Year Released: 2006
Rating:  B
Recommended For Listeners of: My Bloody Valentine, The Autumns, Sonic Youth, Mogwai, Slowdive, Adorable, Ride, Catherine Wheel, Jesus and Mary Chain, Moose, Explosions In The Sky, Mono, The American Dollar, God Is An Astronaut, Lush, This Will Destroy You, Curve, The Cranes, Swervedriver, Isis, Pelican, Chapterhouse, lovesliescrushing, Love Spirals Downwards, 

Bethany Curve - Gold

Opening track "Drag" starts of with eerie droning guitars that lay low for moment, only to be broken by boombastic drums. The drums hit you like an upper cut, along with classic shoegazer guitars loaded with reverb and delay.  The drums are then dropped to leave a dramatic wait of more weird droning guitars. Ray Lake's vocals join in an almost emotionless, but commanding voice.  "Drag" continues to feel you out and paint a picture of the early morning medieval battle waiting on the fog clearing. A very dramatic and picturesque way to start the record. Certainly one of the highlights of Bethany Curve's career. Very few tracks in this genre can match the majesty of "Drag".  One noticeable feature of Gold is the flow of the tracks into each other. They album seems like one long track. Carnyval Sweet is a very Slowdive sounding track but with much louder and tastier beats. "Fold in The Floor" is an instrumental piece in the post-rock mold, except it never really gets going.  "Temporary" is a My Bloody Valentine noise fest of in-audible vocals and heavily droned guitars. "Fourteen" is an ode to early 90s bands Lush and Curve without vocals. Another instrumental filler that may actually deserve being a much longer song. "Pool and Shine" is Gold's second giant track, opening with soft guitar picking. Swooning guitar layers are added, along with a buzzing bass and drums. It goes like this for over two minutes then break into early 90s head shaking alternative, Boo Radley's style. The distinctive drumming sound and style is brought to the fore here. The vocals are all blurred and fuzzy to give "Pool and Shine" a psychedelic druggy feel.

The albums continues with the luscious "Strength". A dark mood is set with the Twin Peak like opening and a simple repeating bass and  echoing guitars. The tension is broken by a haunting lead riff. "Strength" is another strong track that can sit alongside any of your shoegazer favorites. The slow drifting tension eventually builds to layers of sounds but never lets go of the mood.  "Cygnus X-1" begins with a weird crackle that may sounds like an alien transmission. Droning guitars fill this track from beginning to end. A song like this may appear pointless but it may have place in the bigger context of the album.  Movement is an instrumental that could easily be left out. The majestic "Mirasmus" follows with more textured and layered guitars and boombastic drumming. Simple suspense filled guitars hang over everything for most of this song. In combination with the drums, it creates a melodic rhythmic pattern that puts a twist into the shoegazer format.

Gold is highly recommended for fans of Shoegazing and Post Rock. Everything from Cocteau Twins to Chapterhouse can be heard on this record. It is music that relies on heavy usage of guitar effects and Bethany Curve delivers it a dense and complex package. They manage along the way to create a fresh sound using an old formula and also came up with all time classic shoegazer tune in  "Drag".  Overall Gold is strong collection of music showcasing the different sides of the band, from swirly dreamy pop to complex rock. Seek out if you think "Loveless" is one of the greatest record ever.

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