Goodbye, good night, good morning
After updating the “Hibernation” page just now (and don’t forget to check that page for daily mp3s posted there), I got to thinking how the music of Ulrich Schnauss works both for going to sleep at night and getting up in the morning. Even a half-hearted follower of Subanimal Sounds can see that I’m a shoegaze junkie, and Ulrich Schnauss satisfies this fix enormously. Huge cavern swells, bigger than Slowdive. But he does it all hunched over a laptop. No guitars. Jay, if you’re out there, do you remember when we saw him down near the World Financial Center? Thoughts?
Ulrich Schnauss: Stars
Ulrich Schnauss: Gone Forever (Robin Guthrie Version)
Hey Pete,
I do indeed remember seeing Ulrich Schnauss there last June in the Winter Garden. It was like a post-civilization moment, right as the banks knew things were collapsing but no one else did. Well, maybe Eliot Spitzer knew all along.
Looks like the link to Gone should be this.
It’s interesting that laptops took over from the pedals as sound-generating machines, no? Or is pedal steel really the original shoegaze instrument? Deep Blue Day even uses it….
Funny I’ve been meaning to ask where you fall on Schnauss, I don’t think we’ve ever discussed him. I should have known, fellow shoegaze junkie that I am. I do find that I prefer to get my fix from current artists that put a twist on it, like US, rather than from the often-too-faithful nugazers (I think Asobi Seksu is guilty of this sometimes).
Good call on Stars, my favorite from that album. A Strangely Isolated Place is still the clear high water mark for me. Tough to pick a fave on that one but I’ll have to go with A Letter Home…very long and slow to develop but it’s all worth it when the distorted electric piano comes at the end, simple melody that it is, still perfect. Knuddelmaus from Far Away Trains Passing By is brilliant too of course.