By Katie Asha, Music Deputy Editor
If I told you forty years ago that I was twenty years old and had never heard a song by My Bloody Valentine, you would probably think I lived under a rock. Nowadays, it's a lot more common – while the band's 1991 album Loveless was a genre-defining household name forty years ago, they're less widely listened to as they once might have been. Pitchback Playback, the music events company hosting listening parties in the dark, is making an effort to rectify this.
Founded in 2016, Pitchback Playback is the world's biggest deep listening event, occurring in different cities and venues across the globe to give people a chance to see their favourite music in a new light (or lack thereof). It has been called “the future of music” by The Guardian, and “one of London’s coolest things to do” by GQ.
The notion of it is simple, but surprisingly original: give critically-acclaimed music releases the same care and attention that we do to a film at the cinema – sitting in darkness and consuming it with undivided attention. It proved effective for my first experience listening to My Bloody Valentine – a listening party which took place in Bristol’s We The Curious Planetarium on the 3rd November, to celebrate the 35th anniversary of Loveless. Upon arrival, we were given a “Pitchblack Playback" branded eyemask, optional for use if the only light source in the planetarium – the faint green glow of the fire exit sign – was interrupting the listening experience.
My first experience of My Bloody Valentine was, as I could have predicted, a good one. I love shoegaze, love cool listening events, and love the friend I was there with, so it was doomed from the start to be a joy to attend. Loveless is hazy, ethereal, and unexpected all the way through: widely defined as the masterwork of the shoegaze genre with its dreamlike sound, guitar distortion, and ethereal vocals placed low in the mix.
Veronica Quattrocchio
My one critique of the experience is the sound quality at times felt a little fuzzy (and not just due to the album’s reverb-heavy sound), ballooning and echoing around the room and preventing it from feeling truly detailed or crisp. This was more a venue hiccup than an issue with the whole event concept, but is something worth thinking about in future.
I truly cannot wait to see what Pitchblack Playback does next and will be keeping my ears open and eyes shut for the next time they come to Bristol.
Featured image: Ben Gomori / Pitchblack Playback
Will you be going to the next Pitchback Playback event in Bristol?
