1990: "She Comes in the Fall", Inspiral Carpets

From Kiwi pop to Britpop, which was largely synonymous with the "Madchester" scene by the dawn of the 90s. Almost singularly an outgrowth of the sounds coming out of Manchester's infamous Haçienda Club - founded by Rob Gretton and Tony Wilson, both overseers of Factory Records, the label from which many of the Haçienda bands originated - the Madchester sound was a mix of traditional, guitar based pop combined with dance music elements. On paper that sounds a lot like what New Order (Factory/Haçienda alumni in their own right) were doing in the early 80s, but for the most part few Madchester bands used drum machines or boat loads of synth effects, instead utilizing traditional percussion to produce frantic, big beats as well as old school organs and analog keyboards in more of a 60s throwback fashion.

Like the Flying Nun bands of New Zealand, many of the Madchester bands had been releasing singles for several years before getting around to producing a proper album. Inspiral Carpets not only fit that mold, but they'd actually been gigging for several years before they even put out a single. Formed in 1983 in more of a punk rock vein, the first recorded evidence of the band's existence was a 1987 flexi-disc, followed the next year by the Planecrash EP. 1989 saw a wealth of singles, leading up to the new decade's Life album. A brilliant all around effort defying genre conventions, the timeless hooks and broad influences preempt the album from ever sounding like a product of its era. "This Is How It Feels" is an equally stellar song and worth checking out, but for the purposes of this blog the only studio clip found on Youtube had the embedding disabled. Still, you should go look for it, but only after you've absorbed and digested every single archival entry on White Knuckle Mustache Rides first.