Sixty-three tracks charting the rise to dominance of the independent music scene, as once shoestring artists and labels began to find an audience bordering on the mainstream.
Includes more household names than ever – the charlatans, the la’s, ocean colour scene, boo radleys, spiritualized etc – alongside scene frontrunners like paris angels, world of twist, northside, the sundays, flowered up, ned’s atomic dustbin and the sarah records roster.
Also digs deep into the lesser-known 1990 underground, revealing countless hidden gems and exciting rediscoveries.
Produced by the team that brought you ‘Scared to get happy’, ‘Still in a dream’, ‘Another splash of colour’, ‘Losing touch with my mind’, ‘Electrical language’ and countless other hit compilations and box sets.
Over a decade now since punk rocked the British musical scene to its foundations and caused an eruption of independently produced records, the scene and a new generation of figurehead artists began to let ambition in and head overground, playing to increasingly large crowds, working with bigger budgets and selling more copies, finding a footing in the UK’s Top Forty, venturing into the USA and, ultimately, creating a mainstream audience now primed for credible, guitar-tinged pop. Meanwhile, an underground revolution in clubland began to push towards the commercial same space, resulting in an inevitable fusion of songcraft and dancefloor aesthetics.
“C90” captures perfectly the moment these tribes began to coalesce. From the opening, club-friendly rendition of The Charlatans’ ‘Polar Bear’ to The La’s knowingly backward looking ‘Timeless Melody’ and all in-between, this is the sound of a scene dropping the raincoats, dropping acid and aiming for domination. 1990 was the start of a new decade when the Indie scene was dominated by Madchester and the arrival of Shoegaze and with nods towards grunge and what would become known as Britpop, plus hints of a proto-laddism peering out from between the cracks in a post-Smiths aesthetic, the sound of 1990, it could be argued, set the tone for the remainder of the decade.
“C90” is a snapshot of a unique moment in time. A piece of history. The sound of a country putting the hard-biting 1980s behind it, embracing the Daisy Age and looking to move forwards.
1 -
1. Polar Bear - the Charlatans
2. Sway - Ocean Colour Scene
3. Perfume - Paris Angels
4. The Storm - World of Twist
5. Only Love Can Break Your Heart - Saint Etienne
6. It's On -Flowered Up
7. Get Higher Moonflowers
8. My Rising Star Northside
9. Wonderment Thousand Yard Stare
10. Thoughtforms Lush
11. Anyway That You Want Me Spiritualized
12. Swansong - Boo Radleys
13. Juggernaut Rides Swervedriver
14. Avalyn I Slowdive
15. Half-Life, Remembered Pale Saints
16. Something More (Ambient Version) Chapterhouse
17. Can't Be Sure the Sundays
18. She Sings Alone See See Rider
19. Please Let Me Go the Popinjays
- 2 -
1. New Art Riot - Manic Street Preachers
2. Aim - Ned's Atomic Dustbin
3. Pop Song - Th' Faith Healers
4. Beam Me Up New Fast Automatic Daffodils
5. To Kill a Slow Girl Walking the Telescopes
6. Welcome To Dead Town the Seers
7. Listen - Honey Smugglers
8. Seems To Me - Milltown Brothers
9. Big City (Waves of Joy) (Demo) Spacemen 3
10. I Fell In Love Last Night Heavenly
11. Sean Connery James Dean Driving Experience
12. Take - Raintree County
13. Noah's Ark Brighter
14. Amnesia Something Pretty Beautiful
15. Earthwheel Sandkings
16. If I Could Shine - the Sweetest Ache
17. Mad As Love Greenhouse
18. Crazy Mixed Up Kid Mousefolk
19. These Things Happen Action Painting!
20. Strange - All Over the Place
21. I Know - Bark Psychosis
- 3 -
1. Timeless Melody the La's
2. Highrise Love the Darkside
3. Everything About You My Jealous God
4. Sleep Eternal
5. Potboiler - Penelope's Web
6. Dead Like You the Steamkings
7. Twenty-Fifteen the Sunflowers
8. Beside the Sea the Kennedy Pill
9. Little Valley Town - Jane From Occupied Europe
10. Sunday Never Comes Around Po!
11. Good Morning Jane Pow
12. Learning To Keep My Mouth Shut - How Many Beans Make Five
13. Lovesville Usa - Montgomery Clifts
14. She Made Everything Groovy the Ogdens
15. Out of My Mind Avo-8
16. Darkest Blue Gentle Despite
17. My Heart is Where My Home is - the Chrysalids
18. When I Find You Little Red Schoolhouse
19. Nothing In Your Heart Life With Patrick
20. What is More Than Life Horse Latitudes
21. I Really Do Love You Penelope Hey Paulette 2
22. Missing You the Ammonites
23. Cheat On Me the Emotionals
