Released : 1991
The history of the indie-dance movement of the early 1990’s, like Britpop, has come to be written by the winners (More of that as this countdown goes on), but like it’s successor – discounting shoegaze for now – if you dug deep enough between the hoodies, E and faux Manchesterisms, there were both great stories and better tunes than Step On.
Paris Angels were swept along with the rush, but their influences – 60’s psychedelia, post punk, acid house, the Velvet Underground (A cover of What Goes On featured on their only album, Eternity) – were as cosmopolitan as their seven piece line up. After rejecting an approach from Factory supremo Tony Wilson in which he suggested losing one of them, Perfume would quickly become a utopian anthem that proved him right and wrong.
Originally a more pedestrian indie rock jangler, not for the first time in this period a remix turned the song’s charachter inside out, as Blue Monday producer Michael Johnson transformed it into a 1am, blissed out monster. Now, this bastard cousin to early New Order layered spiraling guitar, male/female vocals and Moroder-esque synth bubbles, a DIY alternative to the glossy contents of Technique, a tune on which you could almost feel the ceiling’s sweat dripping on you and the shared joy of being lost in a crowd that was one single organism. The band were dropped by EMI in 1992, but Perfume remains one of the era’s defining cuts, blue plaque or no blue plaque.
Don’t know this one. Must investigate further.
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You might remember The Stone Roses/Happy Mondays but there were a fair few other bands who didn’t get the acclaim (or money). PA were one of them.
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I definitely know and love the Roses and the Mondays, in addition to a few others from that time, like the Inspirals…
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I’d maybe check out World Of Twist, Top, The Real People, The Bridewell Taxis, Flowered Up, Northside, The Farm & and Shack..
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Northside, The Real People, and The Farm were other faves of mine back in the day but I’ll definitely check out these others.
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