Urbans Guide To British Music Of The 1990s
 

Based on an idea by Rainard Jalen I shall be going through each year of the 1990s trying to discover the forgotten gems of british music , lost classics , trying to remember long forgotten Melody Maker / NME next big things that never were and one hit wonders. And also some of the more popular albums of the time to see if they've stood the test of time or not.

Some of these bands I remember in name only & don't have anything by , some i'll be doing my best to dig stuff out from the murky depths of my CD collection or download stuff from obscure blogs.

This ain't going to be just about Britpop , that was only the tip of it. And most of it was rubbish anyway.

http://i94.photobucket.com/albums/l99/urbanH/87165.jpg
CHAPTERHOUSE - FREEFALL E.P.

Chapterhouse were one of those nearly bands. Tipped for big things by the media , by the time they came out with anything worth getting excited about the media had moved on from shoegaze & dreampop and they slowly faded away into obscurity.
This 4 song E.P. is their first release and there is a real clash of styles going on. On the one hand they want to be the Stone Roses , on the other they want to be Ride. In the middle of that you have some really crunchy grungy riffs. And thats where the problem is with this E.P. It's like a culmination of everything that was going on in the indie music scene around the time but lacking that individual identity to make them stand out.
On the other hand if your into this stuff it's a real enjoyable record. The all the tracks are lively & energetic. In particular the first track 'Falling Down' which sounds like the Stone Roses making a post punk record. The final track 'Sixteen Years' sounds like it's going to be one of those hypnotic swirly songs until this grinding riff kicks in. It's your typical quiet / loud / quiet / loud song but the loud bits are chaotic enough stop it sounding too cliché.
I always dismissed Chapterhouse as also-rans of shoegaze but hearing this E.P. again for the first time in ages has really opened my eyes to them.
I enjoyed this.

Hmmm, I'll need to keep an eye on this thread, I despise almost anything british from the 90's but I have heard only the mainstream. For some reason I've never chosen to delve deeper either.

Any chance of getting a few comps every few years to wet the beak?

I second that notion.

Looking forward to some more of this thread - I'll be keeping an eye on this one

yay, this'll be good. though i lived through the 90s my musical experience of the era was really very limited to chart music. with all the pros and cons that brings.