Track: The Emerald Down – Songs from Saturn

The Emerald Down have announced they are set to release a new album in 2017 on Wrong Way Records – with a new line-up thrown into the fray.

Hot on the heels of their forthcoming 2016 reissue of Scream the Sound, shoegazers The Emerald Down, a band who Ian Watson (Melody Maker/Rolling Stone/NME/BBC 6 Music) ranked among “the more innovative fringes of rock and electronica”, announced they are already busy working on a brand new album called Songs from Saturn for release on their new label. After more than 14 years of relative silence they have also announced a new single called “Lucas” which will emerge in the coming months.

Reigniting their Pacific Northwest roots, the all new TED has a supercharged line-up of largely Seattle/Tacoma-based members composed of original members Rebecca Basye and Jason Markin, along with new additions Jeff McCollough (Blackpool Astronomy/Seagaze) and Tyler Royster (Blackpool/Blanco Bronco). The band also anticipates collaboration with Scott Causer (Electric Mainline), and perhaps a few more surprise appearances.

Re-emergence is no small feat for The Emerald Down, whose members have recently survived advanced stage cancer diagnosis, a myriad of other health problems and not to mention 20 years of ups and downs.

By way of history for the unanniciated, they began in 1995 in the indie hotbed Olympia WA following Basye’s stint as guitar player for the Mukilteo Fairies (Kill Rock Stars/Outpunk). The Emerald Down shared the stage with the likes of Unwound, Karp, the Posies, and Heavenly in their earliest days. Later on, moving east to Columbus, OH, they toured with fellow US bands Skywave, Highspire, Stellarscope, and Alcian Blue, putting out Scream The Sound (2001) and Aquarium (2002), both of which are being reissued on Saint Marie Records in the coming year.

A new band to some and legend to others, even the anti-shoegaze Pitchfork of 2002, despite its revisionist tendencies today, had to admit that The Emerald Down had adeptly mastered all the “shoegaze touchstones” to amazing effect. If you don’t already own their back catalogue, you can pick up something now and acquaint yourself while anticipating the new album.