Secret Shine--A Tribute To Tim Morris---1974-2005--Shoegaze Unplugged

I heard about this 2005 self released charity recording by Bristol Shoegazers Secret Shine via the Big Takeover. It is a tribute to the memory of Tim Morris, their drummer, who died tragically in a workplace accident. The band reformed and put together an acoustic record of some of their songs plus some songs by Junkie, which was a band that included Tim and two other bandmembers, Scott and Dean Purnell. I tried to find it on the Internet, which led me to a nifty little site called Tonevendor, which is a place any shoegaze fanatic ought to check out. As far as I can tell, Morris is long out of print, but Tonevendor nonetheless stocks sonically challenging music from all around the world.

So Morris essentially is a shoegaze album, but without the special effects. If you took away the special effects from epic science fiction movies and summer blockbusters, would you be as impressed by the dialogue. It just to show you how strong the songwriting is in Secret Shine. And how strong the vocals of Jamie Gingell and Kathryn Smith are. Of course, even with acoustic instruments shoegazers know how to make beautiful sounds. (Probably like the Professor from Gilligan's Island building short wave radios with coconuts shells). But  what a wonderful tribute--I don't know what higher praise you could give someone than create a heartfelt work of art dedicated to their memory. Like the closing song Decay, where the band sings over and over, "What am I supposed to do, what am I supposed to do without you?" For a self released work, I was surprised to find that this was really great. Morris completely exceeded my expectations.

Many of the songs here have a reflective quality, well chosen given the subject. Silver Machine is one of my favorites here:  the lyrics  start "if we share the pain, will it make it go away?". Tim's Song obviously was made especially for this project, but songs like You Are Inside, Lost All Your Friends, and Ignite The Air evoke the strong emotions the bandmembers clearly feel for their fallen comrade.




And the proceeds went to a charitable cause, Medecins Sans Frontieres, who provide humanitarian medical aid (http://www.msf.org/). So I felt even better about picking this Cd up, if only in a small way. At this point it would probably be difficult to find this anywhere, but the next best thing would be to get some of their label released work, like the compilation After Years, which has a lot of their early output in one handy place. Their Beyond Sea and Sky ep is an equally excellent choice. Since reforming, they have put out two new albums, All of The Stars and The Beginning and The End. So the band has taken a sad event and somehow they have managed to put a positive spin on things, in the way a group like New Order emerged from Joy Division, persevering despite the loss of Ian Curtis. The past can't be changed, but we all keep living.