Showing posts with label Disco Inferno. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Disco Inferno. Show all posts

Sunday 5 July 2015

UK Post Rock - The Lost Generation


In keeping with my recent recent posts about MainIce & Techno Animal I thought I'd go into a bit more detail on UK's Lost Generation of Post-Rock. Good ole Professor Reynolds was writing about these groups in the pages of Melody Maker from at least 1991 onwards. There's was an article in the 91 Christmas issue of Melody Maker with no byline that I assume was penned by Simon. It documented the first stirrings of a new (non)scene that included a bunch of disparate musical units committed to taking their music to the limits well away from the commercial alternative business of the time. Cranes were the hot topic with their 91 classic Wings Of Joy but they weren't what was soon to be called post-rock. They were a one off post-goth/industrial band with, and I quote 'a lush Scott Walker/Euro cabaret grandeur.' Anyway AR Kane's (forefathers of UK post-rock) label H.ark get a mention with their roster containing Papa Sprain & Butterfly Child. Kevin Martin's label Pathological rate a mention too with his own great band Techno Animal plus Oxbow (whatever happened to them?). Avant Yanks Cop Shoot Cop and Twin Infinitives era Royal Trux get thrown in the mix as well. But it was future post-rock icons Disco Inferno, Bark Psychosis and Main who were the most celebrated/anticipated in this article as some kind of future saviours of what was still being called Avant-Rock. Two years later in 1993 the lost generation were still dubbed as Avant-Rock along with the speculative term Cyborg-Rock, which never really gained any traction. I guess weird non UK bands like Young Gods and The Boredoms would have fitted this category with relative ease. In the UK though more and more groups like Insides, EAR, Moonshake Scorn, Ice, Seefeel were displaying un-rock tendencies in a beyond rock context so this wasn't a classification that was to properly fit. Avant-Rock still implied that the genre was still rock'n'roll at its core despite innovations and modern tendencies. While half of what ended up being called Post-Rock still rocked in some mutant form, the other half was not so rockin. Hence the term Post-Rock making perfect sense.

The thing is this music was already under my skin so by the time Simon Reynolds came up with the term Post-Rock for these bands in an article for Wire magazine's May 1994 issue (reprinted in Bring The Noise pages 186-193) it kind of didn't really matter. I've never really thought about it before but I guess it was named in hindsight as the scene had been going for 3 or 4 years already. As is usually the case with these things a demise was on the way with only a few classics of the genre to be released after 1994. Post-Rock now also included the likes of O'rang, Laika, Flying Saucer AttackPram & Movietone. Parallels were being drawn to other artists on the outer musical limits like Paul Schutze, Jim O'Rourke, Thomas Koner, Aphex Twin, Eddie Prevost, Zoviet France etc. In an article in Melody Maker in July 1994 past artists were retroactively inducted into a post-rock hall of fame lineage from The Velvet Underground to Krautrock legends Neu, Faust & Cluster to Brian Eno to Post-Punk groups like PIL, Cabs and The Pop Group to 80s UK noise/bliss rockers from JAMC, MBV, Spaceman 3, Loop, The Cocteau Twins, AR Kane etc.

Post-Rock was all about samplers, drum machines, studios, effects, sequencers, jettisoning the guitar as a riff apparatus and integrating the techniques of dub, 70s Miles Davis, Can, hip-hop, ambient & techno into rock. Guitars were still sometimes used but in more of an unfamiliar and un-rock way. Mixing real time instrument playing with sampling was the raison d'etre for some which gave the recordings a really strange edge. Others opted for a wholly synthetic approach. This bunch of groups rarely sounded like one another, they were on the outside, went out into these zones alone and wore that status like a badge. Some were beat scientists, while others severed beats altogether and space was the place. Anyway that doesn't really sound like Explosions In The Sky does it? This UK shit was the shit! This was the sound of my bedroom in the early 90s while your more accessable rock/pop stuff (Shoegazers, Breeders, Pavement, Mazzy Star, Portishead etc.) from the era made it into the lounge rooms of the share houses I lived in at the time, Post-Rock was not embraced by all and remained in the ghetto of my bedroom (along with strange septic tanks like Slint, Trumans Water, Thinking Fellers Union 282 et al.). This parallelled how Post-Rock was pretty marginalised in the outside world too apart from Stereolab who were quite the cult band.....I suppose.

I think a top 14 of the original UK Post-Rock is in order. This is when the term made sense, meant something and the music was bloody great.

THE TOP 14
Hydra-Calm (compilation) - Main [1992]
Eva Luna - Moonshake [1992]
May - Papa Sprain [1992]
Transient Random Noise Bursts With Announcements - Stereolab [1993]
Iron Lung - Pram [1993]
Under The Skin - Ice [1993]
Quique - Seefeel [1994]
Hex - Bark Psychosis [1994]
Evanescence - Scorn [1994]
DI GO POP - Disco Inferno [1994]
Silver Apples of The Moon - Laika [1994]
Herd Of Instinct - O'rang [1994]
Further - Flying Saucer Attack [1995]
Re-Entry - Techno Animal [1995]


*The top 14 has just one record per artist.
These are in chronological order.
This list is by no means comprehensive.
Each of the top 14 will be featured in a future blog post.

**Stereolab, Flying Saucer Attack & Third Eye Foundation all released gems after 1995. I must admit I didn't really follow the next wave of  Post-Rock groups from the UK. I'm actually struggling to come up with any of their names beyond the Flying Saucer Attack affiliates Piano Magic, Crescent and Amp.

Thursday 13 December 2012

2012 - A Look Back Part II


Reissued/Archival/Compiled etc..
  • Time To Go-The Southern Psychedelic Moment: 1981-1986 - Various.  One of the coolest rock scenes ever.  Post-Punk psychedelic mayhem from the Antipodes. It doesn't get much better than underground music from NZ in the 80s.
  • Down Under Nuggets: Original Artyfacts 1965-1967 - Various.  It doesn't get much better than this for a rock era. Troglodyte and wild. Get out your winkle pickers folks!
  •  EPs 88-91 - My Bloody Valentine
  • Complete Singles Collection - AR Kane
  • 5 EPs - Disco Inferno
  • Separations - Pulp
  • Smell My Finger - The Hard Ons
  • Livixiation - Suzanne Ciani
  • Dancing Time - The Funkees
  • Cold Nose - Franco Falsini
  • Orion 2000 - Peter Thomas
  • The World Won't Listen - The Smiths
  • Short Stories For Pauline - Durutti Column
  • Voix - Egisto Macchi
  • The Aberrant Years - feedtime
  • The Oram Tapes Vol. 1 - Daphne Oram
  • Electronics Without Tears - FC Judd

The Short Ones ie. EPs


Skrillex - Bangarang EP
It's party time folks!
Knife Party - Rage Valley EP
The party continues!
LA Vampires - Freedom 2K EP
Amanda Brown gets all sexy. If only all house was this cool.
Kemper Norton - Collision/Detection v6 EP
Spooky farmer's sonic documents of wintry West England!


Bin Worthy/Indifferent/Perplexed
Laurel Halo - Quarantine
Didn't see the fuss.
Holy Balm - It's You
?
Maria Minerva - Will Happiness Find Me ?
Not with this self help drivel!
Black Dice - Mr Impossible
??
Bodyguard  - Silica Gel
er... a bit Shite, no?
Nite Jewel - One Second of Love
???

*With the reissues I just put in the ones I didn't already have. I never had a copy a copy of The World Won't listen, I had Louder Than Bombs which was a mess of a comp really. So there's no Cleaners From Venus, Pyrolator, John Carpenter, Eraserhead OST or Porter Ricks or whichever records/tapes/cds I already have. No Laurie Spiegel as I think that may be coming my way at Xmas time.

Tuesday 4 December 2012

What's On The Hi-Fi Lately.

Having had a lot of time off I've had a chance to listen to heaps of music and even do some reading too. Some of which I've already mentioned Swans, Scott Walker, Pye Corner Audio and that great mix by Ix Tab. Ix Tabs mix had me going back to old Coil records. Coil always seem to turn up on these mixes which is indicitive of their continuing influence on the underground of the 21st century.   I've also gotten around to some less new things like a Dolphins Into the Future tape from 2008 Plays Themes From Voyage which is from the golden era of that kinda gear so I'm loving it along with their 2 fine releases from this year.


Just had a couple of listens to Lee Gamble's Diversions 94-96. which is hitting all the right notes apparently he has another one just out too. Minimal, spacious electronics that are kind of empty but evocative of the mentioned era without being retro. I also caught up with Kemper Norton's Collision/Detection v6 from earlier this year and that's a rip snorter of an ep that put me in mind vocally of the recently discussed Disco Inferno. Hard to describe Norton, kinda folky, pastoral post industrial. A rustic farmer kind of vibe but quite creepy and wintry. Sounds like a bloody press release. Right enough cliches.















I finally got a copy of Moon Wiring Club's Somewhere A Fox Is Getting Married only on digital though (thanks bookmat). I think it was like a royal wedding commemorative album. I don't think it got in any best of 2011 lists, an overlooked classic perhaps. I reckon it might be the best one since their debut An Audience Of Art Deco Eyes. I like it more than the other record they did last year Clutch It Like A Gonk. That Bleep43 mix is also killer! Possibly my favourite of their mixtapes but as I've said before they're all gold. I totally recommend both of those way over 12 months since everybody else probably raved about them. Whatever. Still looking forward to the new CD & LP.

Was it really only last year that Will & Kate got married?
That can't be right can it?
I feel like Pippa's arse has been with us longer than that!



Tuesday 20 November 2012

RE: Disco Inferno

DI go pop but not as we know it.

So someone said Disco Inferno experienced critical indifference in their lifetime as a band but I recall a dude from Lime Lizard waxing lyrical about them thus alerting me to their existence in 1991. In Melody Maker '91 they were described as "exploring glacial zones" on their Closed Windows and Science records. In '92 their sound was also described as "Bitter and brooding beauty.' While in 1994 Disco Inferno's DI GO POP LP was placed at no. 3 in the out rock end of year list in The Wire. I would almost say they were critical faves but I don't really know what the more mainstream press were saying at the time. The possibilities seemed endless for this kind of experimental rock (if you could call it that). When was the last time you could say that about a band performing loosely within the rock idiom? Seeing The Boredoms a couple of years ago in full giant guitar neck/percussion overload mode would have been the last time I could have said that. Swans circa Soundtracks For The Blind.  A band I saw perform once in the early 90s at The Esplanade Hotel in St Kilda called Peril also had that future's up for grabs anything could happen vibe going on too. They consisted of Australian and Japanese experimental musicians including Michael Sheridan and Otomo Yoshihide if memory serves. Anyway I dunno what happened to Disco Inferno after that GO POP classic.

One of the noisier tracks off the excellent
DI GO POP LP.

Wednesday 14 November 2012

AR Kane & Disco Inferno

Wow an interview with AR Kane as well as Disco Inferno over at FACT. The godfathers and their godchildren. I've still got AR Kane's Sixty Nine and "i" on tape. Released on Festival Australia licenced from Rough Trade. Still sounding fantastic by the way, recorded on BASF chrome tape. Most record companies would not have used such great quality tape. I love those tapes. They were so fucking original, like no one ever before! While the classic debut LP Sixty Nine gets all the kudos  "i" is their eclectic & surreal underrated other classic. Must admit I never heard that 3rd album, was that like a reformed/comeback kind of thing? On those 2 Rough Trade LPs they were magnificent!


I wanted to play Down and Love From Outer Space from "i" but they weren't on the youtubes! I must admit they are one of those bands I rediscover every 6 months and go 'How are they not legendary?' Well they are in my book. These albums are an essential peak of late 80s musical creativity, along with fill in________________.


Hang on I found it!

Then there were some acolytes I recall on AR Kane's own label hArk. I had an ep by Papa Sprain called May I think ..er...can't find that one in the closet. I had a cd Onomatopoeia by Butterfly Child as well. Those were both good records. Those acts came and went in a flash though.

Anyway Disco Inferno were influenced by AR Kane and were a great, unique, strange and groundbreaking band as well. All I can find is a lone cd single Summer's Last Sound/Love Stepping Out in my closet. They had some fine records DI GO POP & In Debt are 2 more gone missing from the crates! Whatever. Post Rock in its original meaning. Radiohead wish.


Nice & weird.
Onya FACT!