In The Light Of Time-UK Post-Rock and Leftfield Pop 1992-1998.
Label: Ace Records.
Format: CD.
Release Date: '29th' September 2023.
Back in the early nineties, a number of British bands decided it was time to explore a different side to pop and rock music. They were going to push musical boundaries and create innovative music. It was a case of daring to be different.
Some succeeded, creating groundbreaking music fusing elements of seventies art rock, post-punk and minimalist music with the new and burgeoning electronic scene. This found favour with some of the established indie labels including 4AD and Rough Trade, as well as newcomers Domino and Too Pure. A new as yet unnamed scene was about to be born.
Early releases were well received by the music press. Then in an article in The Wire in 1994, music scribe Simon Reynolds used the term "post-rock" to describe this new sub-genre.
Among the British exponents of the new genre were Bark Psychosis, Disco Inferno, Main, Moonshake, Pram and Seefeel. That was despite their music not sounding similar.
Instead, the bands all believed in deconstructing music, and using the studio to manipulate the music they were making. This wasn't new and everyone from The Beatles and Beach Boys to the pioneers of dub had used a recording studio to manipulate the new music they made.
Some bands rejected the role of lead vocalist. That was in rock music's past they decided. Other groups still had a vocalist, but their lyrics were quiet, minimalist, simplistic, dreamy or almost silent. For some groups, the vocal was akin to a new instruments. Much of what the first wave of post-rock groups were doing was very different from what had gone before. Despite that, these new groups were happy to refer to their new music as post-rock as it had a link to the rock music of the past.
By 1994, Britpop took centrestage in the British music press and the charts. It harked back to the past, and there was a sense of nostalgia and even familiarity to Britpop. As it dominated the headlines, post-rock's exposure shrunk. However, in other parts of the world some of the groups found an audience.
During the second half of the nineties, a new wave of post-rock bands were formed. They relied more on technology which by then, was much cheaper. The new bands were much more willing to embrace different genres and influences when they created their music. Sometimes, the music sounded emotive and introspective. Other times, there was a complexity to the music that made it almost impossible to replicate live. Especially given the reliance on technology, and that some of the proponents of post-rock weren't exactly talented musicians.
However, to release the music being released by the latest post-rock bands bedroom labels were founded. They embraced the DIY culture of punk and released the second wave of post-rock.
By the late-nineties, post-rock was evolving. It was no longer the broad musical church it once was. Instead, post-rock was mostly instrumental guitar-based music. Gone was the much more complex music of the early nineties.
Many fans of the sub-genre preferred the original post-rock sound. It features on In The Light Of Time-UK Post-Rock and Leftfield Pop 1992-1998, which will be released by Ace Records, on the '29th' September 2023. It features seventeen tracks that nowadays, would be categorised as art rock, leftfield pop or post punk rather than post-rock. However, in the nineties that's how many of the tracks on the compilation were described.
Opening the compilation is Disco Inferno, a trio formed in Essex in 1989. Five years later in 1994, they released their second EP on Rough Trade. The lead track was Second Language. It's a slice of post-pop which was the highlight of an EP that failed to find a wider audience.
Moonshake was an Anglo-American group that fused experimental music with post-rock. City Poison is a track from their 1992 album Eva, which was released on the Too Pure label. The vocal is fuelled by anger, emotion and emotions on this powerful track as disparate genres are combined by the rest of the group.
Prior to forming Main, Robert Hampson had been a member of psychedelic drone band, Loop. In 1994, his new band released their debut album Motion Pool. It featured Spectra Delay, which was an ambitious fusion of post-rock and psychedelia with electronic and abstract music.
In the early days, Pram deployed everything from children's toys and instruments to records found in charity to make music. By 1995, they had released their album Saragossa Sea on the Too Pure label. It features Loose Threads. The vocal is ethereal and delivered against an understated arrangement where perfect pop and jazz are combined, to create one of the highlights of the compilation.
Glaswegian post-rock pioneers Mogwai are, by far, the best know group on the compilation. They released their debut album Young Team, in 1997. It features A Cheery Wave From Stranded Youngsters which is a tantalising taste of what was to come from this groundbreaking group.
Appliance were formed in Exeter and were obviously influenced by seventies Krautrock. That's apparent on their 1998 single In The Event Of Just Looking. It has a dark, hypnotic and mesmeric sound where elements of Krautrock, post-rock and electronic music melt into one.
Dreamy, ethereal, lysergic, mesmeric beautiful describes I Am The Sub-Librarian by Piano Magic. It's a track taken from their 1998 album Rocket Girl.
Closing the compilation is Through You by Seefeel. it's taken from their 1993 genre-melting album Quique. Elements of Intelligent Dance Music and ambient are combined to create a dramatic and cinematic soundscape.
For anyone interested in post-rock or leftfield pop released in Britain during the nineties, this seventeen track compilation may be of interest to them. There's a few familiar faces on In The Light Of Time-UK Post-Rock and Leftfield Pop 1992-1998. This includes Mogwai. They're the nearest to a household name on the compilation.
Other bands on the compilation aren't as well know. They're not even household names in their household. However, back in the nineties some of them were pioneers British post-rock and leftfield pop scenes. Some released singles, EPs and albums that failed to find a wider audience and nowadays, are regarded as hidden gems or sub-genre classics. A selection of those can be found on In The Light Of Time-UK Post-Rock and Leftfield Pop 1992-1998.
In The Light Of Time-UK Post-Rock and Leftfield Pop 1992-1998.
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