When Mineral disbanded following the completion of their second record, 'EndSerending,' many fans of their brand of plaintive and emotional rock were stunned and dismayed. In just a short time, Mineral had not only amassed a loyal following and had been courted by a number of major labels—even signing with Virgin but calling it quits before they could record anything—but they had also nearly changed their sound completely. Once a punk-laced energetic emo band like Sunny Day Real Estate, they were now fans of sprawling melodic structures with even more soaring vocals. Founding members Chris Simpson and Jeremy Gomez decided to continue making music together under the moniker The Gloria Record, and released several EPs and singles on Crank!. With this, their first full-length, the Gloria Record accomplishes the same growth in sound Mineral showed from their first LP to 'Endserenading.'
![](/brain/images/exhaustenregistreur.jpg)
samples:
![](/brain/images/mercuryprogramdata.jpg)
samples:
![](/common/images/covers/krank053.jpg)
samples:
Although 'This Night' features a number of solidly written songs, this extremely production-heavy album emphasizes its faux-velvet-bell-bottom-wearin'-chamber-pop sound so forcefully—to the point of being tedious—that even those who acclimate will probably remain disgruntled.
![](/brain/images/ruinstzomborhga.jpg)
samples:
![](/brain/images/spectrumgeracao.jpg)
samples:
![](/brain/images/replacementssorryma.jpg)
![](/brain/images/replacementsstink.jpg)
![](/brain/images/replacementshootenanny.jpg)
"Hootenanny" is where their sound really took off, with most of the hard, angry energy missing in favor of earnest songwriting. There are still some quickies, but with tracks like 'Willpower' and 'Within Your Reach' the band was starting to show potential. Westerberg's lyrics were improving, the band was getting tighter, and you can really hear that this was what they wanted more than anything. Which leads to "Let It Be".
![](/brain/images/replacementsletitbe.jpg)
samples:
![](/brain/images/inthenurserycause.jpg)
Remix participants were all invited by ITN, themselves. Most of the artists are of a younger generation (Flesh Field, Assemblage 23, Ivan Lusco, Haujobb, Seize, Faith & The Muse, Chandeen, Steve Bennet, Electronicum, and A_Robot) while only two are fellow contemporaries (And Also The Trees and Attrition). These aren't very obvious choices at first glance but all of them treated the original songs in a very careful and respectful manner. The beats are most obviously reworked in almost all cases. Flesh Field's Ian Ross lays a driving beat under "A Rebours (Against Nature)" as does Ivan Lusco on "El Secreto (It)," while Assemblage 23 get a bit housey. Justin Jones from AATT replaces haunting electronic sequences with his own trademark guitar style on "Corruption (Sister And Brother)." A_Robot and Faith & The Muse add their own voices to their contributions but keep conservatively close to the original In The Nursery style. Attrition's pick of the secret hymn, "To The Faithful," is characteristic for their dramatic style and with their version, "To The Faithful (In Remembrance)," they nearly take the greatest side-step from remix to re-interpretation, only outmatched by the final drum and bass dancefloor mix of "Caprice (Levity)" by Seize.
Nearly all of the tracks (with only one exception, "And Your Eyes") were selected from recent albums, from 1990's 'L'Esprit' through last years 'Engel,' thus excluding their 1980s work. As bonus, however (and maybe a reference to their own starting point), ITN include their interpretation of "Love Will Tear Us Apart," produced with a similar aesthetic as the rest of the disc's remixes and featuring a live drummer and professional oboe player.
The fact that 'Cause + Effect' can stand up to the beautiful standards of nearly all ITN output makes this remix project a great success.
samples:
On 'Kicker in Tow,' Hangedup explore territory stylistically similar to their excellent self-titled debut, but the viola and percussion duo is even more finely tuned and powerfully compelling this time, making this a wonderful album. They play repetitive but lively rock music with clear minimalism and folk influences, and the nine songs on this record are a blend of well-executed improvised and composed pieces.
![](/brain/images/hrvatskiswarm.jpg)
samples:
Right off the bat I want to get something off my chest: had I not been familiar with Whitman's work as Hrvatski nor trusting of the label Kranky, I would have been completely thrown off by the clinicization of music by the words "laptop," "ring modulators," "granular re-synthesis algorithms," "drone," "academic," and (especially) "Terry Riley" in the description on the web site. Seeing something like this is almost remeniscent of the magic of fucking nearly ruined by the overexplaination by a creepy teacher in a high school sex ed class. That said, the music on KFW's debut is alarmingly attention-commanding for a beat-less, lyric-free excursion.
![](/brain/images/kinskitourep.jpg)
samples:
![](/brain/images/traumschmiereanti.jpg)
samples:
![](/brain/images/kgoldfish.jpg)
samples:
![](/brain/images/boombipseed.jpg)
samples:
![](/brain/images/cometsfieldrecordings.jpg)
![](/brain/images/guitarsunkissed.jpg)
samples:
![](/brain/images/monosnightfall.jpg)
samples:
I know what you're thinking, "Didn't EMI already release The Original Sound of Sheffield last year?" Yes, they did, and, in fact, their Cabaret Voltaire collections (including the 'Conform to Deform' box and 'Remixed' CD) contained a plethora of material previously unavailable on compact disc. This collection, despite the subject being dear and close to my heart, contains no music previously (or currently) unavailable. The timespan focuses in on the most essential songs from the pre-Some Bizzare/Virgin days when the Cabs were still a three-piece. To Mute's credit, this serves as a great documentary of how they evolved, chronologically, from their tape-noise punk days (with classic single tracks like "Nag Nag Nag" and popular album favorites like "No Escape" through the more structured beat material (with the timeless "Yashar" which still gives me chills) which led up to the Virgin trilogy.