My Bloody Valentine are set to release a new album and EP this year, according to Kevin Shields.
The band’s feted third album, which was originally begun in the mid-1990s was shelved due to inter-band politics and wranglings with their record label. The band haven’t released any new material since 1991’s Loveless’.
It was beginning work on remastering the group’s two classic albums – ‘Isn’t Anything’ and ‘Loveless’ – and a collection of EPs that led Shields to listen to the never-released third album, he told Mojo. “I listened to the stacks of CDs and thought, ‘Shit, this is better than the unreleased tracks on the compilation’. I decided it would be insane not to finish it,” he said.
According to Shields, the new album will be followed by an EP of new material, which will also be recorded this year.
In an interview with NME’s sister magazine Uncut this month, Kevin Shields reveals the process behind remastering the original material. When asked about the new version of band’s 1988 debut ‘Isn’t Anything’, he said:
I can honestly say the new version is much better. Back in ’88 we didn’t have much control, and it was mastered real quick – ‘(When You Wake) You’re Still in a Dream’ in particular came out way too quiet. Being able to fix those little faults was great.
Speaking of the previously unreleased material on the ‘EPs 1988-1991’ – which includes tracks that never made it onto ‘Isn’t Anything’ and various other material from EPs – Shields says he felt the time had come to release the material: “It didn’t come out at the time because I didn’t really like it,” he says. “But in retrospect, the reasons for not liking it anymore. It was just, like, I didn’t like the tone of my voice or something. But now I’m quite happy for people to hear it.”
My Bloody Valentine will put out a trio of re-issues on May 7. Remastered versions of ‘Isn’t Anything’ and ‘Loveless’ will go on sale, as well as ‘EP’s 1988-1991’, a new compilation made up of the band’s four EP releases on Creation Records – ‘Feed Me With Your Kiss’, ‘You Made Me Realise’, ‘Glider’, ‘Tremolo’ and seven other rare tracks.
Last week it was announced that My Bloody Valentine’s Debbie Googe will be Primal Scream’s new touring bass player. Googe, who was a founding member of My Bloody Valentine and also a member of Showpony and The Bikini Mutants, will replace Gary ‘Mani’ Mounfield in the band’s line-up after he left to rejoin The Stone Roses for their lucrative reunion tour late last year.