| CD86 | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Compilation album | |
| Released | 2006 |
| Genre | Indie pop Post-punk Indie rock |
| Label | Sanctuary |
CD86: 48 Tracks from the Birth of Indie Pop is a compilation album of artists from the original C86 era, released in 2006 by Sanctuary Records. It is compiled by Bob Stanley of Saint Etienne.
To coincide with its release, the Institute of Contemporary Arts hosted "C86 - Still Doing It For Fun", [1] an exhibition and two nights of gigs celebrating the rise of British independent music.
Released in 1986, the original compilation album C86 became very influential, and is today credited as the birth of indie pop. Stanley notes: "It was the beginning of indie music. It's hard to remember how underground guitar music and fanzines were in the mid-'80s. DIY ethics and any residual punk attitudes were in isolated pockets around the country, and the C86 comp and gigs brought them together". [2] For the original's twentieth anniversary in 2006, Stanley compiled the set of songs that was released as CD86. [3]
CD86 is inspired by C86. Only three of the songs on C86 appear on CD86; fifteen of the original groups on C86 have alternative tracks on CD86. [3] Several tracks were little-known before the album's release. [4]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [5] |
| Pitchfork | 6.8/10 [4] |
| Prefix magazine | 8.0/10 [3] |
Writing in Prefix magazine, Greg Ingber gave the compilation a good review, noting that over twenty years the songs have stood the test of time very well. Ingber argues that while some may see C86 as not much more than a footnote in pop history, the CD86 compilation demonstrates that the scene was more than that. [3] Nitsuh Abebe disapproved of the revised track-list, saying that "Stanley's set actually runs the risk of convincing old indie-pop kids that the music they spent their youths on wasn't that great." Abebe felt that the later compilation's choices were too narrow in terms of genre, and criticized Stanley for not including more of the tracks included on the original C86. [4] Nick Hasted was similarly ambivalent, noting that the revised compilation would never have the influence of the original. [2] Both Hasted and Abebe recognized, however, that CD86 contained numerous good songs.
There are 48 tracks on 2 CDs. [6]
Three Imaginary Boys is the debut studio album by English rock band the Cure, released on 8 May 1979 by Fiction Records. It was later released in the United States, Canada, and Australia with a different track listing as a compilation album titled Boys Don't Cry.
Heavenly were a twee pop band, originally forming in Oxford, England in 1989. Amelia Fletcher (vocals/guitar), Mathew Fletcher, Peter Momtchiloff (guitar) and Robert Pursey (bass) had all been members of Talulah Gosh, a key member of the C86 scene.
K Records is an independent record label in Olympia, Washington founded in 1982. Artists on the label included early releases by Beck, Modest Mouse and Built to Spill. The record label has been called "key to the development of independent music" since the 1980s.
Noise pop is a subgenre of alternative or indie rock that developed in the mid-1980s in the United Kingdom and United States. It is defined by its mixture of dissonant noise or feedback with the songcraft more often found in pop music. Shoegazing, another noise-based genre that developed in the 1980s, drew from noise pop.
Talulah Gosh were a guitar-pop group from Oxford, England and one of the leading bands of the twee pop movement, taking their name from the headline of an NME interview with Clare Grogan. They supposedly formed when Amelia Fletcher and Elizabeth Price, both wearing Pastels badges, met at a club in Oxford. Formed in 1986, their original line-up comprised Amelia Fletcher, her younger brother Mathew Fletcher (drums), Peter Momtchiloff, Rob Pursey (bass) and Elizabeth Price (vocals). Pursey left early on, to be replaced by Chris Scott.
Backwash is a retrospective compilation of music by the group Talulah Gosh.
Indie pop is a music genre and subculture that combines guitar pop with DIY ethic in opposition to the style and tone of mainstream pop music. It originated from British post-punk in the late 1970s and subsequently generated a thriving fanzine, label, and club and gig circuit. Compared to its counterpart, indie rock, the genre is more melodic, less abrasive, and relatively angst-free. In later years, the definition of indie pop has bifurcated to also mean bands from unrelated DIY scenes/movements with pop leanings. Subgenres include chamber pop and twee pop.
The Wolfhounds are an English noise pop band formed in Romford, Essex in 1985 by Dave Callahan, Paul Clark, Andy Golding, Andy Bolton and Frank Stebbing, and originally active until 1990. The band reformed in 2005 and continues to write, record and play live, releasing new albums in 2014, 2016, and 2020.
The New Grand were a Canadian indie rock band from London, Ontario. Known for their explosive live shows, they released two full-length albums on Sonic Unyon Records.
The New Record by My Bloody Valentine is the second EP by the alternative rock band My Bloody Valentine, released in September 1986 on Kaleidoscope Sound. Recorded at Alaska Studios in London, the EP's sound is influenced by C86, a brand of indie pop, and diverges from the band's earlier post-punk sound.
The Hit Parade is a music group from London that has released eight LPs and fourteen 7" vinyl records. The group is described in British press as "the very definition of twee Eighties style indie".
Sing-Sing were an English indie pop/dream pop band formed in 1997 in London, comprising vocalist Lisa O'Neill and guitarist/vocalist Emma Anderson. They worked with a variety of musicians to create a sound which nodded to 1960s girl groups, electronica and folk. They disbanded in 2007.
The Sexual Life of the Savages is a compilation album produced by Bruno Verner and Eliete Mejorado, and released in 2005 by British record company Soul Jazz Records. It contains a collection of songs from various artists that formed the São Paulo post-punk movement of the early 1980s. The album's name is an allusion to a verse of the song "Nosso Louco Amor" by Gang 90 e as Absurdettes, one of the bands present in the compilation.
Razorcuts were an indie pop band formed in 1984 in London. The group centred on Gregory Webster and Tim Vass, with various musicians including Peter Momtchiloff of Heavenly, Angus Stevenson, and New Zealand drummer David Swift. Early releases on the Subway Organisation label, including the debut Big Pink Cake led to a deal with Creation Records for whom they released two albums. Razorcuts split up on 21 April 1990, with Vass going on to form Red Chair Fadeaway, and Webster to The Carousel, Saturn V and then in the late 1990s Sportique. The duo were reunited under the name 'Forever People' in 1992 for a one-off single on Sarah Records.
Mighty Mighty are an indie band formed in Birmingham, England in the mid-1980s.
Rock Legends: Volume 69 is a compilation of single tracks by the twee pop band Talulah Gosh.
They've Scoffed the Lot is a compilation of radio session recordings by the indie pop band Talulah Gosh.
How Does It Feel to Be Loved? is a London-based nightclub which predominately plays indie pop, Northern Soul and Motown music. On the club's website, founder Ian Watson explains: "We love pop, we love guitars that jangle, we love foot stomping melodies and huge choruses." The club's name is taken from the lyrics to The Velvet Underground song "Beginning to See the Light".
The Mechanical Forces of Love is the fourth album by American rock band Medicine, released on July 15, 2003 by Wall of Sound.
C86 is a cassette compilation released by the British music magazine NME in 1986, featuring new bands licensed from British independent record labels of the time. As a term, C86 quickly evolved into shorthand for a guitar-based musical genre characterized by jangling guitars and melodic power pop song structures, although other musical styles were represented on the tape. In its time, it became a pejorative term for its associations with so-called "shambling" and underachievement. The C86 scene is now recognized as a pivotal moment for independent music in the UK, as was recognized in the subtitle of the compilation's 2006 CD issue: CD86: 48 Tracks from the Birth of Indie Pop. 2014 saw the original compilation reissued in a 3CD expanded edition from Cherry Red Records; the 2014 box-set came with an 11,500-word book of sleevenotes by one of the tape's original curators, former NME journalist Neil Taylor.
