The Lost Generation

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Laika sound way more sexual to me than oft-cited fucking MBV do.

mentalist.

theory: no music can utilize dub bass (if not dub production) and not retain some level of physicality/sexuality.

― jess, Thursday, 17 January 2002 01:00 (8 years ago) Permalink

Ah, Papa Sprain - the stories I could tell. Well, actually I couldn't, but I was tremendously excited by them in 91-93 - the only letter I ever wrote to Ch4's teletext pop page was in response to their correspondent's sneering dismissal of Reynolds' heart- quickening PS big-up in MM ("vast, grey planet of a bass riff" or something). They released two EPs on H.Ark! - Flying To Vegas and May, an utterly shapeless Rough Trade Singles Club 7" and then promptly vanished. Rumours abounded of Gary McKendry abandoning all efforts at melody and texture and delivering [whoever his record label was by '93] 40 minutes of MMM-style feedback as an LP; told to go away and 're-work it', he came back with the same material plus some tape hiss a few weeks later. I saw him/them support The Boo Radleys and Pale Saints at the Krazy House in Liverpool in March '92 - a single twenty-minute glowering noise-piece. It were luvvly.

Laika, of course, are/were completely fantastic - especially live. I never don't dance at Laika gigs, which is odd, because I never don't not dance these days.

I'm beginning to suspect these putdowns of Stereolab ("Krautrock with indie guitars") are based on some magical seam of Krautrock I've never heard, or a couple of records the 'lab put out six or seven years ago. Whatever.

― Michael Jones, Thursday, 17 January 2002 01:00 (8 years ago) Permalink

I saw Disco Inferno around early 95 at some venue on the South Bank. Strange gig. I remember they had a few computers hooked up on stage. Enjoyed it though. Also saw Bark Psychosis supported by Papa Sprain (or was it Butterfly Child!) in the ICA on the Mall during sumer 94. I thought at the time it was crock of shit because I hadn't heard anything by them at that point. They had some good visuals on thew video scren behind them but the music was hard going.

― David Gunnip, Friday, 18 January 2002 01:00 (8 years ago) Permalink

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?

― XStatic Peace, Friday, 18 January 2002 01:00 (8 years ago) Permalink

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 (8 years ago) Permalink

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 (8 years ago) Permalink

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 (8 years ago) Permalink

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 (8 years ago) Permalink

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 (8 years ago) Permalink

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 (8 years ago) Permalink

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 (8 years ago) Permalink

1 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 (7 years ago) Permalink

1 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 (7 years ago) Permalink

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 (7 years ago) Permalink

Some very interesting stuff here...

― Nick Southall (Nick Southall), Tuesday, 17 June 2003 10:17 (7 years ago) Permalink

2 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 (7 years ago) Permalink

6 months pass...

...

― Broheems (diamond), Sunday, 18 January 2004 09:00 (6 years ago) Permalink

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 (6 years ago) Permalink

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 (6 years ago) Permalink

5 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 (6 years ago) Permalink

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

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 20 June 2004 15:31 (6 years ago) Permalink

11 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 (5 years ago) Permalink

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 (5 years ago) Permalink

3 weeks pass...

omg wtf &c&c&c

― etc, Tuesday, 12 July 2005 05:26 (5 years ago) Permalink

its all true then

― mullygrubbr (bulbs), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 05:36 (5 years ago) Permalink

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 (5 years ago) Permalink

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 (5 years ago) Permalink

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 (5 years ago) Permalink

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

― nabisco (nabisco), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 17:43 (5 years ago) Permalink

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 (5 years ago) Permalink

nice work, nabsico!

― Sterling Clover (s_clover), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 18:32 (5 years ago) Permalink

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 (5 years ago) Permalink

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 (5 years ago) Permalink

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

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Tuesday, 12 July 2005 20:13 (5 years ago) Permalink

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 (5 years ago) Permalink

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 (5 years ago) Permalink

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 (5 years ago) Permalink

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 (5 years ago) Permalink

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 (5 years ago) Permalink

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 (5 years ago) Permalink

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 (5 years ago) Permalink

1 year passes...

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

― repetitive roger (repetitive roger), Thursday, 28 September 2006 17:09 (3 years ago) Permalink

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

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Thursday, 28 September 2006 22:44 (3 years ago) Permalink

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 (3 years ago) Permalink

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 (3 years ago) Permalink

3 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 (10 months ago) Permalink

Bumping this up for the daytime folks.

― Obscured by clowns (NickB), Friday, 9 October 2009 15:28 (10 months ago) Permalink

(check the comments and subsequent blog posts)

― Obscured by clowns (NickB), Friday, 9 October 2009 15:29 (10 months ago) Permalink

Heheh nice.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 9 October 2009 15:35 (10 months ago) Permalink

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