After a missed Saturday post for this series because… well… while I heard music I liked with the focus I had, I haven’t heard anything that really grabbed me. Yesterday’s post with the Mission as a focus was an attempt to try to get back on track with the nominal excuse that I was inspired in ways by their music and (largely) deeper cuts.
As I feared, the synthwave/darkwave/coldwave/postpunk exploration did quickly become very “samey” as I listened. There were decent bands, but few that I didn’t already know that really captured my attention. And there were even fewer that didn’t employ English as their language of choice. So, I decided to course correct and go into this labyrinth based more on whim than on algorithmic curation.
Peripherally related to the Mission is a “supergroup” of old school musicians with the same subcultural roots. Peers of the band from several 80s-era bands decided to get together and record, mostly for fun, calling themselves The Eden House. Organized by Stephen Carey (of This Burning Effigy and Adoration), he is joined by names such as Tony Pettitt (Fields of the Nephilim), Monica Richards (Faith and Muse), Julianne Regan (All About Eve), Simon Hinkler (The Mission) and…. the list goes on, depending on the song and album. In many ways, it emulates This Mortal Coil in terms of being a collective of musicians, rather than a fixed band.
I chose Neversea for this post because it ties in well with the Mission in that Simon Hinkler, the lead guitarist in the early Mission days, plays guitar on this track. You can definitely hear his “sound”, as some of the riffs feel very close to those used from Tower of Strength — it is his lead guitar style that was part of what I liked about the Mission’s sound and probably explains why I started losing my interest in the band after he left under acrimonious circumstances (I marshaled on for a few albums, but the sound was never the same after he left and got, well… silly at times).
Valenteen is the singer for this song. I can’t place who she reminds me of, but her sound is familiar all the same.
While their overall sound is rooted in that 80s goth/post-goth sound, The Eden House have borrowed from the lush sounds of shoegaze to get a really “big” sound without the sometimes “mumbly” vocals of bands from that era that can be so cryptic as to be another language entirely — sorry, Cocteaus… but I can’t understand a word at times. Love you!
I also encourage you to check out Misery, which also features Simon on guitar, but with a change in vocalist to Louise Crane, who has connections to Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull fame. I promise… As tempting as it is to go towards Jethro after this post, I am looking for “new to me” music, not to revisit old music I like. So, a new seed, with manual discovery by replacing Kælan Mikla and starting new with The Eden House.
As always, your comments are welcome below.
13 responses to “Towards the Within: Neversea”
We’ve chatted before about Eden House, I know, and I do like much of what they have done. Certainly ‘Smoke & Mirrors’ ranks highly in my list of all time favourite albums.
Interesting change of tack…what next, I wonder?
I knew you’d approve.
I’m not sure what will pop up. I’m toying with https://www.music-map.com/ but that seems to have an odd algorithm. Interesting stuff, but I’m not always clear how things relate. Black magic, if you ask me. Still, I’m almost certain to find something new through that tool.
I’ve not played with that, although I have had a spin with the literature equivalent. Interesting, but you do wonder on the criteria used to link books (and indeed music).
It seems like a principal components analysis diagram without the eigenvectors drawn. If that sounds like mumbojumbo, it mostly is except for us weirdo multivariate stats lovers. As you said, however, I wonder what the criteria is and who assigns it.
Another excellent song. Thanks for curating and sending this out there.
I think of these posts as my neverending mixtape. Not everything will grab everyone, but maybe enough grab folks that they find something new.
I miss those mixtape days, strangely enough. It seemed like I was always making one for someone either by request or “just because”. I rarely got to tell some of these stories, though.
Putting those mix tapes together took time and effort. And a tape you had to purchase. I miss them too. It’s nice to have spotify or something like that. But can’t beat those tangible mix tapes.
Exactly. Always a joy to be on the receiving end and even better when gifting and they were received well. Spotify isn’t the same because it isn’t someone who knows you or wants to get to know you. 😂
I agree. There was something special about receiving a mix tape. You knew a lot of effort went into it.
Sort of like This Mortal Coil leads to Kangaroo leads to Big Star leads to Alex Chilton leads to the Replacements leads to Jeff Buckley leads to Leonard Cohen leads to the Box Tops? I think you have to be human to make those connections, but man it’s fun.😉
Very much like that when I pulled them together, tuned to the person receiving. They never knew quite they were getting from me in the goulash, most of the bands were not well known beyond something you saw scrawled on someone’s army fatigues in those fat black markers before Sharpies took off. And most of the time, my friends had never seen the band’s name anywhere.
I tended to collect a lot of music that was very fringe (Fools Dance? The Essence? Skullfck? Foetus? Who are these guys?). I tended to try to keep it on the side of what I thought the recipient would like, but just out there enough to make them wonder if that was the extreme of if there might be something *just beyond that place.
It’s a shame we depend on algorithms for this stuff now-it’s just not the same as a friend saying “hey, check this out!”
Well…. here you go! Check this out 🙂