My Bloody Valentine’s Kevin Shields has released brand new music in a wonderfully fun format: by hiding a flash drive with a new song on it inside his recently announced Shields Blender fuzz pedal.
The new limited-edition pedal was made in collaboration with Fender, and 100 lucky folks who purchased it through Reverb rare receiving a hidden flash drive featuring new music from Shields. No official announcement was made, but devoted gearheads looking to inspect the pedal’s circuitry made the initial discovery, and began posting about it on gear blogs Friday morning (June 16th).
The track, which has yet to be shared in any way beyond the flash drive, appears to be a new instrumental song. It was included with instructions from Shields himself: “For intended effect, please play at 80 dB and above on speakers.”
Shields has never quite played by the rules so far as releasing new music goes. My Bloody Valentine’s 1991 masterpiece, Loveless, went nearly two decades without a follow-up, until 2013’s m b v arrived. Now, it’s been another decade since m b v. In 2018, Shields shared that the band was working on new music, even suggesting that two new albums were imminent. Since then, however, no such releases have arrived.
The pedal itself is designed to replicate the layers of distortion and sound that define My Bloody Valentine’s output. In a statement, Shields shared that he’s quite a fan of the tool, and alluded to the fact that he had been recording with it. “I really enjoyed the experience,” he said. “I’ve been using it a lot recently in the studio, it’s been great, I’m looking forward to hearing how other people use it. It’s kind of pretty extreme but also very interesting when it’s set up in a subtle way.”
The Shields Blender fuzz pedal was listed for $499.99, but has since sold out on Reverb. Watch the promo video for the pedal below.
