Beautiful Noise (2014)

BEAUTIFUL NOISE is a documentary about shoegazing, the 1980s/early 1990s genre of pop music that emphasized guitar flange and vocals buried in the mix. Though Eric Green began work on the documentary in 2005, it was only released in 2014 after crowdfunding could help secure rights to the huge amount of music used in it.The documentary mainly consists of presentations of the most prominent bands in this scene: Cocteau Twins, Jesus and Mary Chain, My Bloody Valentine, Ride, Slowdive, Chapterhouse, Pale Saints, Lush, and Medicine. The first three get the most time dedicated to them, while the rest are covered more briefly. Their stories are told through a mix of archive footage and recent interviews of the band members. To show the wider impact of these musicians, there are also interviews with Billy Corgan of Smashing Pumpkins, Robert Smith of The Cure, Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, Adam Franklin of Swervedriver, Wayne Coyne of The Flaming Lips, 4AD label head Ivo Watts-Russell, Ulrich Schrauss, Rob Dickinson of Catherine Wheel, and Creation label head Alan McGee.The documentary then moves on to short bits on various aspects of the scene in general: experimentation, the predominance of female vocals, the image of shoegazers are shy, uncertain performers, their rocky reception in the press, "the scene that celebrates itself", and finally the collapse of the shoegazing scene due to changing economics or bands' internal squabbles. The document ends with a mention of the "resurgence" of the shoegazing aesthetic in new post-millennium bands like M83 or A Place to Bury Strangers and the reunion of some of the classic bands.The downside of this format is that while it provides a great deal of exclusive live footage and interviews to thrill fans of this music, it offers no straightforward narration that would inform viewers unfamiliar with this movement in musical history. Also, to fit into a 85-minute format, material naturally had to be cut, but it is disappointing how the perennially overlooked band AR Kane is so prominently mentioned at the start of the documentary, but we get only two brief shots of band member Alex Ayuli.

I finally got around to watching my DVD of the "Beautiful Noise" documentary directed by Eric Green - and while much of it was what I expected, it was still great to hear the artists behind the music I've loved for so long discuss their influences, the scene they got lumped into and how their bands folded up shop, so to speak, as well as the current resurgence and interest in this type of music.I question how useful or entertaining this doc will be for the uninitiated to this style of music. For the rest of us, it's a great walk down memory lane, and with interviews from rock luminaries like Billy Corgan and Trent Reznor, a validation of what we've known all along.But my favorite part was the interviews of Kevin Shields and Alan McGee inter-cutting between each other as they talked about the recording process of MBV's "loveless" (they are basically ripping each other a new hole about the whole experience by recounting how, basically, they thought the other person was disrupting their lives, and in McGee's POV business). This just goes to show that history is determined by those who write it (or talk about it in this case).Personally, the most important outcome of watching this documentary was that it made me pull out all of my shoegaze/dreampop CDs to rip them into FLAC format so I could revisit it all during a long trip I have coming up.If you get a chance to see "Beautiful Noise", by all means do: the artists are interviewed in intimate settings where one gets the sense they were able to relax and really reflect upon the music they've made and their larger cultural impact. It was definitely worth the wait for this doc.

Beautiful Noise is a well done documentary on a very specific type of music. I call it dream pop, some call it shoe gaze. All the bands documented are excellent, but I would have liked to hear about all the fans who came to their shows! There are no interviews from every day non famous fans. Also the bands do not talk about touring which to me is an important part of being in a band. There was so much going on in the early 90s cultural landscape, but there isn't too much mentioned about that. My favorite band Curve only gets a minute of mention. There was no mention about how different their music was and how bands like Garbage were influenced by Toni Halliday and Dean Garcia's music skills. I liked this film and watched it three times to get an idea of what more I would have liked to see.

Beautiful Noise is an amazingly intelligent, thorough, and detailed film that chronicles the formation of a style of music that many refer to as Shoegaze. The term Shoegaze was originally coined by a talentless hack of a "journalist", and was meant to disparage the lack of showmanship employed by these bands who preferred to let the music speak for itself, instead of prancing around on stage.The film does an excellent job of introducing us to the bands responsible for the birth of the genre, like the Jesus and Marychain, My Bloody Valentine, and the Cocteau Twins. They didn't set out to start a movement, they simply wanted to play THEIR music, but their unique style ended up having an influence on many other musicians.What they started, developed into a more cohesive movement in the late 80s and early 90s, with British bands like Ride, Catherine Wheel, Slowdive, and Chapterhouse using heavily effected guitar sounds and an overall mood that was influenced by the bands mentioned earlier.Beautiful Noise follows the chronology of the movement to weave an entertaining story and includes many rare interviews with members of the most important bands of the genre. There is also some excellent input from a few legendary musicians from outside the movement, like Robert Smith, Trent Reznor, and Billy Corgan, all of whom are fans, and most likely influenced these bands in some form, as well.Beautiful Noise never actually mentions the name "Shoegaze", and most of these bands would probably never consider calling themselves "Shoegaze". For me the term is merely a convenient way of grouping a bunch of bands that have obvious similarities. I like taking back the power of the word.If you're a fan of the genre or any of the bands in the film, Beautiful Noise is a must. If you are interested in music on any level, then Beautiful Noise is a must. It would be an wonderful introduction to this music if you have always been interested but never really listened to any of the bands. The film does such a fantastic job of capturing the essence and spirit of the movement and detailing the motivation and driving force behind the artists.I was lucky enough to see Beautiful Noise at a festival in Hollywood, and it's a shame more people haven't had a chance to see it yet. I can't wait for it to come out on Blu-Ray so I can watch it again and again.