1985 - 1995

Where were you, Willem?

You missed The Stone Roses, the first Portishead, a couple of Massive Attack albums, and Take That first time around - that's everything really.

This was (give or take a couple years) the heyday of the independent labels, and alternative rock in particular.

Perhaps because the mainstream wasn't noticing, the big foot of commerce (in search of the next big/sure thing, and if it works don't change it thinking) wasn't mashing any attempts at being innovative, and thus alternative musicians and bands were given chances to develop, and some great music was produced.

Great stuff (that I'm familiar with, that I can think of at the moment) included music by: The Minutemen, The Replacements, REM, Husker Du, Alice in Chains, Dinosaur Jr, Meat Puppets, Sonic Youth, PIL, My Bloody Valentine, PJ Harvey, Pretenders, XTC, U2, Pixies, Birthday Party/Nick Cave, Bad Brains, Minor Thread, Fugazi, Shudder To Think, Screaming Trees, Soundgarden, Stereolab, Spacemen 3, Nirvana, Opal/Mazzy Star, the Paisley Underground bands, Liz Phair, The Raincoats, The Slits, Fastbacks, Radiohead, Beck's early stuff, Big Black, Pavement, Slint, Palace Brothers/Will Oldham, Throwing Muses, Naked Raygun...

All the above was available on vinyl

quote:

Originally posted by munch:
Take That

................ and Parteeeee

Post Bauhaus

And if you'd rather Jack than Fleetwood Mac this maybe the answer

Acid - Can You Jack: Chicago Acid and Experimental House 1985-1995/Part 2 [VINYL

You missed out on the whole Seattle thing as well?

Lyle Lovett, Steve Earle, the beginning of alt country iirc

Some quite good "folk" stuff, based on the number of times I went to the Cambridge folk festival through this period.

Right guys, thanks, listen I did not say I don't have ANY records from this period, it is just that compared to the era before and the one after there are less.

Floyd I never liked, I have Dinosaur Jr., Meat Puppets, Sonic Youth, PIL, Pixies, Pavement, Birthday Party/Nick Cave, Screaming Trees, Soundgarden, Nirvana, Oldham, the others I don't like very much. Slits and Raincoats I do love, but they are 5 years earlier.

Maybe the experimental House stuff is worth a listen. Blues related music I have never really liked.

Thanks! Make this thread as long as Munch predicted, please!

...The Fall, Tom Waits (Rain Dogs is a great place to start), Blind Melon, Helmet, Motorhead, Jane's Addiction, Mary Margaret O'Hara (just one album-- but a great one), The DBs, The Feelies, Green Day, Rancid, Soft Boys/Robyn Hitchcock...

Big Country:
Restless Natives (Soundtrack) (1985)
The Seer (1986)
Peace in our Time (1988)
No Place like Home (1991)
The Buffalo Skinners(1993)
Why the long Face (1995)

Regards,

The Fat Cat

uncle tupelo
my bloody valentine
naked raygun
teenage fanclub
dinosaur jr.
sonic youth
too much joy

The man doesn't like Floyd? He is beyond help.

"Burn the witch"

Ali Farka Toure with Ry Cooder Talking Timbuktu

Released in 1994. Grammy Award Winner 1995

Hi Willem,

i never knew about Ry Cooder until a couple of years back from reading this forum, and when i heard him on this album with the late great Ali Farka Toure i found it a shocking eye earopener into some of the best music around the mid 90's that i hadn't a clue about back then.

The available formats are cd and tape, don't think vinyl is available...
However the cd production and engineering is only surpassed by the musicianship.

nymph

Yes between 1985 and 1995, the best group of all time released 5 albums - they are all worth getting; in fact my advice is don't buy any other records from the period until you have these five. The only downside of following this strategy is any other records you buy from the period will not match the standard of these marvellous elpees - in fact if you had given the epoch from 1085-1995 then the same would still be true.

• Back In The D.H.S.S.
  
• Back Again In The D.H.S.S.
  
• McIntyre, Treadmore And Davitt
  
• This Leaden Pall
  
• Some Call It Godcore
  

ATB Rotf

Talk Talk 'Spirit of Eden' 1988, 'Laughing Stock' 1991
By 1988 they were no longer the pop band pushed into the studio with Duran Duran's producer by EMI. Their last two albums are very stark, no synthesizers, raw electric guitar, acoustic bass, trumpet, strings, etc. There is some blues/jazz in the rhythm, but it is not blues tonally.

EMI threw them off their label and sued them for making 'Spirit of Eden', it is that good.

Underworld 'Dubnobasswithmyheadman'1993
Techno, but with a songs feel of indie music, fantastic stream of consciousness lyrics (alcohol fuelled), great songs.

Orbital 'Snivilisation' 1993, 'The Brown Album' 1992
Techno, but without a soul influence, compositionally more based on classical music, but with a driving rhythm. 'The Brown Album' is much simpler and dance driven, 'Snivilisation' is stronger in terms of composition, but not as driven.

Nine Inch Nails 'The Downward Spiral' 1994
Industrial metal, with strong songs (probably relatively simple pop songs) but with powerful production and sounds.

Dead Can Dance 'Spleen and Ideal' 1985, 'The Serpent's Egg' 1988, 'Aion' 1990
Sort of at the start of the world music boom, but DVD were darker and more gothic, and also a little earlier. Drawing on archaic choral and folk music, they produced some wonderful albums.

Jeff Buckley 'Grace' 1994
Great songs, some covers, amazing voice, a good raw feel with a band who are going for it. Such a tragedy that the Mississippi took such a talent away from us after only recording one (completed, studio) album.

Pearl Jam 'Vs' 1994
I would suggest this rather than 'Ten', the songs on 'Ten' are strong, but it is quite bluesy, 'Vs' is much harder and more of a grunge album. They might be too much at the commercial end of the grunge for some tastes though.

David Bowie 'Outside' 1995
After a dozen years of bland commercial music, working with Brian Eno he came back with a powerful, and again quite industrial album, perhaps now being the one who is influenced by others (NIN), rather than the inventor, this is one of his best albums. On the US tour for Outside, NIN opened the shows, and Bowie duetted with them for several tracks.

Front 242 'Off' 1993
Basically what The Prodigy copied, the original is far better. Industrial band, becoming synthesized.

The Smiths
Not a band I like, but I am surprised that no one has mentioned them, they must be one of the key bands from these years. I am sure someone else can make a recommendation, 'Meat is Murder' or 'God Save the Queen' perhaps?

Although I am a great fan of 70s music, but I find the albums released by the bands surviving from then to lack any of the depth of their heyday. The Pink Floyd albums are immaculately produced, but I would rather listen to 'Wish You Were Here'(sorry Munch), Yes and Genesis had become bland pop bands, with varying degree of success.

1985-1995 is an interesting period for me, until grunge and techno came along, I had started to give up on rock, and was moving towards jazz. The anaemic, synthesised production of many late 80s albums I find unlistenable.

1992/3 was a fantastic time when new music, with real energy played musicians who cared more about their music than their looks, came through and cleaned away so much trash (I sound like a punk, but I felt it was far more needed at the start of the 90s).

A lot good bands already mentioned above, I agree with Provny it was a period for indie labels, with very few exceptions. 1992 seemed to be a year when what had been bubbling up in the underground came through to the mainstream, and brought such freshness.

____________________________________________
ROTF
"Yes between 1985 and 1995, the best group of all time released 5 albums", surely not, Van Der Graaf Generator didn't reform until 2005!

quote:

ROTF
"Yes between 1985 and 1995, the best group of all time released 5 albums", surely not, Van Der Graaf Generator didn't reform until 2005!

I like Mr Hammill and his mates too.

quote:

Originally posted by naim_nymph:

Ali Farka Toure with Ry Cooder Talking Timbuktu

Released in 1994. Grammy Award Winner 1995

Hi Willem,

i never knew about Ry Cooder until a couple of years back from reading this forum, and when i heard him on this album with the late great Ali Farka Toure i found it a shocking eye earopener into some of the best music around the mid 90's that i hadn't a clue about back then.

The available formats are cd and tape, don't think vinyl is available...
However the cd production and engineering is only surpassed by the musicianship.

nymph

Great choice. And it is (was) available on vinyl

Ali Farka Toure with Ry Cooder Talking Timbuktu

Thanks for the info' update Steve, so it may be around pre-owned on vinyl?
i only went by availability on Amazon, it would a very desirable album if reissued again on LP format!: )

regards ~

nymph

quote:

The available formats are cd and tape, don't think vinyl is available...
However the cd production and engineering is only surpassed by the musicianship.

I thought the same as you, Naim Nymph, until Andrea of this very Forum kindly tracked a copy down for me all the way from the US. It is fabulous music and one of the best recordings in my collection, amazingly natural and real dynamics.

A friend who had it on CD heard it in my system and thought it was in another league on vinyl.

So seek and ye shall find

regards,
mat

A quick review of your new 'proposals'.
The Fall are one of my all time favourite bands, I have 31 of their albums. Sold all 3 of my Feelies albums some years ago. Don't like the pop-grunge-rock of bands like Green Day. Big Country, Talk Talk, Dead Can Dance and Pearl Jam I think are lots of air with not much in between. Wanted to add the Smith to this list, but didn't dare, as they seem to be a forum fav . Adore Teenage Fanclub, maybe I should hunt out for some of their stuff. Also like Sleeper, HMHB, Hammill. Liked the Underworld song with John Lydon and some NIN stuff. Best tip thus far: Teenage Fanclub.

Willem

Take no notice of my choices i just googled 85 - 95

Some of your stuff resonates with me particularly Dinosaur Jnr and Pavement. Superchunk were good too. In a different vein i liked Microdisney and the Go Betweens but there was some wonderful indie stuff around at the time. I think the Tricky, Portishead, Massive Attack thing happened in that period was ground breaking. Apologies if it has been mentioned. That Petrol Emotion were a great Irish band that I think came out of the ashes of the Undertones. The Pogues were awesome and their song 'Body of an American' was with the exception of the intro tune the most played song on the HBO series 'The Wire' - longevity indeed.

Can I join your Anti Pink Floyd club?

Take it steady

diccus

quote:

Originally posted by willem:
Liked the Underworld song with John Lydon

Not Underworld. It was Leftfield, OK, but as good as Underworld.

Must take issue with Talk Talk and Dead Can Dance having no substance!

You have probably heard Talk Talk from their first 3 albums, the last two are something completely different, forget 'Life's What You Make It', try a sample on-line of 'Ascention Day' or 'After the Flood' from 'Laughing Stock'.

Heh heh, I saw that Underworld with John Lydon line, but I let it lie.

Willem, the first two Underworld albums are essential (like a Pink Floyd for the 90's, but in a good way - trust me.) I used to prefer Leftfield remixes to their later albums, both of which are a little patchy.

The last two Talk Talk albums are also must haves, especially Spirit Of Eden - just a beautiful record. (I've never heard their earlier ones, but I know they're totally different.)

The first four Orbital albums are also essential, right Jamie?

Diccus, I believe I mentioned the Bristol thing - I remember Massive Attack's Protection, Portishead's Dummy and Tricky's Maxinquaye all coming out around the same time. The soundtrack to my 1994 (and beyond).

(Any Pink Floyd related album made after 1975 is of course absolute garbage, as any fule know.)