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the pastels

the spectac moment

About Me

This is The Pastels own myspace. It is maintained by Stephen and Katrina.
Official biog, 2006.
The Pastels are a Glasgow-based music group, which originated in ramshackle style in the 1980s, with an almost accidental sound which became extremely influential both on a local level and internationally. Singles like Something Going On and Million Tears were rough-hued 'almost-pop' and connected with a new audience of music lovers many of whom saw and heard something which offered them the possibility to become a participant, which they expressed through fanzines and their own music. The Pastels debut album, Up For A Bit With The Pastels (Glass, 1987), was a spectacular triumph, but their participation in the NME's C86 seemed to mark them down as 'a certain type of group'. After an anti-climatic follow-up, Sittin Pretty (Chapter 22, 1989), it seemed like maybe the group was fading out, but they were actually re-configuring and learning again from scratch with a core line-up of Stephen McRobbie, Annabel Wright (Aggi), and Katrina Mitchell. It was a slow process which eventually resulted in their strongest and best music, on albums like Mobile Safari and Illumination (Domino, 1995, 1997). After a remix set, Illuminati (1998), The Pastels spent time setting up their own Geographic Music imprint via Domino, with the intention of releasing somewhat unknown, beautiful music into the world. Artists on Geographic have included Maher Shalal Hash Baz, Bill Wells Trio, Empress, International Airport, Future Pilot AKA, Directorsound and Kama Aina. In this phase the only new Pastels music was a soundtrack for David Mackenzie's The Last Great Wilderness (Geographic, 2002); dark, slo-mo and melodic, it attracted the best reviews The Pastels have ever had. The Pastels are currently focused on completing a new album for Domino, which will come out sometime in 2006.

My Interests

Music:

Member Since: 10/26/2005
Band Website: geographicmusic.com
Band Members: the pastels
Sounds Like: melody. gentle clang. sudden suddenness. us.
Record Label: domino, london.
Type of Label: Indie

My Blog

our favourite records of 2006

stephen arthur russell - first thought, best thought (rough trade)the konki duet - mountain mouton (active suspension)jarvis - the jarvis cocker record (rough trade)reiko kudo - kusa (hyotan)tv resist...
Posted by the pastels on Fri, 29 Dec 2006 01:45:00 PST

pastels theatre music

The Pastels have been working on several projects this year - a long awaited follow-up to Illumination, a collaboration with the incredible Tenniscoats from Tokyo, and this, our theatre music, commiss...
Posted by the pastels on Mon, 06 Nov 2006 05:45:00 PST