Ethereal wave

Ethereal wave,[5][6] also called ethereal darkwave,[7] ethereal goth[8] or simply ethereal,[9][10] is a subgenre of dark wave music[11] that is variously described as "gothic", "romantic", and "otherworldly".[12][13] Developed in the early 1980s[14][15][16] in the UK as an outgrowth of gothic rock, ethereal wave was mainly represented by 4AD bands[17][18] such as Cocteau Twins,[19] This Mortal Coil, and early guitar-driven Dead Can Dance.[20][21]

This article is about the music genre. For waves in ether, see light wave.
Ethereal wave
Other names
  • Ethereal goth
  • ethereal darkwave
  • ethereal
Stylistic origins
Cultural originsEarly 1980s, United Kingdom
Typical instruments
Derivative forms
Other topics

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,[22] as well as with Projekt Records, which featured groups like Black Tape for a Blue Girl.[23]

Ethereal wave, especially the music of Cocteau Twins, was one of the key inspirations for the British dream pop/shoegazing scene of the late 1980s and early 1990s.[21]

Etymology

In the mid-1980s, several Cocteau Twins/This Mortal Coil records were described as "ethereal",[24][25] "etherealism",[26] and "ethereal romanticism".[12] In September 1988, Staci Bonner of Reflex magazine described the music of British label 4AD as "gothically ethereal".[17] Print media in the US, such as Alternative Press,[27] Billboard,[28] and Option music magazine,[29] 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.[5][19][6][30]

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.[31][32][33]

The "ethereal" designation has been taken over by authors such as Mick Mercer[34] and Dave Thompson[35] 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[36]) to describe the music of Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance, and related 4AD artists.[37][38][39]

"Goth-lite" first appeared in 1995 in magazines such as CMJ New Music Monthly (Douglas Wolk)[40] and SPIN (Jody Press)[41] 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".[42]

Style characteristics

The defining characteristic of the style is the use of effects-laden guitar soundscapes,[3][39] primarily based on minor key tonality (which unfolds a serious, dark and wistful atmosphere),[43] frequently post-punk-oriented bass lines, restrained tempo (ranging from down- to midtempo) and high register female vocals[43] (sometimes operatic and with hard-to-decipher lyrical content),[21] often closely intertwined with romantic aesthetics and pre-Raphaelite imagery.[44][45][46]

Another significant feature is the extensive use of drum machines, typical of many 4AD productions and initially established by Cocteau Twins' Garlands album[47] and the first full-length work of Dead Can Dance.[48] 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.[49]

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.[50] Technical improvement and the rise of affordable equipment such as drum machines and multi-effects units helped define the sound of a new era.[51] 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."[1] 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).[21] Hits like "Melt", released in 1982, rely on a 3⁄4 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.[52]

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.[53][19][54][55] 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'",[56] 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."[15]

Ethereal aesthetics, closely related to the artwork of Nigel Grierson (4AD)

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 [after] the Cocteau Twins' concert this past fall."[57] Soon, the ethereal style that has been dismissed at times as "swirly-girlie music"[58] became closely associated with a certain type of audience, occasionally referred to as "ether(eal) goths" or "romantigoths".[59] 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."[60]

Other bands from the 1980s who spawned a similar sound were Dif Juz,[61] Breathless, Lowlife, All About Eve,[62] A Primary Industry, Vazz, and Drowning Pool (not to be confused with the metal band).[63]

According to Heather Phares, arts editor at The Michigan Daily, the genre reached its first high point in 1986/87.[64] 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.[12] 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).[65]

Peak and decline (1990s)

Within the gothic/dark wave scene, the genre reached a higher level of popularity throughout the 1990s,[66] 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,[67] 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,[68] 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."[69] Other examples of this cross-pollination (partly referred to as "ethereal pop"[70]) include Hugo Largo,[71] Rose Chronicles,[72] Miranda Sex Garden, Cranes, Chimera, An April March, Hex,[73] Common Language, the Glee Club,[64] Lovesliescrushing, and Rosewater Elizabeth. Members of British shoegazing group Slowdive have cited being heavily influenced by artists such as the Cure, Cocteau Twins,[74] and Siouxsie and the Banshees.[75][76]

... the huge irony with the bands called 'Shoegazing' was that a lot of those bands really were into the Cocteau Twins. And they all used choruses, flangers and other effects pedals to create a certain kind of sound.

— Kevin Shields, Interview with My Bloody Valentine[77]

Since the early 1990s, the "ethereal" tag is primarily associated with the Projekt label,[78] which had already used the term in 1987.[79] The label featured some of the most well-known acts of the US music scene such as Love Spirals Downwards and Lycia.[80] Similar record labels that harbored some of the leading lights of the movement were Tess Records (This Ascension, Trance to the Sun, and Autumn),[81] Bedazzled (Strange Boutique,[82] Siddal, Mistle Thrush, and An April March),[82] 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.[83][80]

After the decline (2000s)
Autumn's Grey Solace

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.[84][85]

More recent bands who partly represent the genre are Autumn's Grey Solace,[86] Tearwave,[87] Ashrae Fax,[88] Mercury's Antennae,[89] Saigon Blue Rain,[90] Vision Eternel,[91][92] Melodyguild, Faded Sympathy, Scarlet Mother, and the collaboration between Broaddaylight and Robin Guthrie.[93][94]

Distinction

Although ethereal wave and shoegazing (also referred to as dream pop[95][96]) share some similarities (e.g. the use of guitar effects such as flanger, chorus, echo, and delay),[97][39] there are substantial differences between the genres.

Shoegazing emerged primarily from the 1980s' noise pop/indie rock scene[98] 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.[51] In contrast to shoegazing, ethereal wave usually features a traditional early 1980s post-punk and gothic rock signature,[99] 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.[47][48][100]

Ethereal wave is predominantly a female-fronted style,[43][99] 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)[101] or, more rarely, gender-balanced (My Bloody Valentine, Slowdive, Secret Shine, The Telescopes).[102] 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".[81]

References
  1. Mimi Abramovitz, Karen Kelly, Evelyn McDonnell: Stars Don't Stand Still in the Sky. Music and Myth, New York University Press 1998, ISBN 0-8147-4727-2, p. 82. "Punk flicked its emotional switch from anger to depression, and became more ethereal in the process. The careers of the most successful atmospheric post-punk bands – The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance – tended to be long and uneven."
  2. Michael Ahlers, Christoph Jacke: Perspectives on German Popular Music, Ashgate 2016, ISBN 1-472-47962-9, Chapter 14, p. 7
  3. Simon Reynolds: "Pop View. 'Dream-Pop' Bands Define the Times in Britain", The New York Times, December 1, 1991.
  4. Cam Lindsay: Sound of Confusion. How Shoegaze Defied Critics and Influenced a Generation, Exclaim.ca, August 2008. "Like any genre, 'shoegazing' has many parents; most date the first traces back to the drugged-out noise and motionless performances of the Velvet Underground. More obviously, the groundwork was laid in early '80s Britain by The Cure albums 'Faith' and 'Pornography', by the swirling buzz-saw noise and anti-social behaviour of the Jesus & Mary Chain, the ethereal textures of Cocteau Twins and the hypnotic drones of Spacemen 3."
  5. 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 1994
  6. Thomas Wacker: Projekt Records label portrait, Black music magazine, issue # 7/97, p. 66, Spring 1997
  7. Janet Sturman: The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Music and Culture, SAGE Publications Inc, London 2019, ISBN 1-483-31775-7, p. 728
  8. Propaganda: Projekt: Ethereal Gothic, advertisement, issue # 19, p. 19, New York, September 1992
  9. Hyperium Records: "Ethereal, Gothic & Dark Ambient", CD order form, booklet insert of the Beneath the Icy Floe v. 3 compilation (German pressing), released in 1995
  10. Discogs: Cover of the Projekt: Gothic compilation (see tagline), released in 2002
  11. Reesman, Bryan (April 1999). "The Scene Is Now: Dark Wave". CMJ New Music Monthly (68): 48. Female vocals, both wispy and operatic, have become fashionable, particularly in the Ethereal subgenre.
  12. 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
  13. Beautiful Noise: Robert Smith (The Cure) describes the Cocteau Twins' sound as "ethereal" and "romantic"
  14. CD Review magazine: Cocteau Twins album review, p. 44, issues # 1-6, 1990. "The Cocteau Twins' calling card — ethereal soundscapes marked by offbeat, haunting female vocals — was unique back in the early '80s.".
  15. Rick Poynor: Vaughan Oliver. Visceral Pleasures, p. 75, Booth-Clibborn 2000, ISBN 1-8615-4072-8.
  16. Fred Perry Subculture: Book presentation of Martin Aston's Facing the Other Way: The Story of 4AD Archived 2015-09-24 at the Wayback Machine, September 2013. "...the 4AD roots lay within a sub-set of post-punk, and it is this period in the 80s where 4AD have developed a cult status. The label, alongside its artists, nurtured and raised a new and defined sound, predominantly ethereal and dark..."
  17. Staci 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...".
  18. Colin Larkin: Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music, p. 1156, Guinness Publishing 1992, ISBN 0-85112-939-0. "... the label which, more than anyone else, was capable of handling their brand of ethereal, dreamlike elegance."
  19. 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
  20. Thierry F. Le Boucanier: Batcave Memories, Camion Blanc, 2011, ISBN 2-357-79113-6. "Les groupes d'éthéré les plus représentatifs et précurseurs sont Dead Can Dance, Cocteau Twins et This Mortal Coil."
  21. Olivier Bernard: Anthologie de l'ambient, Camion Blanc, 2013, ISBN 2-357-794151. "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."
  22. Option music magazine, p. 102, Sonic Options Network 1988
  23. "Black Tape for a Blue Girl | Biography, Albums, Streaming Links". AllMusic. Retrieved 7 January 2021.
  24. The Cavalier Daily: "This Mortal Coil album review" ("It'll End in Tears"), p. 8, November 7, 1985
  25. Michael Fischer: Cocteau Twins album review ("The Pink Opaque"), The Michigan Daily, p. 7, April 9, 1986
  26. Record-Journal: "Cocteau Twins review", June 15, 1986
  27. Alternative Press, issue 8, 1995, p. 95. "...If the ethereal goth movement is heading anywhere, it's towards a collision with the new age, without any of the bog-awful connotations which that phrase normally evokes."
  28. Carrie Borzillo: Artists & Music, Billboard magazine, 28 October 1995, p. 117
  29. Lisa Gidley: "Siddal. Mystery of the Sea", Option music magazine, Volume 77−81, 1997. "Siddal's music is exquisitely beautiful and frustratingly static, like a film depicting a frozen lake where nothing moves but a few rays of sunlight and a windblown leaf or two. With similarities to '80s-style ethereal Goth (This Mortal Coil, early Cocteau Twins)..."
  30. Stefan Mensing: "This Burning Effigy", Astan music magazine, issue #9, p. 36, March/April 1999.
  31. Rick Poynor: Design without Boundaries. Visual Communication in Transition, Booth-Clibborn Editions, 1998, ISBN 1-861-54006-X, p. 127. "The cover designs from 1983 to 1986 were a kind of late-flowering romanticism, as peculiarly English and ethereal as the music of the Cocteau Twins..."
  32. Josh Frank, Caryn Ganz: Fool the World. The Oral History... Chapter Six (Marc Geiger), St. Martin's Griffin, 2006, ISBN 0-312-34007-9, p. 79. "The label had an ethereal trademark − because the artist Vaughan Oliver was so distinct graphically that it lent itself to sort of the ethereal, beautiful sound of ... the Cocteau Twins."
  33. Ben Sisario: The Pixies' Doolittle [series 33⅓, # 31], p. 17, Bloomsbury Academic 2006, ISBN 0-8264-1774-4. "Known for its slick, gauzy package design and quasi-Gothic bands invariably described as "Ethereal" (q.v. Cocteau Twins), the label did have an unpredictable streak."
  34. Mercer, Mick. Music to die for. London: Cherry Red Books, 2009, ISBN 190144726X, p. 5
  35. Dave Thompson: The Dark Reign of Gothic Rock, Helter Skelter, 2002, ISBN 1-900-92448-X, p. 10
  36. Simon Reynolds: The Wailing Ultimate, Melody Maker, Summer 1987
  37. Simon Reynolds: Rip It Up and Start Again: Postpunk 1978−1984, Penguin Books 2006, ISBN 0-143-03672-6
  38. Simon Reynolds: 4AD. The Dozen, Director's cut, eMusic, 2006. "4AD will be forever identified with its signature Goth-lite group the Cocteau Twins, but other key signings of this period include Dead Can Dance..."
  39. Simon Reynolds: Blissout − Very far from Grace
  40. Douglas Wolk: "Siouxsie & The Banshees", CMJ New Music Monthly, January 1995, p. 42.
  41. Jody Press: "Spins. Siouxsie & The Banshees", SPIN magazine, March 1995, p. 99
  42. Charles Allen Mueller: The Music of the Goth Subculture. Postmodernism and Aesthetics, ProQuest, UMI Dissertation Publishing, 2011, ISBN 1-243-59935-9, pp. 74−79.
  43. Liisa Ladouceur: "Ethereal", Encyclopedia Gothica, ECW Press 2011, ISBN 1-7704-1024-4. "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."
  44. Andy O'Reilly: Interview with the Cocteau Twins, Lime Lizard magazine, October 1993
  45. Uncut music magazine: Ether Madness Archived 2014-04-20 at the Wayback Machine, A collection of Cocteau Twins reviews
  46. Discogs: Cover of This Ascension's Light and Shade album, Ophelia motif, released in 1991, and cover of Faith & Disease's "Jardeu Blue" 7-inch single, released in 1993; photographed by Julia Margaret Cameron – both associated with/influenced by pre-Raphaelite art.
  47. Chris 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."
  48. Ned Raggett: "Review of Dead Can Dance's debut", on AllMusic.com.
  49. Bret Helm: "Interview with Mike van Portfleet (Lycia)", Friday on the Turntable, June 20, 2013.
  50. Katherine Charlton: Rock Music Styles. A History, Brown & Benchmark Publishers, 1994, Second Edition, ISBN 0-697-12493-2, p. 12. "The post-punk music that had been called New Wave during the late 1970s had dissolved into many styles that bore little relationship to one another by the next decade so the term New Wave became somewhat meaningless."
  51. Jacqueline Edmondson: Music in American Life. An Encyclopedia of the Songs, Styles, Stars, and Stories That Shaped Our Culture, Greenwood Publishing Group, 2013, ISBN 0-313-39347-8, 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."
  52. Charles Allen Mueller: The Music of the Goth Subculture. Postmodernism and Aesthetics, ProQuest, UMI Dissertation Publishing, 2011, ISBN 1-243-59935-9, pp. 177−182. "Goth's obsession with generating an enveloping ambience is an aesthetic perfectly befitting the values of the twentieth century. The version of "Melt" recorded on A Kiss in the Dreamhouse was produced with those values of total simulation in mind, with its heavy use of digital delay (echo) and continuous digital reverb effects that distract from the music's melodic and harmonic beauty and the musicality of the performances of each member."
  53. Danny Housman: "Elders of the Ethereal genre", Cocteau Twins album review, CMJ New Music Monthly, p. 30, May 1996
  54. 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
  55. Bradley Bambarger: "Artists & Music. Cocteau Twins", Billboard, 6 April 1996, p. 14. "The Cocteau Twins debuted in 1982 with the dark post-punk strains of "Garlands" and broadened their distinctive sound over a string of releases on 4AD. A mid-'80s burst of innovation brought forth the best of these: "Head over Heals" and the "Sunburst and Snowblind" EP from '83, the seminal album "Treasure" from '84, and the compilation "The Pink Opaque" from '86."
  56. Peter Buckley: The Rough Guide to Rock, p. 212, Rough Guides 1999, ISBN 1-8582-8457-0
  57. Sue Cummings: Cocteau Twins. The Pink Opaque, SPIN magazine, March 1986, p. 28
  58. Amy C. Wilkins: Wannabes, Goths, and Christians: The Boundaries of Sex, Style, and Status, University of Chicago Press, ISBN 0-226-89843-1, p. 28
  59. Colin Smith: Goth Craft. The Magickal Side of Dark Culture, Llewellyn Publications, 2007, ISBN 0-738-71104-7, p. 38
  60. Liisa Ladouceur: "Cocteau Twins", Encyclopedia Gothica, ECW Press 2011, ISBN 1-7704-1024-4, p. 45
  61. Josh Frank, Caryn Ganz: Fool the World. The Oral History... Chapter Six (Kristin Hersh), St. Martin's Griffin, 2006, ISBN 0-312-34007-9, p. 78. "... all the other bands on 4AD were extreme English. suddenly, we realized we were in the company of bands like the Cocteau Twins and Dif Juz - they're all real gauzy and beautiful and ethereal and we just so weren't."
  62. Peter Buckley: The Rough Guide to Rock, Rough Guides 1999, ISBN 1-8582-8457-0, p. 19.
  63. Fred Mills: "Drowning Pool. Nierika", Option magazine, 1990. "The music of Drowning Pool is swirling, echoing haunting, and beautiful. It is sinuous like early Felt, melancholy like some R.E.M., and ethereal like Cocteau Twins."
  64. 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)...".
  65. 4AD: "The studio-based outfit comprised East London duo Alex Ayuli and Rudi Tambala, who described their music as "dreampop". After releasing their debut EP on the One Little Indian label, they moved to 4AD in 1987 and issued the Lollita 12", which was produced by Robin Guthrie of the Cocteau Twins." A.R. Kane short info.
  66. Bryan Reesman: "The Scene Is Now: Dark Wave", CMJ New Music Monthly, issue # 68, p. 48, April 1999.
  67. Abramowitz, Ari: Pockit Rockit Music Finder. My Bloody Valentine., Music Guru, Inc., October 2004, ISBN 0-975-97870-5. "Drawing from 80s alt rock, ethereal Goth, and lots of guitars, MBV's music was both delicate and huge, like a 100' wall of deep red clouds."
  68. 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
  69. Description from the official homepage of Siddal; see also their official MySpace site concerning influences.
  70. Daniel S. Housman: Capitol Reissues Ethereal Pop's Past. The Miscellany News, Number 19, 24. April 1992, p. 11
  71. Jim DeRogatis: Kaleidoscope Eyes. Psychedelic Rock from the 1960s to the 1990s, p. 218, Fourth Estate Ltd. 1996, ISBN 1-8570-2599-7
  72. Michael Barclay, Ian A. D. Jack, Jason Schneider: Have Not Been the Same. The CanRock Renaissance, 1985-1995, p. 538, ECW Press 2001, ISBN 1-55022-475-1
  73. SPIN magazine, Advertisement, p. 111, December 1989
  74. FACT music magazine: "Slowdive FACT mix # 430".
  75. Glasnost Wave magazine: Interview with Slowdive, issue # 29, p. 8, September/October 1991.
  76. New Musical Express: "Ethereal Gone Kids", Interview with Slowdive, June 8, 1991.
  77. Tom Murphy: Interview with My Bloody Valentine, Denver Westword Music, April 23, 2009
  78. Sage Weatherford: "Sam Rosenthal Archived 2015-09-08 at the Wayback Machine", Heathen Harvest, 27 December 2011. "Sam Rosenthal is a name synonymous with the darkwave and ethereal genres that were largely popular and highly influential throughout the '90s, and though popularity and exposure for these genres has waned over the past decade, Rosenthal's now nearly three decade old label Projekt is still running..."
  79. Option music magazine, p. 113, Sonic Options Network 1987
  80. 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."
  81. Nancy Kilpatrick: The Goth Bible. A Compendium for the Darkly Inclined, St. Martin's Griffin 2004, ISBN 0-312-30696-2, 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."
  82. 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, ISBN 0-6797-6385-6
  83. Bryan Reesman: "The Scene Is Now: Dark Wave", CMJ New Music Monthly, issue # 68, p. 49, April 1999. "...there are the unexpected fringe crossovers, such as Love Spirals Downwards, whose recent album Flux offers Ethereal Breakbeat fusion."
  84. "Various: Dark Treasures. A Gothic Tribute to the Cocteau Twins". Discogs.
  85. "Various: Half-Gifts: A Tribute to the Cocteau Twins". Discogs.
  86. Ned Raggett: Autumn's Grey Solace. Riverine, AllMusic.
  87. Gothic Paradise: Tearwave, Biography & Reviews.
  88. Norman Records: Never Really Been Into It.
  89. Michael Toland: Mercury's Antennae. The Guides, Blurt, 14 August 2015.
  90. Pascal Verloove: Saigon Blue Rain, Peek-a-boo music magazine, October 2014.
  91. Montoya, John (December 27, 2020). "Examining Vision Eternel's new record "For Farewell Of Nostalgia," as Alexander Julien explains heartbreak". Idioteq. Archived from the original on December 28, 2020. Retrieved April 29, 2023.
  92. Zimmerman, William (November 24, 2020). "An Interview With Vision Eternel (ethereal, dark ambient)". The Noise Beneath the Snow. Retrieved April 29, 2023.
  93. Robin Guthrie productions Archived 2019-04-15 at the Wayback Machine, Official Website
  94. Saint Marie Records: Broaddaylight, Biography
  95. Simon Reynolds: The Sex Revolts: Gender, Rebellion, and Rock 'n' Roll, Harvard University Press 1996, ISBN 0-6748-0273-X, p. 172. '"But by the '90s, Pink Floyd's blurry sound and androgynous aura were resurrected by a mini-movement of British neo-psychedelic bands known as 'shoegazers' or 'dreampop'."
  96. Pete Prown, Harvey P. Newquist, Jon F. Eiche: Legends of Rock Guitar, Hal Leonard Corporation, 1997, ISBN 0-7935-4042-9, p. 237. "One faction came to be known as dream-pop or "shoegazers" (for their habit of looking at the ground while playing the guitars on stage)."
  97. Patrick Sisson: Vapour Trails. Revisiting Shoegaze, XLR8R no. 123, December 2008
  98. AllMusic: Noise Pop. "In the late '80s, noise pop was the chief inspiration for the British shoegazing movement, which made the lyrics more introspective and the melodies more fragile."
  99. Michael Bibby, Lauren M. E. Goodlad: Goth. Undead Subculture, Duke University Press Books, 2007, ISBN 0-822-33921-8, p. 126
  100. Jason Morehead: Love Spirals Downwards. Idylls, Opus Zine, October 2009. "Ryan Lum's guitars create the same sort of jawdroppingly gorgeous soundscapes as those produced by Robin Guthrie, Suzanne Perry's gorgeous voice echoes Elizabeth Fraser's gossamery glossolalia, and beneath it all, there's the cold, artificial thump of a drum machine (which serves only to highlight the music's ethereal aspects)."
  101. Stuart Maconie: Ride. Sex and the Singles Band, New Musical Express, 8 February 1992. "They are the model '90s pop group; sensitive young men with floppy hair and languid tunes, displaying cherubic belligerence laced with existential angst. But surely RIDE belong to the blank generation of anonymous musicians who are killing the glamour of pop?"
  102. Ben Myers: Muse. Inside The Muscle Machine, Independent Music Press, 2004, ISBN 0-953-99426-0. "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..."
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