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Blue Skied An' Clear | |
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Studio album by Various Artists on Morr Music | |
Released | 2002 |
Genre | Indietronica |
Length | 132:13 |
Label | Morr |
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [1] |
Pitchfork | 7.3/10 [2] |
Stylus | B [3] |
Blue Skied an' Clear is a two-disc compilation, featuring various artists from Morr Music covering songs from the shoegazer band Slowdive on the first disc and composing songs "inspired" by Slowdive on the second disc. It was released in 2002 by Morr Music, and was the label's 30th release. In addition to serving as a showcase of the Morr Music roster, this release serves as a testament to the resurgence or revival of the shoegazing sound in this particular realm of electronica or IDM.
Whereas the initial wave of shoegazer rock had fuzzed out guitars (via distortion from effects pedals) as a central characteristic, the artists on this release combine that with (or abandon it for) glitchy beats, synth tones, and digital signal processing effects. On this release, and with this indietronica style of music in general, musicians composing with software housed in laptop computers often replace the conventional rock band formula. Being composed of Slowdive covers, the first disc has substantially more vocals than the second disc, which is more in line with the modus operandi of electronica or indietronica artists, generally speaking.
The title of this compilation is taken from a track on Slowdive's third album, Pygmalion. This track was covered by Manual.
Tangerine Dream is a German electronic music band founded in 1967 by Edgar Froese. The group has seen many personnel changes over the years, with Froese the only constant member until his death in January 2015. The best-known lineup of the group was its mid-1970s trio of Froese, Christopher Franke, and Peter Baumann. In 1979, Johannes Schmoelling replaced Baumann until his own departure in 1985. This lineup was notable for composing many movie soundtracks. Since Froese's death in 2015, the group has been under the leadership of Thorsten Quaeschning. Quaeschning is Froese's chosen successor and is currently the longest-serving band member, having joined in 2005. Quaeschning is currently joined by violinist Hoshiko Yamane who joined in 2011 and Paul Frick who joined in 2020. Prior to this Quaeschning and Yamane performed with Ulrich Schnauss from 2014 to 2020. Schnauss only played two shows with Froese in November 2014 before Froese's passing.
Shoegaze is a subgenre of indie and alternative rock characterized by its ethereal mixture of obscured vocals, guitar distortion and effects, feedback, and overwhelming volume. It emerged in Ireland and the United Kingdom in the late 1980s among neo-psychedelic groups who usually stood motionless during live performances in a detached, non-confrontational state. The name comes from the heavy use of effects pedals, as the performers were often looking down at their pedals during concerts.
Chapterhouse were a British shoegaze band from Reading, Berkshire, England. Formed in 1987 by Andrew Sherriff, Stephen Patman and Simon Rowe, the band began performing alongside Spacemen 3. They released two albums: Whirlpool (1991) and Blood Music (1993). The group temporarily reformed in 2008 after being asked to join Ulrich Schnauss onstage to perform his cover version of their song "Love Forever" at the Truck Festival in Oxfordshire. The band finished the brief reunion with two gigs in London (2009–2010) and tours in North America and Japan in 2010.
Ulrich Schnauss is a German electronic musician and producer based in London, England. He was a member of Tangerine Dream from 2014 to 2020.
Jesu are a British experimental metal band formed in 2003 by Justin Broadrick following the breakup of his band Godflesh. It shares its name with the last song on Hymns, the final album of Godflesh's initial run. Jesu's sound is heavily layered and textured, incorporating a diverse mix of influences. Broadrick himself has stated that "...it's very loosely speaking pop/rock/metal/electronica ... I'm intentionally writing what I consider to be coherent 'pop' songs".
Morr Music is an independent record label based in Berlin, Germany, founded in 1999 by Thomas Morr. Most artists on the label fall into the categories of intelligent dance music, electronica and dreampop, but all reflect Thomas Morr's personal taste. This results in a cohesive aesthetic observable in both the aural and visual elements of the label's releases.
Rachel Ann Goswell is an English singer-songwriter and musician who rose to prominence as vocalist and guitarist of the shoegaze band Slowdive, which formed in 1989. Goswell, along with Neil Halstead, Ian McCutcheon and former Chapterhouse member Simon Rowe became Mojave 3 when Slowdive transitioned to a more country/folk rock style. She released a solo album in 2004, titled Waves Are Universal on 4AD Records.
Please Smile My Noise Bleed is an album by the Icelandic group múm. It was released on the Morr Music label in 2001.
Jerome Froese is a German musician who, in 1990, officially joined his father Edgar Froese in the band Tangerine Dream. He remained a member until 2006. Prior to his direct involvement in Tangerine Dream, Froese often appeared on the covers of the band's albums as a child, beginning with the 1973 release of Atem, when he was two years four months old at the time the album was released.
Manual is the performing name of electronic musician Jonas Munk Jensen,, from Odense, Denmark. He makes music in the style of ambient dream pop and indietronica. His sound tends to contain a mix of software synthesizers, guitars, and various digital signal processing effects. Mixing elements of idm, glitch, and indie music, Manual is compared to artists ranging from IDM artists, such as Boards of Canada, as well as shoegazer groups like Blonde Redhead. Munk's output as Manual is strongly associated with the aesthetic of Morr Music, the label that released his first two albums. He also is featured on the Morr Music compilation Blue Skied an' Clear, which was a Slowdive tribute.
As Friends Rust / Discount is a split extended play by Gainesville, Florida-based melodic hardcore band As Friends Rust and Vero Beach, Florida-based punk rock band Discount. It was released by Belgian record label Good Life Recordings in December 1998 on compact disc and 7" vinyl. In promotion of the release, As Friends Rust and Discount embarked on a six-week European and United Kingdom tour, from December 1998 to January 1999, accompanied by Swedish hardcore group Purusam. The European tour included a stop to play at the Good Life Winter Festival, in Kortrijk, Belgium.
Global Underground 030: Paris is a DJ mix album in the Global Underground series, compiled and mixed by DJ and producer Nick Warren, which was inspired by his performance at the Mix Club in Paris, on 14 October 2006. The album is Warren's seventh release in the Global Underground series.
The Same Channel is a collaborative studio album by American musician Fat Jon and Belgian musician Styrofoam. It was released on Morr Music in 2006.
Sennen are an English alternative rock band from London. Formed in Norwich, England, in 2002, the current line-up consists of Larry Holmes, Rich Kelleway, James Brown and Tim Kelleway (bass). The band's uncorrupted, oddly schizophrenic style has won them a loyal following across the world, and seen their music appear on hit US TV dramas such as True Blood and One Tree Hill. The band are named after the Ride song "Sennen", originally released on the Today Forever EP.
An Evening with The Kingston Trio is a live album by the American folk music group the Kingston Trio, recorded in 1962 and released in 1994. At the time of the performance, the group consisted of Bob Shane, Nick Reynolds, and John Stewart.
These Hopeful Machines is the sixth studio album by American electronic musician BT. Released on February 1, 2010, the album sees collaborations with the likes of JES, Rob Dickinson, Christian Burns and Kirsty Hawkshaw, also featuring a cover of "The Ghost in You" by The Psychedelic Furs. Because some tracks exceed 10 minutes in length, the album spans two discs with six tracks on each. In an effort to make the album more accessible to casual listeners, the record was eventually re-issued as a single-disc version with shorter tracks, titled These Humble Machines. In addition, the album would later spawn a double disc remix edition titled These Re-Imagined Machines, also featured as a "Limited Collector's Edition Box Set". With great reception from critics, the album was nominated for the 2011 Grammy Awards under Best Electronic/Dance Album.
Insides is the third studio album by English musician and producer Jon Hopkins. Released on 5 May 2009, it reached No. 15 on the Billboard Dance/Electronic Album Chart in 2009. PopMatters listed the album as one of the top ten electronic albums of 2009.
Misty Medley is the second full-length album by the Montreal indie rock band Kiss Me Deadly, released in October 2005 by Alien8 Recordings. Working with The Besnard Lakes' Jace Lasek, the band included reworked versions of the four songs on their 2005 EP Amoureux Cosmiques that featured "breathy vocals, saturated pop tones and melodies motorized by punk", according to The Montreal Mirror. Misty Medley spent several weeks on the Canadian "National Campus Top 50 Chart" published by ChartAttack, debuting at #25. The band toured the U.S. the following year in support of the album, alongside Voxtrot and We Are Wolves. Critics particularly noted the four aptly-named "Dance" tracks, with "Dance 1" and "Dance 4" also proving to be the most popular with listeners.
Guido Dessauer was a German physicist, pioneer in paper engineering, business executive, writer, art collector, patron of the arts, and academic. Born into a family of paper industrialists, he worked as an aerospace engineer during World War II and was an executive of the family's coloured paper factory in Aschaffenburg from 1945. He was an honorary citizen of Austria for saving 300 jobs in Styria in the 1960s. He earned a Ph.D. from the Graz University of Technology in his late 50s and became an honorary professor there. Interested in art, he collected bozzetti for 50 years and initiated the career of Horst Janssen as a lithographer.
"Ribs" is a song by New Zealand singer-songwriter Lorde, from her debut studio album Pure Heroine (2013). Universal Music Group (UMG) released it as a promotional single on 30 September 2013. Written and produced by Lorde and Joel Little, "Ribs" is an electronica, indietronica and electropop song discussing Lorde's stress over ageing.