shoegazer

Thursday i was down to meet Mat around Old Street for a beer. In smallfish first, Jeremy who always has the ace shoegaze and indie recommendations turned me onto three new re-issues..

All Natural Lemon And Lime Flavors - 'Turning Into Small' and 'Straight Blue Line' and The Orchids - 'Striving For The Lazy Perfection' originally released on Sarah Records.

Both All Natural Lemon And Lime Flavors records are amazing, complete My Bloody Valentine rip-offs, but done soooo well, they're just perfect; Big shimmering hazes of sound, ethereal vocals floating atop, layer upon layer of dense guitar enveloping you in a warm glow akin to Readybrek. I kid you not, standing at the cold railway station at 8 in the morning, with these albums on the ipod, you'd be content to stand there for hours, no matter how late the train, no matter how annoying the digitized female announcer telling you how late your train is, or how bad the weather gets!

Theres a track for download at:
http://www.southern.com/southern/band/LIME0/sounds/in_between_and_after.mp2

I had bought the other Orchids reissue a few months back, 'Lyceum And Single', which i actually wasn't too into, it was just a bit too soft for my own liking. However, Jeremy recommend that i still pick up this 'Striving For The Lazy Perfection', which i think he said was their last album, and he described as the band having moved on from a second rate Felt imitation band, to a more developed almost New Order-ish sound, which still didnt make me too excited, but Jeremy's never given me a bad recommendation yet, so i went for it. I haven't heard too much, as i've been lost in both these All Natural Lemon And Lime Flavors records, but have made it through a few times, and I'm really enjoying it, especially the title track which sounds sorta early ninties cheesy jangly indie ala Soup Dragons or Primal Scream, and the stand-out track that Jeremy pointed me too, called 'Thaumaturgy'.

Can't find any online downloads for The Orchids, but theres a good fan site over at: http://xoomer.virgilio.it/the.orchids.unofficially/