While the global pandemic may have put a damper on our adventures in clubbing, music still has the power to transport us to places unknown. For now, the greatest club on earth may exist in our imagination – Discoteca Imaginaria. Each episode takes listeners to the scenes, clubs, regions and technology that have shaped our sonic history.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In the late 1980s, a new sound emerged from the UK and Ireland featuring distorted guitars, obscured vocals, feedback pedals, and an overall dreamlike aura. Lush, Cocteau Twins, Ride, My Bloody Valentine and Chapterhouse epitomized a genre later coined “shoegaze,” a name created by a music reporter’s observation that bands “gazed” at their effects pedals rather than acknowledging their audiences. While the movement peaked in the 1990s following several commercial breakthroughs, its sonic legacy lives on. “Nu-gaze” acts like Beach House, DIIV, Silversun Pickups and Alvvays are just as reserved as their predecessors, preferring that their ethereal music do the talking.