Some bands seemingly come out of nowhere with a debut release only to turn out to have a long established history, which turned out to be the case with New Jersey's Deardarkhead. Consisting of guitarist Kevin Harrington, drummer Robert Weiss, and bassist/singer Michael Amper, the group formed in 1988 (taking their name from an Irish poem by Sir Samuel Ferguson), and have been happily recording and playing ever since. Their sound is openly and proudly Anglophilic, combining both elements of the blissout/shoegaze scene and a slightly older vein of post-punk guitar experimentalism, making at its best a rich combination between the two influences, shamelessly romantic and elegant. Running their own label, Fertile Crescent, the members first released two demo tapes, Greetings from the Infernal Village (1988) and Spiral Down and Vibrate (1991), followed by two separate CD EPs, Melt Away Too Soon (1992) and Ultraviolet (1993). The group then took a lengthy recording break before creating its full album Unlock the Valves of Feeling, which appeared in 1998. They continued to play into the 2000s, continuing as an instrumental trio following the departure of Amper in 2009, with new bassist Kevin McCauley joining in 2010. In 2011, Captured Tracks compiled the group's three EPs from the early '90s as Oceanside: 1991-1993, the second installment of the label's Shoegaze Archives series. Deardarkhead's first release in nearly two decades, the instrumental EP Strange Weather, appeared on Saint Marie Records in 2016. ~ Ned Raggett