Mull It Over 047: Stargazers
Whitelands and Virgins sign on for GazeFest 2 across dates in Dublin and Belfast. Also, Exhalers return with their loud and polished fourth album.
I first wrote about the re-emergence of shoegaze in Ireland way back in January 2024, on only the second ever edition of this newsletter. I can now finally put a stop to the proverbial voice in my head that for 18 months has kept asking “why in the name of Kevin Shields did you title a post about the shoegaze renaissance ‘The Shoe Fits’ and not something infinitely cooler and less footwear related - like ‘Stargazers?’”. Well, a year and a half later, here we are. I will sleep a little more soundly tonight. I think we all will.
The reason I write this newsletter, ultimately, is to add in some small way to the culture and passion of music scenes - a phenomenon that has always existed in the DIY space, from fields as far apart Washington D.C. hardcore and the 1990s Seattle alternative explosion via Hüsker Dü and The Replacements from Minneapolis, in the mid 80s. Everyone was in on the game. Whether you were in the band(s), ran the independent record label, promoted the gig, owned the club, wrote the review or printed the t-shirts, you were a vital part of the grinding gears of a true underground, DIY culture. Celebrating the music was the cathartic blow off, and getting there was all part of the fun.
Which is why it is so exciting for me to be writing about GazeFest 2. Spanning two days with a date at the iconic Grand Social in Dublin on August 29th and then on to the Oh Yeah Centre in Belfast on the 30th, Old Crows Promotions have enlisted London-based fuzz-rock darlings Whitelands as the headliner across the two-day party, with support from Michael Smyth’s Virgins, our spiritual successor to My Bloody Valentine and who are coming off a defining year in 2024 where they headlined the first iteration of GazeFest and released their shimmering debut ‘nothing hurt and everything was beautiful’ to much critical acclaim and an end-of-year spot on the short-list for the Northern Ireland Music Prize’s Best Album award.
For their part, Whitelands began as a solo project from frontman Etienne Quartey-Papafio, who has been releasing music under the banner since 2018. By the time it turned into a fully-formed outfit, their first full-length release on the Sonic Cathedral label came in 2024 and shed some of the more direct sounds of the work that came before it. What you hear on ‘Night-bound Eyes Are Blind To The Day’ (what’s with these album titles?) is a veritable update on the stuff that Ride and Slowdive were doing in the early 90s. Is new always better? That’s subjective. What is not, however, is that to recognise the original wave of shoegaze bands in the early 1990s as being unflinchingly White. With Whitelands, we are hearing similar sounds but with lyrical content that now speaks on themes of race and the Black diaspora. That doesn’t define Whitelands as a band, of course, and many popular guitar bands now write and sing about place and experience, as opposed to say, Cherry-coloured Funk.
And now, to neatly tie back to the aforementioned Mull It Over shoegaze post from last year, let me bring back a feature that nobody has asked for and ran for all of two out of forty-six weeks - please raise a glass for the infamous ‘How to Enjoy’ feature (you love it).
How to Enjoy - Whitelands
Drink: a glass of Bandol Tempier Rosé
Book: Sunstruck by William Rayfet Hunter
Where: the sofa
Tickets will be selling fast for both the Dublin and Belfast shows, with the latter advertised as 14+ so I recommend getting them sooner rather than later. You can find all tickets at the links below.
Breathe in, breathe out
And if you turn your nose up at my, frankly, iconic suggestion of drinking a dry Rosé wine while enjoying your favourite shoegaze band and reading the hottest book of the summer, all from the comfort of your own sofa, well then let me introduce you to Exhalers. The solo project from seasoned Bangor multi-instrumentalist Alan Lynn is currently basking in the two-week old release of its fourth album Enforcer. About as subtle as a brick to the face, Lynn reunites old friends and finds himself turning it up to TWELVE on his latest offering with a ground-and-pound approach to hard rock, that well, just won’t hit the same if lounging on the sofa. This is music to be enjoyed in a sweat-filled bar with a sweat-filled throng. No understated aromas here, thank you. I am perhaps being slightly disingenuous however as the album does take a softer turn about halfway through, and in fact, the slower ‘The Pale’ is a really beautiful work and potentially my favourite of the bunch.
Currently the album is only available through Bandcamp, where if you are so inclined you can pay what you feel and help support your favourite local artist. It will likely end up on Spotify soon enough, but it’s becoming increasingly harder to see, at this level, who that platform even benefits anymore. Find the link to the album below.
Alright, I’m off to see Oasis at Croke Park. Thank you for reading issue 47!
Blinder! Enjoy the gig, I’m heading on Sunday