(2016) The Emerald Down – Scream the Sound (2001, Reisuue)


Review:
…For The Emerald Down, releasing a shoegaze-influenced album in 2001 at the height of that genre’s uncoolness, on a small label, while living in the American midwest, their wish was a little more impossible than most. And sure enough, Scream the Sound disappeared without a trace when it came out. But it never went away. Not really. The album became the subject of blogs, of illegal downloads, of years-after-the-fact interviews. In short, Scream The Sound became part of the shoegaze canon.
Now, 15 years later, Saint Marie Records makes the world whole again with the re-release of a lost classic. Scream the Sound combines the sonic chainsaw of peak-era Curve with the dreamy mechanics of Cocteau Twins Heaven or Columbus?) in a way that feels both totally familiar and completely unique.

Formed in the creative hotbed of 90’s Olympia, Washington, The Emerald Down were always a band out of step, marching to their own beat—to their own beast. They relocated to Columbus, Ohio and released their only full-length album, Scream the Sound, on the tiny Popsound label. Recorded in 4 days w/hardly any overdubs, it’s the anti-Loveless (Hateful?). And yet somehow, and yet still…it’s as unified a vision as you’ll ever hear. Eight legs conjoined at the middle and the motto ‘Wherever you throw it, it will stand.’ Two songs on here were actually improvised live to tape, the product of a collective consciousness firing on all cylinders. Rebecca Basye sings like she is gazing into a void, somewhere between the past and the present, where she is turned into pure light and sound and projected out to the far side of the universe. And when Jim Rock takes over (the breakneck majesty of ‘Recondite Astral Traveler’)





Tracklist:
01-red shift.flac
02-perilized.flac
03-choffi.flac
04-7am.flac
05-another day.flac
06-heavier than ether lighter than air.flac
07-caught a wave.flac
08-recondite astral traveller.flac
09-scream the sound.flac
10-his sight shiny like chrome.flac
11-a minor crush.flac
12-a minor remix (remixed by jalal) (bonus track).flac


Summary:
Country: USA
Genre: dream-pop, shoegaze


Media Report:
Source                           : CD
Format                           : FLAC
Format/Info                      : Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode                    : Variable
Bit rate                         : ~ 922-1100 Kbps
Channel(s)                       : 2 channels
Sampling rate                    : 44.1 KHz
Bit depth                        : 16 bits