This reissue by a Canadian trio was originally released in the early ‘90s and might have been a blockbuster but was not.
Jonathan Simkin, founder of 604 Records, is responsible for reviving memories of the record as part of what he recalls as being a vibrant alternative music scene in Vancouver.
Singer-guitarist Alan D. Boyd started working with drummer Justin Leig after bonding over British bands like The Stone Roses and Slowdive,
The pair recruited bassist John Ounpuu and Movieland was born. Their sound was rooted in 12-string jangle and distortion and fuelled by psychedelic drugs.
When Ounpuu and Leigh left to form a pop quartet Pluto, Boyd called upon bassist Cam Cunningham and drummer Clancy Denehy to record two final tracks: Build Me A Dream and
She's A Mountain both of which are very much in the vein of My Bloody Valentine.
Like those tracks, the sound of the album as a whole is highly derivative. There are shades of Bauhaus and even The Stooges on the slow-burning Everything but any Gothic/pre-Punk overtones soon fade over the repeated “I want you” line.
|
I Relate is like a weak Stone Roses cover but the wall of noise of (A Sort of ) Icarus is better executed and makes this the standout track.
By 1994, Movieland was a spent force. Boyd left British Columbia and eventually settled in the UK. He recalls that “Playing that kind of angsty, self-referential music in the ‘90s—when next door the grunge scene is happening—felt very different. Very exposed.”
Beyond the obvious nostalgia value to those Shoegaze fans who were there at the time it’s hard to see this record making any serious waves.
Listen to the album on Bandcamp
|
