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11 July 2012

Our music aficionado Andrew Reinholds takes us through the intricacies of My Bloody Valentine in his latest review.

My Bloody Valentine’s place in music’s pantheon was secured with the release of 1991’s infamous and incomparable Loveless album that all but bankrupted Creation Records and ultimately ended the band’s association with the label.

EPs and Rarities 1988-1991 brings together for the first time the three Creation Records EPs (‘You Made Me Realise, ‘Glider’ and Tremolo along with single ‘Feed Me With Your Kiss’) and works as a wonderful document that charts the journey from their brilliant debut album Isn’t Anything to the aforementioned ‘Loveless’.

The collection also includes seven unreleased tracks which balance the original releases and allow the twenty four song collection to comfortably stretch out across two CDs worth of material.

Of everything here, it is ‘You Made Me Realise’ that stands head and shoulders above everything, and these five tracks alone could arguably have cemented My Bloody Valentine’s standing amongst the true giants of the last twenty years of modern music. Fusing together influences such as Jesus and Mary Chain, Dinosaur Jr and Sonic Youth the EP emerged from nowhere and completely turned the sound of their more traditional acoustic rockers on its head and was ultimately the spark that would lead them to the nirvana that was ‘Loveless’.

The follow up single ‘Feed Me With Your Kiss’ is merely an extension of this new sound, but tucked away on the B-side is the softer ‘I Believe’ and the decidedly experimental ‘Emptiness Inside’ that both hinted at the bands next metamorphosis which would be extended with the release of the ‘Glider’ EP. Here it is the majesty of ‘Soon’ with its trip-hop rhythms, layers of shoegazing guitars and breathless vocals that was further evidence to the bands rapid evolution.

CD 2 introduces the dream-like trance ‘Tremolo’ which in effect is the companion to ‘Loveless’ that is about as far away from ‘You Made Me Realise’ as one can get. After there are the unreleased and rarities that contain the odd gem, most noticeably ‘Sugar’ which combines a heavy acoustic guitar hook with a decidedly tetchy drum machine stutter to become a thing of quite warped beauty.

EPs and Rarities is a perfect place for anyone who is unfamiliar with My Bloody Valentine to start. For those who perhaps only have the albums, the collection will more clearly explain the quantum leap the band made in just four spellbinding years.

Seminal.