As I noted last month, I did spend the mid 90s listening to a lot of what we would now call Britpop, but that was not all that made its way onto my record player. There was a lot of other good music being produced at that time that was not Britpop and I thought I would put together another compilation of songs that reflected the period. Like last month, I could not produce a compilation for 1996 or 1997 individually so I have combined these years not a CD length playlist.
Premiers Symptômes (Modular Mix) – Air
Remember Me (Original 12” Version) – Blue Boy
Drinking In L.A. – Bran Van 3000
Where Have All The Cowboys Gone? – Paula Cole
Who Do You Think You Are? – Spice Girls
Mint Car – The Cure
Oh Marie – Sheryl Cole
Rotterdam (Or Anywhere) – The Beautiful South
Someone’s Daughter (Single Version) – Beth Orton
Black Eyed Boy – Texas
The Bright Light – Tanya Donelly
Don’t Speak – No Doubt
Have You Seen Mary? – Sponge
Kiss Me – Sixpence None The Richer
Real Love – The Beatles
Miss Misery – Elliott Smith
My Love – Mark One
Simple Beautiful – Briana Corrigan
Ladies & Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space – Spiritualised
I did say at the beginning of this year that it would be focused on Britpop releases with the occasional anniversary fantasy box set thrown in for good measure, but Beck was an artist I was listening to during this time so it felt right to include him here.
I first heard of Beck whilst watching his debut UK television performance on legendary British music show, ‘Top Of The Pops’. I didn’t know what to make of the performance as I have never been a fan of rapping, and the band seems to be made up of very old men miming quite badly. I then saw a review for his ‘Mellow Gold’ in another British music institution that has now gone to the nostalgia bin in the form of Q Magazine. The review gave it five out of five, something you did not see very often. I was feeling flush that week so ‘Mellow Gold’ was purchased. It was like nothing I had heard before and even though ‘Loser’ had the potential to be a one hit wonder, there was enough in the grooves for me to become very interested in what this guy was going to do next.
What I didn’t realise is that he was going to to quite a lot, and had already done quite a bit already. Beck had been recording in one form or another since the late 80s with some now impossible to find low-fi cassette albums. These were never going to be on my radar, as they were only ever available in the USA and 1994 was essentially the age before the internet, so I did not find out about these releases until much later. What I did have was The Record Shop in Kingston Upon Thames. The haven for vinyl releases in the vinyl desert that was the mid 90s’. If you wanted something rare, and more importantly in this case, imported from abroad, that was the place to get it. I may well have bought ‘Mellow Gold’ there in the first place. Anyway, I digress.
Going back a few weeks after first playing ‘Mellow Gold’, I found that the Beck section had a 10” Beck record in it called ‘A Western Harvest Field by Moonlight’. It even came with a limited edition finger painting, which was nothing to shout about but this was only available with the initial run. Whereas ‘Mellow Gold’ was recorded with what sounded like a budget (all be it a small one), ‘A Western Harvest Field by Moonlight’ sounded as if the money for its production had been spent having a good time before hand. It was full of curious sound experiments, a tune that sounded as though he was plonking around on a guitar and playing around with the drum machine settings on a cheap Casio keyboard. There was the odd song in there, but this was one for the completist.
I then found out that he had released another album just before ‘Mellow Gold’ called ‘Stereopathetic Soulmaure’. I thought I would give that a go and found that this was in a similar vein to ‘A Western Harvest Field by Moonlight’ more noise experiments, home and live recordings. There even recordings made out on the street with guest performers. ‘Stereopathetic Soulmanure’ did have more in the way of songs on it, some of which showed a strong country influence. The song ‘Rowboat’ has some lovely pedal steel playing in it and is possibly the best of Beck’s early songs. There was another album released before ‘Mellow Gold’ called ‘Golden Feelings’ but I have never seen a copy for sale for anything other than a staggeringly high price on line.
Beck was able to release these low-fi experimental albums because his label, which had released ‘Mellow Gold’ allowed him to do so. Great for the collector, but so much if you wanted a record that could be considered song based. Coming back to these records many years later, I wondered what would have happened if the more songs based tunes were released on their own without the more experimental efforts and so we have my version of ‘A Western Harvest Field by Moonlight’.
‘Aphid Manure Heist’ has been edited so that is just the violin intro, as I didn’t like the second section and this also meant that the run times would match up more evenly as this would be another of my what-if albums that would have been released on a 12” LP. It is still quite short for an LP and still has flashes of experimentation and is not exactly commercial, but it holds together.
Side A
Totally Confused – A Western Harvest Field by Moonlight
Thunder Peel – Stereopathetic Soulmanure
Modesto – Stereopathetic Soulmanure
Today Has Been A Fucked Up Day – Stereopathetic Soulmanure
Getting’ Home – A Western Harvest Field by Moonlight
Pinefresh – A Western Harvest Field by Moonlight
Satan Gave Me A Taco – Stereopathetic Soulmanure
Feel Like A Piece Of Shit (Cheetos Time!) – A Western Harvest Field by Moonlight
Ken (Hidden Track) – Stereopathetic Soulmanure
I could have used the more experimental efforts from these two albums and they could have been released as a companion piece called ‘Stereopathetic Soulmanure’ That is a project for another day, or even for somebody else.
Belly are an alternative rock act formed in 1991 by ex-Breeders and Throwing Muses member, Tanya Donnelly. I published a lost album of them which covered some of their best B-Sides back in January of 2023*, but this is complete over view of their work whilst they were signed to the 4AD label.
They only released two albums during this period, the second of which would turn out to be their last LP for twenty three years. This second album was called ‘King’ and was met with lukewarm reviews at the time as this was a bit different from their debut, ‘Star’ which was released two years earlier. The songs on ‘King’ were a bit rockier in sound, with heavier riffs and the lyrics were a bit more personal than they had been before.
Neither the singles or album sold in the quantities that the record label were expecting and this was after they had appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone Magazine. Tanya Donelly, main songwriter and focus of the band decided to break up the group feeling that there was too much negativity around. She decided to start a solo career. Bass player Gail Greenwood played with L7 and Big Naked as well as her own group. Drummer and lead guitar player, Chris and Thomas Gorman founded a commercial photography business. All went quiet until 2016 when it was announced that they would be going out on a short tour and a year later, they started to record their third album.
I loved Belly and I was really disappointed when they split. I spent the next few years trying to find all of the different versions of singles so I could acquire all of the B-Sides. The album ‘Sweet Ride’ also included some songs that were not available anywhere else.
I thought I would put together a box set focusing on the years they were signed 4AD records, especially as this was one of my favourite bands form the 90s which is my focus for a lot of my playlists this year. What we get here are a five CD set which includes both albums, B-Sides and rarities. If I was curating this set, I would also include a DVD (or Blu Ray) disc which the official videos of the singles, TV appearances from the US and UK (I could not find any reference to any appearances from other countries) as well as their spots at the Glastonbury Festivals in 1993 and 1995 as well as the Great Expectations concert to raise money for the radio station, XFM.
A quick note on some of the songs. ‘It’s Not Unusual’ from the ‘Gepetto’ (Remix Disc 2) and ‘Ivo’ Version ‘ from the ‘Moon EP’ are very similar. I think they cold even be the same even though the credits make it seem as though they are different. The single version of ‘Gepetto’ on Disc 5 was only placed there because there wasn’t space on any of the others discs.
I am sure that if this was to be released, I would hope that there would be some previously unreleased performances included, including more demos.
Disc 1 – Star & Slow Dust EP
Someone To Die For
Angel
Dusted
Every Word
Gepetto
Witch
Slow Dog
Low Red Moon
Feed The Tree
Full Moon, Empty Heart
White Belly
Untogether
Star
Sad Dress
Stay
Dusted (Original Version)
Slow Dog (Original Version)
Dancing Gold
Low Red Moon (Original Version)
Dusted (Orignal Version)
Gepetto (Single Version)
Slow Dog (Radio Remix 3m 50 sec version)
Tracks 1-15 – Star LP
Tracks 16-20 – Slow Dust EP
Track 21 – Single Mix
Track 22 – US Single Promo
Disc 2 – Star Sessions
Gepetto (Remix) – Gepetto EP
Hot Burrito #1 – Gepetto EP
Sexy S – Gepetto EP
Sweet Ride – Gepetto EP
It’s Not Unusual – Gepetto EP (Remix Disc 2)
Star (Demo) – Gepetto EP (Remix Disc 2)
Dusted (Demo) – Gepetto EP (Remix Disc 2)
Are You Experienced? – Stone Free, A Tribute to Jimi Hendrix
Feed The Tree (U.S. Remix) – Feed The Tree Single
Star (Full Band Version) – Feed The Tree Single
Dream On Me – Feed The Tree Single
Trust in Me – Feed The Tree Single
Slow Dog (Remix) – Video Version
Dusted – Indie Top 20 Compilation Volume 16 Version
Gepetto – UK 7” Version
It’s Not Unusual (Ivo’s Version) – Moon EP
It’s Not Unusual (The Usual Mix) – Moon EP
It’s Not Unusual (Unusual Mix) – Moon EP
Full Moon, Empty Heart (Lunar Mix) – Moon EP
Full Moon, Empty Heart (Bloody Mary Mix) – Moon EP
Disc 3 – King
Puberty
Seal My Fate
Red
Silverfish
Super-Connected
The Bees
King
Now They’ll Sleep
Untitled & Unsung
L’il Ennio
Judas My Heart
Tracks 1-11 – King LP
Disc 4 – King Sessions & Live Tracks
Judas My Heart (Live In London) – Sun EP1.
The Bees (Live In London) – Sun EP
Spaceman – Sun EP
Seal My Fate (U.S. Radio Version) – Seal My Fate (Studio)
Diamond Rib Cage – Seal My Fate (Studio)
Think About Your Troubles – Seal My Fate (Studio)
Broken – Vinyl B-Side
Seal My Fate (Live) – Seal My Fate (Live)
White Belly (Live) – Seal My Fate (Live)
Untitled & Unsung (Live) – Seal My Fate (Live)
Thief – Now They’ll Sleep
Baby’s Arm – Now They’ll Sleep
John Dark – Now They’ll Sleep
Lilith – Sweet Ride, The Best of Belly
Super-Connected (Edit) – Super-Connected
Judas Mon Coeur – Sun EP
Disc 5 – Live & BBC Session
Low Red Moon
Dusted
Angel
Full Moon, Empty Heart
Star
Dream on Me
White Belly
Gepetto
Sexy S
Feed The Tree
Slow Dog
Stay
Dusted
Feed The Tree
Gepetto
White Belly
Angel
Gepetto (US. Radio Mix)
Tracks 1-12 – Live Grant Park, Chicago, 7th April 1993
Track 13 – Unknown
Tracks 14-17 – Mark Goodier BBC Session, 25th July 1992
Trak 18 – US 7” Single
Disc 6 – Blu Ray/DVD Disc
Official Videos For The Singles
Gepetto
Feed The Tree
Slow Dog
Super-Connected
Now They’ll Sleep
Seal My Fate
TV Appearances
Full Moon Empty Heart (Later with Jools Holland 18th June 1993)
Slow Dog (Later with Jools Holland 18th June 1993)
Gepetto (BBC Late Show 1993) Can’t find the exact date.
Feed The Tree (Late Show with David Letterman 1993) Can’t find the exact date.
Gepetto (The John Stewart Show 1993) Can’t find the exact date.
Feed The Tree (The Word 1993) Can’t find the exact date.
Are You Experienced (The Tonight Show with Jay Leno 25th February 1994)
Seal My Fate (Late Night With Conan O’Brien 30th January 1995)
Super-Connected (Late Show with David Letterman 4th April 1995)
Red (The John Stewart Show 19th June 1995)
Super-Connected (Ray Coke’s MTV Most Wanted 22nd June 1995)
Seal My Fate (Ray Coke’s MTV Most Wanted 22nd June 1995)
Great Xpectations Finsbury Park 13th June 1993
Low Red Moon
Angel
Gepetto
Full Moon, Empty Heart
Sexy S
Star
Feed The Tree
Slow Dog
Dusted
Glastonbury 25th June 1993
Feed The Tree
Angel
White Belly
Glastonbury 23rd June 1995
King
Puberty
Now They’ll Sleep
Untitled & Unsung
Full Moon, Empty Heart
Dusted
Judas My Heart
Super-Connected
Feed The Tree
Slow Dog
Red
Seal My Fate
Gepetto
The cover is based on the 2016 vinyl pressing of ‘Star’.
