The Lost Generation

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Certain music writers and a couple of people round these parts occasionally make mention of a "lost generation" of bands that existed in the UK around about '91-'96, some of whom fell under the rubric of "post-rock" in its original incarnation, and many of whom experimented with the pop/rock form in often breathtakingly brilliant ways. Some, like Bark Psychosis and Disco Inferno, are among my favourite bands. Others, like Papa Sprain, I suspect are entirely fictional. This is the thread where we talk about these bands - Seefeel, Insides, Pram, Butterfly Child, Laika etc. and any other names that should go here. CorD, S&D, you know the drill. I'm interested particularly in people's thoughts on what gave rise to these bands, what their impact has been or should have been and what "place" they have today.

― Tim, Wednesday, 16 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Thread inspired by my purchasing of Bows' Cassidy and somewhat predictably loving it, partly because it seems to resurrect some of the sounds, approaches and attitudes of many of these artists.

Obvious tidbit: my blog is named after an Insides song, so no prizes for guessing my feelings about *them*.

― Tim, Wednesday, 16 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I put a Disco Inferno track on the Grokepile after a request for "Best Unknown Band" and nobody has given a monkey's - god knows what depths of apathy would have been plumbed if I'd put up Papa Sprain.

The effect these bands had on *me* was to ruin indie music (in its experimental, 'twist'-ish Nitsuh sense) for me - none of it has sounded very interesting since.

― Tom, Wednesday, 16 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Papa Sprain did indeed exist! A couple months ago, I picked up a single they released on H.Ark, the AR Kane label. It's pretty good, somewhere between Bark Psychosis' "I Know" and AR Kane's of "Lolita" in terms of sound, but not necessarily quality.

I was slightly let down by the Insides record that came out a couple years ago. Seemed a little unimaginative compared to Euphoria and Clear Skin.

― Andy K., Wednesday, 16 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I think this was the point at which I realised I wasn't very interested in experimental rock music anymore. That's not a diss, it's just me. It's also using quite a narrow definition of 'experimental' I remember these bands appearing on Volume CD compilations and thinking "Where's me Sabres of Paradise and Beach Boys records?".

Anyway, I've ordered a Disco Inferno record so I'll see how it goes. I like Laika too.

― N., Wednesday, 16 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Ah, where to begin with all these wunnerful, wunnerful bands. I like Tom's answer to an extent, though supposedly 'generic' indie can still work with me -- all depends on my mood and the band in question, so hey.

For the most part, the place is nonexistent or conceptual. Somebody mentioned elsewhere how DI seems to be only an influence on the likes of Piano Magic and Hood now, rather than a groundswell of 'wa-hey! great!' and attendant spinoffs. Nearly all the other bands mentioned don't even rate *that* high. Whether or not that means they're waiting to be rediscovered or never will be is up to the fates, and so for me measuring what should have been the impact is a bit hard to do. Sure, I would love it if DI had been showered with fame, fortune and eight million bands taking them as inspiration, but you can't force these things.

I lurv all the bands Tim mentioned so that takes care of the C/D part. ;-) S/D? Well, search for the five DI EPs, which I've been burning like mad recently for folks, Seefeel's Quique, Insides' Clear Skin [and the Earwig stuff for that matter], Butterfly Child's Eucalyptus EP, Bark Psychosis' Independency, Laika's Silver Apples of the Moon.

Random note -- a number of these bands feature female musicians in lead creative roles [Laika, Insides, Seefeel, among others]. Was this semi- genre the abstract flipside to riot grrl?

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 16 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

i think everyone knows how -i- feel too. but i will agree with tom that most of my "new" indie listening has felt somewhat uninteresting and (although he didn't say this) nostalgia driven, like i'm still putting in one for the team even though i'm old and tired and my pitch isnt as full of verve as when i was fresh outta the bush leagues. more later, when at home, provided the thread doesnt get clogged in the interim.

― jess, Wednesday, 16 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

that most of my "new" indie listening since (post rock)

that is.

― jess, Wednesday, 16 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Generic indie so-called I still like if the song appeals, it's the experimental stuff which doesn't do much for me. Actually the indie I'm most interested in at the moment is dancefloor indie by which I do not mean indie-dance.

And looking at the list of bands Tim provides a lot of even them I never liked much (Bark Psychosis nein danke, Insides meh, Laika and Stereolab good in theory only) so maybe I actually agree with N.!

― Tom, Wednesday, 16 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

although this kind of band might be assumed to be something i was hugely interested in, it actually seems that this isn't really the case. i never rated Seefeel, Insides were great live but only ok on record, never really got into Bark Psychosis (where is best place to start with them).

Disco Inferno? well, i think that the Summers Last Sound/Love Stepping Out 12" is one of the best records i have ever heard. absolutely sublime. do others think this is their best record? the other stuff i have heard by them doesn't sound as good as this, but then i've not heard it all. could people tell me if any of their stuff is as good as this single?

― gareth, Wednesday, 16 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Bark Psychosis are probably my favourite of this lot in terms of how much I listen to them and connect with them, followed very closely by Disco Inferno who are probably more inspiring but with whom I find myself investing in particular songs rather than the entire body of work. Seefeel and Insides are great but in fact I've only got one album apiece - Polyfusia and Euphoria - although I love both of those. Otherwise, Stereolab and Laika's last album excepted I don't actually know much of any of these bands! Which is the reason for this thread obviously.

Gareth: either Hex or Independency would make fitting a introduction to BP. Independency is a collection of their earlier work, and actually has some stunningly gorgeous pop songs - the one-two punch of "I Know" and "Nothing Feels" is similar to "Summer's Last Sound"/"Love Stepping Out" in terms of being an utterly mindblowing single release. Less electronic, although with a strong ambient feel - sort of on an A.R. Kane-into-Piano Magic tip. Hex is more expansive and I guess "difficult" but the highs are even higher. Music doesn't get much better than "Absent Friend" or "Eyes & Smiles", period.

As for the Disco Inferno singles, well they're all fantastic, though I don't know if any of the others adhered to that specific two pop song format. I got mine in MP3 form off Ned so I'm not sure of the specific order of things, but anyway search "From The Devil To The Deep Blue Sea" (or is it Sky?), "The Last Dance", "Second Language" and "It's A Kid's World". Their albums work in different areas, so get onto Ned for the singles first.

― Tim, Wednesday, 16 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

yea, i've got from the devil to the deep blue sea 12 and i like that as well, although not as much.

i don't see Stereolab fitting in here at all, by the way. i didn't at the time, and i don't now.

― gareth, Wednesday, 16 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Stereolab just emerged at the same time. "Contact" from the Superelectric EP has a tenuous connection to The Lost Generation, but that's about it. Mind you, it was that one tenuous link that got me into the 'lab, so for that I am eternally grateful.

I'm pretty sure I've seen Papa Sprain play live, so they must exist. [supporting Cranes, if it was them. Can we add Cranes to the list? altho' they're still going - new album came out in 2001.]

I'm relieved Ned mentioned Earwig; he'd have lost all his credibility as Mr. Bliss Out in my eyes if he hadn't! "Under My Skin I Am Laughing" is a fabulous record.

Are Laika really part of the Lost Generation?

― Jeff W, Wednesday, 16 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Hmm - some good stuff here - Bark P and DI especially. Others sound too much like 4AD wannabees (Insides, Butterfly Child) to excite. On the basis of 'Helium' which I once owned for a short while, I've recoiled in horror from Pram ever since. Possibly worse still are Cranes - like Minnie Mouse singing in a foundry.

― Dr. C, Wednesday, 16 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Laika's first album was good, second album dull.

I think part of the reason I got fired from Music Video Exchange was because I said I hated Moonshake. "Did you know one of them works here?" I replied, "As long as it's not the singer, the fuckin' singer of that band should be killed." Bingo!

― dave q, Wednesday, 16 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Now that's a story.

The order Tim describes for DI singles = spot on, with "Summer's Last Sound" as the first one before them. There were actually other earlier singles, but that all got collected on In Debt, whereas the later ones did not.

And of course I couldn't forget Earwig. They rool, mang. ;-) Cranes are great but more exist in their own weird world -- and more to the point, they were doing music starting back in 1986!

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 16 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

The effect these bands had on *me* was to ruin indie music (in its experimental, 'twist'-ish Nitsuh sense) for me - none of it has sounded very interesting since.

Not to get too far back into this dead-horse-beating, but I think we've just stumbled upon the official source of the US/UK "indie" split: You Live In The US = These Bands Are Indie.

I think their being "lost" had a whole lot to do with a more cleaned- up and accessible wave of post-rock following on their heels, and discussion of that post-rock's precursors focusing on Krautrock to the extent of ignoring its more immediate forebears. It's easy to tell people who like Band X to look into Precursor Y from 20 years ago, but not as easy to get them to look into Precursor Z from four years ago -- although I wish some critic, at the above- ground height of the post-rock wave, had tried.

― Nitsuh, Wednesday, 16 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I'm sure Nitsuh is confused about UK indie. I've noticed this before. Of course these bands are indie. I think what Tom meant with that comment was that this lot were so good that everything else since has sounded disappointing.

― N., Wednesday, 16 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

You Live In The US = These Bands Are Indie.

Um...this is what I'm saying. They ruined it for me by being a yardstick in terms of concept and results-interest that indie since hasn't lived up to. In the same way that people who unfavourably compare 00s pop to 60s or 80s pop aren't anti pop itself, they just feel it's peaked.

― Tom, Wednesday, 16 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Oh good - I was right. 'Indie' in the UK = more inclusive a concept than in certain circles of the US.

― N., Wednesday, 16 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

And also I mean that particular role of indie that Nitsuh valorises - 'twisting'/breaking new ground etc. I can see that this is a great and important role of indie music but it's one that in my opinion it doesn't do at all well now. The comforting sympathetic song-indie of B&S and dancefloor-indie still interest me.

― Tom, Wednesday, 16 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Was this semi-genre the abstract flipside to riot grrl?

Hmmm. Maybe yes re Margaret Fiedler, Laetitia 'lab & Rosie Pram, but as to the others it seemed at the time more to do with the fact that every UK indie band BY LAW had to have a female singer.

(p.s. I can't believe Dr C just repeated that minnie mouse in a foundry cliché - altho' this is also a selling point I should note)

― Jeff W, Wednesday, 16 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Is it a cliche? I didn't know. Anyway they were/are shit.

― Dr. C, Wednesday, 16 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

How does this 'generation' qualify as any more 'lost' than most other periods of indie? This isn't a particularly important point, but it doesn't seem to me that this lot are any more unfairly neglected by history than lots of other indie / underground sub-genres over the years.

― Tim, Wednesday, 16 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Aaaaahhhh, I see. In that case, I sort of agree with you. Although I think I think it "peaked" later than you do (i.e., I think there was value in Stereolab or the Sea and Cake or whomever swinging those "lost generation" values back around on solid-centered pop) and I think I think it's a little higher on the curve of descent than you probably do.

Am I really wrong about UK indie? N.'s UK-is-inclusive theory scandalizes me: the sense I always got, more strongly here than anywhere else, was that UK use of "indie" limited itself more to middling guitar-pop than the US sense, where in certain ways Daft Punk or Aphex Twin would be called "indie."

― Nitsuh, Wednesday, 16 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Sorry -- that was aimed at Tom's clarifications, above.

― Nitsuh, Wednesday, 16 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Tim - in absolute terms no but I think what OtherTim is talking about is the way these bands got actually quite a lot of press in around 1993 and then suddenly were completely swept away, coverage-wise, by Britpop, and a version of pop history was set up which went basically "1991-1994: British indie no good at all, only American stuff mattered, then along came Britpop horay".

― Tom, Wednesday, 16 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I think the crucial point maybe isnt the difference between how indie music is received in the UK and US but in how dance music is received. Dance music being dominant here has 'prior claim' on certain bands, so to speak.

Something I've just thought of is that one of the uk indie bands I have really liked recently is Piano Magic, who marry the lost-gen values to the comfort-indie idea.

― Tom, Wednesday, 16 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Bark Psychosis became Boymerang, obviously. The first Boymerang album (were there anymore?) is one of my favourite single artist jungle albums, along with the foul Play one.

In terms of classic or dud, I really don't think any of these bands were dud. Search: the first butterfly child album (if ever an album really did sound like 'beach boys in space'), the Bark Psychosis compilation album (Hex is good also, but i prefer this), both seefeel albums (the second one is under-rated, more electronic and obviously aphex-influenced), disco inferno (obviously), clear skin by insides (despite being a complete rip-off of something by steve reich, this is soooooo pretty), the second laika album (my evil ex stole mine, grrrr!).

Finally, another band to add to this list - spoonffed hybrid. The album I have is ace, exp the first track which features guitars being strummed and panned across the speakers to wonderful effect. I don't really know much about tis lot, but I have a feeling it was a spin off from a 4ad band or something(?). Prehaps someone can shed some light...

― Robin, Wednesday, 16 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

No, Daft Punk and Aphex Twin wouldn't be classed as indie here (although they might be called 'indiekid dance music'). Tom's explanation is probably quite close to the mark, though of course dance music of a different sort is very big in America. But 'electronica' as you lot started calling it, yeah, I guess that's mainly a European thing these days.

My perception (and I might be wrong) is that in the US, 'indie' means a subset of 'alternative rock' and 'college rock'. But I might be wrong. If I am, good. It makes things simpler, Daft Punk notwithstanding.

― N., Wednesday, 16 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

That's Ian Masters from the Pale Saints. I think you're referring to the LP, but the first song on the Hibernation Shock EP really does it for me -- I think I described it horribly as "'Soon' being dragged by a speedboat in a crystal clear body of water."

― Andy K., Wednesday, 16 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

On an earlier thread somebody mentioned that the 90s could be divided in 1988-93 and 1994-98. Generally speaking, it's a pretty accurate divide and I think the likes of Seefeel, Earwig, Laika etc. sort of signalled the end of the first period, the final burst of "blissout". (BTW, it was in the final glory days of Melody Maker in 1993/early 94, that these bands got a lot of press, NME gave very scant coverage if I remember correctly). This "scene" roughly coincided with 1993's ambient Trance Europe Express/Artificial Intelligence movement and the records made a sometimes intoxicating mix of post Loveless ideas and Orb type athmospherics. Seefeel's "Quique" probabl summed up this concoction best but now seems dated compared to a still fresh sounding jungle record of the time. By 1995 there was no more press spotlight on any of these bands as the mid-late 90's zeitgeist took hold.

Have a good lot of this stuff so maybe I need to go back to them. Still think Disco Inferno's "Footprints In Snow" is their high point. Have all of the 12"s on vinyl. First Laika album is good but I can't see myself enjoying the Pram albums again like I used to. NME used to hate them. I remember one zero out of 10 review!! I also possess a Papa Sprain EP and a Butterfly Child 12". These two came together, I think they had features in the same edition of MM round about April 93. Anyway nuf said.

― David Gunnip, Wednesday, 16 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

If Careless Talk/Mogwai are anything to go by - and that's a BIG if - the late (lamented?) God Machine are due for rehabilitation any day.

― Marcello Carlin, Wednesday, 16 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

pet theory: these bands were so forward thinking, so post-rock that they sowed the seeds of the genres eventual demise/transmutation. part of what made them exciting was - as i summed up moonshake somewhere else - that they were using ideas, instruments, and sounds totally alien to rock yet constructed in a way where it couldn't be anything else but. david's right that seefeel's quique represents a certain changeover; it's hard to distinguish it (from a sound/construction standpoint) from a lot of other warp style bands which were concurrent or just after. the genre divorced itself from rock so much that it just merged with the "electronic listening" schtuff. in 1992-3 wouldn't a band like lali puna or dntel have been post-rock rather than "idm"?

― jess, Wednesday, 16 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Jess, post-rock & IDM music is LINKED TOGETHER in London in 2002, see @ Kosmische

― DJ Martian, Wednesday, 16 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Re: God Machine are due for rehabilitation any day.

Aereogramme name checked them on Peel last night. The God Machine's two albums are amongst the finest albums of the 90s.

― DJ Martian, Wednesday, 16 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

(Over here, I'm back with Nitsuh on U.S. indie -- it's not a sound but more of a concept -- and that's the problem with trying to define it. Unfortunately, it's most easily definable by that which it is not.)

This thread makes me even more keen on getting that Bows record -- and more desperate to find Hex.

― scott p., Wednesday, 16 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

For Dastoor ...This is how 3WK - Internet Alternative Radio define independent/underground/alternative music stateside in 2002.

― DJ Martian, Wednesday, 16 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I'm back with Nitsuh on U.S. indie -- it's not a sound but more of a concept .

I don't think this is a US/UK divide, either. You could say the same over here. Anyway, I really don't mean to bog the thread down with this so I'll shut up now.

'Footprints in the Snow' - that's the only Disco Inferno track I have. (Very) ocassional ILM poster and founder of the B&S list put in on a tape tree compilation ages ago. I like it quite a lot, but I was hoping I'd be more blown away by their other stuff, so I'm disappointed if that's their best track. Is is meant to end that abruptly?

― N., Wednesday, 16 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

bleargh - I don't know how I ended up spelling occasional like that.

― N., Wednesday, 16 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Well, yeah DJ Martian, that seems about right to me. I'd chuck in Starsailor, Coldplay et al. too, but yeah. So US independent/underground/alternative = UK indie. Fine. Everybody happy.

― N., Wednesday, 16 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I like Jess's "sowed the seeds of their own demise." It makes me think of the early fusion groups, the ones people who "know" pick out as the only good ones before it all went to shit. Compare also to trip-hop, another fusion music.

― Josh, Wednesday, 16 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

The bands that I've heard abt on this thread are as bland as the worst chart pop. Pram, seefel, Mogwai, stereolab... just incredibly irrelevant music. Add to it 99% of chicago post-rock (Tortoise, Jim O'rouke- what fucking garbage).

It's because it doesn't rock or actually doesn't any new ideas (for stereolab= Krautrock with indie guitars, Mogwai= Slint without rocking like they did and so on).

But in 10-15 years I'm sure there will be many people looking for the reissues of many of these records, and that's the saddest thing of all.

― Julio Desouza, Wednesday, 16 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I think what might be a bit sadder is thinking that now that you've said that we'll automatically agree with you...

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 16 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

One thing I'm sure we can all agree on is that "Boymerang" is beyond a doubt the worst stage/band name in the entire history of music.

― John Darnielle, Wednesday, 16 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

It seems to posit some weird Australo-Cockney accent within which the "boomerang" pun actually works.

― Nitsuh, Wednesday, 16 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

But Julio, I'd say the bands I listed tend to sound very different to the second generation/US axis of post-rock - Tortoise, Cul De Sac, Trans Am, Sea & Cake, eventually leading to Mogwai, Godspeed You Black Emperor etc.

If there was a way to divide the aesthetic into halves it might be a matter of those bands taking cues from A.R. Kane's I vs those taking cues from Slint etc. (whether band has actually heard either is probably not so important).

Alternative thought: even before they started working with them, Stereolab sort of struck me as closer to Tortoise etc. than their UK peers. See Nitsuh's theory of recent inspiration vs archival inspiration - at the time Stereolab were more indebted to Neu! than anyone after that, and Tortoise's entire selling point was their resurrection of krautrock, dub etc. The other UK bands strike me as harbouring such archival influences much more organically, with them having seeped in through post-punk, drone rock, dream-pop, dance music etc. The success of the Tortoise/Stereolab aesthetic is probably dependent on/a factor in/inextricably linked to the rise of a "record collector" approach to musical experimentation in rock (no accident that their rise co- incided with britpop?) and the final stamping out of a modernist approach to the form.

― Tim, Wednesday, 16 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

"Re: God Machine are due for rehabilitation any day. Aereogramme name checked them on Peel last night. The God Machine's two albums are amongst the finest albums of the 90s."

I have also heard Aereogramme name check them before. Of course this has made me avoid God Machine like the proverbial plague.

― Ally C, Wednesday, 16 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Scott, cdnow has 'Hex' for like 12 bucks. Hurry up! ;-) Hmm, I've only heard the big names, but I'll throw in my two cents for Disco Inferno's 'In Debt,' more post-punk than post-rock I guess, but incredible nonetheless. Also, if you can find it, A.R.Kane's "Lolita" EP is absolutely crushing.

― Clarke B., Thursday, 17 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Also, is Main considered part of this? If so, then search for sure... the 'Hz' comp. is good, as are Firmament I and II (all I've heard from him).

Also, is Long Fin Killie?

― Clarke B., Thursday, 17 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Skipping 25 messages at this point... Click here if you want to load them all.

What about the New Fast Automatic Daffodils? I only have Body Exit Mind on tape somewhere but it is definitely a keeper. Great rather unacknowledged band from Manchester influenced by Joy Division, Fall, Wedding Present (the singer sounds a little bit like Mr Gedge) and the like. Dark, snotty and angry. I met them at a My Bloody Valentine concert in Brussels years ago. Quite nice guys actually.

― alex in mainhattan, Friday, 18 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

thing is, at the time newfads were pretty much thought of as a baggy band, i think they fit there pretty well (not a dis btw)

― gareth, Friday, 18 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

by the way, I reserve the right to dig out my copy of "DI Go Pop" and play it on my new vinylator and discover that it is in fact the best album of the '90s.

― DV, Friday, 18 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

What is so bloody special about Disco Inferno which are venerated here like the holy grail? I listened a couple of times to the two mp3s I found on the web named "Freethought" and "Emigre". The first one sounds slightly Joy Divisionish but is such a repetitive bore. The second starts promisingly but then the same hook line is repeated about a trillion times. Can someone please tell me if DI are always like on these two tracks? If yes they definitely deserve to stay forgotten.

― alex in mainhattan, Saturday, 19 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

Emigre and Freethought are from their pre-sampler period, where they were a nice enough JD + massive delay pedal style band but nothing spectacular. The main reason most people rave about them is the stuff they did later with samplers, which is very different.

― RickyT, Saturday, 19 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

I haven't really heard most of the bands being talked about, but Seefeel is great, especially the Succour album and the second half of Polyfusia (aka the Pure/Impure EP). Interesting to learn, by the way, that the album I thought was their final release, CH-VOX, was actually recorded before Succour; that makes a lot of sense, and probably puts them into the "perfectly-timed breakup" category.

― Phil, Saturday, 19 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

What is so bloody special about Disco Inferno which are venerated here like the holy grail?

Better them than Mind Funk. For instance.

― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 19 January 2002 01:00 (twenty-two years ago) link

one year passes...

the worst thing about this music is how devilishly hard most of it is to track down. are there any soulseek users out there ;-)? i'm writing a piece about this era and i don't feel informed enough to finish it without first hearing disco inferno, papa sprain, butterfly child, insides, seefeel, etc.

willing to trade/purchase/download/whatever!!!

― fields of salmon (fieldsofsalmon), Tuesday, 8 April 2003 16:09 (twenty-one years ago) link

one month passes...

does anybody know anything about Shiva Affect? just finished listening to "Rest Is Easy", the first track off Yahweh, & it's sounding as magical as anything can at 5:47am (facial profile of how I'd like to describe it - "Laughing Stock as covered by, um, (insert-band-notorious-for-feedback--here - j&mc?), except with vox like a chilled out Ian Crause, & bass which sounds remarkable for this sort of thing except that I keep forgetting the bass in early Seefeel wouldn't sound out of place in Liquid Liquid".)

― Ess Kay (esskay), Monday, 2 June 2003 16:46 (twenty-one years ago) link

haha, better (if sadder) description for Shiva Affect - proto-Mogwai. although the last track, with the female vocals trailing in & out, reminded my flatmate of Fang(!!), but there's no helping some people.

― Ess Kay (esskay), Monday, 9 June 2003 07:52 (twenty-one years ago) link

Some very interesting stuff here...

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Tuesday, 17 June 2003 10:17 (twenty-one years ago) link

two weeks pass...

the Shiva Affect LP is one of my favorite "Lost Generation" artifacts. the "Road Movie" 10" and "Pitch Black" 7" are also quite choice. Graham Sutton produced "Rest is Easy," and it sounds like a first cousin to those Cheree-era Bark Psychosis EPs. proto-Mogwai? dunno. there's more of a rocked-out Astral Weeks/Laughing Stock (yes!) vibe to the album. even with that daffy f-vox (and flute!) track, which is almost painfully out of place, definitely a lost "Lost" classic.

any communal love for these lost members of Generation L - some of whom never made it past a 7" or two? Reid, Yogur, Bovine Over Sussex W, Scaredycat, Tortus, Tea, the incredible Pinkie Maclure (last seen slumming with (The Real) Tuesday Weld. ack!) ...

and what about Silvania? i suppose they were just following Seefeel's every move, to some extent. but they ultimately outpaced Clifford & Co. this duo's semi-graceful transformation from JFaD cover band to perfect Chain Reaction candidates deserves some respect. and those early transitional records - esp. Paisaje III... ripple with naïve brilliance.

― summerslastsound, Tuesday, 1 July 2003 19:45 (twenty-one years ago) link

six months pass...

...

― Broheems (diamond), Sunday, 18 January 2004 09:00 (twenty years ago) link

I revived cuz i know someone was asking about the appelation recently. I was actually searching for citations of "ripple", hoping for encomiums for my beloved grateful dead. but yeah, .. lost generation.... here it is!

― Broheems (diamond), Sunday, 18 January 2004 09:04 (twenty years ago) link

I actually know one of Papa Sprain, someone called Cregan Black. nice chap, if even more arch-cynical than me.

― robin carmody (robin carmody), Sunday, 18 January 2004 20:32 (twenty years ago) link

five months pass...

I found Laika's Silver Apples of the Moon on Friday, finally. Great record so far!

― Clarke B. (Clarke B.), Sunday, 20 June 2004 15:07 (twenty years ago) link

Rah! Let me echo the love for the highly underrated Silvania a few posts back...

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 20 June 2004 15:31 (twenty years ago) link

eleven months pass...

Ned, have you heard Mario & Coco's other project, the Tubeway Army-esque Ciëlo? those sweet voices and melodies sound so great in a futuro-pop context. Numan, Slowdive, Seefeel, Basic Channel. man, what these boys lack in originality they certainly make up for in good taste.

― echoinggrove (echoinggrove), Friday, 17 June 2005 03:26 (nineteen years ago) link

i should mention that Ciëlo's fantastic Un Amor Mató al Futuro, with its balance between New Wave nostalgia and state-of-the-art beatcraft, resembles nothing less than Junior Boys or Postal Service. and several years ahead of either.

― echoinggrove (echoinggrove), Friday, 17 June 2005 04:25 (nineteen years ago) link

three weeks pass...

omg wtf &c&c&c

― etc, Tuesday, 12 July 2005 05:26 (nineteen years ago) link

its all true then

― mullygrubbr (bulbs), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 05:36 (nineteen years ago) link

why isn't this thread about the song the sly, the slick & the Wicked by the GROUP the lost generation? this is a good thread and you're all real smart but that song's good

― jared$$, Tuesday, 12 July 2005 05:38 (nineteen years ago) link

Slow Death in the Metronome Factory wasn't a Too Pure comp. it was a World Domination label sampler. didn't he mean Pop (Do We Not Like That?)

― echoinggrove (echoinggrove), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 11:43 (nineteen years ago) link

that's an interesting article, and an equally interesting thread. i wonder whether the blanket applicability of the term "lost generation" and the aesthetic similarities of all the bands under its rubric--d.i., moonshake/laika, seefeel, bark psychosis, pram, stereolab, etc., and sundry american post-rock collectives--works to exclude equally "lost" bands from the same era who sound nothing like them--like, say, the grifters--as though to imply a homogeneity in the most obscure reaches of the 90's music underground that doesn't quite capture its more broadly polyphonic quality

― wayward son, Tuesday, 12 July 2005 15:46 (nineteen years ago) link

(Arf, spot-on, echo: accidentally conflated the two in my head. Correction in progress.)

― nabisco (nabisco), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 17:43 (nineteen years ago) link

forgivable. esp. since Pram and Scala are on Slow Death, and the comp has some of that 'lost generation' spirit. otherwise a good piece. always nice to see these great bands being granted some overground attention, post mortem/mutationis or otherwise.

i miss æ Records.

― echoinggrove (echoinggrove), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 18:16 (nineteen years ago) link

nice work, nabsico!

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 18:32 (nineteen years ago) link

Can the power of Pitchfork get "Quique" back in print?

That's what I'd like to know, that record seems completely unavailable anywhere.

― fandango (fandango), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 19:52 (nineteen years ago) link

That was a good article. It took back to the heady days when those records were being released. No comment on the current state of music whatsoever, but during the early to mid-90s, it seemed like a breathtaking amount of really interesting music was being released.

I couldn't keep up with the stuff Sub-Pop, Am-Rep, K, Merge, Drag City, Matador, Simple Machines, Slumberland, Too Pure, etc. was releasing.

I sure loved Lorelei and Seefeel at the time. Never have really figured out the appeal behind Disco Inferno. I've tried to get into them at least three different times over the years.

― Brooker Buckingham (Brooker B), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 20:05 (nineteen years ago) link

The article loses points for never mentioning the phrase "Ambient Isolationism" though.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 20:13 (nineteen years ago) link

I dunno but the article annoyed me by dealing so heavily with eh "lost generation" context but not mentioning the britpop movement which I always thought was the reason they were finally "lost" in their native land, in the crazy rush to crown Suede, Blur et al The post acid house comedown mainstream Brit indie searching for a voice (Kingmaker, Radiohead?) avant / indie periphies fertile then stomped by corporatisation of "indie media"?

― elwisty (elwisty), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 21:57 (nineteen years ago) link

it was a really nice, generous article! coming from a US-indie context the glossing over the Britpop context (+ not repeating the whole Laughing Stock as equiv. to Spiderland, sort've) (+ the way various impulses ended up . . . Radiohead, Mogwai?) was pretty inevitable.

I've been wondering what'll happen to DI's standing, since the reissue of DI Go Pop seemed ultra low-key.

(I wonder if any NZ stuff counts as lost generation - I've always found it weird that NOBODY from the US/UK, despite all the either Flying Nun/Xpressway/Corpus Hermeticum &c&c&c, has evah listened to Skeptics - Amalgam seems sort've relevant)

(sorry for incoherence, sick as a dog @ work)

― etc, Thursday, 14 July 2005 22:53 (nineteen years ago) link

The Skeptics had been doing their thing for years before Amalgam. That was 1990, wasn't it?

― Sasha (sgh), Friday, 15 July 2005 01:36 (nineteen years ago) link

Yeah. It's sort've a departure, tho (I mean, have you heard early Skeptics?). But yeah, they're probably more grouped in w/the Young Gods, A.R. Kane generation-wise. but Amalgam sounded v.out-of-time.)

― etc, Friday, 15 July 2005 02:11 (nineteen years ago) link

I have. Amalgam is the only one I've listened to lately (I think it may be the only one I own). IIRC they were around in the late 70's? However Amalgam to me sounds pretty much like their 80's stuff, just better produced. I wouldn't compare anything of it to Disco Inferno ferinstance.

― Sasha (sgh), Friday, 15 July 2005 02:44 (nineteen years ago) link

I thought the article was great in that it was a nice counterpoint to the main story about '90s British music that gets circulated, where it is all about the Oasis Blur stuff. It prompted me to pick up the DI GOES POP reissue which I hadn't heard. I liked it a great deal especially "Footprints in snow" and "IN sharky water." I would love to hear the EPs that came out before and after this release. Does anyone know if there are plans to reissue them on CD?

― ken urban (mainloop), Sunday, 17 July 2005 01:12 (nineteen years ago) link

the britpop movement which I always thought was the reason they were finally "lost" in their native land, in the crazy rush to crown Suede, Blur et al The post acid house comedown mainstream Brit indie searching for a voice (Kingmaker, Radiohead?) avant / indie periphies fertile then stomped by corporatisation of "indie media"

That's accurate with my memories of how it all unfolded back then. The UK press totally missed the boat re: Radiohead at first though, which I still find pretty amusing.

― fandango (fandango), Sunday, 17 July 2005 19:07 (nineteen years ago) link

one year passes...

http://www.dissensus.com/showthread.php?t=4632

― repetitive roger (repetitive roger), Thursday, 28 September 2006 17:09 (eighteen years ago) link

The Lost Generation would make a very good name for a band.

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Thursday, 28 September 2006 22:44 (eighteen years ago) link

I really want to hear that mix, but I don't want to have to register! Drat!

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Thursday, 28 September 2006 22:48 (eighteen years ago) link

Dag, I thought this was a thread about the dudes that did "The Sly, The Slick and The Wicked."

― mucho (mucho), Thursday, 28 September 2006 22:55 (eighteen years ago) link

three years pass...

Some interesting stuff about Papa Sprain that I never knew right here.

― Gunther von Hagen Daas (NickB), Tuesday, 6 October 2009 23:30 (fifteen years ago) link

Bumping this up for the daytime folks.

― Obscured by clowns (NickB), Friday, 9 October 2009 15:28 (fifteen years ago) link

(check the comments and subsequent blog posts)

― Obscured by clowns (NickB), Friday, 9 October 2009 15:29 (fifteen years ago) link

Heheh nice.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 9 October 2009 15:35 (fifteen years ago) link

seven years pass...

We have Papa Sprain update, of sorts

http://www.waywordsandmeansigns.com/artists/papa-sprain/

― Ned Raggett, Wednesday, 29 March 2017 13:23 (seven years ago) link

three years pass...

Even more Papa Sprain updates - he's been posting albums worth of extremely abstract music on the Internet Archive at a staggering rate lately: https://archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%22papa+sprain%22&sort=-addeddate

And has a new album out this year with Butterfly Child's Joe Cassidy: https://www.forcedexposure.com/Catalog/my-bus-our-life-in-the-desert-lp/HUM.030LP.html

― EvanP, Tuesday, 20 October 2020 19:30 (four years ago) link

Great lost board descriptions:

i dunno. this board supposed to be i love music but all it is is i love saddo bands no one else's ever heard of 'cos they're crap but ive heard of them and you aint so im better than u. is that what this board is really about? i love my big dick?

― Dan Worsley, Tuesday, 20 October 2020 19:40 (four years ago) link

Great lost board descriptions:

― Dan Worsley, Tuesday, 20 October 2020 19:40 (four years ago) link

Damn x2

― Dan Worsley, Tuesday, 20 October 2020 19:41 (four years ago) link

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