Welcome to the first Indie Basement of Summer. This week: John Grant gets personal on his Cate Le Bon produced fifth album, Boy from Michigan; SAULT drop another great one on us; NYC dreampop act Lighting Bug glow warmly on their new album A Color of the Sky; Justice‘s Gaspard Augé gets prog in his disco on his solo debut; Ripley Johnson (Wooden Shjips, Moon Duo) blisses out on his third album as Rose City Band; Toronto’s Absolutely Free finally announce their second album; and Saint Etienne‘s Bob Stanley compiles a wonderful collection of post-“Ode to Billie Joe” country.

It’s a busy week for new music and Andrew takes on a dozen of them (Tyler, Lucy Dacus, Backxwash, more) in Notable Releases. If you need more Basement-approved things to look at: I interviewed Bob Stanley and Tessa Norton about their new book Excavate: The Wonderful and Frightening World of the Fall; YVETTE are finally releasing a new album; Sweeping Promises, who made one of my favorite albums of 2020, will be touring this fall; Tropical Fuck Storm announced a new album; and so did Low and Helado Negro.

There are also a lot of Basement-approved album available currently in the BrookynVegan shop, including classics from Pavement, Guided by Voices, The Cure, Bauhaus, This Mortal Coil, Stereolab, and more.

Head below for this week’s reviews:

ALBUM OF THE WEEK #1: John Grant – Boy From Michigan (Partisan)
Cate Le Bon produces for John’s most personal album yet

“The American Dream is not for weak, soft-hearted fools,” John Grant sings on the title track of his terrific fifth solo album, Boy From Michigan. Grant has always been a master scene-setter and storyteller but this is his most personal record to date, a look back on his youth and how being someone that doesn’t fit into the Nuclear Family image shaped his life and music. It’s a record that’s about the American Dream that could only be made in Iceland with a Welsh artist, the equally idiosyncratic Cate Le Bon, as producer.

The album follows a clear path, from adolescence in Michigan — the G-Funk style title track and the two songs that follow — to moving to Denver as a teenager and coming to terms with being gay in the bible belt, and his escape to Europe. Le Bon’s distinctive, skronky sound doesn’t infect Boy From Michigan as you might expect. Grant is still making cosmic, glammy ’70s-style piano man pop — with lots of proggy synths — but Cate clearly encouraged him to stretch his wings. Mournful clarinet leads “The Cruise Room,” a song about hanging at the Art Deco bar at Denver’s Oxford Hotel, listening to Patsy Cline on the jukebox, on his last night before moving to Europe; “Best in Me” toys with the kind of vintage bleeps and bloops that came out of Sheffield in the late-’70s; and, showing the most Le Bon influence, “Rhetorical Figure” is nervy new wave.

As the album concludes it heads into 2020, offering up takedowns of his birthplace’s obsession with wealth (“Your Portfolio”) and the election. “The Only Baby” is explicitly about Trump, painting him as the inevitable offspring of America: “Well that’s the only baby that bitch could have.” The album concludes with “Billy,” a song which concludes the “cult of masculinity” is to blame for our whole mess. Boy From Michigan is equal parts nostalgic, cynical and angry, with Grant’s signature bon mots peppered throughout, though he deflects with humor less than usual. It’s also a double album (75 minutes) that doesn’t feel bloated, thanks to strong melodies, great production and a clear vision that knew where it was going right from the very start: “You’re just a simple boy from Michigan / And they’ll be doing everything they can to win / So please, please don’t ever let your guard down / And maybe someday you can come back here again.”

—

ALBUM OF THE WEEK #2: SAULT – NINE (Forever Living Originals)

SAULT‘s Untitled (Black Is) and Untitled (Rise) were a big part of the soundtrack to my 2020, so it’s very exciting to have a new record from them. The enigmatic group, led by producer Inflo (Dean Josiah Cover), aren’t ones for telling you about their music, or releasing advance single, so I’m still digesting this one but like the Untitled albums and 7 and 5 before them, NINE is instantly compelling. In addition to their usual mix of hip hop, soul, jazz, R&B, dub, reggae, afrobeat and gospel, there’s a little post-punk to some of these grooves, with dark fuzzy basslines and a low-fi grit on the drums. Thematically the album is still heavy with the events of the last 16 months but there’s humor too — Little Simz contributes to my early favorite from the album, the playful “You From London,” and the album ends on a notes of gorgeous hope with the very Minnie Riperton-esque “9” and the soulful “Light’s in Your Hands.” In addition to Simz, Cleo Sol (Cleopatra Nikolic) and Melisa “Kid Sister” Young are back, too, but the most surprising credit in NINE is ’00s-era UK singer Jack Peñate who gets a co-writing credit on three songs.

SAULT say NINE will only be available to download or stream for 99 days, so get it while you can — it’s a free download from their website.

—

Lightning Bug – A Color of the Sky (Fat Possum)
Enchanting third album (and first for a label) from NYC dreampop outfit

Lightning Bug have been around for nearly a decade, making ethereal dreampop informed by many of the usual influences but powered by Audrey Kang’s excellent songwriting and clear, soothing vocals. With a new lineup adding extra juice, the band signed to Fat Possum, and recorded much of A Colour of the Sky live. (A first for the band.) “Songs in the past sometimes felt muddled, or I felt lost where to take them,” Audrey said. “But for this one, each song felt like a whole entity from conception.”

A Color of the Sky is Lightning Bug’s most focused, enchanting record yet which also finds them figuring out their own sound. You can still hear touchstones here and there — “The Right Thing is Hard to Do” nods to both Mazzy Star and Robin Guthrie’s Heaven or Las Vegas shimmer — but mostly they just sound like themselves, weaving layers of guitar, strings, mellotron, and harmonies into an enchanting, melodic haze. The gorgeous production doesn’t point to a particular era either, taking elements from ’60s and ’70s psych, folk and pop, ’90s shoegaze and trip hop, ’00s post-rock, Eno’s soundscapes and more. A Color of the Sky is gentle but engaging; the music pulls you into their nebula while Kang sings gently in your ear, evoking peak summer evenings as the sun goes down and fireflies dance in still air.

—

Gaspard Augé – Escapades (Ed Banger / Because Music)
One half of Justice goes over the top… and keeps on going on his prog-disco solo debut

Perhaps the only electronic group to play in front of a wall of Marshall stacks, French duo Justice have never done subtle. The same goes for Gaspard Augé, the duo’s curly-headed half, whose solo debut goes over-the-top almost immediately and just keeps going from there. While you can definitely dance to some of the tracks, Escapades is a heavily cinematic prog record that fully embraces ’70s-style excess. We’re talking big, Neil Peart-sized drum kits, bigger synthesizers, harpsichords, disco basslines, mass choral vocalization (but not really any “lyrics”), moody atmospherics and glammy touches, all piled high and then covered with gooey, gruyere-laden mornay sauce. Even the cover art is big, with Augé leaping across a rocky, mountainous terrain that has been spiked with a giant tuning fork in what is clearly an homage to classic Hipgnosis-designed sleeves. Escapades is also often rather hilarious, from the harps and theremin on “Casablanca” to the titular shouts on “Hey!” that is easily the most bombastic track on an album where subtle does not exist. If you have any doubt to whether Augé is in on the joke you have not watched the videos from this album.

—

Absolutely Free – “How to Paint Clouds” (Boiled Records)
Finally! Toronto’s electronic/krautrock trio are back with album #2.

It’s been seven years since Toronto’s Absolutely Free — the komische-influenced spinoff of DD/MM/YYYY — released their excellent self-titled debut. They’ve put out a few singles and EPs since, toured, and apparently had a second album in the can four years ago that never saw the light of day. The band are finally back, though, and will release Aftertouch on September 24 via Boiled Records. Given that the album includes 2018 single “Still Life” which, like this album, was produced by Jorge Elbrecht (No Joy, Japanese Breakfast), this seems to be that four year old album finally seeing the light of day.

In any case, the album’s new single, “How to Paint Clouds,” is pretty terrific. Powered by complex polyrhythms, interlocking layers of synths and a soaring melody, “How to Paint Clouds” is a gorgeous flying wedge of art pop about how artists can put meaning into their work, but once it has been presented to the world, their intent is no more valid than someone seeing or hearing it for the first time. As a true companion to the song and its thesis, the song’s video uses AI imaging software that pulled from over 2000 paintings of clouds found on the internet to create its own cloud painting. The closed captions, meanwhile, were created by feeding the vocals into a speech detection software, underlining the point of the song with a surreal pen.

—

Choctaw Ridge – New Fables of The American South 1968-1973 (Ace Records)
The latest Bob Stanley-curated compilation for Ace Records looks at the new directions country music took in the ’60s after “Ode to Billie Joe”

It’s been a while since we’ve gotten a new Ace Records compilation from Saint Etienne‘s Bob Stanley who had been popping these out at a steady clip over the last five years or so. Bob just told us that it’s more due to record pressing plant delays during COVID than a lack of fresh comps in the hopper, and we aren’t going to have to wait much longer, as Ace just announced Choctaw Ridge – New Fables of The American South 1968-1973. The title comes from a line in Bobbie Gentry’s “Ode to Billy Joe” and Bob says this compilation “explores a new country sound” that emerged in the wake of that unexpected 1967 hit. “When singers like Gentry, Jimmy Webb, Michael Nesmith and Lee Hazlewood moved from the south to Los Angeles to make it in the music business, they were not part of the Nashville in-crowd and they forged a new direction.”

The artists and songs on Choctaw Ridge show the new sophistication the late-’60s brought to country music, both musically and lyrically. The influence of psychedelic pop and social change and the disillusionment of the early-’70s can really be felt on songs like Lee Hazlewood‘s “The House Song,” Ed Bruce‘s “Why Can’t I Come Home,” Billie Jo Spears‘ sassy, playful “Mr Walker, It’s All Over,” Tony Joe White‘s “Widow Wimberly,” Hoyt Axton‘s “Way Before the Time of Towns,” and Jeannie C. Riley‘s “On the Backside of Dallas.” There are also songs from Dolly Parton, Charlie Rich, Jerry Reed, Waylon Jennings, Kenny Rogers and more. Bob Stanley’s name on these Ace comps is always a Trademark of Quality, but Choctaw Ridge is especially good. You can pre-order it here and while these are never put on streaming services, someone invariably puts together a Spotify playlist with most of the songs and that’s no different here:

In other news, Bob says a new Saint Etienne record is ready to go and should be out this fall. Bob’s book about The Fall is out now and you can read my interview with him about it here.

—

Rose City Band – Earth Trip (Thrill Jockey)
Blissed out third album from the solo project of Wooden Shjips/Moon Duo’s Ripley Johnson.

Ripley Johnson has been a part of three distinct groups who are tied together with his signature lythe guitar style: psych rock band Wooden Shjips, drony, motorik (and most recently, dancey) Moon Duo and, most recently, Rose City Band. Essentially a solo project, Rose City Band is Ripley at his most tranquil, mixing country, folk and the sort of languid jamminess that recalls The Grateful Dead and Luna. It’s beautiful, relaxing stuff and Earth Trip, the third Rose City album, is especially blissful thanks to the pedal steel work of Barry Walker Jr. “I was trying to capture that feeling when you take psychedelics and they just start coming on – maybe objects start buzzing in the edges of your vision, you start seeing slight trails, maybe the characteristics of sound change subtly. But you’re not fully tripping yet,” says Ripley. “Cooper got the idea right away and his mix really captures that feeling.” Johnson and Walker’s styles are a perfect pairing, making for a good Trip whether you understand where Ripley’s coming from or not.

Looking for more? Browse the Indie Basement archives.

And check out what’s new in our shop.

—

Top 20 Shoegaze EPs of the Early-’90s

20. Bleach – Snag (1991, Way Cool Records)

Formed by brothers Neil and Nick Singleton, Ipswich, UK's Bleach unfortunately ran out of songwriting steam before they released their first album. (Hey, it happens, just ask Elastica.) The band managed to deliver one terrific EP that showcased their moody style, with guitarist Neil providing the haze and bassist Nick providing the mood. Like a lot of shoegaze groups of this era, singer Salli Carson's ethereal vocals seemed more like an equal element of Bleached's sound, as opposed to a focal point. "Bethesda," with its tom-heavy drumming is especially good, as is "Dipping." Extended listening: the cover art is the most distinctive thing about Bleach's 1992 album Killing Time, but it's the only one of their releases on streaming services.

19. Medicine – 5ive (1993, Creation)

Led by Brad Laner, who spent time in the '80s in L.A. cult post-punk band Savage Republic, Medicine were arguably the U.S.'s best shoegaze band, with a firm grip on melody, noise and dynamics, and they weren't afraid of sampling or dance culture. They also had rare bonafides for an American band; they were signed to Creation in the UK. (Rick Rubin's American Recordings put out their records at home.) The 5ive EP, also known as Come Here to Drink Milk, takes the tremolo-heavy title track (originally on their debut album) and pairs it with the ragged version of "Time Baby" (not the version with Liz Fraser & Robin Guthrie), searing slow jam "Lime 6," and the quasi-industrial "Wrought." Extended listening: The Sounds of Medicine EP has the Cocteau-ized version of "Time Baby" from The Crow soundtrack, plus "stripped and reformed" versions of other songs, but the 1993 sophomore album The Buried Life is Medicine at their best.

18. The Telescopes – Flying (1991, Creation)

Having got their start in the mid-'80s, The Telescopes predate shoegaze but were part of the dark neo-psych scene that included Spacemen 3 and Loop (who they shared a split 7" with in 1988). By their fourth EP for Creation, 1990's Flying, The Telescopes had blasted off most of the white noise in favor of groovy psychedelia that put them somewhere between The Stone Roses and Ride, but frontman Stephen Lawrie was always on his own sonic plane. With layers of 12-string guitars -- acoustic and electric -- Flying's title track is one of their best pop songs, while "High on Fire" heads deep into outer space and "The Sleepwalk" showed they could confidently compete with their Creation labelmates that were getting much more ink in NME. Extended listening: 1990's Celeste EP features an amazing 10-minute version of the title track that's worth the price of admission.

17. Blind Mr. Jones – Eyes Wide (1992, Cherry Red)

Their fondness of flute gave Blind Mr. Jones the reputation of being the shoegaze Jethro Tull, but this band from Marlow, UK were one of the more underrated groups of the era, with a distinctively British sound, a decided goth streak, and consistently memorable, melodic (New Order-esque) bass lines. There are no wind instruments on the Eyes Wide EP but it does feature Slowdive's Neil Halstead who gifts the record with some of his transcendent guitar cloud cover. All four songs are terrific. Is your favorite Ride song "Decay" from Nowhere? You should definitely investigate Blind Mr. Jones further. Extended listening: Compilation Over My Head collects everything Blind Mr. Jones recorded, including the Crazy Jazz EP that featured Radiohead's Jonny Greenwood.

16. Adorable – Sunshine Smile (1992, Creation)

While they owed more to Echo & the Bunnymen or House of Love than My Bloody Valentine or Ride, Adorable were signed to Creation Records, peppered their very catchy songs with guitar noise and got not entirely unfairly lumped in with the shoegaze scene...even if frontman Peter Fijalkowski bristled at the word in interviews. One thing's for sure: "Sunshine Smile" was a hell of an introduction that sounds like its title, a wonderful guitar-drenched pop song with a slinky slowburn intro that gives way to a massive guitar riff chorus. The two b-sides -- melancholy-drenched ballad "A to Fade In" and the Madchester-leaning "Sunburnt" -- are great, too, as is the cover art which uses imagery from The Passion of Joan of Arc. Extended listening: The Sistine Chapel Ceiling EP takes its title track from Adorable's debut album, Against Perfection, and adds three good b-sides, especially "Everything's Fine."

15. Catherine Wheel – 30th Century Man (1992, Fontana)

Released in the last week of 1992, this limited edition EP was a step up, sonically, for Catherine Wheel who had never sounded so confident and powerful, giving fans a taste of what they might get with 1993's Chrome. This is probably a controversial pick, given that three of the four songs here are covers, but Catherine Wheel seriously deliver the goods with these killer takes on Scott Walker's "30th Century Man," Husker Du's "Don't Wanna Know if You Are Lonely" and Mission of Burma's "That's When I Reach for My Revolver." Their cover of "30th Century Man" is particularly inspired, while the other two merely rip (while they make them their own). The EP's original, "Free of Mind," is great too. Extended listening: If you just want great Catherine Wheel songs, the Black Metallic EP has four of them, including the title track which was a Modern Rock Radio hit in the U.S.

14. Kitchens of Distinction – Drive That Fast (1990, One Little Indian)

Kitchens of Distinction would probably be classified as dreampop these days; Julian Swales was up there with Robin Guthrie and Neil Halstead for being able to coax out gorgeous waterfalls of sound from his guitar, but bassist/frontman Patrick Fitzgerald was a confident frontman who had a lot to say. (They were probably closer to The Sound or The Chameleons than to Ride or Lush.) Released as a precursor to their second album, Strange Free World, "Drive That Fast" is one of KoD's best-ever singles and the EP's other tracks are all good, with the dark, boozy "These Drinkers" and a piano rendition of single "Elephantine" being standouts. Runner up: The Elephantine EP has the full-on swirling version of the title track, plus three worthy other tracks.

13. Lilys – A Brief History of Amazing Letdowns (1993, spinART)

Kurt Heasley has reinvented Lilys a few times over the last 30 years, but the group began as noisy indie rockers who pulled equally from late-'80s Creation Records and Dinosaur Jr's freak scene. This wonderfully titled EP has some of Lilys' catchiest songs, including "Ginger" (which inexplicably ended up getting used in a 2007 Cadillac commercial), "Any Place I've Lived" and "Jenny, Andrew and Me." It's one of their best releases and, sadly, also one of the rarest...out of print, not on streaming services, and used copies are hard to come by. Extended listening: Lilys' debut single, "February Fourteenth," is a real ripper.

12. Verve – All in the Mind (1992, Hut)

Before they became Britpop stars with “Bittersweet Symphony” and “Sonnet,” The Verve were just Verve (they had to add the "The" after legal threats from Verve Records), a band from Wigan, England who made out-there, super-groovy psych rock. The group pretty much disowned the title track of their debut EP moments after releasing it, but what do they know? “All in the Mind” is a propulsive space-hopper jam that really shows off Nick McCabe’s incendiary fretwork, Simon Jones’ deeply melodic bass, and the indispensable, jazzy style of drummer Peter Salisbury. The other two tracks -- the beautiful “One Way to Go” (featuring a great vocal from Richard Ashcroft) and dreamy “A Man Called Sun” -- are more indicative of where The Verve would go on their debut album, A Storm in Heaven. Extended listening: The Verve E.P. was the band's introduction to the U.S., taking tracks from their first three singles/EPs, including "A Man Called Sun," and edits of their tripped-out A-sides "Gravity Grave" and "She's a Superstar."

11. Swervedriver – Duel (1993, Creation)

Another band who got better when they burned off some of that haze, Swervedriver made a massive leap between their first album, Raise, and their second, Mezcal Head. A big part of that was a new lineup of the band -- which included a much-improved rhythm section of drummer Jez Hindmarsh and bassist Steve George -- that could really rip. But it was also better songs and more muscular production courtesy producer Alan Moulder who was very busy in the early '90s. (He probably worked on half the records in this list.) The soaring, roaring "Duel," arguably the album's finest moment, is backed with two killer B's: the majestic "Planes Over the Skyline," and starry eyed "Year of the Girl," both of which have Jez going full Keith Moon. Extended listening: Standalone single "Never Lose That Feeling," which would be tacked-on the U.S. edition of Mezcal Head, was actually the last record the original lineup of the band made. The EP version melts into the dubby "Never Learn," making for a very worthy 11 minutes.

10. Chapterhouse – Mesmerise (1991, Dedicated)

In the UK, there was a lot of cross-pollination between shoegaze, acid house and the Manchester scene, and few groups pulled all those together as successfully as Chapterhouse. Coming just a few months after releasing their debut album, Whirlpool, the four-song Mesmerise EP -- which is is sometimes listed as a single -- features two great examples of their blissed-out style: the title track, which blasts out thick waves of synthesizers against a piano hook, was as much a Madchester anthem as anything else; while “Precious One” rides a bongo-fueled groove. There’s also the swirling, ambient “Summer Chill” and the windswept guitar haze of “Then We’ll Rise.” Extended listening: 1990’s Freefall EP falls a little more into space rock territory, but “Falling Down” -- which uses The Soul Searchers’ "Ashley’s Roachclip" drum break sample heard in Eric B & Rakim’s “Paid in Full,” Milli Vanilli's “Girl You Know it’s True” (and on many, many, many other records) -- pointed to the direction they would soon be heading.

9. Curve – Blindfold (1991, Anxious)

Curve were an interesting group, as both Toni Halliday and Dean Garcia had been around for a while in the industry; Dean was a live member of The Eurythmics in the early-’80s, and they were both in short-lived ‘80s band State of Play, who made one record and then broke up. Dean played on Toni’s 1989 solo album, and then they decided to take another whack at a group, perhaps taking My Bloody Valentine’s “Soon” as an influence, mixing hazy guitars with dance music. With Halliday’s powerful pipes it was an alluring combination. Alan Moulder, who they’d worked with in State of Play and on Halliday’s solo album -- and who was THE shoegaze engineer -- was the de facto third member of the group. Curve released three EPs in 1991, all of which are great but the first, Blindfold, is the best with the seductive single "Ten Little Girls"  featuring something no other record on this list has: rapping. Extended listening: Curve’s second EP, Frozen, is also killer, featuring “Coast is Clear” -- one of their best-ever tracks. All three of their 1991 EPs were collected onto the Public Fruit album.

8. Velocity Girl – Velocity Girl (1993, Slumberland)

While mainly known for its influential punk scene, Washington DC also had a thriving indie rock scene in the late '80s and early-'90s that was heavily influenced by the UK's C-86 scene and labels like Creation, Cherry Red and 4AD. Velocity Girl, in fact, were named for Primal Scream's song on C-86, and played a similar style of very fuzzy janglepop. The group included former Black Tambourine member Archie Moore and, originally, Bridget Cross who, when she left to focus on Unrest, would be replaced by vocalist Sarah Shannon. The band's gift for melody, and love of shambolic, noisy guitars, is evident on this EP that collects songs from three early 7"s. "My Forgotten Favorite," which would turn up a few years later on the Clueless soundtrack, is the obvious standout (and arguably VG's best song), but the other five songs are equally stellar. Extended listening: Velocity Girl were more fond of 7"s than EPs, but their 1993 debut Copacetic (released, like all their albums, on Sub Pop) has held up well, and gotten better with age.

7. Ride – Today Forever (1991, Creation)

Released just a few months after their debut album Nowhere, the Today Forever EP takes Ride out of the hazy murk and into cleaner production without sacrificing their signature swirl. The EP also shows a growing confidence in songwriting and arrangements, like with the powerful, deliberate “Sennen.” Today Forever was never released in the U.S., and is unknown still to a lot of fans, though three of its four tracks found their way onto the American "Vapour Trail" CD maxi-single...but it leaves off one of Ride’s prettiest songs ever, “Today.” Extended listening: Ride’s 1989 debut EP contains classics “Chelsea Girl” and “Drive Blind.”

6. The Boo Radleys – Lazarus (1992, Creation)

Like a number of shoegaze bands, The Boo Radleys spent a couple years hiding their musical skill and good songwriting behind a wall of MBV-inspired noise. This resulted in some great music but when they came out of their shell, they got even better. Released not long after their wilfully dissonant Everything’s Alright Forever LP, the Lazarus EP felt a bit like seeing the band with a new pair of glasses. The signs had been there all along for The Boo Radleys, but all four songs here are a step up in every way. “Lazarus” would show up on 1993’s Giant Steps, but without the long, dubby EP intro that pays off so well when the song roars into focus. It's also amazing they'd delegate songs as good as "Petroleum" and "At the Sound of Speed" to b-side material. Extended listening: 1991’s Every Heaven EP is pretty fantastic with a nice balance of melody and roar, and has one of the Boos’ best-ever songs, “The Finest Kiss.”

5. Slowdive – Holding Our Breath (1991, Creation)

While clearly influenced by the Cocteau Twins' shimmering style, Slowdive didn’t really sound like any other group from the original shoegaze era, with an oceanic guitar swell that remains unique and mysterious. “Catch the Breeze,” which would also show up on their 1991 debut album, Just for a Day, is an all-time classic but the rest of this EP is just as captivating. Rachel Goswell’s ethereal harmonies on “Shine” will never not send shivers down your spine, and their cover of Syd Barrett's "Golden Hair" is rather titanic. Extended listening: Slowdive’s debut EP, Morningrise, nods to the band’s ‘80s goth youth while pointing toward the direction they’d soon head.

4. Moose – Jack (1991, Hut)

If it wasn't for Moose, this list might have to be called something slightly different, as the word "shoegaze" was first used in a Sounds review of one of their early gigs. That is probably enough to warrant an inclusion here, but luckily Moose were a great band who carved out a distinct corner in The Scene That Celebrates Itself. Their first of three 1991 EPs, Jack, was as dissonant as they got, but underneath the bandsaw guitars were melodies rooted in a classic songwriting style that owed as much to Burt Bacharach as the Velvet Underground. That would bubble up to the surface more as the band progressed, but you can hear it on both "Ballad Of Adam & Eve" and "Boy." The EP kicks off with the awesomely drony title track, and wraps with moody ballad "I'll Take Tomorrow." Extended listening: By the release of their third 1991 EP, Reprise, they were already halfway to the breezier style they'd adopt for XYZ and subsequent albums, and it features the gorgeous, country-ish ballad "This River Never Will Run Dry." Songs from Moose's early EPs were cherry-picked for the Sonny and Sam EP, the only record Moose ever got released in America. Criminally underrated, I

3. Pale Saints – Flesh Balloon (1991, 4AD)

In between their first and second albums, Pale Saints added singer-songwriter-guitarist Meriel Barham to their lineup, changing the dynamic of the group for the better. She made her debut on this EP, singing lead on a playful, dreamy cover of Nancy Sinatra's "Kinky Love." The whole EP is fab, though, with the sprawling, dramatic "Hunted" -- which would show up on second album In Ribbons -- and is one of the best examples of the group's unique mix of beauty and noise. There's also a demo of "Hair Shoes," which shows up in full studio version on In Ribbons, but the real standout here is spectacular instrumental "Porpoise." Extended listening: 1990's Half-Life Remembered is pretty great too, especially "Half Life" which toys with Madchester beats. The title track is great.

2. Lush – Mad Love (1990, 4AD)

Cocteau Twins’ Robin Guthrie was behind the boards for this four song 12” that remains the perfect distillation of everything Lush did so well. Quintessential Lush song “De-Luxe” leads the EP that also includes the equally wonderful dreampop track "Thoughtforms" both of which feature Miki Berenyi and Emma Anderson's signature guitar and vocal interplay. plus great minor chord slashers “Leaves Me Cold” and “Downer.” Lush made many great records during their brief run, but if you can only have one, make it this. Extended listening: Lush’s debut, the six-song Scar mini-LP is excellent too, if a little rough around the edges. You don’t have to choose, either: Gala compiles Mad Love and Scar, plus a couple other tracks, on one album. It's also hard to argue with picking up Ciao! Best Of Lush which includes their dabblings in Britpop (like the title track which was a duet between Miki and Jarvis Cocker).

1. My Bloody Valentine – Tremolo (1991, Creation)

While My Bloody Valentine’s 1990 Glider EP features their danceable classic “Soon,” the 1991 Tremolo EP has an overall higher hit-count, and sees Kevin Shields and the rest of the band continuing to break new ground. Tremolo features the swirling, transportive “To Here Knows When,” the beautiful “Swallow,” glide guitar ripper “Honey Power” and the churning, Brian Wilson-esque “Moon Song.” Nearly 30 years later, listening to this dazzling EP's four songs will have you wondering "How did they make this?" and "are my stereo speakers functioning properly?" A must-own companion to Loveless. Extended listening: Then again, Glider does have “Soon.” Get them both!