The Ecstasy of Saint Theresa Susurrate (Clairecords)

A re-release from 1992, The Ecstasy of Saint Theresa enjoyed a brief 15 minutes courtesy of John Peel, coming over to record a brilliant session that took the dispassion of Bleach and married it to post-rock structures. This is the album that was barely released at the time. and it’s fitting that it should come from Clairecords, the label that brought us an MBV tribute album. For this Czech band’s debt to the shoegazers is obvious from the get-go. And I’d be lying if I didn’t say I wasn’t a little disappointed not to a hear a recording of that Peel session track that really has kept me enthralled since it was broadcast. (As these things go, I managed to record it but didn’t get the song’s title.) It’s a stretched out song, the guitar heavily delayed, and this bell/timpani sample playing throughout. It’s cool, and deserves to be released too.

Anyway, back to this album. I went through three phases with this record—first I loved it for the nostalgia it evoked; then I found it disappointing for its lack of originality and discernible tunes; then, finally, I fell fully in love with it. You see, what at first sounds like an impenetrable mass of badly recorded shoegazing noise, soon reveals itself to be a densely layered, parsely mash of a sound. Repeated listens throw up simple melodies, sweet songs, married to dissonance a la "Cigarette in My Bed"-era MBV. The drums hit hard, the bass grinds, and chainsaw guitars shoot out harmonics, swerving brake-sounds, and pure dirt. First listen makes it hard to believe you could ever be humming these tunes, but I am right now, and I haven’t even listened to this in a while.

The Czech Republic has always been something of a creative surprise. My main musical association with with the country is Velvet Underground, thanks to Vaclav Havel, but I think The Ecstasy of Saint Theresa make equally fine ambassadors.

8.5/10