Originally released in 1995, this underground gem gets a reissue courtesy of the captured tracks’ shoegaze archives which, along with this issue's review of deardarkdead will see a series of other underground shoegaze records unearthed in 2012.
This is the album’s second reissue, after it got another outing in 2002 via Words on Music. However, and quite bizarrely, they still seem to be an unknown entity. A real rarity in this day and age, no website, Facebook or even a Wikipedia page for this band, although I find through their MySpace that they have in fact released a new album this year in 2011. It seems Should (who originally formed as shiFt) are the essence of what it means to be underground, although after listening to A Folding Sieve this soon becomes painfully ironic, as their sound is everywhere in 2011’s music – simply via the work of other artists.
Arguably, they missed the shoegaze boat by some years. This record was made four years after Loveless set the template for the so-called genre, even Slowdive were on their third and final album by the time Should were putting out their first EP. In the UK, the scene was in decline as Britpop began to skyrocket and in the US commercial ‘grunge’ was still king as people clung onto anything resembling a new Kurt Cobain. So, in many ways Should, while tied sonically to the movement, really operated in a time and platform outside of the boom. Thankfully, Should exist sonically in a time and place of their own as well.
The opening piano twinkles and haunting atmospherics not so much open the album but ease you into a new world, a mystical, enchanted world with lush densities and swirling soundscapes. The female vocals are ghost-like, omnipresent and eerie; they exude a delicate balance between beauty and frightfulness – perhaps an apt embodiment of the record itself. It becomes apparent from a very early stage that there is something very special going on here. As the guitars attack and hack their way through ‘Breathe Salt’ the world is flipped on it’s head, a steady thrashing of murky, fuzzed-up guitars and simple cadences bounce in the air. The dual melody of male-female vocals is utterly beautiful and captivating; stalled, simplistic delivery with a roll of the tongue that suggests complete authority and control over the melody in play – it’s incredibly reminiscent of some of John Maus’ (see Hey Moon) work form this year, an early indication of the foresight and timelessness displayed by Should.
The eerie, moody intensities displayed on ‘Resonate’ again indicate a decade sprawling fusion of sounds, the apocalyptic drums pound and hammer with a penetrating nod to Joy Division’s ‘Atmosphere’, while the stark male vocals could easily mislead you to think this was the latest Horrors track or even something from Wire’s brooding 154. As the album continues, it really shakes the association of simply being ‘shoegaze’; it has so much more to it. It’s playful, riddled with pop sensibilities, but also harsh, deeply atmospheric industrial tones. The beauty of this record - and arguably the genre itself – is the constant battle and balance between the ugly and the beautiful - one moment you have your head in the clouds, taken away amidst a humid sea of swirling guitars, melodies and vocal delights, and the next you are dragged down to the furnace room of the dungeon, where the guitars chug and twist and the drums pound and hiss. Ultimately asking, is this supposed to be beautiful or ugly?
Should were a completely unknown act to me prior to receiving this album, the discovery and voyage I have taken with these eighteen tracks has been a remarkable musical awakening - one of those rare moments in modern day music that still keeps you pushing forward against the rocky seas of mediocrity. The band is so varied in its musical elements and, texturally, they have created soundscapes so rich, dense and multi-layered that they feel tangible. Always been eager for one more Galaxie 500 record? Dying for My Bloody Valentine to get their arses in gear and release more material? Would you rip your own arm off for another Spacemen 3 record? All these things seem trivial when listening to this record, go out and buy A Folding Sieve now. It’s the greatest album you’ve never heard.