insides - euphoria

Digging around I found the few non-album songs by Earwig, Insides' immediate predecessor, that I didn't have on their own one album, Under My Skin I Am Laughing. (Most of the B-sides/singles got collected on a compilation, Past, but I've still never been able to find a copy of that.) Mixed batch but I like them, you can hear them being a louder 'rock' band as such early on.

I had a copy of Past, the only copy I've ever seen, and I accidentally sold it back to Amoeba last year in a box along with a ton of other things. I went back to find it later that week and it was nowhere to be found. That said, despite the scarcity of it, I didn't find it that great; Under my Skin was much much better.

Agreed, the singles are more woodshedding than anything else. But you can hear them start to settle on a sound as they go.

looking at this:

http://eil.com/Shop/ExtSearch.asp?DiscArtist=Earwig

all three of those ep covers look very familiar but i could've sworn i was missing one. or maybe i'm missing a 4th ep. ah, yes, the Every Day Shines 12".

there was also an insides promo 12" with clear skin remixes on it that i found cheap in notting hill but my copy of which i think jumps. (Eyesore DB says GUP4)

as mike said i went to the label launch (Borderline (Break For The Border?), London, same place i saw UVS and that first B&S gig) where insides played two sets, the first of which became Clear Skin. mesmerising to the point where you had to remember to breathe. years later i heard steve reich and the spell was somewhat broken but hey...

there was also an insides promo 12" with clear skin remixes on it

! Now that I'd love to hear.

Actually somehow I had missed that the original release of Euphoria had a separate 7" single as well.

> Now that I'd love to hear.

if only someone had, say, posted it on an mp3 blog (and on my birthday too)

http://theblackenedair.blogspot.com/2009/10/insides-clear-skin-promo.html

Astounding.

And thanks!

Wow thanks Koogs!

I still have never heard the Earwig album or Clear Skin itself, appallingly.

Good lord, man.

Ha I know - it actually feels vaguely shameful considering how important Euphoria has been to me for so long.

Me on Under My Skin from ten years back:

http://freakytrigger.co.uk/old-ft/essays/1999/02/earwig/

Ned I've been imagining the record ever since I read your review ten years ago! That was the first I'd heard of it - I think i actually picked up Euphoria that year due to all the cross-references with Disco Inferno, Bark Psychosis etc.

cross-references on a.m.a. I mean.

Something really needs to be done about this! And that sounds like something that would be cross-referenced on a.m.a. that way...

tim i have clear skin, if i can track down the cd in my many boxes i will set it aside for you

Thanks Jim! No pressure though, I know what scouring through boxes of CDs is like...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_QYRtOGRVU

so sick

i hate lovers
i hate the way they go to the bathroom
in shifts
after
they fuck

Possibly my favorite song by them, definitely my favorite lyric.

huh.

http://www.animalsonwheels.co.uk/index.php/2010/08/16/a-new-old-tune/#content

Good find!

thanks!

pretty good track. very 90s idm. which, um, makes sense.

only 3 votes in the original poll makes me sad, but I guess this album is kind of the definition of a hidden gem--as much as I love it, I wouldn't play it for just anyone.

i played "Relentless" once extremely late at a house party a while ago, like Sunday afternoon late, about 6 or 7 people in the room just dancing and chatting and drinking, it went down well I think though admittedly I just wanted to hear it myself

this album means so much to me but I still haven't heard Clear Skin

I just got into this in the last two years. Prefer Clear Skin to Euphoria. Got the canadian? cd ep off Amazon or Discogs recently for a buck or two. Reminds me of Reich in places.

It seems I have the mp3s for the Clear Skin promo too. They also had a track on one of the Volume comps.

Never understood the hoopla for this album - always seemed like a more boring Laika

Hurrah Neil Kulkarni once more:

http://thequietus.com/articles/07267-the-euphoria-of-insides

Some full-throated poptimism there at the start too!

Not much of a Mogwai fan I take it?

Those American bands I did care about that got called ‘post-rock’ always had too much of an obsession with melody and rhythm going on to ever be called anything other than pop (Bowery Electric, Jessamine, Labradford, Windy & Carl)

Uh...

I should tell Windy and Carl about that, actually...

Coincidentally, I was humming a Labradford song only yesterday.

I think it was the one that started on middle C. And stayed there for the next five minutes.

Missed the Kulkarni feature at the time but just caught up, I hadn't realised They had another band before Insides. The music seems to be legally available here:

http://earwiguk.bandcamp.com/

I Need Feel is an amazing track.

Hey, that's great! Must get the missing numbers...

I would like to make a donation, as everything I've ever bought by these guys has been second-hand, but I guess legally these things can be difficult.

That "Past" album was the first thing I got by these guys. (Yeah, it was second-hand too.) It was great to follow their progress from that to "Under My Skin..." to "Euphoria" to "Clear Skin." There were a few other artists back then, like Robert Hampson, whose music just seemed to gradually dissolve into the ether with each release. I always wondered where they would wind up.

I would like to make a donation, as everything I've ever bought by these guys has been second-hand, but I guess legally these things can be difficult.

The rights must've reverted to them if they're allowing free downloads on bandcamp. In which case, it's unfortunate that they didn't use the "name your price" feature to allow for donations. In any case, the flac files are much appreciated. Those are rare discs these days.

tim i have clear skin, if i can track down the cd in my many boxes i will set it aside for you

― an error has occurred (electricsound), Tuesday, December 8, 2009 9:47 AM (2 years ago)

i found this if you would still like it tim!!

This record is excruciatingly beautiful. Like huddling under heavy blankets, sweating, turned on, listening to someone tell you their darkest thoughts. It makes me sad that so few answered this poll or responded to this thread, but it makes sense. It's just such a private record, almost embarassingly so

This, from way up thread, is so accurate for this music. I've just had someone turn me onto this band and I'm like... how, with all my love of ARKane, DI, Butterfly Child etc etc did I miss these guys?

This is excellent, and painful, and honest.

Glad you've discovered them Trayce.

Yeah someone I know from lastfm chats recommended them to me recently. The clash of sweet music v the painfully honest, ugly lyrics is just awesome, much like DI I suppose!

Why did I never contribute to this thread? I bought "Euphoria" in late 93 on the basis of the glowing MM review, and I loved it then, as I love it now. (There was a classic letters page around this time when someone had complained about MM having pictures of "girls with their insides hanging out" so they printed a pic of Kirsty Yates with the caption "The girl from Insides, hanging out"). The album I think is unique and I haven't heard anything like it. I worked backwards to Earwig and loved that too, in a slightly underdeveloped way. The lyrics are like a slightly psychotic diary of desire. And "Clearskin" just... is like "In C". The "Tikky" track on Volume was good too, but I never saw the third album ever... But "Euphoria"'s fans are like a tiny cult, small but perfectly formed, a secret code of bonding over such a perfect record. Pointless ramble over.

i lost my virginity to this album last night.

it was... anything but euphoric.

I hate to ask about your bathroom visits in shifts.

lol xp

at least it was stylish. it was like we were in a movie or something. all that made it so dissatisfying was that neither of us knew what the hell we were doing - we even left the lights on.

anyway, i have loved insides for about seven years now. i probably have nothing original to say about them. i guess i kind of hated 'sweet tip' when i first heard it, but came to realize later that it is indeed okay when bands change. i came to love 'sweet tip' with time.

what a fantastic band though (and earwig too). it pleases me that the insides cult has, in recent years, grown by the... tens?

these are my first posts to ilx. forgive me for my self-centered-ness. i just wanted to introduce myself and talk about insides.
it is unseasonably warm in ann arbor, but i could not feel colder inside.

I don't remember the shows being *completely* empty the few times I saw Earwig, although they were in little places like the Camden Falcon. Not saying anecdote is... unbelievable.

I just.

Lol, Nick, you missed the punchline on the joke. After Kirtsy said that the only person who saw one of their shows was the guy from EMF, there was a brief pause before the follow on…

…drumroll…

“Unbelievable.”

but i wanted to believe!

good long interview: https://toneglow.substack.com/p/048-insides

Great interview! Nice to see some discussion of Sweet Tiptoo, which is a charming record really

I was in a bad mood the other day.

Glad I bought "Soft Bonds", glad I stumped up for the live show (which I think is available for £6.60 until tomorrow). Always thought they were brilliant ("Euphoria" is comfortably *Top 5*) but they seem lovely, too.

All aware of this:

https://music.heavenslathe.co.uk/album/crumb-dropper?token=EC-54113655M49928549

100 only but copies currently available.

^ Digital version of this available from Friday, apparently.

both records £10 on bandcamp for bandcamp friday

excellent, I can finally get a vinyl copy of Euphoria

hey

It’s about time we started posting about this because l👀k ⬇️

Doors at 7, ends at 10. We’re doing a full set. All the rest of it. Look at the art. Smooch to the music. Forget your summer holiday. A FIVER?!https://t.co/s9zeoRdUkr pic.twitter.com/RrSRxeXWSp

— INSIDES (@Insides__) June 30, 2023

Classically it is on a train strike day!

oh no wayyy! was definitely thinking about going

I've been listening to a.s.o. and they're giving me Insides vibes in how moody and atmospheric it sounds, more on the trip hop style, but still. Very introspective avant pop, to give it a name. The lyrics are worth paying attention to, as well.
https://itsaso.bandcamp.com/album/a-s-o