The Ecstasy of Saint Theresa - Susurrate

The Ecstasy of Saint Theresa is an interesting band when it comes to shoegaze, mostly due to what their sound would eventually turn into. Their first album Susurrate was very much a take on MBV’s tremolo bending sound, however as they continued to release albums the group would eventually become more ambient. That still leaves us with Susurrate though, and while it may not be the most original thing ever produced, it still has some great qualities about it that most shoegazers would appreciate. It even sort of lends itself to those that prefer a bit of a noisier side to their music. While the production on the original release suffers some, Clairecords took it upon themselves to re-release it awhile back, cleaning it up a bit in the process.

One thing that I really love about Susurrate, while being drenched in tons of feedback and swirling guitars, is that it also contains a bit of that post-punk/no wave dissonance to it that sort of helps make Susurrate something special and not just a carbon copy of what other bands had essentially done before them. The song “To Alison” is a prime example of that, however it’s probably the most extreme and obvious song on the record. The rest of the album sticks to the traditional shoegaze sound a bit more, but while still managing to work it in here and there. The vocals are left to be pretty much inaudible due to the absolute extreme amount of feedback that is found within most of the songs. The band surely didn’t hold back any in that department, turning Susurrate into an incredibly noisy record. While this may go overlooked to some, it shouldn’t as it stands one of my favorite albums out of the whole genre. The album is practically bursting at the seams with distortion that ends up molding into extremely beautiful melodies.

The Ecstasy of Saint Theresa – Ice Cream Star [MP3]
The Ecstasy of Saint Theresa – Absinth [MP3]

Although Susurrate used to be extremely rare, thanks to it being re-released it’s still available from what I can tell through Tonevendor. For those that don’t own this, I can’t recommend it enough if you’re a fan of shoegaze or even noise-pop. It’s a great record that stands on its own.