Artist: Alison’s Halo
Album: Eyedazzler [reissue]
Label: Manufactured Recordings
Release date: May 19, 2017
Reviewed by Jake Folsom
Like any respectable literature, I’m going to throw too many names at you.
Back in early April, a friend shared with me a press release that Manufactured Recordings would be reissuing a trio of classic, overlooked shoegaze records: KG’s Come Closer, We’re Cool, Alison’s Halo’s Eyedazzler and Bethany Curve’s Mee-Eaux. I was vaguely familiar with Bethany Curve, but had never heard of the other two. Considering my friend’s excitement over Alison’s Halo getting a vinyl reissue (and a double-LP treatment at that), I took a dive into the album and their available recordings scattered across the internet.
In their time, Alison’s Halo only released on 7” single and this record, yet they toured with heavy-hitters of the underground shoegaze scene including Medicine, Curve and the Verve. Eyedazzler is a retrospective collection of the band’s music from 1992-1996. The record saw a CD-only release in 1998, and has now been re-released digitally, on a limited-run CD, and as a double-LP vinyl reissue. This record holds its own, using very classic song structures from the ethereal 90s and pumping them through delay and distortion to create a beautiful wall of sound, which sits upon Catherine Cooper’s subdued but definitive vocals. This album deserves its place in shoegaze royalty.
I now consider it one of my favorite records ever, and Manufactured Recordings has taken great care to package this record into something worth tucking-in at night. I recommend this record for warm, wet days inside.
Favorite track: Snowbleed
get the record at www.alisonshalo.com
check out the full roster for the Shoegaze Archives project at discogs
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