Dear fans, friends, and followers…
Happy September. It’s our favourite month, all month long. Cocteau Twins named their final studio ‘September Sound’ in honour of the birthdays of their first-born children, Lucy Belle Guthrie and Stanley Raymonde, who each celebrate their birthdays this month.
There's quite a bit of Cocteau Twins news to catch up on!
New music!
Robin Guthrie will release a new EP entitled Mockingbird Love on his label Soleil Après Minuit and distributed by Darla Records. You can pre-order via his Bandcamp page, and stream one track, “My Courtesan,” to whet your appetite until the official release date of 15 October. (Also, Robin has re-launched his official Facebook Page. Expect a fully redesigned website coming soon.)
Always in demand, Robin has also lent his production and mixing talents to a new song, "Running," by Australian-by-way-of-Paris dreampop band Heligoland.
Elizabeth Fraser surprised fans with a seemingly out-of-nowhere guest appearance on the track "Tales from the Trash Stratum" by Oneohtrix Point Never (aka Daniel Lopatin). The Brooklyn-based experimental electronic artist uses heavily sampled vocal sounds that are somewhat reminiscent of Liz's collaboration with The Future Sound of London in 1994. (So don't expect swooping melodies and catchy choruses.)
Simon Raymonde’s charity prize draw
Simon is currently hosting a prize draw in support of Clock Tower Sanctuary, a charity dedicated to helping young homeless people with shelter and support. On his fundraising web page he writes:
To celebrate the 31st anniversary of Cocteau Twins' Heaven or Las Vegas, Simon Raymonde is launching a prize draw of exclusive memorabilia from some of his many prestigious music projects to help raise funds for The Clock Tower Sanctuary. This organisation is dedicated to helping provide a safe space for 16-to-25 year olds who are homeless in and around Brighton, UK. They provide a place where young vulnerable individuals can feel safe and also have access to much needed services and support. All funds raised through this prize draw go to help continue their amazing mission.
This prize draw will be running for 30 days, with entries closing Sunday 17th October 2021, 3:14pm GMT.
Prizes include Cocteau Twins artwork; musical instruments and pedals; signed Cocteau Twins, This Mortal Coil, and Lost Horizons LPs, and more.
Love on the radio
Three recent podcasts have featured Cocteau Twins—or a member—as their focus.
Most recently—on 21 September—from RadioRoutestock’s ‘How ‘Bout That Band?’ series, a radio show with some brief commentary on the band and their story woven into a curated list of songs. Host Simon Tyler shares personal reflections on Cocteau Twins and their music. The half-hour programme is the perfect listen when going for a walk or taking a break from work. (They also have a pretty catchy theme song.)
Next up, we have Spotify’s ‘Bandsplain.’ The popular podcast is ‘a show where host Yasi Salek invites experts to explain cult bands and iconic artists—and why people love them—using a curated playlist to help you understand the hype.’ On their 16 September episode, Salek takes a deep dive with special guest Claire Shaffer, formerly of Rolling Stone—a self-described Cocteau fanatic. Clocking in at nearly 2.5 hours, the co-hosts take us on a very thoughtful journey through the band's history and discography, discussing the context and adding colorful detail along the way. Sadly, their impeccable fact-checking falters mid-way, as they begin discussing Blue Bell Knoll, and doesn’t quite recover and, like, it’s only a problem if you’re a total Cocteau Twins nerd and actually care about such details. It shouldn't stop you from enjoying an otherwise great listen.
And, finally, there's ‘The SuperSwell Podcast’’s 29 July episode, “Bella Union Burls Forever,” featuring an interview with Simon Raymonde. Over the course of an hour and ten minutes, host Paul Cheetham talks with Simon about his time with Cocteau Twins, the band's breakup, the foundation of Bella Union, and the journey of taking the label to the pinnacle of independent music. Naturally they discuss Simon's band Lost Horizons and their records. As always, Simon's a great interview and an all-around lovely guy.
When in ‘Vegas’…
In what was probably one of the most high-profile and entirely unexpected intersections of Cocteau Twins with mainstream pop culture, on 6 July American pop singer (and television's erstwhile "Hannah Montana") Miley Cyrus—who's made something of a habit of performing unexpected covers during live shows—delivered a version of Cocteaus' track "Heaven or Las Vegas," from the 1990 LP of the same name, as the opening song of an outdoor concert in, appropriately, Las Vegas. (She was opening a new hotel or something?)
The song was obviously very well-rehearsed and not simply a lark, though it's too bad she didn't seem to have the will to sing the whole song (nor mention the band that wrote it), and interrupted her singing several times to apologise for indulging herself. Why not just go for it? (NB: What I heard sounded really good, to be honest, even if it's not Elizabeth's voice.) It would be interesting to see if Cyrus tries it again in the future (with a longer version)—or perhaps on an album of covers?
To say the least, Cocteau fans' responses on social media were mixed running the usual gamut from disgust to delight. You decide.
Ah, that ‘must be why I’m thinking of Las Vegas…’
Meanwhile, Steve Lamacq of BBC Radio 6 inducted Heaven or Las Vegas into its Music Album Club in June. Lamacq, in his introduction, described it as an…
'[A]lbum the influence of which I think you can still hear in a lot of music which is being made today, sometimes on the periphery of pop music, but it's definitely there, which is one of the reasons we chose this. Interestingly, this comes out in 1990, the same year as the debut album by The Sundays... who were probably one of the bands who already had been influenced by one of the earlier LPs by this band. They were and they still are phenomenally influential, this trio.'
(NB: It remains unclear what Simon intended to say at the end there. ‘Despite the vast quantity of’ what? We may never know.)
The ‘White Shoe-gaze’
One might be forgiven for assuming bands with a certain sound that may have been heavily influenced by Cocteau Twins or other artists along the 'shoegaze' and 'dreampop' spectrum are uniformly European and pale-faced, but it wouldn't be remotely true. A feature by M.I.C. for MixMag on 24 May entitled, 'Exploring the Black roots of shoegaze and dreampop,' gives us, for example, a marvelous survey of Black musicians working in these genres, past and present, who have themselves been very influential. Several of them generously credit Cocteau Twins as an inspiration, including former 4AD labelmates A.R. Kane (whose EP Lollita Robin Guthrie produced) from the UK, as well as American friends The Veldt (aka Apollo Heights), who toured with Cocteau Twins in 1990 and 1994. (Robin produced their first LP, White Music for Black People, which was sadly shelved by the record company, though some of the songs made it onto their LP Marigolds.) Allegedly, “Everlasting Gobstopper” was a track from that lost album. It was released by the band as a single several years ago.
'Roots,' of course, implies many tendrils nurturing the same tree, so it's only fair to acknowledge the presence of these other seminal influences on sub-genres like shoegaze and dreampop. (Regrettably, a handful of angry and evidently fragile followers on the official Cocteau Twins Facebook Page strongly disagreed. Alas, you can't pick your fans.) Contrary to the popular assumption that shoegaze and dreampop are essentially 'European' music (and so presumably 'white', despite the fact that not all Europeans are white)—and commonly associated with artists on British labels like 4AD, Creation, Factory, Sarah, and others (including Bella Union)—they are in fact much more diverse and multi-dimensional, with bands all over the world making beautiful and interesting music that fits into or intersects with these categories. One might argue that a handful of bands have been the de facto white faces of these genres, but that's the media's fault. It's not reality. (The media also created the word ‘shoegaze,’ and it wasn’t a compliment.)
Music can, and should, transcend differences like race, but there's also nothing wrong with acknowledging and celebrating talent that challenges the stereotype. So check out the story and give these artists a listen!
In case you missed it…
CocteauFest 2021, the 18th such annual celebration organised by fans, was held on 17 September at San Francisco’s Cat Club, which has been host to several past events. Anyone interested in hosting a future event or learning about upcoming gatherings should join the CocteauFest Facebook Group.
Prize-winning American poet Christina Pugh published a new collection in August entitled Stardust Media. In the eponymous poem, Pugh invokes Cocteau Twins directly, referencing the album Treasure and “Song to the Siren.”
In July, UK’s Far Out magazine published their take on 'Six Definitive Songs: The ultimate beginner's guide to Cocteau Twins'. (Is it ultimate, though?)
Tim Burgess of Charlatans, who has hosted online listening parties for hundreds of records, including Cocteaus’ Heaven or Las Vegas and Four-Calendar Café (with Simon joining in via Twitter), is publishing a companion book entitled—wait for it—Tim’s Twitter Listening Party Book.
Last, but never least, our Elizabeth Fraser celebrated her 58th birthday on 29 August. Canty birthday, Liz!
That’s all for now.
We hope this has been worth your time and perhaps gives you a reason to forget your troubles and listen to some beautiful music for a while.
For a longer (much longer) list of newsy bits, please visit the Press & News page. We really do keep it updated! And if you’d like to mix with other fans, please visit us on Facebook.
Frou-frou foxes,
Michael
LOVED this newsletter - I got clued in to many things I hadn't heard about, and loved the music clips. Thanks so much.