Bound together by a love for Cocteau Twins and the Jesus and Mary Chain, the members of the short-lived band Chapterhouse laid down an early and enduring model of shoegaze with their 1991 release, “Whirlpool”. On their debut, the young group stood at the center of all the trends happening with British alternative music at the time. It had the effects-driven guitar lines and mystique of early My Bloody Valentine, the acid-tinged danceability of the Stone Roses, and touches of electronic elements in line with the fast-developing electronic scenes popping up on the island at the time.
Highlights include ‘Pearl’, featuring Slowdive’s Rachel Goswell, while the album later earned a place among Pitchfork’s 50 best shoegaze records. Dreamy, melodic and danceable, ‘Whirlpool’ remains one of the era’s distinctive albums.
That’s not to say there’s a lack of furious stringed explosions that define shoegaze. On “Autosleeper,” the group ramps up into barrages of noise and drum fills with an electronic freakout happening simultaneously. Later, on “Something More,” the chorus is propelled by a powerful, distorted guitar riff that swallows the vocals and floods the speakers.
For all their glory, though, Chapterhouse only released one other album, “Blood Music” in 1993, a more polished record that didn’t hold as much underground cred as its predecessor. Still, like the heyday of the genre, they burned fast, but they burned bright.
The Fat Angel Sings 