Ethereal Pop

Ethereal wave,Glasnost Wave magazine, issue # 42, p. 32/34, genre classification of the bands Trance to the Sun (''"Ghost Forest"''), This Ascension (''"Light and Shade"''), Soul Whirling Somewhere (''"Eating the Sea"''), Cocteau Twins and Lycia, Germany, April 1994Thomas Wacker: ''Projekt Records label portrait'', Black music magazine, issue # 7/97, p. 66, Spring 1997 also called ethereal darkwave, ethereal gothPropaganda: ''Projekt: Ethereal Gothic'', advertisement, issue # 19, p. 19, New York, September 1992 or simply ethereal, is a subgenre of dark wave music that is variously described as "gothic", "romantic", and "otherworldly".Michael Fischer:
"The ethereal romanticism of this EP makes for the closest thing in pop to a music for Gothic cathedrals"
', Cocteau Twins review ("Love's Easy Tears"), The Michigan Daily, p. 7, March 23, 1987 It developed in the early 1980sRick Poynor: ''Vaughan Oliver. Visceral Pleasures'', p. 75, Booth-Clibborn 2000, . in the United Kingdom as an outgrowth of gothic rock, and was mainly represented by 4AD bandsStaci Bonner:
Interview with the Cocteau Twins
, ''Reflex'' magazine, September 1988. "In 1982, they hand-picked their record label, 4AD — a company that had corralled all that was gothically ethereal...". such as Cocteau Twins,Oliver Köble: ''Vollendete Gothic-Ästhetik'', Interview with William Faith of Faith & The Muse (and Tess Records), Glasnost Wave magazine, issue # 44, p. 11, Germany, November/December 1994 This Mortal Coil, and early guitar-driven Dead Can Dance.Olivier Bernard: ''Anthologie de l'ambient'', Camion Blanc, 2013, . "L'ethereal wave s'est développée à partir du gothic rock, et tire ses origines principalement de la musique de Siouxsie and the Banshees (les Cocteau Twins s'en sont fortement inspirés, ce qui se ressent dans leur premier album Garlands, sorti en 1982). Le genre s'est développé surtout autour des années 1983–1984, avec l'émergence de trois formations majeures: Cocteau Twins, This Mortal Coil et Dead Can Dance... Cela est rendu par des effets d'écho, de reverb et de delay très imposants sur les guitares... On relève une prédominance d'un chant féminin haut perché ou très ample et de voix masculines soufflées, douces at contemplatives. Les paroles sont parfois difficilement compréhensibles... L'ethereal wave (et notamment les Cocteau Twins) a grandement influencé le shoegaze et la dream pop. Les labels principaux promouvant le genre sont 4AD et Projekt Records."

In the second half of the 1980s, the genre continued to develop in the United States and was primarily associated with C'est La Mort Records, which featured artists such as Area (later the Moon Seven Times) and Heavenly Bodies, a band formed by ex-members of Dead Can Dance and This Mortal Coil, as well as with Projekt Records, which featured groups like Black Tape for a Blue Girl, Love Spirals Downwards and Lycia.

Ethereal wave, especially the music of Cocteau Twins, was one of the key inspirations for the British dream pop/shoegaze scene of the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Etymology

In the mid-1980s, several Cocteau Twins/This Mortal Coil records were described as "ethereal", "etherealism", and "ethereal romanticism". In September 1988, Staci Bonner of ''Reflex'' magazine described the music of British label 4AD as "gothically ethereal". Print media in the US, such as ''Alternative Press'', ''Billboard'', and ''Option'' music magazine, started using the term "ethereal goth" more frequently, whereas European music magazines, primarily German zines such as ''Glasnost'', ''Aeterna'', ''Entry'', ''Black'', and ''Astan'', had named the genre "ethereal wave" in the same vein as new wave, dark wave, and cold wave.Stefan Mensing: "This Burning Effigy", ''Astan'' music magazine, issue #9, p. 36, March/April 1999.

Historically, the term was mostly applied to the roster of 4AD label − not only referring to music, but also regarding aesthetics of the graphical visualization.

The "ethereal" designation has been taken over by authors such as Mick Mercer and Dave Thompson to delineate the same musical phenomenon in their books, while Simon Reynolds began using the term "goth-lite" (or "post-goth", a term he coined in 1987) to describe the music of Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance, and related 4AD artists.Simon Reynolds
Blissout − Very far from Grace
/ref>

"Goth-lite" first appeared in 1995 in magazines such as ''CMJ New Music Monthly'' (Douglas Wolk) and ''SPIN'' (Jody Press) as a retroactive description of Siouxsie and the Banshees' ''Tinderbox'' album, which heavily relies on the use of guitar pedals and studio effects in songs such as "92 Degrees" and "Land's End".

Style characteristics

The defining characteristic of the style is the use of effects-laden guitar soundscapes, primarily based on minor key tonality (which unfolds a serious, dark and wistful atmosphere),Liisa Ladouceur: "Ethereal", ''Encyclopedia Gothica'', ECW Press 2011, . "Applied to 1980s English post-punk groups on the 4AD label such as the Cocteau Twins and Dead Can Dance... Ethereal generally meant to encompass bands with dreamy atmospheres, most often featuring angelic, soprano vocals and shimmery, reverb-soaked guitars, as distinct from more aggressive rock." frequently post-punk-oriented bass lines, restrained tempo (ranging from down- to midtempo) and high register female vocals (sometimes operatic and with hard-to-decipher lyrical content), often closely intertwined with romantic aesthetics and pre-Raphaelite imagery.

Another significant feature is the extensive use of drum machines, typical of many 4AD productions and initially established by Cocteau Twins' '' Garlands'' albumChris Jones
Cocteau Twins review on BBC.co.uk
"The fact remains that despite a whole host of post-punk wannabes adopting the flange 'n' drum machine tactics of the Twins, no-one has ever come remotely close to emulating their sound." and the first full-length work of Dead Can Dance.Ned Raggett:
Review of Dead Can Dance's debut
, on AllMusic.com. Acoustic guitars, often combined with electric guitars and bass guitars, are sometimes used to create a more folk-oriented feel (e.g. Love Spirals Downwards).

Aside from the genre's post-punk and gothic rock roots, some ethereal bands, namely Lycia and Soul Whirling Somewhere, were equally influenced by ambient and soundtrack-oriented music and/or by more traditional progressive rock textures.Bret Helm:
Interview with Mike van Portfleet (Lycia)
, ''Friday on the Turntable'', June 20, 2013.

History

Roots and initiators (1980s)

The late 1970s to early 1980s was a period of innovation and diversification, in which punk rock explored new musical paths, interchangeably described as post-punk and new wave. Technical improvement and the rise of affordable equipment such as drum machines and multi-effects units helped define the sound of a new era.Jacqueline Edmondson: ''Music in American Life. An Encyclopedia of the Songs, Styles, Stars, and Stories That Shaped Our Culture'', Greenwood Publishing Group, 2013, , p. 548. "Gothic rock − often shortened as Goth − is one of the prominent styles of music that is considered post-punk. Electronically processed guitar effects such as flange, phasing, and chorus were a fixture of Goth bands, lending a tone to the guitar that was sharp and brittle. The drum machine, disavowed by many in the rock community, was also a prominent feature of Goth music, especially in the 1980s." Seminal music artists such as the Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, the Chameleons and the Durutti Column − who were able to expand and refine their style over the years − began to emerge from the darker strands of post-punk (see dark wave and gothic rock), and tended to "became more ethereal in the process." Most of those bands, especially Siouxsie and the Banshees, are often credited with building the fertile ground for a subsequent generation of ethereal wave performers (e.g. This Ascension). Hits like " Melt", released in 1982, rely on a time signature and an extensive use of digital delay, reverberation and modulation effects, accompanied by dark, unsettling lyrics, and have been described as languorous, seductive, and erotic.

During this time, ethereal was not solidified as a genre on its own until the appearance of the Cocteau Twins and their widely cited early works '' Head over Heels'' and ''Treasure'', which set the blueprint for a separate style in music.Danny Housman: "Elders of the Ethereal genre", Cocteau Twins album review, CMJ New Music Monthly, p. 30, May 1996 MTV News Staff: "In 1983, Heggie left the band, and the group recorded Head Over Heels as a duo. The album was highly improvised and is the first recording to feature the Twins' signature sound — Guthrie's lush guitars under Fraser's mostly wordless vocals. The group became a trio again when bassist Simon Raymonde joined in 1984. Later that year, they released Treasure, an album that hit #29 on the UK charts and cemented the band's ethereal sound."
Cocteau Twins short biography
January 4, 1998 Peter Buckley wrote, "The band began to ditch the spikiness of '' Garlands'', as Robin Guthrie developed a lush cascading guitar technique, creating a rich texture and an otherworldly feel ... From this point on, music journalists found it impossible to describe the band's work without resorting to the word 'Ethereal'", while according to Rick Poynor, "... it was the Cocteau Twins, whose debut album, "Garlands", appeared on 4AD in 1982, who proved to be the label's first major artists and did much to crystallize 4AD's image in its early years as an other-worldly purveyor of Ethereal music by reclusive groups who preferred the shadows to the light."

In March 1986, journalist Sue Cummings of ''SPIN'' described the music as an "introspective reaction to the macho aggression of rock 'n' roll" and noticed "all those big black haircuts leaving fterthe Cocteau Twins' concert this past fall." Soon, the ethereal style that has been dismissed at times as "swirly-girlie music" became closely associated with a certain type of audience, occasionally referred to as "ether(eal) goths" or "romantigoths". Liisa Ladouceur, writing in the ''Encyclopedia Gothica'', said, "The Cocteau Twins remain ground zero for the Ethereal subgenre and ... gave Romantigoths a soundtrack for clubbing."

Other bands from the 1980s who spawned a similar sound were Dif Juz, Breathless, Lowlife, All About Eve, A Primary Industry, Vazz, and Drowning Pool (not to be confused with the metal band).

According to Heather Phares, arts editor at ''The Michigan Daily'', the genre reached its first high point in 1986/87.Heather Phares:
The Glee Club review ('Mine')
''The Michigan Daily'', p. 7, September 9, 1994. "The Glee Club are a dreamy Irish band that follow in the tradition of the Cocteau Twins, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Echo and the Bunnymen and many other mid-'80s Goth-Ethereal bands. Although they missed the genre's high point (about 1986–87)...". At that time, Siouxsie and the Banshees released their studio album ''Tinderbox'', followed by All About Eve's ''In the Clouds'', A Primary Industry's ''Ultramarine'', and Cocteau Twins' last ethereal E.P. '' Love's Easy Tears''. In 1987, US band Area debuted with ''Radio Caroline'' while Vazz from Scotland, a former new wave/synthwave band, brought out ''Feverpitch'' that follows the footsteps of the Cocteau Twins. In the same year, Robin Guthrie produced A.R. Kane's "Lollita" single that features Cocteau Twins' ethereal trademark, comparable to the band's early records. A.R. Kane themselves called their musical style "dreampop", which later became a descriptive term for gentle indie-pop music (cf. Bel Canto, Pale Saints, the Sundays).

Peak and decline (1990s)

Within the gothic/dark wave scene, the genre reached a higher level of popularity throughout the 1990s,Bryan Reesman: "The Scene Is Now: Dark Wave", ''CMJ New Music Monthly'', issue # 68, p. 48, April 1999. especially in the first half of the decade. During this time, ethereal wave and rock genres such as shoegazing (aka dream pop) interacted with each other, with many artists being influenced by 4AD bands, such as the aforementioned Cocteau Twins and This Mortal Coil as well as early All About Eve, the Chameleons, and Siouxsie and the Banshees. The Portsmouth-based ethereal band Siddal,Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: '
Not all Gothic rock really rocks. The Ethereal side of this gloomy genre can be explored ... with Toronto's An April March, Siddal, from Richmond, Va., and Pittsburgh's own Underflowers.
'', p. 3, March 8, 1996 for example, described their musical output as a "product of influences such as the Cocteau Twins, Low, Slowdive, the Cure, and Dead Can Dance, use a blend of ambient music, shoegazer style guitars, synths and sequenced rhythms." Other examples of this cross-pollination (partly referred to as "ethereal pop") include Hugo Largo, Rose Chronicles, Miranda Sex Garden, Cranes, Chimera, An April March, Hex, Common Language, the Glee Club, Lovesliescrushing, and Rosewater Elizabeth. Members of British shoegazing group Slowdive have cited being heavily influenced by artists such as the Cure, Cocteau Twins, and Siouxsie and the Banshees.

Since the early 1990s, the "ethereal" tag is primarily associated with the Projekt label, which had already used the term in 1987. The label featured some of the most well-known acts of the US music scene such as Love Spirals Downwards and Lycia.''Spectrum Culture'':
Interview with Sam Rosenthal
, 9 April 2013. "In the '90s, the three big acts on Projekt were Lycia, Black Tape For a Blue Girl and Love Spirals Downwards." Similar record labels that harbored some of the leading lights of the movement were Tess Records (This Ascension, Trance to the Sun, and Autumn),Nancy Kilpatrick: ''The Goth Bible. A Compendium for the Darkly Inclined'', St. Martin's Griffin 2004, , p. 90. "Projekt bands like Love Spirals Downwards and Lycia are among the most popular of this subgenre. ... Tess Records bands like Faith & The Muse, This Ascension, and Autumn dropped the obscenity and blasphemy in favor of the more 'ethereal', Romantic stylings becoming popular in Europe." Bedazzled ( Strange Boutique,Ben Greenman: "Bedazzled Records: Ethereal and ambient pop artists, including Strange Boutique, Siddal, Viola Peacock, and the Curtain Society.", Netmusic. Your Complete Guide to Rock and More on the Internet and Online Services, p. 321, Random House Electronic Publishing 1995, Siddal, Mistle Thrush, and An April March), and Ivy Records ( Faith & Disease
Ninth Circle
). Most of these record labels and artists have ceased their activities over the years or changed their musical direction, incorporating elements of other genres such as ambient, trip hop, and drum & bass.

After the decline (2000s)

In the early 2000s, two Cocteau Twins tribute compilations, ''Dark Treasures'' (Cleopatra) and ''Half-Gifts'' (Dewdrops Records), were released, underlining the band's significant influence on the ethereal gothic sound.Various: Half-Gifts: A Tribute to the Cocteau Twins
. Discogs.

More recent bands who partly represent the genre are Autumn's Grey Solace, Tearwave,Gothic Paradise:
Tearwave
'', Biography & Reviews. Ashrae Fax, Mercury's Antennae, Saigon Blue Rain, Vision Eternel, Melodyguild, Faded Sympathy, Scarlet Mother, and the collaboration between Broaddaylight and Robin Guthrie.

Distinction

Although ethereal wave and shoegazing (also referred to as dream pop) share some similarities (e.g. the use of guitar effects such as flanger, chorus, echo, and delay),Patrick Sisson:
Vapour Trails. Revisiting Shoegaze
', XLR8R no. 123, December 2008 there are substantial differences between the genres.

Shoegazing emerged primarily from the 1980s' noise pop/indie rock scene and a conventional instrumentation based on guitars, bass and drums. Initially, drum machines were not a regular part of the shoegazing genre but a basic component of new wave, post-punk, and gothic rock music. In contrast to shoegazing, ethereal wave usually features a traditional early 1980s post-punk and gothic rock signature,Michael Bibby, Lauren M. E. Goodlad: ''Goth. Undead Subculture'', Duke University Press Books, 2007, , p. 126 devoid of any influences of the simultaneously existing noise pop movement. Most ethereal wave groups, such as Cocteau Twins, early Dead Can Dance, Area, Love Spirals Downwards, Lycia, Autumn, and Speaking Silence, employed drum machines and electronically generated rhythms.

Ethereal wave is predominantly a female-fronted style, whereas shoegazing is − apart from the popularity of acts such as Lush, Curve, and Medicine − largely male-dominated (A.R. Kane, Pale Saints, Ride, Chapterhouse, Blind Mr. Jones, The Boo Radleys, Kitchens of Distinction) or, more rarely, gender-balanced (My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, Secret Shine, The Telescopes).Ben Myers: ''Muse. Inside The Muscle Machine'', Independent Music Press, 2004, . "The shoegazing scene of the turn of the decade − inconsequential, murmured, low-mix vocals atop swathes of FX-laden guitars, as played by studious young men and women with nothing to say..." According to Joshua Gunn, Assistant Professor of Rhetorical Studies at Louisiana State University, "Women have a much larger role in Darkwave and ..the Ethereal subgenre that developed in Europe".

References

{{New wave music

20th-century music genres
Dark wave
Gothic music genres
Alternative rock genres
British styles of music
Goth subculture
Rock music genres
de:Dark Wave#Ethereal
Gothic rock