memories or anything like that. There's something fundamentally different about music that hasn't been digitized at any step along the way."

Butcher considers:    "It's funny because people have said there is a feminine sound to the music, but the music comes from Kevin. Obviously if I'm singing it's going to have a feminine touch to it, but quite often people mistake mine and Kevin's voices anyway … it's probably more androgynous than actually feminine."

Ó Cíosóig reflects:   "I think there are a lot of out-of-focus- qualities in some of our songs.  They aren't hard-edged or focused. A lot of sounds swirl about in them and it's easy to imagine things in them that aren't actually there." 

'Isn't Anything' went to sixty-one on the UK album chart, forty-nine in Ireland, twenty-nine in Japan, and number one on the UK independent album chart.  Shields says:   "The only thing we've definitely done on our own is having something aggressive and caustic but at the same time really liquid and fluid. It's always impossible to see yourself in other people. Most of the bands that are seen to be influenced by us, their strange sounds come from using lots of effects. There's no effect in existence you could plug into and have our sound, it's just the way we treat things, mainly the tremolo arm on our guitars … the way I think about sound is like a picture in my head, a textured picture. I'm thinking of writing them down some day."








http://www.mybloodyvalentine.org/










Cigarette in Your Bed

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P82V5TEEVWc









'Isn't Anything'
full album:


All tracks written by Kevin Shields unless otherwise noted. 

1. "Soft as Snow (But Warm Inside)"   Shields, Colm Ó Cíosóig 2:21
2. "Lose My Breath"   Bilinda Butcher, Shields 3:37
3. "Cupid Come"   Butcher, Shields 4:27
4. "(When You Wake) You're Still in a Dream"  Shields, Ó Cíosóig 3:16
5. "No More Sorry"   Butcher, Shields 2:48
6. "All I Need"   3:04
7. "Feed Me with Your Kiss"   3:54
8. "Sueisfine"   Shields, Ó Cíosóig 2:12
9. "Several Girls Galore"   Butcher, Shields 2:21
10. "You Never Should"   3:21
11. "Nothing Much to Lose"   3:16
12. "I Can See It (But I Can't Feel It)"   3:10