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

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