What's this sonic cathedral business then? In the late eighties there was a body of music that had a certain haunting beauty. This was mostly due to 4AD, and the Cocteau Twins in particular. It also included a lot of goth music before MM The rock journalists at the time, in their enthusiasm, started to describe the music in ever more esoteric terms. It was getting to be like wine-tasting; you understood the words that were being used, but you struggled to relate them to wine, or music. Steve Wright, when he had an afternoon show on Radio 1, did a spoof of this, with a journalist who always ended his reviews by describing the music as a sonic cathedral of sound. As with the best spoofs, this description was spot-on. It seemed to evoke the feelings that accompanied Cocteau Twins and others. A spine-tingling sensation as if entering a vast, vaulted gothic church. The phrase has passed into lore. It is used in music reviews as a reference point, often in a slightly derogatory way! It was deemed that this ethereal music and shoe- gazing (a close relative) was disappearing up its own arse, but the fact is, as ever, that the best of this music remains special and timeless to this day.