Pedal Partners x Life Is Unfair Violet Oscillation Glow-in-the-dark Shoegaze Fuzz is the ultimate genre champion for the compact enclosure format

I’ve known Life is Unfair’s Grindle for about a year and half now - they have been at 3 of the same shows I have attended - originally the Stourbridge Pedal Expo last year, then Wassup Nerds! In Bristol, and finally Witney Pedal Party 2 - where it was pretty much preordained that I would be picking up a pedal or two!

I have a few specific Shoegaze pedals in my roster / reference collection - mostly rather more generic than genre specific tools of the trade - although OBNE’s Screen Violence and Polarbear Effects’ Drowner are notable exceptions, as is this very recently acquired Pedal Partners Collaboration.

Grindle is most famous for those Joystick-based dual-axes expression controllers - which have found their way into other pedals - including the Rorschach Fuzz Distortion and Synth-style Filter collaboration with Holy Island Audio - of which there is filter-focused V2 edition coming through very soon.

Readers will know that I’m big on fuzz - so big on fuzz that some have called me the King of Fuzz on occasion - far too grandiose a title for me - where I’m really more of a fuzz-fiend! I do love those raw fuzzy textures though, and this Violet Oscillation is right up my street so to speak. It has a beautiful richly textured wall of sound kind of output - a little woolly - in that classic Shoegaze style - and just rippling with complex timbres.

It then marries that superb fuzz voicing with a separate Oscillation channel which sends LFO ripples through the mix to further accentuate that rich wall of sound texture - it really sounds proper full-throated and full-on - in all the right ways.

Applying the Oscillation Channel also means that some of the Param Values / Functions change.

Controls - Volume / Output, Fuzz [Glitch / Gating], Bass [Pitch], Treble [Octave Down / Oscillation], Oscillate Footswitch, On / Fuzz Footswitch. Oscillate Params in [parenthesis].

Internal Controls - Twin Dip-switches Latching / Momentary modes per footswitch, and Trim-pot for Oscillate Channel Output Level - can boost if required!

So in place of Bass we now control Pitch, the Fuzz knob controls Glitching and Gating, while the Treble - in its right-hand hemisphere delivers Octave Down oscillation.

Each Channel / Voicing is at its optimum with slightly different knob values - so the knack I suppose is to find some crossover point where those settings sound fantastic on both the core Fuzz AND Oscillation Channels. For me those settings are Volume @ Max, Fuzz / Glitch & Gating @ Max, Bass / Pitch @ c.3 o’c, and Treble / Octave Down Oscillation @ c.2 o’c. Those settings generate the maximum texture for me, and allow the oscillations to come through nicely - kind of percolating through the fuzz as such.

Considering the pedigree of the collaborators on this project it was never going to be anything but stellar - and I’m pleased to report that not only is it really easy to dial in - but there is plenty of range and variation on each of those knobs / Parameters. I like my fuzzes loud and full-on - but there’s plenty of usable range way down those dials too.

There’s obviously a lot of focus on the Kevin Shield’s Fender Blender these days - which is currently going for £249 and equivalent. And while that is somewhat of a clunker it has to be said - and relatively tricky to fit in on your board -  the £220 Violet Oscillation is as pedalboard-friendly as Shoegaze pedals come - not only inhabiting a compact enclosure - but one with top-mounted jacks! These are in relatively short supply - but small batches appear every now and again on the Life Is Unfair Webstore - so it pays to keep your eyes glued to that channel.

Actually the timing of this article is rather serendipitous as there is a new batch due to go live later today - around 5 o’c I’m led to believe. My own edition as pictured up top - is one of the first 3 sort of advance units from that batch (Pink Glow-in-the-Dark) - which Grindle had with him at the Witney Pedal Party - so I was very lucky with timings all-round. And you can be lucky too if you keep your eyes peeled on the Life is Unfair Webstore a little later this afternoon. Do note that these batches typically sell out very quickly!

If you’re looking for the ultimate in Shoegaze Fuzz - with killer verve and variation - and in fact as used by legendary Shoegaze band Slowdive (see below) - then look no further than this superb Violet Oscillation. Of course really cool in this particular pink variant edition - which just happens to be glow-in-the-dark too!