9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Blasphemous, amazing and beautiful, Nov 26 2007
By TheTechGuy - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Loveless (Audio CD)
It's hard to imagine anyone having the guts to remake the entire Loveless album. It's even harder to imagine that capturing the intricacy of that album with piano, organ, flute, cello, overdriven Telecasters (or at least the overdriven Telecaster sound), steel guitar, bass and drums. Most noticeably missing from the list is distortion. While Japancakes' album is awash in reverb, echo, space echo, delay feedback (you get the point) the overall effect is the quintessential ambient americana treatment of the greatest glimmer rock/shoegazer album of the 1990s. While My Bloody Valentine's laborious studio production, seems to be the result of about two years of meticulous cutting and pasting audio tracks on late 80's studio equipment, Japancakes reminds us that Kevin Shields also had a keen, yet unorthodox sense of melody, counterpoint and working with variations on themes. Behind the distortion and unorthodox mixing style of the original, Japancakes prove, (as MBV fans have always felt in their guts) that underneath the noise Loveless is a delicate beautiful album filled with musical themes that may haunt you for years.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Worthy of Its Subject, April 17 2011
By Max Headroom "cooldownthepace" - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Loveless (Audio CD)
As the other reviewers said, if you love Loveless, odds are high you will love this. Admittedly, some songs are done better than others (To Here Knows When in particular is outstanding), but as a whole, the album is fantastic. I find myself listening to it just as much as the original these days--especially since it's a bit easier than the original to just keep on in the background while you're doing something else.
5.0 out of 5 stars
a "loving" tribute to loveless, Mar 4 2012
By dan - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Loveless (Audio CD)
I just discovered this album today, even though it is a relatively early project for Japancakes, and I have been enjoying their music for a number of years already. Rather than being loveless, it is actually a very loving tribute to one of the great icons of the genre called "shoegaze," that being "Loveless," by My Bloody Valentine. It reminds me in some ways of the album by Bang on a Can that re-created Eno's "Music for Airports." Both of them cover classics, but arrange them with other instruments. In the case of "Music for Airports," the original electronic compositions are re-arranged for acoustic orchestral instruments. On "Loveless," the dense electric guitar-laden wall of sound is re-arranged for rock band instruments including pedal steel and piano. The result is not at all the ferocious onslaught of sound that characterized the MBV loveless. Instead, the brilliant melodic ideas of the original are highlighted in a different way. The original material is given new life by the the creative ideas and brilliant playing of Japancakes. In recent years I have found it hard to listen to MBV's "Loveless." Although in the past I have had numerous enjoyable times listening to it, it is pretty intense. This album takes the harsh edge off, and reveals a different side of the beauty of "Loveless." In the end, a "cover" album needs to stand on its own as a work of art. For me, this one definitely does.