Slowdive - Pygmalion

A few years before Radiohead threw a curveball with Kid A, an album considered to be a radical stylistic departure from the band’s established sonic template, another Thames Valley band called Slowdive did a "Kid A".

Unlike Radiohead, Slowdive were not popular with the critics and the masses. On the other hand, like Radiohead they headed in a certain direction over two albums which relied on emotive songwriting, soaring guitars and epic but anti-rock anthems. Then following career-defining albums, they turned the notion of "the band" upside down and released equally impressive (if not better) follow-up albums. These albums (Kid A and Pygmalion) were more studio-based and electronic leaning. Nevertheless, Radiohead and Slowdive made sonic advancements that were more logical than most think. The difference was that the progression was less linear and more forward-thinking than before.

Pygmalion was Slowdive's swan song and criminally overlooked as it was Slowdive and it refused to capture the Britpop zeitgeist of its time. Instead the band took inspiration from the thriving ambient techno movement led by innovators such as Aphex Twin, Seefeel and Global Communication. Similar to how Radiohead deconstructed the elements of OK Computer into a sparser template with Kid A, Slowdive boiled down the sound of their previous classic Souvlaki and buried it deep into the ground with ghostly samples, loops, minimal guitar, ambient orchestral instrumentation and muted cymbals and beats. What they created wasn’t a melodic collection of songs but a series of minimalist and spaced out soundscapes which sounded dramatic and, at times, folk.   

I often think of Pygmalion as a soundtrack to a seance! But there are also moments of lulling warmth which are similar to those on  two other classics - Laughing Stock by Talk Talk and Hex by Bark Psychosis. This isn't surprising as both records were major influences on Slowdive's brave new age world. Pygmalion also went a step further by pushing the well-crafted ambient rock aesthetic into a more minimal electronic sphere.    

Considering that at the time Slowdive were not getting on with each other, faced record label pressures, and no one from their ilk (except The Cranes) took a similar stylistic path, Pygmalion was a brave move. Ultimately it did lead to the band being dropped by Creation Records and disbanding. But not all was lost. Slowdive metamorphosed into the country and folk inspired Mojave 3. With Pygmalion they also left behind a memorably unique and influential masterpiece. Now, that was a far more impressive legacy than Britpop!