They have the same hair!

Airiel - "Sugar Crystals" (feat. Ulrich Schnauss)

Why can't Airiel always be this interesting?

That isn't to say that The Battle of Sealand, the Chicago shoegaze outfit's upcoming debut, doesn't deliver. In fact, in a genre that, at least among its more rock-oriented practitioners, rarely strives for more than revivalism, it's exciting to hear young shoegazers (or nu-gazers?) who are more indebted to Swervedriver--and their mid-'90s heirs Failure and Hum--than My Bloody Valentine or Slowdive. Like its conspicuous influences, Airiel privileges both melody and cacophony above atmosphere, which has always been shoegaze's touchstone. It's solid stuff.

But where most of Sealand is serviceable, "Sugar Crystals" is nothing short of transcendent, largely because its marriage of the shoegaze revival's electric and electronic branches heavily favors the latter. This is how M83's sophomore disc might've sounded had its architect, Anthony Gonzalez, not developed a taste for the dramatic. "Sugar Crystals" has all of M83's textured and sweeping ebullience, yet even at 5:16, it seems much more compact, even economical. That's Ulrich Schnauss' doing, whose hand asserts itself far more heavily than the band's. And it's no surprise, given the consistent mastery with which the German producer brings a canorousness to ambient electronica.

(An aside: When I saw Schnauss perform in 2005, I could match his nearly motionless set to only one thought. That had I not paid to see him, I would've confused Schnauss for the time-displaced Beethoven performing for a crowd of mallrats in Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure.)

Truth be told, I thought this particular revival's shelflife had long expired, and was happy to see it gone. So I was caught off guard when a shoegaze band, of all things, grabbed my attention--because if anywhere, the genre's future lies solely among electronic artists. Airiel embraces that lesson wisely.