COCTEAU TWINS - TREASURE

Cocteau Twins were a Scottish rock band active from 1979 to 1997. They formed in Grangemouth, Scotland, with Robin Guthrie on guitar and drum machine and Will Heggie on bass. Elizabeth Fraser joined as vocalist in 1981, and Simon Raymonde replaced Heggie in 1983. The band became known for its atmospheric, effects-heavy sound and Fraser's soprano vocals, which often featured lyrics that did not correspond to any recognisable language. They were influential in the development of dream pop during the 1980s and contributed to the emergence of shoegaze. In 1982, Cocteau Twins signed with the independent record label 4AD and released their debut album, "Garlands". Following Raymonde's arrival in 1983, the trio developed the sound associated with their best-known lineup. Their single "Pearly-Dewdrops' Drops" reached number 29 on the UK Singles Chart, becoming their highest-charting single in the country. Their 1984 album "Treasure" further developed their dream pop style and became their first album to reach the UK top 40. In 1986, "Victorialand" became their first album to reach the UK top 10. Their fifth studio album, "Blue Bell Knoll" (1988), reached number 15 in the UK and number 109 on the US Billboard 200. The single "Carolyn's Fingers" received airplay on American alternative radio and reached number two on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. Their sixth album, "Heaven or Las Vegas" (1990), became their most commercially successful release in the UK, reaching number seven on the UK Albums Chart. By 1993, the band had left 4AD and signed with Fontana Records, releasing their seventh studio album, "Four-Calendar Café", that year. They made their American television debut on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno", performing the single "Bluebeard". "Four-Calendar Café" reached number 78 on the Billboard 200, their highest position on that chart. Their eighth and final studio album, "Milk & Kisses", was released in 1996 and produced the singles "Tishbite" and "Violaine". The band disbanded in 1997, partly because of difficulties following the end of Fraser's and Guthrie's relationship. Guthrie and Heggie, both from Grangemouth, formed the band in 1979. They met Fraser in 1981 at the Hotel International, a local disco where Guthrie worked as a DJ, and she subsequently joined as the group's vocalist. Before releasing their debut album, the band recorded a four-track session for BBC radio presenter John Peel in June 1982. The session included "Wax and Wane" and "Garlands". Released by 4AD in July 1982, "Garlands" reached number 14 on the UK independent albums chart. Contemporary reviews compared the band's sound to that of Siouxsie and the Banshees and Joy Division. "Sounds" noted these influences, while "NME" compared Guthrie's guitar playing to that of Siouxsie and the Banshees guitarist John McKay. In 1986, "Spin" also compared the band with Bauhaus. The album was followed by the EP "Lullabies" in October 1982 and "Peppermint Pig" in April 1983. Cocteau Twins toured Europe as the support act for Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. After a concert in Hamburg, the band left the tour and parted ways with Heggie. Guthrie and Fraser returned to Scotland to reconsider their musical direction and write material for their next album. Heggie later joined the band Lowlife. The band's first three releases combined Heggie's rhythmic bass playing, Guthrie's minimalist guitar melodies and Fraser's vocals. Following Heggie's departure, the next album, "Head over Heels", featured only Guthrie and Fraser. Their work developed a distinctive sound built around Fraser's ethereal and operatic vocal style and Guthrie's increasingly layered and heavily processed guitar arrangements. Guthrie has said that he was more interested in the way the guitar was recorded than in the notes themselves, and later attributed his extensive use of effects and layering partly to his technical limitations at the time. He also identified Phil Spector's Wall of Sound production technique as an influence. In 1983, Guthrie and Fraser participated in 4AD's This Mortal Coil project, recording a cover of Tim Buckley's "Song to the Siren". Although released under the This Mortal Coil name, the recording later became closely associated with Cocteau Twins. During the project, Guthrie and Fraser met multi-instrumentalist Simon Raymonde, formerly of Drowning Craze. Raymonde joined Cocteau Twins later that year. With Raymonde, the band released a series of albums and EPs that developed their evolving sound. These included "The Spangle Maker" (1984), "Treasure" (1984), "Aikea-Guinea" (1985), "Tiny Dynamine" (1985), "Echoes in a Shallow Bay" (1985) and "Love's Easy Tears" (1986). "Pearly-Dewdrops' Drops", taken from "The Spangle Maker", reached number 29 on the UK Singles Chart in April 1984 and topped the UK independent singles chart. Raymonde did not participate in the recording of "Victorialand", released in 1986, which featured Guthrie and Fraser and used a predominantly acoustic arrangement. He returned for "The Moon and the Melodies" (1986), a collaboration with ambient composer Harold Budd. The album was credited to Guthrie, Fraser, Raymonde and Budd rather than released under the Cocteau Twins name. In 1985, 4AD signed a distribution agreement with Relativity Records for the band's releases in the United States and other territories. The compilation "The Pink Opaque" was released in 1986 to introduce their earlier work to a wider audience. In 1988, while remaining signed to 4AD, Cocteau Twins entered into a major-label distribution agreement with Capitol Records in the United States. Their fifth studio album, "Blue Bell Knoll", was released in September that year. "Carolyn's Fingers" reached number two on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. Cocteau Twins released "Heaven or Las Vegas" in 1990. The album reached number seven on the UK Albums Chart shortly after its release and became their most commercially successful album. Despite its reception and the subsequent concert tours, the band experienced internal difficulties. They left 4AD partly because of disagreements with the label's founder, Ivo Watts-Russell, and considered disbanding amid personal problems, including Guthrie's substance use. During their international tour supporting "Heaven or Las Vegas", the band signed a recording contract with Fontana Records, a subsidiary of Mercury Records, for the UK and other territories, while retaining their relationship with Capitol in the United States. They added several musicians to their touring lineup to reproduce the layered arrangements of their studio recordings. In 1991, 4AD and Capitol released a box set collecting the band's EPs from 1982 to 1990, along with a bonus disc of rare and previously unreleased material. Fraser and Guthrie had a daughter, Lucy Belle, in 1989. They ended their 13-year relationship in 1993. The band's seventh studio album, "Four-Calendar Café", was released later that year and was their first album following the separation. The band described it as a response to the personal difficulties they had experienced in the preceding years. Guthrie entered rehabilitation and stopped using alcohol and drugs, while Fraser underwent psychotherapy. In 1993, they made their American television debut by performing "Bluebeard" on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno". "Four-Calendar Café" reached number 78 on the Billboard 200 and remained on the chart for three weeks. Fraser also contributed vocals to "Lifeforms", a single by the Future Sound of London released in 1993. In 1995, Cocteau Twins released two EPs, "Twinlights" and "Otherness". "NME" described "Otherness" as a combination of Cocteau Twins and ambient music, while criticising its lack of a clear direction. Some tracks on the EPs were alternative versions of songs later included on "Milk & Kisses" (1996). The album returned to more heavily layered guitar arrangements, and Fraser's lyrics again became more difficult to discern, although they remained more intelligible than on some earlier recordings. "Milk & Kisses" produced two singles, "Tishbite" and "Violaine", each released in two CD editions with different B-sides. Raymonde described the album's recording process as rapid, explaining that he and Guthrie would write songs before Fraser added her contributions. Guthrie described the sessions as enjoyable and said that the three members often worked in the studio at different times. The band toured extensively to support "Milk & Kisses", accompanied by an additional guitarist and a drummer. It was their final album for Mercury and Fontana. During the tour, they introduced a new song, "Touch Upon Touch", which was recorded later in 1996. Fraser, Guthrie and Raymonde also wrote and arranged two songs for Hong Kong singer Faye Wong's Mandarin-language album "Fuzao", released in June 1996. These were "Touch Upon Touch" and "Tranquil Eye", the latter also appearing on the EP "Violaine", released in October 1996. In 1997, while recording material intended for a ninth studio album, Cocteau Twins disbanded because of irreconcilable differences, partly related to the end of Fraser's and Guthrie's relationship. Some tracks were partially recorded and may have been completed, but the band later indicated that they were unlikely to be finished or released. Following the band's breakup, Fraser continued to work as a vocalist on recordings by other artists. In 1998, she contributed vocals to three tracks on Massive Attack's album "Mezzanine" and toured with the group on several occasions. She wrote and performed the vocals for "Teardrop", which was released as a single in 1998 and reached number 10 on the UK Singles Chart. In 1999, Bella Union, the record label founded by Guthrie and Raymonde, released "BBC Sessions", a two-CD collection documenting the band's appearances on British radio programmes between 1982 and 1996. The set also included rare and previously unreleased recordings. In 2000, 4AD released "Stars and Topsoil", a compilation selected by the band members covering their years with the label. Guthrie digitally remastered the recordings. Fraser performed "Lament for Gandalf" for the soundtrack to the film "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" and sang with Peter Gabriel on "Ovo (The Millennium Show)" in 2000. In 2003, 4AD released digitally remastered editions of the band's first six studio albums. Raymonde released his solo album "Blame Someone Else" in 1997 as the first release on Bella Union. He later co-produced a posthumous album by Billy Mackenzie of the Associates and worked as a producer for artists including James Yorkston, Archie Bronson Outfit and Clearlake. His other production and mixing credits included the Duke Spirit, Helene, Lucas Renney and Fionn Regan. Through Bella Union, he worked with artists including Laura Veirs, Fleet Foxes, Midlake, Lift to Experience, the Low Anthem, I Break Horses, the Czars and John Grant. In January 2005, Cocteau Twins announced plans to reunite for a performance at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on 30 April, with further concert dates expected to follow. On 16 March, the reunion was cancelled after Fraser announced that she would not participate. In a 2009 interview, she said that performing alongside Guthrie, her former partner, would have been too painful. Raymonde later revealed that a 55-date world tour had also been planned. In 2005, 4AD released "Lullabies to Violaine", a limited-edition four-disc compilation containing the band's singles and EPs from 1982 to 1996. Two separate two-disc editions, titled "Volume 1" and "Volume 2", followed. In 2012, Fraser performed new arrangements of "Cherry-Coloured Funk", "Pitch the Baby" and "Frou-Frou Foxes in Midsummer Fires" during her solo appearances at the Meltdown Festival. Guthrie released several solo albums, including "Imperial", "Continental", "Carousel", "Emeralds", "Fortune" and "Pearldiving", as well as eight EPs. He toured with Violet Indiana, a group that included former Cocteau Twins guitarist Mitsuo Tate. Guthrie also composed music for several films, including Gregg Araki's "Mysterious Skin", created in collaboration with Harold Budd; Dany Saadia's "3:19 Nada Es Casualidad"; and Araki's "White Bird in a Blizzard", for which he again collaborated with Budd. Guthrie and Budd also released the companion albums "Before the Day Breaks" and "After the Night Falls", followed by "Bordeaux", "Winter Garden", a collaboration that included Italian electronic musician Eraldo Bernocchi, and "Another Flower", released after Budd's death in 2020. In 2006, Guthrie produced three tracks on Mahogany's album "Connectivity" and produced and played guitar on Apollo Heights' debut album, "White Music for Black People". In 2005, Fraser worked with Breton musician Yann Tiersen on two songs for his album "Les Retrouvailles". The band began releasing podcasts featuring exclusive material in March 2007. On 6 October 2008, Cocteau Twins received the Inspiration Award at the Q Awards, which the members accepted in a rare joint public appearance. Fraser released the single "Moses" on Rough Trade in 2009. In 2022, Fraser, Guthrie and Raymonde received the Visionary Award from The Ivors Academy. Fraser and Guthrie attended the award ceremony in London in May that year. In 2023, Guthrie remastered "Four-Calendar Café" and "Milk & Kisses". The albums were reissued by 4AD in 2024 on vinyl, compact disc and digital formats. Full Wikipedia article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cocteau_Twins Studio albums Garlands (1982) Head over Heels (1983) Treasure (1984) Victorialand (1986) The Moon and the Melodies (1986, with Harold Budd) Blue Bell Knoll (1988) Heaven or Las Vegas (1990) Four-Calendar Café (1993) Milk & Kisses (1996) Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.