Stream: Film School, ‘Tape Rewind’

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Film School (Photo by Steve Simko)

West Coast soundscapists Film School — originals Greg Bertens, Nyles Lannon, Jack Ruck and Justin LaBo, now with Noël Brydebell and Adam Wade — return Aug. 25 with their seventh album (and first for Felte Records), “Field.”

Over two-plus decades, their immersive indie-rock has been characterized as dream-pop, post-rock, psych-rock and shoegaze, and on “Field” they settle comfortably into a boundary-less place where concept dictates sonics.

Bertens linked the album’s ideas to the 13th-century scholar Rumi. In his poem “A Great Wagon,” he writes of a place of total acceptance: “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there.” His “field” is a judgment-free zone — of ourselves and each other — nurturing a tranquility that comes from not seeing the world in absolutes.

“This is a poem I’ve returned to over the years, and I love the idea of this place, but getting there is life’s journey,” Bertens says. “I think the longing for and elusiveness of this field is a recurring theme in our music.” The album “Field,” then, revolves around themes of regret, disconnection and frustration, with the understanding that they are part of the struggle to reconcile the inner and outer selves.

The album’s introductory singles include opener “Tape Rewind,” with its sumptuous swirl of shoegaze, and “Don’t You Ever,” its shimmering guitars interrupted by Brydebell’s spoken-word interlude. The tracks “Don’t You Ever,” “Is This a Hotel?” and “Influencer” (which invents the word “bullshitive”) actually date to 2019 but did not appear on Film School’s brilliant 2021 album “We Weren’t Here.”

For all the acclaim Film School has won from shoegaze cultists, Bertens has this to say about the genre and the band’s relationship to it:

“In the ’00s the term ‘shoegaze’ was basically a slur. And up until recently the term shoegaze has always been used in a pejorative way. I remember a review of [2007’s] ‘Hideout’ where our guitars were criticized for sounding like they went through a Kevin Shield pedal or some shit like that, it just made me laugh. We sound nothing like MBV. We never really thought of ourselves as shoegaze, but I didn’t mind the label. ‘Post-rock’ felt too macho. Shoegazers were underdogs, and it sorta kept the riff-raff away. Stuff like Kayne posting photos at the Beach House recording sessions would never have happened.

“We don’t write songs that are intentionally shoegaze, we’ve never been interested in being a genre exercise band. Nor could we, it’s really hard to recreate the best from that time. But I’d say there are a few songs on ‘Field’ that tip a hat to the late ’80s/early ’90s greats. Hopefully we’re contributing something to a movement we’ve been inspired by for years.

“Shoegaze is such a large catch-all at this point, kinda like hip-hop for anything with palpable reverb. I think of it more as a mood than a specific sound. Yes reverb/delayed guitars are part of it, but how does it make me feel? Is it moody? Can I get lost in it? If so, then yeah, OK, you get the shoegaze blue checkmark.”

||| Stream: “Tape Rewind”

||| Previously: “Take What You Need,” “Said Your Name”(video), “Said Your Name,” “Superperfection” / “Isla,” Quarantunes, “Is This a Hotel?,” “Influencer,” “Crushin,” “Bye Bye Bird,” “City Lights,” “Fission”