Not even a decade into the development of its sound, the scene that comprised "The Dreampop Bands that Define the Times in Britain" found themselves in an identity crisis of sorts. In the stretch of just a few short years spanning 1993 to 1995, Slowdive produced what appeared to be their final album at the time, My Bloody Valentine had disappeared into an abyss of post-production and studio costs following "Loveless", and the culture itself outwardly appeared to have run its course. Having mined the depths of introspective, dreamily disembodied vocals and melodic distorted noiserock, many other early proponents of the sound were looking elsewhere for inspiration. Opening a course away from this impasse, the explosive rise of European and British electronic music culture of the decade offered an infusion of new energy, advanced technique and a complexly abstract stylistic component. Intersecting with the expressly cerebral end of the spectrum as heard on labels like Warp, Skam, and Ninja Tune, the British label Too Pure, can be said to have introduced the most explicit example of the genre with their signing of Seefeel. Bridging the two genres, the bands within this crossroads fused the electronic abstraction concurrently produced by Autechre, Bola, Aphex Twin, and later, Boards of Canada, with the sounds of dreampop and shoegaze which began a half-decade before.
This late offshoot being even more short-lived than its parent genre, yet produced a set of artists and recordings that speak to the time and context, while remaining outside of easy classification. Notable entries include Seefeel's genre-birthing "Quique", Primal Scream’s classic "Screamadelica", Curve's early EPs, a series of albums from North American bands Love Spirals Downwards, and Lovesliescrushing, and Global Communication’s "Pentamerous Metamorphosis" an electronic restructuring of "Blood Music". Yet before all of these, there was "Whirlpool", the debut release by Chapterhouse. Comprising Simon Rowe, Andrew Sherriff, Russell Barrett, Ashley Bates and Stephen Patman, alongside contributions from Slowdive's Rachel Goswell, 4AD's production mastermind John Fryer, and additional production from Cocteau Twins' Robin Guthrie, the album was a kaleidoscope of swirling dreampop guitar, disembodied vocals and their distinct array of electronic samples and breakbeat percussion. Not only are Chapterhouse returning on the wave of interest in their sound for the 35th anniversary of the album, but "Shoegaze: The Genre that Could Not be Killed" is being presented in the most explicit festival of its kind. In three editions, spanning Los Angeles, Chicago and New York, Slide Away Festival has assembled a paramount lineup of classic and new sounds in the genre heard from Chapterhouse, Nothing, Lovesliescrushing and Hum. In addition to Slide Away Festival, for the first time since 2010, Chapterhouse will be performing a string of dates across the United States, including a night alongside The Asteroid No.4 at Seattle's The Crocodile.
