Loop - RFD

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I listened to "Fade Out" quite recently, it's thee only loop produckt I still have (it's the one w/extra tracks, incl "thief of fire/thief motherfucker") and I still like it a lot, and I think it still holds up, for the most part. What I like about them is that they sound slike a machine. The repetitive riffs make me think of clips of the pistons on a ships engine going up and down. There's something kind of implacable about the way they played their riffs.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Friday, 30 April 2004 09:21 (twenty-two years ago)

Damn, that guilded <-> gilded mistake was dumb.
Permanent membership of a mediaeval craftsmen's union?
Forced membership of indefinite duration in an eeeeevil blacksmith death cult?
I'm starting to like my alternate title better!

― Barry Bruner (Barry Bruner), Friday, 30 April 2004 16:06 (twenty-two years ago)

I never quite understood the Spacemen 3 vs. Loop thing. I mean, sure, I knew the story, but I love(d) them both. I actually listen to Spacemen 3 more than I do Loop these days, which is very much the opposite of what I did back then. But now I have to go home and pull out those albums. Been far too long.

― kaliflwr (kaliflwr), Friday, 30 April 2004 16:30 (twenty-two years ago)

RE: HASTCo - I have the first record (Jo In Nine-G Hell: pretty dreadful w/ lame songwriting, tries to sound menacing, but just sounds ridiculous in a vaguely gothy way), and the third one (Psychedelische Musique: much better, more abstract, interesting abrasive textures, some of it reminds me a bit of krauty Chrome). Anyone know if the middle one's worth picking up?

that 1st H&STCo isn't dreadful, but it does sound tentative. i think they just couldn't decide whether to be Can or Cop Shoot Cop. Roli Mosimann's production just overwhelms any personality that more confident music might have expressed. took me forever to get around to Over Valence, but it's much better. like a poppier Loop or maybe a testosterone-fueled Electrealane. there's a H&STCo. 7", Crouch End, on Aquese(?) that's pretty good, more of a Splintered/Husk sound. Psychedelische Musique (Lava Surf Kunst) was assembled in the manner of Faust Tapes and works both as homage and as a damn good listen. have they done anything since as H&STCo? i know John Wills works closely with (wife?) Pinkie Maclure. their latest project, Lumen, turned in one of the most memorable album debuts of 2003, This Day and Age. lovely stuff.

what have Nigel Webb and Neil Mackay been up to?

and what did Savage Opera sound like?

― echoinggrove (echoinggrove), Friday, 30 April 2004 17:29 (twenty-two years ago)

HASTCo ... yeah, the first album is tentative, that's a good word for it. At the time, it sounded like a less extreme version of Loop -- the sneer and blackness are there but also an effort to make it more palatable to the average Joe Q. Indie : Wonderstuff Fan.
It comes across really dated now compared to the denser sounds of Loop, the shoegaze bands, and all their descendents.

― Barry Bruner (Barry Bruner), Friday, 30 April 2004 18:12 (twenty-two years ago)

Neil did an LP, "Thinking Up Things & Then Forgetting Them" on Lissy's, with his then wife, under the name Juicy Eureka. Sort of Stereolab-y, & pretty good. There's been a couple of compilation tracks since can't remember under what name, something long about "Anti-Self". He has stuff recorded but haven't heard about anybody wanting to put it out.

― Wandering Boy Poet, Saturday, 1 May 2004 10:52 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm currently playing Loop's Fade Out and it is amusing trip into the past indeed. I'm surprised by how wonderfully SLUDGY they sound. See back when I listened to this, I'd never taken drugs ever in my life. I didn't think of them as psychedelic, or metal, or rock and roll. They just sounded good.

I can't believe how many times I thought I would sell this CD. I think I tried to once, but the store wouldn't buy it. I didn't mind the music on the CD, but I had been more of a fan of their earlier work, and this was a departure from that. I can't believe in all these years it's never left my posession. I can actually take the production better. Heavens End just sounded so treble-heavy when I tried to play it again recently.

― bimble (bimble), Saturday, 1 May 2004 22:44 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm also sure that Loop's Fade Out was one of the very first CD's I bought. CD's weren't so prevalent in 1989 as they are today, you know? I think I bought my first CD player in '88.

― bimble (bimble), Saturday, 1 May 2004 22:46 (twenty-two years ago)

i was born in 88

― Dude (The Yellow Dart), Saturday, 1 May 2004 22:55 (twenty-two years ago)

OK, I d/l'ed "Wolf Flow" and am listening to it now ... yes, this is the kind of sound I was after. It's still not nearly as heavy as "A Gilded Eternity", but production-wise, they're very close. Thanks to all who recommended this.

― Barry Bruner (Barry Bruner), Sunday, 2 May 2004 00:13 (twenty-two years ago)

It's still not nearly as heavy as "A Gilded Eternity" ... the album just got to the AGI tracks ... they're plenty heavy.

― Barry Bruner (Barry Bruner), Sunday, 2 May 2004 00:25 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't really agree that the 'A Guilded Eternity' tracks are "heavier" than they're early stuff. In fact, I think the production is cleaner (more instrument separation etc) on it versus the early stuff. For me, 'Fade Out' and the 'Collision' EP are some of the dirrtiest nastiest sounding records ever. It's like they wanted to record a riff from a jet engine or something.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Sunday, 2 May 2004 01:19 (twenty-two years ago)

Brilliantly phrased, Spencer!

Man, all this thread talk has me jonesing. Excuse me, I'm going to blast that there "Straight To Your Heart" from Wolf Flow now...

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 2 May 2004 01:42 (twenty-two years ago)

I finally found Fade Out on CD!! Turns out the sound quality is a little disappointing -- I don't get quite the charge of adrenalin with that thin late 80s mastering. That might be your problem with Heaven's End, Bimble. The vinyl sounds fucking huge and possessing.

― Clarke B. (Clarke B.), Sunday, 2 May 2004 03:39 (twenty-two years ago)

one year passes...

A Gilded Eternity blew my mind back in '90. It was heavy, repetitive (I think 'droney' denotes bliss or calm, two things AGI are NOT), and yet completely complex and became very much a HUGE influence on my music. I love the HASTCO stuff (although in desperation, I foolishly sold PSYCHEDELISCHE MUSIQUE less than two days after I bought it - DAMN YOU RENT! Anyone able to help me out here?), and Main's early stuff (HYDRA-CALM,that 'drumless space' record set) too!

Not ready yet, but soon
www.olidgol.com

― Mars Hottentot, Wednesday, 5 October 2005 21:16 (twenty years ago)

was listening to wolf flow, the first loop album i bought. 2 years ago. so excelent.

― chris frey, Friday, 7 October 2005 01:04 (twenty years ago)

Loop has got to be experienced on vinyl, because the CD's I've heard and the mp3's I've downloaded just aren't as good. The twelve inchers of Black Sun and Thief Of Fire are total monsters.

I saw them live lots of times and they were terrific. One time in particular I will never forget was at the QMU in Glasgow. The PA didn't show up so they did the set on a bare stage, totally instrumentally. Mind-blowing!

― everything, Friday, 7 October 2005 03:09 (twenty years ago)

I first saw them supporting Primal Scream at ULU in about 1987 or something and was totally blown away.

I remember my indie chums derided them as heavy metal, but I went straight out and bought "16 Dreams". I was totally into the whole Chelsea Boots, stand-up drummer, psychedelic background thing.

I sort of lost them a bit after Fade Out, but rediscovered them again after many years and listened again to A Gilded Eternity, which is a classic.

― Braces Tower, Friday, 7 October 2005 12:56 (twenty years ago)

Loop has got to be experienced on vinyl, because the CD's I've heard and the mp3's I've downloaded just aren't as good.
Yeah, not to get too vinyl snobby here, but I fully agree. Additionally Fade Out, Wolf Flow, and (I think) A Gilded Eternity were all issued as 45RPM double LPs sets and all sound pretty spectacular. Finally the live LP (it's all red with a sticker on the cover stating "Edizone Limitata di 1000 Copie") is fantastic. Track it down if you can. Gilded Eternity is still #1 in my book, but this is a close #2.

― Joel (aquabahn), Saturday, 8 October 2005 03:48 (twenty years ago)

One time in particular I will never forget was at the QMU in Glasgow. The PA didn't show up so they did the set on a bare stage, totally instrumentally. Mind-blowing!

ha, i was there as well! there was a really good show later on at the Tech, "From Centre To Wave" was so loud my ears hurt for days afterwards.

― zappi (joni), Saturday, 8 October 2005 04:19 (twenty years ago)

Aw, ya big softie.

― flowersdie (flowersdie), Tuesday, 18 October 2005 11:59 (twenty years ago)

I used to listen to Heaven's End on cassette tape in my car, and it sounded good, but it does sound horrible on mp3. As much as re-masters of classics scare me, I think it would be worth hearing a good remaster of Heaven's End. The stretch of the album starting with the title track, going into Too Real to Feel and the great transition into Fix to Fall is pure bliss.

I'm trying to find Wolf Flow on s!sk, but having no luck.

― recovering optimist (Royal Bed Bouncer), Tuesday, 18 October 2005 17:41 (twenty years ago)

I liked Fade Out when it first came out, though I thought Loop was secondary to the other Brit psych stuff happening at the time like Spacemen 3 or Skullflower.

What killed my interest was seeing them live around '90 - '91 at Maxwell's in Hoboken. They were just so serious, droning on and on - and this from a Swans/Godflesh fan! What summed it up for me was when they blew the power three times in a row and started the same song over again each time it was interrupted, like a pack of dullard robots. They even managed to make strobe lights boring.

Although I must say this thread has peaked my interest in hearing Wolf Flow / A Gilded Eternity....

― Edward III (edward iii), Tuesday, 18 October 2005 18:40 (twenty years ago)

fade out and a gilded eternity are ripe for remastering/releasing. those things have been OOP for so long.

― kyle (akmonday), Tuesday, 18 October 2005 18:42 (twenty years ago)

two weeks pass...

A Guilded Eternity is a masterpiece of music. I say Music, not pop or glam stuff.
They reached their top. More repetitive, more loud, distant as ever.
English is not my motherlanguage, so I don't care about words in songs. The only words i understood was "...So sorry..." in Be Here Now. It's enough. Loop is not a heavy-metal band, but something like Loud Ambient. Guitars sounding like helicos. Loop pursued me through years. I like Loop

― xavier dechamps, Friday, 4 November 2005 17:48 (twenty years ago)

I say Music, not pop or glam stuff.

You don't need the latter part of that statement.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Friday, 4 November 2005 17:51 (twenty years ago)

But if you added "I say" to the former part of the statement two more times, you'd be Foghorn Leghorn, and that would rock.

― martin m. (mushrush), Friday, 4 November 2005 18:10 (twenty years ago)

five months pass...

finally found gilded eternity in the used bin in bmore over the weekend; what a fuckin monster of an album. "breathe into me" is my fave use of the "tv eye" riff in a song that's not actually "tv eye" evar. album's 10x more singlemindedly pounding and GOOD than anything released in the UK in 1990 has any right to be.

― ZR (teenagequiet), Tuesday, 25 April 2006 19:13 (twenty years ago)

Weirdly, Simon R. trashed A Gilded Eternity at the time in comparison to Playing With Fire.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 25 April 2006 19:25 (twenty years ago)

that's odd...I can remember Reynolds getting all "I was lost, I was a void" when he would describe Loop...

― hank (hank s), Tuesday, 25 April 2006 19:29 (twenty years ago)

Oh he loved Loop, but he thought Gilded wasn't a good step forward from where they were before.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 25 April 2006 19:30 (twenty years ago)

I suppose he had a point...other than "Arc-Lite", I can't remember another track from that LP...(though I thought "Arc-Lite", ace as it was in both its SONAR and THAT OTHER NAME versions, paled in comparison to "Sunburst", its B-side)...

― hank (hank s), Tuesday, 25 April 2006 19:45 (twenty years ago)

WAIT ZR YOU JUST GOT THAT? WHAT LOOP U HAVE BEFORE?

― pssst - badass revolutionary art! (plsmith), Tuesday, 25 April 2006 19:48 (twenty years ago)

heaven's end, which ain't nowhere near as good

― ZR (teenagequiet), Tuesday, 25 April 2006 19:58 (twenty years ago)

and i mean i'd heard ge before - i listened to it all the time at MUC, but finally pwning my own copy is very much appreciated

― ZR (teenagequiet), Tuesday, 25 April 2006 20:00 (twenty years ago)

Man, I sold my CD of Wolf Flow in a fit of poverty about 10 years ago and my cassette of Gilded Eternity and Heaven's End disintegrated. Who knows when (if ever) this stuff will get reissued. Pathetic.

― righteousmaelstrom (righteousmaelstrom), Tuesday, 25 April 2006 20:20 (twenty years ago)

Heaven's End >>> A Gilded Eternity. Fade Out is probably better than both (maybe not the former though, I should listen again) and the singles collection thing I have is better than all of them, methinks.

― Alex in SF (Alex in SF), Tuesday, 25 April 2006 20:41 (twenty years ago)

mebbe it's just cuz i have he on shittily-mastered cd, but it sounds like a bunch of formless, albeit loud, sub-shoegaze psychedelic noise compared to the brutalist pounding of ge. i mean, i like it and all, but ge kicks teh ass in comparison. never heard fade out or wolf flow, but i'm interested.

― ZR (teenagequiet), Tuesday, 25 April 2006 20:46 (twenty years ago)

If you have not heard Wolf Flow, as I say time and again, trust me. I'm prepared to call it the definite album now.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 25 April 2006 20:47 (twenty years ago)

yeah everyone seems to love that one, i really need to find it for less than seven million dollars and buy it! less than $40 would be preferable, tho.

― ZR (teenagequiet), Tuesday, 25 April 2006 20:50 (twenty years ago)

I think Ned's right about Wolf Flow.

― righteousmaelstrom (righteousmaelstrom), Tuesday, 25 April 2006 20:53 (twenty years ago)

It's handy because it covers the entire career and most of the best songs, plus great sound and brilliant performances. (That said Sterling's homemade comp just pips it as a best-of.)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Tuesday, 25 April 2006 20:55 (twenty years ago)

I like Fade Out the least. Guy's voice annoys me on that album.

― josh in sf (stfu kthx), Tuesday, 25 April 2006 20:56 (twenty years ago)

There's no other band I love as much as LOOP.
All their records are in my top ten list.

― skeggia, Wednesday, 26 April 2006 08:17 (twenty years ago)

A Gilded Eternity is £4.99 on Amazon (UK).

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Wednesday, 26 April 2006 09:29 (twenty years ago)

three weeks pass...

As said way upthread. For myself, I finally got said third one the other week -- quite good, actually at points comparable to where Main were at mid-nineties, ironically enough. But not entirely, and with their own particular approach. Now I need to investigate these other side projects from HaSTCo that are mentioned elsewhere...

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 17 May 2006 14:38 (twenty years ago)

one month passes...

Exciting d0wnl4sd opportunity:

http://differentwaters.blogspot.com/

Scroll down a bit and get stuck in.

Incidentally, how does one use winrar (or whatever it's called) without it fucking up one's winzip? I mean, this some crazy shit.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Thursday, 13 July 2006 09:50 (nineteen years ago)

I've recently been reinvestigating their back catalogue.

God, I love Loop.

― Thom Yorke Is My Spirit Guide (kate), Thursday, 13 July 2006 09:52 (nineteen years ago)

Incidentally, how does one use winrar (or whatever it's called) without it fucking up one's winzip?

huh?

― GOD PUNCH TO HAWKWIND (yournullfame), Thursday, 13 July 2006 09:56 (nineteen years ago)

It seems to override all winzip functions, files, etc.

― PJ Miller (PJ Miller 68), Thursday, 13 July 2006 10:26 (nineteen years ago)

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