Tremolo

By this time, Kevin Shields had learned to modify and manipulate the floating tremolo arm of his Fender Jazzmaster guitar. As he strummed with the metal arm in the palm of his hand (and played through a multitude of effects), this innovative technique created the hypnotic undulations that would characterize My Bloody Valentine's sound. Shields’ signature guitar style is best exemplified in Tremolo's opening song, “To Here Knows When”—this version offering 18 seconds more music than the one on Loveless. With Bilinda Butcher singing in a whispery timbre over Shields’ slow swirl of otherworldly guitar ambience, their chemistry created music that sounds born in a laboratory rather than a recording studio. Tremolo also boasts stellar b-sides. “Swallow” is a ghostly dream-pop orchestration that blends Eastern music influences into its sublime melodies. The more aggressively played “Honey Power” harks back to the band’s harder attack in the preceding Isn’t Anything, while the closer, “Moon Song,” drones and soars like a shoegazing hymn.