An Alternative History of "Pop" Music: Part 2, 1982 -

[Astronaut Omens]

To me, most of the Fall stuff from 1986-1996 is relentlessly dour and depressive in tone, but 1996's the Light User Syndrome is frequently surprising and original. I have quite a bit of sympathy with the view expressed here and elsewhere that Fall fans were enablers of some pretty dreadful behaviour by MES, but I think in fairness there were good tracks sometimes, and this is my favourite of their 90s material.
The Fall-Hostile
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33MSAbWoTKY
Here Smith is riffing off some interesting source material- Madeline Bunting's 1996 Guardian article "An Elite of the Damned", which dealt with a cult-like movement, the Neocatechumenate, which existed within the Catholic church, and is the last article on this page here:
https://mcnsarticles.blogspot.com/2003_08_24_archive.html

Former NC members are also nervous about talking - and cross with themselves for being so. They all insisted on anonymity. They feared that the most intimate details of their lives would be dredged up to discredit them. Many of them are deeply devout Catholics and still have difficulty teasing apart what they found wholesome and holy in the teachings of the NC and what they came gradually to perceive as manipulative and evil. For years they believed the NC was inspired by the Holy Spirit and was the work of God. They still recognise that many prominent NC members are wonderful people - warm, intelligent, devout - if terribly misguided. But slowly, painfully they became disillusioned. What they still have difficulty understanding is how the Pope can be wrong and how the Catholic hierarchy can tolerate such a movement. They demand to know, with a touchingly naive faith, why Cardinal Basil Hume hasn't done something.
What makes the NC such a fascinating case is that it lies at the point where orthodox religion and cults merge. This was the dangerous area revealed by Sheff ield's Nine O'Clock Service, which showed how vulnerable a religiously illiterate generation is to spiritual abuse and how personally devastating the manipulation of faith can be.

[Oz Oz Alice]

Swans - The Sound


Soundtracks For The Blind, the last Swans release with Jarboe as a major creative force (she did later guest on a post reformation Swans record) is a sprawling masterpiece where live recordings blend into ominous tape collages blend into strange electro-pop experiments, dark folk and huge melancholy post-rock epics such as this selection, my favourite on the album. The Swans Are Dead live album released two years later also has a great version of this but I'll delve more into Swans Are Dead in '98. As much as I am a fan of the Angels of Light and post reunion stuff I think this is Gira's artistic peak.

[Oz Oz Alice]

The Cure - Adonais


The Cure's Wild Mood Swings is a real mixed bag, with some great material on it surrounded by real bilge like the A Side to this single, The 13th. Once again betraying Robert Smith's questionable grasp of the quality of his own work this excellent lyrical rework of Keats elegy for Shelley definitely should've been on the album. A very beautiful song and as ever a great performance from Mr Smith.

[Astronaut Omens]

Broadcast- The World Backwards
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WdrHOTtI4g

A track from their "The Booklovers" EP.
Broadcast were formed in Birmingham by Trish Keenan and James Cargill.

[chveik]

The Juggaknots - Troubleman



one the best classic east coast hip hop albums, which sadly didn't get the recognition it deserved at the time. the use of Coltrane's sample is magnificent.

[daf]

Zumpano ‎– Behind The Beehive



Opening track from the album 'Goin' Through Changes' - released in September 1996

Zumpano were a Canadian power pop group consisting of vocalist/guitarist Carl Newman, keyboardist Michael Ledwidge, bassist Stefan Niemann, and drummer Jason Zumpano. The band formed in 1992 after Zumpano and Ledwidge dissolved their previous band Glee, which they felt was "artistically impure". Newman joined the band while still a member of Superconductor.

The band signed to Sub Pop Records in 1994, and released two albums - 'Look What the Rookie Did' in 1995, and 'Goin' Through Changes' in 1996 on the label before breaking up.



Newman re-emerged in 2000 with The New Pornographers, and Jason Zumpano formed the band Sparrow in 2003 and Attics and Cellars in 2007.

[Brundle-Fly]

1962 - Grass-Show. Released on Food in 1996.





Andy Ross from Food records covering both bases of trendy Swede pop appeal and Britpop retro New Wave sensibilities for his new signing but to little commercial avail. It was rolight* while it lasted.


*_{Swedish for 'fun'.}

Grass-Show were an indie band from Sweden, active in the mid-to late-1990's. The band released one album in the United Kingdom, Something Smells Good In Stinkville (1997), from which there were three singles, "1962", "Freak Show" and "Out Of The Void". The album contains a cover version of the Ace of Base song, "All That She Wants". The artwork Grass Show's releases was notable as it often portrayed imagery of 1950's American families, which were juxtaposed with surreal and absurd elements. For example, the sleeve for the "1962" single has images of families cooking trainers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PclYqp7hKOY

[daf]

Food really was the Deram of Britpop - another winner!

[daf]

The High Llamas ‎– Nomads



Released in May 1996 - did not chart

'Hawaii', the third studio album by The High Llamas, was released in March 1996 on the band's Alpaca Park label. The record peaked at 62 on the UK Albums Chart.

 

The arrangements of Hawaii incorporate more electronic sounds than its predecessor Gideon Gaye (1994), while its lyrics loosely address themes of nomadism, nostalgia, film and musical theatre, and the effects of colonialism.



Sean O'Hagan described the album as a fusion between the music of the "post mid-European Stockhausen era and the really screwed up West Coast American sort of music, of the Wrecking Crew variety."

[daf]

Stereolab – Pinball



Featured on the 'Fluorescences' EP, released in November 1996 - reached #71 in the UK chart

Stereolab's fourth album, 'Emperor Tomato Ketchup' was released in March 1996. John McEntire of Tortoise also assisted with production and played on the album. While the finished album was a critical success, initial sessions had started badly.

Tim Gane : "It was bass and saxophone and drums playing nearly the same riff for eight minutes. The engineer was like: you're going to sell three copies."

A breakthrough came when Gane remixed 60s psych band the Godz, and started looping one section of it: his whole songwriting approach suddenly changed, and the album was built up not from driving riffs but interlocking looped patterns.

Tim Gane : "It was like you'd come from a cave, or across a mountain, and there was another totally different landscape. Like on the original Star Trek where every day you could look forward to going to a new star system."



The artwork for the album was inspired by the LP sleeve of a 1964 recording of composer Béla Bartók's "Concerto for Orchestra by the Bamberg Symphony" conducted by Heinrich Hollreiser. Preceding the album's release, the track "Cybele's Reverie" was issued as a single and as a 4-track EP in February 1996. In the US, the album was especially successful on college radio, and 'The Noise Of Carpet' was released there as a promo CD.



Following the non-album 'Fluorescences' EP, which also featured "Pinball", "You Used to Call Me Sadness", and "Soop Groove #1", another single from the album, "Metronomic Underground", was released in December 1996.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

The Olivia Tremor Control - Jumping Fences



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUjd6DHAutU

The White Album and Smile condensed into just under two minutes?

The Olivia Tremor Control are an American rock band who were prominent in the mid-to-late 1990s. They were, along with The Apples in Stereo and Neutral Milk Hotel, one of the three original projects of The Elephant 6 Recording Company.

In 1996, the Olivia Tremor Control released their debut album, Music from the Unrealized Film Script: Dusk at Cubist Castle. At 74 minutes in length with 27 songs, Dusk at Cubist Castle was a large undertaking. It was intended to be the soundtrack to an unmade film, and thus covers a wide range of genres, including psychedelia, krautrock, noise music, and folk-rock.

Recorded entirely on 4-track and 8-track tapes, the album features maximalist production. The band used experimental recording techniques, such as tape manipulation, sound collages, and homemade instruments.

Early CD pressings included a second album titled Explanation II: Instrumental Themes and Dream Sequences. This album contains nine ambient songs, and in the liner notes it is suggested to play the two albums in synchronicity, as this would create quadraphonic sound.

[dr beat]

Earl Brutus - Navyhead: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Fb96TzPpso

"The gigs started to get really strange," says Jim Fry, co-founder of Earl Brutus. "We did the Austrian Cultural Institute. [Artist and designer] Scott King was exhibiting there and curating this night that involved us playing three songs. We set the gear up and went off to the pub. When we got back there were these Russian artists and their whole thing was to smash and destroy other art. They started chucking eggs at everybody, they kicked the bar over, but what they hadn't dealt with is that Scott is in the top five hardest people in Goole, so he just waded in and leathered them.

"And while he's punching these Russian artists in the face, he's yelling, 'Get the fucking band on!' We go on and start playing. We used to fire off all these pyrotechnics one at a time. I was quite shaken by what was going on, pressed a button and set off all six of them. The place filled with smoke, all these alarms go off and the anti-terrorist squad turn up. It was probably the greatest moment in Earl Brutus' history. Anyway, we went back to the pub."

(Emphasis added)

[daf]

The Gentle People ‎– Travel Bug



Featured on the album 'Soundtracks For Living' - released in 1996

Formed in 1991 in Los Angeles, The Gentle People featured members from four different countries : Dougee Dimensional (Douglas Stoddard) from the USA ; Laurie Lemans (Marcelle Danielle Bettie Laurence) from France; Honeymink (Sarah Louise Simonon) from the UK; and Valentine Carnelian (Jeremy Leahy) from South Africa.

Signed to the UK Rephlex label, Their first single, 'Journey' was released in 1995, and featured a remix from label boss the Aphex Twin. The sleeve sported the gnomic messages : "There is colour in their eyes, and they have beautiful smiles, and they love, they love..." and "don't forget, believe in the Primula aesthetic".



Dougee Dimensional : "Of the music we like, people might say, Oh that's really kitsch and cheesy, but if you listen you'll realise it's really beautiful and emotive. It's like there's this lost art of arranging using strings or harps, sounds you don't hear any more. And when you sample it it sounds really tripped out. Which is where it's out, of course!"

In 1996 they released their second single, "Emotion Heater", which was pressed on yellow vinyl. The note featured on the back cover read : "In your love bubble amongst the stars, in your crazy galaxy"



Both singles were featured on their debut album, 'Soundtracks For Living', released in 1996.



"Acting a part Living a film Alongside the scene plays an inner melody... The Soundtrack of Life"

[jamiefairlie]

Arab Strap - The First Big Weekend

https://youtu.be/nXcikEZwYEA



Vocalist Aidan Moffat and multi-instrumentalist Malcolm Middleton grew up in Falkirk, where they began collaborating in 1995.
This is their debut single and it reached number 2 in the Festive Fifty.

Trivia: "First Big Weekend" referred to in the song's title must have started on Thursday 13 June 1996, anchored as it is with a reference to the England v Scotland  Euro '96 game.

[Ballad of Ballard Berkley]

Trivia: "First Big Weekend" referred to in the song's title must have started on Thursday 13 June 1996, anchored as it is with a reference to the England v Scotland  Euro '96 game.

Plus that episode of The Simpsons they watched.

PS: That link doesn't work, Jamie?

[daf]

Think this should work -

Arab Strap - The First Big Weekend

[Brundle-Fly]

Smash & Grab - People Like Us . Released on Staalplaat in 1996.





More plunderphonics charity shop cut up capers.

People Like Us AKA Vicki Bennett

Since 1991 British artist Vicki Bennett has been working in the field of audio-visual collage, sampling, appropriation and editing found footage and archives.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxdt5ejMZKU&t

[Brundle-Fly]

The Gentle People ‎– Travel Bug

Featured on the album 'Soundtracks For Living' - released in 1996

Love that album. TRIVIA: Honeymink is Paul Simonon out of The Clash's sister.

[Brundle-Fly]

Earl Brutus - Navyhead: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Fb96TzPpso



(Emphasis added)

Love this album too. TRIVIA: Co founder, Jim Fry is Martin Fry out of ABC's brother.

[daf]

Super Furry Animals ‎– Death By Melody



Featured as a B-side on the CD single 'God! Show Me Magic' - reached #33 in the UK chart in May 1996

After gigging in London in late 1995, Super Furry Animals were noticed by Creation Records boss Alan McGee at the Camden Monarch club, who signed them to his label. The band have said that having watched their gig, McGee asked them if they could sing in English rather than Welsh in future shows. In fact, by this stage they were singing in English, but McGee didn't realise because their Welsh accents were so strong, the soppy twat!

They received some criticism in the Welsh media for singing in English. The band have claimed that the decision to sing in English was taken in order to broaden their fanbase.

Dafydd Ieuan : "It all started when we played this festival in West Wales, and for some reason the Welsh media started foaming at the mouth because we were singing songs in Welsh and English. But they get The Dubliners playing and they don't sing in Irish. It's ridiculous."

 

In February 1996, the band's debut on Creation, "Hometown Unicorn", became New Musical Express's Single of the Week, chosen by guest reviewers Pulp, and the first Super Furry Animals single to chart in the UK Top 50, peaking at No. 47. The follow-up, a re-recording of "God! Show Me Magic", charted at No. 33 upon release in April 1996 and also became NME single of the week. Rawer than the "Moog Droog" version, it clocks in at 1 min 50 secs.

 

In May, their debut album 'Fuzzy Logic' was released, to wide critical acclaim. Sales were slow, with the album peaking at No. 23 in the charts, but it garnered a little more interest when next single "Something 4 the Weekend", a reworked version of the album track, was given considerable radio airplay and charted at No. 18 in July 1996.

   

The final single from the album, "If You Don't Want Me to Destroy You", was to have been backed by a track called "The Man Don't Give a Fuck". However, there were problems in clearing a sample from "Showbiz Kids" by Steely Dan which formed the basis of the chorus, and it was switched for a different track. The single charted at No. 18 in October 1996.



When they managed to clear the sample, "The Man Don't Give a Fuck" was released as a single in its own right in December 1996. As the song contained the word "fuck" over 50 times it received practically no airplay. However, it hit No. 22 in the charts and became Super Furry Animals' standard closing number when they played live.

[daf]

The Frank & Walters ‎– Indian Ocean



Reached #83 in the UK chart in July 1996

The Frank and Walters were formed in 1989 in Cork city in Ireland by Paul Linehan (vocals and bass), Niall Linehan (guitar), and Ashley Keating (drums). The band was named in honour of two eccentric Cork characters.

Signing for the Setanta label in 1991, the group debuted with the release 'E.P. 1', and the lead track "Fashion Crisis Hits New York" became an indie hit. The follow-up, 'E.P. 2', was released soon after, which was followed by the band's signing to the Go! Discs label where The Franks partnered with producer Edwyn Collins to record the Happy Busman EP.



They found success in the UK, and following a tour in support of Carter USM, an Ian Broudie remix of the 1992 'Trains, Boats And Planes' album track "After All" reached the Top 20 in the UK Singles Chart in January 1993, where it peaked at No. 11, and bagged them an appearance on Top of the Pops.

Paul Linehan : "It was very exciting playing Top Of The Pops. We met Paul McCartney who was in a dressing room across the hall from us. I'm a big Beatles fan and we had a bit of craic with him. Linda wanted to make us a vegetarian meal which I wasn't into, but it worked on my brother who is now a vegetarian."

 

After a long sabbatical which the band attributed to a "fear of music", the group returned in 1996 with the singles "Colours", "Indian Ocean" and the album 'Grand Parade'.

[jamiefairlie]

Bedhead - Lares And Penates

https://youtu.be/0ykgMjO-QLc



Formed in Texas in 1991. This is from their second album, "Beheaded", of which a critic wrote "Matt and Bubba Kadane's whispered, spoken or half-sung vocals trickle through the plodding, strangely dynamic songs, which are bolstered by the band's three-guitar approach". They split in 1998.

[daf]

Animals That Swim ‎– The Greenhouse



Released in February 1996 - did not chart

Animals That Swim issued their fifth single, "The Greenhouse", in February 1996, followed by "Faded Glamour" in May 1996 - which, like all their previous singles, failed to chart.

Hugh Barker : "We didn't sell that much in the UK, even when we were getting good reviews. I see the oddness more clearly in retrospect, though I wouldn't have had it any other way. I just thought we were just writing pop music, from our particular point of view. There's an episode of the UK sitcom Black Books where Bernard and Manny try to write a brilliant children's book. Bernard wants it to be about a lens grinder from Omsk who is going through an existential crisis, but Manny persuades him it should just be about "an elephant who loses his balloon". I suspect we'd have been more successful if someone had persuaded us to write songs about an elephant losing a balloon, rather than car crashes, embittered ghosts, proto-feminist photographers, deep-seated urban decay and so on.".



They released their second album, 'I Was the King, I Really Was the King', in June 1996. John Harris, writing for Q magazine, thought that the album was : "slightly compromised by a new-found accent on aural polish" compared to that of the group's debut LP, but went on to single out "Faded Glamour", "Kitkats and Vinegar" and "The Greenhouse" as the album's highlights, in which "chief vocalist and lyricist Hank Starrs sculpts beautifully human vignettes, while the band provide shining evidence of their lofty musicality."



Vox magazine's Mark Beaumont thought that the record was : '"a far more solid affair" than 'Workshy', surmising that the group had placed more emphasis on melody in comparison to their earlier output. He highlighted "The Greenhouse" and "East St O'Neill" as standout tracks, and ended his review with a short summation of the album's overall sound : "Horns parp convincingly, guitars swagger rather than stagger, choruses seem to have some idea of where they want to be in 30 seconds' time and Animals That Swim emerge as – gasp! – actual, potential pop stars"

[jamiefairlie]

Animals That Swim ‎– The Greenhouse



Released in February 1996 - did not chart

It's such a great album, here's another two I love from it:

Animals That Swim - London Bridge

https://youtu.be/-_-x37S2O-s

Animals That Swim - East St. O'Neil

https://youtu.be/E-ZDOiOWdO0

[jamiefairlie]

Billy Bragg - Brickbat

https://youtu.be/l-2CFiXGwM4



Another of Billy's intermittent flashes of genius, his first in our list since 1991. This time it's from his seventh album, "William Bloke" and it reached number 12 in the Festive Fifty.

[Clatty McCutcheon]

Jack - I Didn't Mean It Marie

https://youtu.be/hLxUwNqlq34



This piece of late-night woozy indie noir is taken from Jack's debut album Pioneer Soundtracks. The album was produced by Peter Walsh, who the band had wanted to work with due to his work with Scott Walker.

The band was formed in Cardiff in 1992 by singer-songwriter Anthony Reynolds and guitarist Matthew Scott. The pair moved to London in 1993, where they recruited Richard Adderley (guitar), Audrey Morse (violin), Patrick Pulzer (drums), Colin Williams (bass) and George Wright (keyboards).
They signed to Too Pure in 1995, with their first release for the label being the limited-edition "Kid Stardust" single (a tribute to Charles Bukowski) in November that year. Their debut album, Pioneer Soundtracks, was released in June 1996.

[daf]

Porcupine Tree ‎– Waiting



Released in May 1996 - did not chart

Released in September 1996, 'Signify', the fourth Porcupine Tree album, was the first album that frontman Steven Wilson recorded with the band on board from the beginning; previous albums had been essentially solo efforts with occasional help from other musicians. The other members of the band included Richard Barbieri (keyboards), Colin Edwin (bass), and Chris Maitland (drums).

In 1995, the band would alternate between touring in support of their last release, 'The Sky Moves Sideways', and writing and recording the album. As such, a number of the songs, albeit in early forms, were debuted live before the album's release.



Steven Wilson : "Signify was slightly odd in the way it was recorded in the sense that although it is a band album, because we were never able to actually all be in the same room at the same time, because of physical limitations, with the exception of one track, "Intermediate Jesus", which was done outside, I tended to demo the tracks to a fairly high level and they would just replace the parts that I'd played on synthesizers with the real thing. So there wasn't a great deal of input from the other guys."

The album was preceded by the single 'Waiting', which appeared on the album in two parts as "Waiting (Phase One)" and "Waiting (Phase Two)".

[A Hat Like That]

Super Furry Animals ‎– Death By Melody



Featured as a B-side on the CD single 'God! Show Me Magic' - reached #33 in the UK chart in May 1996

I bought most of their Fuzzy Logic singles at the time. For them to put Robin Friday on a single cover was an absolute delight.

Also, I distinctly remember them playing God Show Me Magic on morning TV as part of a search for the next Take That.

[daf]

Edward Ball ‎– The Mill Hill Self Hate Club



Reached #57 in the UK chart in July 1996

In 1977, Edward Ball and fellow London Oratory school-friend Dan Treacy formed the Television Personalities. Ball also formed 'O' Level with John Bennett, Gerard Bennett, and Dick Scully, releasing two singles in 1978. In 1979, he recorded as the Teenage Filmstars, along with fellow members of the Television Personalities, releasing three singles between 1979 and 1980.

In 1981, Television Personalities released their first album, 'And Don't the Kids Just Love It' for Rough Trade Records. Followed by 'Mummy Your Not Watching Me' in 1982, and 'They Could Have Been Bigger Than the Beatles' in 1982 both on their own Whaam! record label, which was later renamed Dreamworld, following a legal dispute with George Michael.



Ed Ball : "We started the Television Personalities because WE'D KILLED Elvis . . . He'd become fat, redundant and useless. We were young, spunky, good-looking and very, very talented and launched a musical revolution from the common room of the ultra-strict London Oratory school. We'd had enough of fat rock'n'roll and decided young skinny punks – like ourselves – was the future of music."

By 1982, Ball had left the Television Personalities, and had formed The Times, releasing the 'Pop Goes Art!' album in 1982, each one featuring an individually hand painted front cover - the mad bastards!



Between 1982 to 1986 the band released four further albums on Ball's own Artpop label, including 'This Is London', 'Hello Europe', 'Go! With The Times' and 'Enjoy'.



In 1986 Ball dissolved The Times to become an executive at Creation Records.

Ed Ball : "No question, Alan McGee saved my life. I made a string of records that were so pop art and underground, I was virtually off the map. I had to flog off my Jam albums just to keep me and the Times in outfits."

Ball's first solo album 'L'Orange Mechanik', released in 1989, featured music inspired by the poems of Edgar Allan Poe. As a side-project to The Times, Ball released dance music records as the Love Corporation in 1990. He also collaborated with Richard Green as Sand on the 1991 album 'The Dynamic Curve', and with Phil Vane of Extreme Noise Terror as Conspiracy of Noise on the 1993 album 'Chicks with Dicks and Splatter Flicks'.



Around 1993, he toured with The Boo Radleys, playing keyboards.

Ed Ball : "I owe Martin no small debt for inviting me to join his concert party, as I probably wouldn't have made it through the next three or four years. When they first visited the offices in '93 I liked them straight away, enjoying Martin's humour and the dynamic within the group. The Boos had had a fairly rotten time of it too, nailed in a shoegazing coffin. But Martin had come up with 'Lazarus' and the boys made 'Giant Steps' which set them up for a spot of real contender stuff and a See the World touring-type scenario. Only they needed a keyboard player. Dick Green, suggested me. Martin called, but I initially turned him down due to a lack of live practise, a massive lack of confidence and good old fashioned drug paranoia."



In 1995 Creation Records issued a two-disc compilation of Ball's material, 'Welcome to the Wonderful World of Ed Ball', plus the new solo album, 'If A Man Ever Loved A Woman'.



"The Mill Hill Self Hate Club" was released as a single in 1996, and featured on his 1997 album 'Catholic Guilt'.

Ed Ball : "Feeling on the verge of another metamorphosis, I started writing with a degree of reality that I hadn't achieved for more than a decade. And with just these new songs, I requested – and was granted a 20 minute solo spot before the Boos every night. I remember soundchecking 'The Mill Hill Self Hate Club' on a stage somewhere on the planet for the first time, Martin striding out of the dressing room arriving nose-to-nose, engulfing me in the obligatory plume of smoke, asking, nay demanding "Where the fuck did you get that? That's brilliant!!" Aah, music to my ears . . ."

[Brundle-Fly]

Choin - Jake Slazenger. Released on Warp in 1996.





Eine kleine wonkyelectronicamusik?

Jake Slazenger AKA Michael Paradinas. Born: 1971 in Wimbledon, Mike is an artist working across a variety of electronic dance music styles. Runs the Planet Mu label, which reflects a wide range of influences and interests. Collaborator with Aphex Twin.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_4zKvQ6988&list=OLAK5uy_ktmsroGJVllSIX-kcUwnpyphSfPJZA9aY&index=8