Loop - RFD

My package with all four of these reissues is due to arrive Friday! Can't wait.

Still hoping A Gilded Eternity shows up here one of these days...

It's arrived in my local shop. Will pick up soon.

I've got to call around tomorrow.

A Gilded Eternity finally made it to Maine today. Feels odd retiring my cassette version, but time marches on. I will say that nearly twenty years with a well-played tape means it is odd hearing these songs at the proper tempos without warping and slowdown.

My package ended up being delayed a couple days, but I now hold all four reissues in my hands. Cannot wait to dig into these. I still have only heard the odd song or two, but after hearing all the samples on Aquarius' website... I knew I needed this band in my life.

I can't imagine just discovering Loop and having these reissues at hand. I hope you enjoy, and have something light and fluffy to detoxify with.

Yeah, I'm really excited to dig in. I've always had Spacemen 3 pushed at me as THE band of this ilk to know and love, but I just really haven't been able to get excited about them. Loop, however, wow. The handful of songs I've heard have pushed a lot of the right buttons.

^ Yup: that's exactly how it is here. Just fucking fantastic.

Is there a Main thread? Hampson's post-Loop work is really underrated IMO.

I guess there is:

Search and Destroy: Main and related projects

a diamond bullet right thru the forehead

Was listening to the World In Your Eyes reissue the other day and loving it all over again.

You should be listening to World In Your Eyes everyday Ned. The other day is just not gonna cut it!

I've now made it through the three main albums and bonus discs and am still totally enthralled with this band. There have been so many highlights its hard to choose my favorite at this point, but I believe I'd have to mention the third Peel Session on A Gilded Eternity as a particular high point. I love the production on those tracks and I really like the texture of those three songs. Reminded me a lot of Jesu. Ready to dig into the The World In Your Eyes reissue next.

Time to fish out the Loop CDs again. That live album needs some more props.

The version of "From Centre to Wave" on there is currently doing my head in.

I hope that in the 20 year revisionist reshuffle of this scene, Loop and Thee Hypnotics come out ahead of Spaceman 3.

It'll take a mighty revision indeed for that to occur.

Can anyone give a comparison between these and the original vinyl? People are saying that they sound great (and I'm sure they do), but are they better than the old LPs? Sorry if I've missed such a comparison, but I think I've only seen references to CDs (and I confess to having skimmed). I've read Hampson talking about how the mastering is better, so I'm interested how they compare. And they're going for 9 pounds on Amazon UK

i would be interested to know this as well. why did everything sound so bloody terrible and stuffy back then?

well, I think a lot of things sounded different back then, as I had a very crappy stereo system as a teenager.

I just blasted my Gilded Eternity LP and it sounds great to my ears. Hence my question about whether these CDs sound better. My collector's instinct wants me to buy them, but do I really need them?

I note there are plans for vinyl reissues according to the website (although it's not clear if they will be remastered in any way):

it is planned to do a limited run of 180g pressings, but these will only be repros of the original lps without the bonus material

I never heard the vinyl - I either had original cassettes or vinyl copies on cassette, so I can't properly compare. They are obviously much better sounding than my tapes after all these years.

They're also distinctly better than the high quality vinyl-ripped mp3s I had of the Collision and Black Sun EPs.

So is Wolf Flow basically included on these reissues?

Yeah, it's scattered across them but all nine tracks are there.

I bought a fancy CD player just for the reissues. Loop rules, Spacemen 3 drools. Hippy shit must perish... play standing up or get lap rot.

Why yes, all three versions of "Burning World" on The World In Your Eyes remaster are TOTALLY FUCKING ESSENTIAL.

Whoooo! My brain feels like ooze now.

Hmm now I wish I had all this stuff loaded on the iPhone for instant listening.

Again, I can't stress how GRATE these remasters are. All are essential.

^^^^^^^^ this

If it weren't for the Neil Young Archives and the Beatles reissues, the two that came out this year would've been a lock for my number one reissue. They are wonderful.

I was a little hesitant to pick up the A Gilded Eternity reissue since it was basically the album plus the relevant Wolf Flow Peel tracks but the second disc benefits tremendously from the improved sound. The demos are pretty worthy on their own too - not just underdeveloped versions of the album tracks.

I have one of the worst head colds I can remember - all clogged and foggy - and playing Loop at high volume seems to be the only thing helping. Fighting fire with fire.

These remasters are still the bomb.

Agreed - Very pleased with the 2-disc Loop remasters. They did the dreamsludge psychotrance thing as well as anyone. Between them & Spacemen 3 you can surf the bliss to however many bardos there are.

Thirded. Great remasters. The 3-disc World in Your Eyes collection is really something...

Fourthed(?). So glad I picked all those up last year.

Man... This gets me all uneasy again. I have the entire Loop discog on vinyl and keep getting tempted by these... I don't need them. But they'd be lovely. But I don't need them etc.

Same here. Well, not the entire discog, but a couple of albums and some singles. I didn't think I needed these but I was listening to the 45 of Spinning recently and it slowly dawned on me that the sound quality was fucking awful. Now I'm thinking of picking one or two of these up.

World in Your Eyes is probably a good call if you're only thinking of getting one or two. Spans the whole career and has their three best songs imo - Collision, Arc-Lite, Got To Get It Over.

Yep, I just looked up on Amazon and woah, three disc worth. That's cool. Collision and Arc-Lite are probably my favourite two songs by them. Don't recall Got To Get It Over though. I have a real affection for Heaven's End so that one for sure. Wolf Flow I have on cassette and again, is shitty quality so I've hardly listened to it and sort of decided I don't need it.

I've picked up all of these and they are obviously amazing. I listen very loud when no one's at home...

Just re-listenng to "Gilded Eternity" for the first time in FOREVER and it is way way better than I remember. Fantastic psych-fuzz stuff. I have "Fade Out" on vinyl and could never quite get into it as much - I like it a lot, but the producton (or my pressing?) is really soft and lacks the oomf this stuff needs.

Gilded Eternity kicks nine kinds of ass though. This is great.

A lot of what Kate said. ;-) The legendary/notorious Loop/S3 feud apparently had something to do with the young Mr. Hampson hanging around the Rugby recording studio where Sonic and Spaceman were making their racket and then Robert wanting some of that action himself. Which led Spacemen 3 to cast him into perdition, etc.

As far as I know Loop were from CRoydon South London, at least Hampson was. Others might have been from other parts of London. So this thing about hanging around rugby recording studios is wrong. i think he was the office-boy at the record label which was presumably London based.
I hadn't really been aware of the rivalry or whatever it was until reading an interview with Sonic Boom in Forcedexposure, I think the Diamanda galas covered one.
Also interesting to read them written up as ur-metal or similar. while a lot of stoner bands including Electric wizard would cite influence from them, I think they would have strenuously denied links to actual metal, they certainly denied overt knowledge of Hawkwind who they were getting compared to. They did mention late psych & proto-prog stuff in interviews though. I think a lot of influence came from dub & funk too. Certainly remember John the drummer being aware of Funkadelic pretty well as was Josh.
There have been quite a number of live sets circulated on Dime over the last few years, including 2 videos. Not sure what, if any is still up there. Great hypnotic band

Rereleases:

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/165173-loop-reissues-please-see-notes/

I'm glad to see the 2008 remasters finally getting an official North American release.

Yay, one of my favorites! Bang your head! Hair and Skin are excellent too for you young 'uns!

*cough*

Um.

So.

https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/524777_577270365640243_1452956218_n.jpg

WHAT?!?!

New official FB page

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Loop/339763597456?hc_location=stream

Official website to appear at

http://www.soundheads.org/

!

couldnt believe it when Robert posted that on FB. He did seem excited after playing with Godflesh. Yay!