Nightblooms

The Nightblooms released two really strong albums in the early '90s. The first, 1992's self-titled record, was a noisy but dreamily hooky disc firmly in the shoegaze camp. The second, 24 Days at Catastrophe Café, released in 1993, is a classic hard rock/pop record in the tradition of the mighty Pooh Sticks, which is as it should be seeing that the group shared Steve Gregory as a producer. By the time 1995 rolled around, the group had cast its lot with the shoegaze-meets-dance-music crowd and the Love Is Gone EP is the result. There are four mixes of the song on the disc: the full-length original mix and three remixes by the Pylon King. The Original mix is the best; three and a half minutes of dreamy, layered vocals, burbling bass; kaleidoscopic guitars; and a rickety beat. Esther Sprikkelman's vocals are assured and as sexy as heck. The Pylon King mixes are not radical reworkings of the songs. On the Outer Sanctum mix, he added some bells and didgeridoo to give the song an exotic feel, the Inner Sanctum mix plays with the vocals (adding phase, echo, and even messing with the tape speed at the song's climax) and gives the song an ambient techno flavor with drifting machine beats and dubby sound effects. The radio edit is a shortened version of the Outer Sanctum mix. After this EP, the Nightblooms disappeared. It would have been nice to have had the bandmembers record an entire album in this style since they do it so well, but tough luck. Fans of the whole indie dance explosion of the early '90s would be wise to seek this EP out as it is one of the hidden gems of the era. ~ Tim Sendra, All Music Guide