VA - C90 (3CD, 2020)

Three CD set. Over a decade now since punk rocked the British musical scene to it's 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.

Track List:

Disco: 1
1. The Charlatans - Polar Bear
2. Ocean Colour Scene - Sway
3. Paris Angels - Perfume
4. World Of Twist - The Storm
5. Saint Etienne - Only Love Can Break Your Heart
6. Flowered Up - Its On
7. Moonflowers - Get Higher
8. Northside - My Rising Star
9. Thousand Yard Stare - Wonderment
10. Lush - Thoughtforms
11. Spiritualized - Anyway That You Want Me
12. Boo Radleys - Swansong
13. Swervedriver - Juggernaut Rides
14. Slowdive - Avalyn I
15. Pale Saints - Half - Life, Remembered
16. Chapterhouse - Something More (Ambient Version)
17. The Sundays - Cant Be Sure
18. See See Rider - She Sings Alone
19. The Popinjays - Please Let Me Go

Disco: 2
1. Manic Street Preachers - New Art Riot
2. Neds Atomic Dustbin - Aim
3. Th Faith Healers - Pop Song
4. New Fast Automatic Daffodils - Beam Me Up
5. The Telescopes - To Kill A Slow Girl Walking
6. The Seers - Welcome To Dead Town
7. Honey Smugglers - Listen
8. Milltown Brothers - Seems To Me
9. Spacemen 3 - Big City (Waves Of Joy) (Demo)
10. Heavenly - I Fell In Love Last Night
11. James Dean Driving Experience - Sean Connery
12. Raintree County - Take
13. Brighter - Noahs Ark
14. Something Pretty Beautiful - Amnesia
15. Sandkings - Earthwheel
16. The Sweetest Ache - If I Could Shine
17. Greenhouse - Mad As Love
18. Mousefolk - Crazy Mixed Up Kid
19. Action Painting! - These Things Happen
20. All Over The Place - Strange
21. Bark Psychosis - I Know

Disco: 3
1. The Las - Timeless Melody
2. The Darkside - Highrise Love
3. My Jealous God - Everything About You
4. Eternal - Sleep
5. Penelopes Web - Potboiler
6. The Steamkings - Dead Like You
7. The Sunflowers - Twenty - Fifteen
8. The Kennedy Pill - Beside The Sea
9. Jane From Occupied Europe - Little Valley Town
10. Po! - Sunday Never Comes Around
11. Jane Pow - Good Morning
12. How Many Beans Make Five - Learning To Keep My Mouth Shut
13. Montgomery Clifts - Lovesville Usa
14. The Ogdens - She Made Everything Groovy
15. Avo-8 - Out Of My Mind
16. Gentle Despite - Darkest Blue
17. The Chrysalids - My Heart Is Where My Home Is
18. Little Red Schoolhouse - When I Find You
19. Life With Patrick - Nothing In Your Heart
20. Horse Latitudes - What Is More Than Life
21. Hey Paulette - I Really Do Love You Penelope
22. The Ammonites - Missing You
23. The Emotionals - Cheat On Me