This past week I noticed that I have never written a thing about my #16 album of the 90's .
It's a two plus hours survey of British indie music in 1992 and as expected, there's a mixed bag of gems, nostalgia, and iffy detritus that hasn't stood the test of time. But with any festival, the ups and downs are part of the experience. You can't expect to like everything, and the fun is in soaking up the atmosphere, discovering new bands, and confirming why your favourite artists are in fact your favourites. That was all true when I first heard this album back in the 90's. As a snapshot of they way things really were in 1992, this album is a priceless artifact that I never get tired of returning to.
The running order is completely disconnected from the billing, this democratic presentation is a credit to the bands. To anyone hearing these bands for the first time, as I was in 1992, there is no bias as to which bands you're "supposed" to like, the 2 PM openers who played to a mostly empty field are presented equal to the bands who appeared at night in front of thousands waving flags. For example, you would have no clue, from looking at the track listing, that Carter USM headlined one night and were the biggest act in British indie music that year. In a strange coincidence, the final track -- an energized Blur playing "Sunday Sunday" to a nonplussed crowd -- is a window into the future, previewing was to come in the mid 90's. But listening here gives no indication that Blur would become more famous and successful than any five other bands on the album put together, and within two years would banish nearly all them into irrelevance.
There are two tiers of bands on the album, and the separation between them has become only more pronounced with time. One minute you're listening to shouty, ramshackle indie punk-rap (Senser) and the next minute Curve descends from the heavens like a bolt of lightning and you wonder why 85% of these bands even bothered showing up. Later on, it's guitar pop of the most forgettable kind (The Real People) followed by Spiritualized exploding my expectations with a mind-melting 11-minute performance of "Shine A Light/Electric Mainline" and kickstarting my decades long obsession with them. And yet, nostalgia for this era runs deeper than I thought. In writing this piece, I discovered that Senseless Things (arguably the most inoffensively mediocre act on the album) reformed in 2016, and Thousand Yard Stare somehow released an album this year.
A few more random thoughts:
James' "Mother Gold" is either an unlikely feminist anthem or one of the most inappropriate songs of all time. Right now I'm betting on the latter. This song encapsulates exactly why so many journalists found them embarrassing back in the day.
Kitchens of Distinction -- a terrible name for a great band.
The Orb -- great band, so-so recording of "A Huge Ever Growing ...". I guess you had to be there.
Flowered Up, "Weekender" -- the 14-minute epic that nobody remembers, playing this song in its entirely at Glastonbury has to be the most 1992 thing on here, with the possible exception of Ned's Atomic Dustbin still being popular.
Th' Faith Healers, "Reptile Smile". This recording was my introduction to the band if I'm not mistaken. A hugely underrated band.
Midway Still, "Better Than Before". A killer tune, but the band was swept away by Britpop along with countless other semi-grunge acts. The landscape was clear for their return by the end of the decade and they've released five (!) albums over the past ten years.
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