![]() That song would go on to evolve to up to an hour in length live, but the free-thinking innovation of Isn’t Anything provided the launchpad for how it got there. It’s 12 songs were so good they even omitted the ear shattering “You Made Me Realise” from the final track-list. ![]() Isn’t Anything is one of the most unique sounding debut albums ever made, but it’s the songwriting that makes it truly remarkable. No one ever will, even guitar pedals can’t do the job. As for that guitar sound, Shield’s dubbed his use of a tremolo bar as ‘Glide Guitar’ – (it even has its own Wikipedia page) – and no one else has managed to make a guitar sound like that since. Pre Isn’t Anything, they could be politely described as an inoffensive post-C86 band, yet a line-up change that saw Kevin Shields taking vocal duties with Bilinda Butcher, and completed by Colm Ó Cíosóig and Debbie Googe – undoubtedly the most formidable rhythm section since Talking Heads’ Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth – changed everything.īrian Eno described the impact of The Velvet Underground & Nico – an equally uncompromising album – as “everyone who bought it started a band.” Was Isn’t Anything the record that launched a thousand shoegaze bands, who stared at their endless guitar pedals rather than the audience? Was it the record that had critics searching for a word to describe this music and come up with ‘dream-pop’? It’s unequivocally both of those things, but as with all great debuts it triggered a sea change in music, with its influence extending far beyond the indie world in which it was created.įor all of the noisenik plaudits it garnered, and yes, “Feed Me With Your Kiss” has the most evil sounding hook ever written, Isn’t Anything’s melodicism is the overlooked part of the story, with the acoustic drones of “Lose My Breath” and “No More Sorry” seeing them dialling down the volume and creating music of remarkable subtlety and immersion. ![]() And then, from nowhere, along came My Bloody Valentine. In 1988, guitar music was in desperate need of innovation, of something radically new. In the immortal, prescient words of 1999 single "Spit It Out": Fuck me, they're all out of enemies. Simply, this level of raw, unhinged cacophony remains undefeated. ![]() It still feels like they’re more likely to be on Crimewatch than the Grammys. Achieving number one albums while their name still incites a reaction of suspicion and perplexity – the expectation of how unfettered, twisted, and dangerous music could be was changed forever, particularly in a mainstream arena. Over twenty years later, Slipknot still reigns supreme. Along with Corey Taylor's maniacal, guttural howls, their's was a sound that crept up your spine before digging in. Not fine-tuned enough to appear composed but with a purposeful acid smile, its beauty lay in its abrasive orchestra of the damned – most prominently, the viscous percussive floor of a trio beating ten shades of shit out of kegs and drums. This mysterious brigade gave caustic birth to their self-titled debut – a hurricane of noise that was as united in its grief as it was hatred, yet there was always something 'off' about the sound. They were taking the idea of fear and igniting it with fuel made with the most violent of propellents – suddenly all bets were off. Donning masks – clowns! dick noses! bondage! gas masks! – and boiler suits, this motley crew, later identified as Slipknot, emerged from the flat, endless farmlands as a black cloud swallowing up the pop culture sheen of the late '90s. In Des Moines, Iowa, nine disenfranchised beings, fed up with the lack of prospects and how life was treating them so poorly, turned their anger into a more realistic anxiety for the rest of the world. Before the turn of the millennium, fear was rife - what would the next thousand-year stretch hold? Would it all crumble down the moment the clock struck midnight? Well, nothing happened.
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