Taking Sides: Volume vs Indie Top 20

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Compilation series from the days of Proper Indie. Indie Top 20 involved whichever 'hits' were cheap to license, in practise this meant a lot of Cud and See See Rider. Volume gave you exclusive tracks from up and coming indie acts, in practise this meant a lot of Cud and See See Rider. WHICH WAS BEST?

― Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 11:53 (twenty-two years ago)

not much of a choice here.

― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 11:57 (twenty-two years ago)

Julio you are too young to understand!

― Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 12:00 (twenty-two years ago)

I have to vote for Indie Top 20 - I sort of lost interest in / contact with what was going on musically for a while in the mid-late '80's and Indie Top 20 was largely responsible for reawakening my interest.

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 12:11 (twenty-two years ago)

I thought Volume was a good idea but far too expensive for what it was. £10 quid is a bit steep for what is basically a cd-mounted magazine. But looking back, Volume is now priceless for it's rare tracks by bands who were (at the time) yet to break. I discovered loads of bands through Volume at the age of 14 (this was 1994, probably a bit after original publication) - dEUS, Cypress Hill, Mindless Drug Hoover plus loads of others.

― dog latin (dog latin), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 12:16 (twenty-two years ago)

Hm.
I still have various copies of the double-vinyl Indie Top's somewhere, but only one or two issues of Volume. Used to listen to quite a lot to both of them, Ind. & Vol., back in the day. Not any more, though.
...Volume wins.

― t\'\'t (t\'\'t), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 12:18 (twenty-two years ago)

Volume, it was all about the extra stories and odd tracks and etc., and indeed, a lot of bands found by me that way. ("Pulp? Hm...")

― Thy Lethal Zen Ned (Ned), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 12:30 (twenty-two years ago)

I think I'd have to say Volume as well, especially considering the number of bands that I was introduced to through the series. Plus, you got some rarities which could be shoddy (see Radiohead's demo version of Nice Dream), but still kind of cool to have.
Plus, even people who aren't big on British indie music always pull out the Volume books when looking over my collection, just because they stand out. The price was steep, but I found three or four of mine used, which was nice.

― Jonathan (Jonathan), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 12:52 (twenty-two years ago)

I rated Volume more - and Trance Europe Express 2 (I think) was my soundtrac to 1995. Helen Mead, wasn't it?

― Jim Eaton-Terry (Jim E-T), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 12:54 (twenty-two years ago)

Unsurprisingly I bought the odd one of both. Bluddy volume and their whacky massive booklet. before both there was "State of Independents" with variations on the title- this may have turned into Indie Top 20.

― Alan (Alan), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 12:56 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah it did Alan - they had one which was split between indie and that newfangled dance music, which I'm guessing didn't go down too well.

― Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 12:57 (twenty-two years ago)

My local library always had the state of independents ones. My sole access to indie music as an early teenager, aside from Peel.

― Jim Eaton-Terry (Jim E-T), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 13:10 (twenty-two years ago)

The "Shine" series was the best, e.g. Shine Vol 6 starts with Paul Weller's Peacock Suit, finishes with some Placebo, and has all yer favorites in between (Dodgy, Terrorvision, Menswear and Longpigs etc).

Real answer: Volume was better, cos of the rarities.

― gobemouche, Wednesday, 20 August 2003 13:29 (twenty-two years ago)

Top 20 series wins for their devoted promotion of the best indie band there ever was: The Wolfhounds.

― Johnny Jarvis, Wednesday, 20 August 2003 13:39 (twenty-two years ago)

I think the trick with Volume was that it served as an interesting corrective in ways -- you had all the usual MM/NME suspects writing for them, but instead of having to wait a couple of months for the imports to finally turn up and then plunking down cash to see if hype = reality, you could consider the prose and then hear the song and see if they were kidding or not. ;-)

― Thy Lethal Zen Ned (Ned), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 13:39 (twenty-two years ago)

Good question...

Indie Top 20 - far too much Carter USM, if I remember correctly, threw in a couple of weird things from time to time but was generally quite a good representation of the indie charts of the era, and sometime came with really cool little 7 inchers (I've got a superb Moonshake one). And they liked Sarah Records too - a cool edit of "Triangle". And vol 12 (I think) was like a "Best Shoegazing Album - Ever", all Slowdive and Moose and Revolver and Chapterhouse. So they win. For now.

Volume - Came along a bit later, had some really good stuff on them and some appalling toss too. Liked their shoegazing / post-rock too. Had a strange obsession with fish. Seemed to like a lot of grunge type stuff as well though, and Mega City Four types. But hell, they had exclusive tracks, and the mags were interesting. So they win too. For now.

So, a draw then.

― Rob M (Rob M), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 13:51 (twenty-two years ago)

far too much Carter USM

Does not compute.

― Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 13:55 (twenty-two years ago)

Volume had Fake '88 by Saint Etienne so trumps anything the indie top 20 could produce.

Plus, why no PWL on the indie top 20?

― Billy Dods (Billy Dods), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 13:59 (twenty-two years ago)

http://image.allmusic.com/00/amg/cov200/drc800/c826/c82666c182i.jpg = too much Carter USM

― Stewart Osborne (Stewart Osborne), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 14:03 (twenty-two years ago)

shine only came along after the death of real proper indie.

― Alan (Alan), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 15:29 (twenty-two years ago)

Indie top 20 records I thought had a pretty good track listing really at the time although I agree about too much Carter USM - Jonathan King's fave band from the time.

Volume was mainly arse and was annoying from the rare tracks point of view. There was a Verve (South Pacific or something like that) track I failed to get cause it was on a 10 squid Volume CD and I was a poor student at the time. I don't think a lot of the tracks on the Volume compilations would likely stand up today. When it split off into Trance Europe Express it became 100% 24 carat arse - at that time me and my mate spent a lot of time based on these sorts of records asking things like "Where's the chorus?" and "I just wanna rock?" (like in that Twisted Sister video when he blasts his dad out the bedroom using a geetar).

― Keith Watson (kmw), Wednesday, 20 August 2003 18:22 (twenty-two years ago)

10 quid seemed good value to me as it was more of a compilation with great booklet than a magazine.

I only bought one Indie Top 20 and it didn't even have the track I thought was on it.

Volume does feel like a much later era, though obviously there was overlap.

I bought the first Volume before I even had a CD player. I went and listened to it at my neighbour's house. I think that was the one with a great Fall retrospective and M.E.S interview. It had Ultramarine's Saratoga on it too, which is addictive listening to this day.

― N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 21 August 2003 15:29 (twenty-two years ago)

seven years pass...

I forgot all about the Volume comps until the other day.

― the Sandalled Vandal (dog latin), Thursday, 16 June 2011 13:27 (fourteen years ago)

really obscure aphex and autechre tracks on these.

― the Sandalled Vandal (dog latin), Thursday, 16 June 2011 13:28 (fourteen years ago)

Is there a list of these with their respective contents?

― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Thursday, 16 June 2011 14:32 (fourteen years ago)

wikipedia has one.

tempted to do a poll...

― the Sandalled Vandal (dog latin), Thursday, 16 June 2011 14:36 (fourteen years ago)

Volume had the rare stuff and the early tracks by bands to be big (sometimes one and the same)

IT20 was more "these are the hits" so was more a mopping up of stuff you couldn't afford otherwise.

I bought one IT20, barely played it.

― Mark G, Thursday, 16 June 2011 14:43 (fourteen years ago)

I was putting together a Volume poll a few weeks ago! Ran out of gas tho.

Volume 8 was my favorite of the 5 or 6 I had. I bought it at a Best Buy in Wichita KS, which I still think is weird.

Had a couple IT20's too which I bought mainly for Suede non-LP tracks (He's Dead, My Insatiable One)

― in a fog of subpar wings (rip van wanko), Thursday, 16 June 2011 16:08 (fourteen years ago)

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