The Woove would like to introduce a feature article from Ian Marshall, WUVT's Music Director for 2010-2011, who spotlights new shoegaze, noise pop band Serena Maneesh.

4AD is my favorite record label. They have that creepy gothic vibe but unlike say Metropolis Records they see no need in constraining themselves to the listenership of the black clad masses. Metropolis realizes this and recently unleashed a band called Veil Veil Vanish to try to step outside their musical sphere and into the pop world. Veil Veil Vanish isn't really a bad band, but Metropolis' antics are so self-conscious it's almost unbearable to listen to Veil Veil Vanish. When 4AD dives into the pop world it somehow always seems natural and fluid. Last year's The Big Pink had a strange but pleasing fit to the record label, combining the dark dance of Curve with the Oasis sentiments the world thought Kasabian had clichéd and ruined forever. The recent Efterklang release, a band on par with Animal Collective in terms of indie-ness, shows just how far outside 4AD is willing to step outside their image. It doesn't seem their recent array of odd bands is about market penetration for the label. It's all a weird experiment to test the strength of the thirty year old 4AD image when placed over bands of diverse backgrounds. It's looking pretty damn strong at this point.

4AD's most recent major release is by a band originally discovered by Sufjan Stevens called Serena-Maneesh. Sometimes it takes a lot of writing to describe a band's sound. Serena-Maneesh's is easy enough to sum up: they sound like My Bloody Valentine. Exactly. If you've never listened to My Bloody Valentine, they combine airy, often indecipherable female vocals with music that is both abrasive and delicate. The shoegaze and dream pop genres of the 1990s have a heavy debt to My Bloody Valentine, to say the least. My Bloody Valentine embodied the ideals of the genres and brought them to their zenith then, but as everyone looked to and copied My Bloody Valentine, they brought about the genre's destruction.

Now it's twenty years after their heyday and not quite as uncool to copy them. Serena-Maneesh's SM-2: Abyss in B Minor does what My Bloody Valentine did, but makes things just a little more hairy, a little weirder, and ultimately a little cooler. The white noise is savage, most evident in SM-2's opener, Ayisha Abyss. A Primal Scream-y bassline is supported by a cast of backward vocals, reverse looped symphonies, and guitars that leave any tabber scratching their skulls. Where the hell did the term “white noise” come from, anyway? I think the word "white" was used to denote being in the background, something weird and hazy as a backing for regular instruments. This white noise isn't a backing. It's an assault. Anthony Gonzalez of M83 built up similar hazy backdrops that jump out at you, but while he means to evoke feelings of warm love and nostalgia, Serena-Maneesh want to fling saturdays and youth out of your mind. This is chaos. This is decay. Would anyone have a problem with "black noise"?

SM-2 also has a little more vision than My Bloody Valentine. When they released Loveless, it was an experiment that turned out astoundingly well, but an experiment nonetheless. Serena-Maneesh have obviously pored over and memorized the experiments of My Bloody Valentine and turned madness into method. They can take that one minute intro of My Bloody Valentine's “Loomer” and stretch out the tense atmosphere for almost six minutes in 'Melody for Jaana' and make it look pretty damn easy, when you know it's quite possibly the hardest thing in the world.

Part of Loveless' wonder was just how alien it sounded. If you need proof, Brian Eno from early glam-era Roxy Music said the concluding track 'Soon' set the new standard for pop. If Eno digs it, it must be from outer space. SM-2's sentiments are very human. 'Melody for Jaana', despite all its lavish haze, is a cuddle song. It's especially cuddly after the unapologetic noise attack of 'Reprobate!' The intimate emotions of SM-2's last track, 'Magdelena (Symphony #8)' are a little more contorted, but they're there. MBV couldn't be as playful as 'Magdelena' not because they didn't want to but because they didn't know how. Now it's twenty years after post-rock stepped on the scene and Radiohead became the biggest band in the universe. Jazz has become inseparably mixed in with alternative rock, something Serena-Maneesh use to their advantage. Don't shy away from the gentle snare taps or groovy bass rundowns. Let them flow and add that extra dimension to your music.

Although they're artsy and intellectual, pure pop goodness isn't lost on Serena-Maneesh. The average pop listener won't gain more than wet bedsheets from 'Ayisha Abyss', but should you weather the storm a sunny day awaits you in 'I Just Want To See Your Face'. Visions of Debbie Harry and bright summer shores are summoned. This Mortal Coil did a lot of musical exploration for 4AD way back when, through everything from classical to funk, but they left the beachfront vacation vibe untouched. Serena-Maneesh aren't afraid to let the sun wash over their pale skin, and they're even less afraid of letting their listener share the feeling.

SM-2: Abyss in B Minor is just a snapshot of shoegaze days long past, but it’s a damn vivid one. Forty minutes isn't much time to ruminate on and encapsulate the feelings of one of the headiest periods in music history, but Serena-Maneesh manage to do it, and then some. As for the term "derivative", it's slowly being deflated. With everyone trying to be the latest indie/experimental/noise rock messiah, originality just isn't as original as it used to be.