REVIEW: C90 Various Artists 3 CD album review

C90 will be familiar to music purveyors who enjoyed the compilations form the early 90’s that everyone craved after seeing an advert in the weeks NME and Melody Maker. Released via Cherry Red records this gathering of many best loved bands of indie scene of the 90’s plus a chunk of the lesser known bands of the period, with many baggy, shoegaze and dance bands making an appearance, this will appeal to anyone who remembers the period or those that want to discover this iconic time in music.

Disc 1 starts with The Charlatans Polar Bear, live this track was a feature in the bands early set list with the organ of Rob Collins driving the 60’s organ groove of the band. Further highlights include London’s Flowered Up, they were labelled by some as the southern version of the Happy Monday’s, but their music was driven by their own punk, funk, indie jive which makes It’s On an indie classic. Northside My Rising Star, Ocean Colour Scene Sway and Slowdive Avalyn also deserve special mention.

Of the unexpected treats displayed across the final 2 discs. Listen by The Honey Smugglers is an underrated indie anthem, Big City by those acid freaks Spacemen 3 before New Fast Automatic Daffodils take things up a gear or 2 with Beam Me Up. The Darkside Highrise Love delves into a deeper groove compared to some of the spritely indie singalongs tracks of the time, Raintree Country Take has an infectious bongo beat, The Sandkings Earthwheel features a youthful Jas Mann before he took to the vocalizing Babylon Zoo’s 1 hit wonder Spaceman.

Featuring a lengthy and enjoyable booklet with extensive liners notes detailing each band featured across the set, this is an excellent release celebrating an important time in music, one that many would have been familiar to listening to Lamacq, Whiley and Goodier on Radio’s 1’s airwaves in the evenings of the early 90’s.

C90 can be purchased via the following link