My Bloody Valentine 'To Here Knows When' (Creation Records, 1991)

Ah, the smeared, disorientating melodic magma of 'To Here Knows When'. It heralded the release of the what might be the best album ever made - 'Loveless' of course - moving My Bloody Valentine's sound away from the pummelling beats of 'Soon' and towards the murky soundworld of that trademark album.

By this stage Kevin Shields - MBV's genius in chief - was locked into a spiral of tinnitus-inducing recording and escalating studio costs, losing himself in his quest for the perfect drone. The bankrupting of Creation and all that is well documented elsewhere (and in the new Creation Records film) but 'To Here Knows When' best represents the quest to create a sound that serves to immerse and blanket the listener.

Encountering the track for the first time, the smudged waves of guitar and highly treated vocals wash over an enwrap you, shifting focus and confusing your mind-ears. At first it doesn't make sense - in much the same way as listening to 'Bitches Brew' for the first time is incomprehensible - but through repeated exposure it all begins to make beautiful sense.



Unofficial My Bloody Valentine website

Upside Down: The Creation Records story - film website