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It's Slow Time!Slowdive are young, happy, carefree, shy, 19 and never been kiss, . . . erm interviewed before. They are quite matter-of-fact about the whole affair which saw them plucked from their home town of Reading to choke on the big smoke of London town, sign to Creation and release a brilliant eponymously titled single. "The only reason we're here is because someone called Steve Walters from EMI publishing saw us in Reading. Apparently, so legend has it, he was completely off his head and liked us, so he gave our tape to Alan McGee (Creation boss) - he liked it too and here we are." That's Nick the bassist and most talkative member of the five-piece who are being compared to My Bloody Valentine purely, it would seem, because they have guitars, Creation's seal of approval and malel female vocals. It is true to say that on stage they create similar visual stimulations and somewhere in the depth of their sound you may catch a borrowed riff or poached drum pattern (Is this a yolk? - Ed) but that's really it. On vinyl their sound floats mysteriously between Ride and Prefab Sprout, Neil and Rachel creating a little lost voice In the midst of wild, scratchy but melodic guitars and almost dancey rhythms. "We saw Debbie from the Valentines after a gig of ours. She said someone told her we were ripping them off but she didn't think we sounded anything like them. And that's from the horse's mouth," (Steady on! - Libel Ed) says Nick. The Slowdive single is actually their original demo. "We tried to re-record it but it just didn't work at all, we'd played it so many times it began to sound like somebody else's song," says Neil. People expect a certain sound, attitude and style of music from a Creation band. What do Slowdive make of it all? "We think Creation are marvellous, marvellous, MARVELLOUS. . . and you can quote me on that," replies Nick. "Well, I don't think there's as much of a myth surrounding Creation as there used to be, not since all the diversity. It still has a massive profile but It could be worse, we're not shedding any tears over it," adds Nell. Slowdive know where they're going and certainly know where they're from. So It's not surprising they laugh at those who are trying to create a Thomas Valley scene. "They are trying to lump Oxford with Reading so they group Ride and Swerved river with Chapterhouse, The Heart Throbs and us. Honestly, it's like trying to create an Ipswich scene with the only two famous things to ever come out of IpswichBleach and Bobby Robson." Gina Morris Originally appeared in NME 17 November 1990 Copyright © NME Magazine |
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