Primal Scream - Jailbird EP (1994 Creation)

Time for some classic inches today. Jailbird was the third single from Primals' long awaited and then critically murdered fourth album Give Out But Don't Give Up and first to really catch up thanks to this great EP of remixes by The Dust Brothers, Kris Needs and The Sabres Of Paradise. While the first two gained Jailbird a place on every good big beat compilation, my fav is the slowly rising atmospheric organ in Andy Weatherall's stripped down Sweeney 2 remix. For fans of The Black Crows there's also the original version, for whatever reason..

mp3 I 320kbps I 38 minutes I 89mb I link in comments

Ultra·Living - Monochromatic Adventure (1998 Creation)

Future•Japan Relief Campaign
One would expect such album with singles remixed by Doc Scott and DJ Die to appear on Toy's Factory in Japan (japanese trip hop with girlie vocals) or Pussyfoot in England (it was co-produced by Luke Gordon of Spacer fame), but Takuma and Tetsushi Nonaka AKA Ultra·Living released their debut Monochromatic Adventure on the very-unlikely label Creation Records. Anyway, the breakbeats are smart and vocals by Kyoko Mori are sweet, especially on my favs, pathetically fragile God Song and Mr. Freedom.

mp3 I 320kbps I 57 minutes I 132mb I link in comments

Momus - Timelord (1993 Creation)

My earliest memory of Momus is this: once I got stuck in my Dutch girlfriend's home with not much to do, couple of vinyls and no turntable. So I spent the days smoking all her youknowwhat, listening to local campus radio grunge Top Ten (it was 1991 or so), watching dirty grey Rotterdam sky and reading lyrics from the sleeves. Later I've left with two of those albums: Prefab Sprout's Steve McQueen and The Monsters Of Love collection by Momus. This is how the true power of a good compilation works: I was doomed to buy all his albums since then. The Monsters Of Love is still my fav but when I think Momus, it's usually Timelord, eight great songs of fragile beauty and lyrics sometimes too close to the bone. Which is just what we'd expect from Mr. Currie, isn't it?

mp3 I 320kbps I 36 minutes I 82mb I link in comments

Primal Scream meets On-U Sound - Echo Dek (1997 Creation)

Primal Scream meets Adrian Sherwood in the echo chamber. This heavy dub session is based on the material from Primal Scream 1997 album Vanishing Point.

mp3 I 320kbps I 44 minutes I 101mb I link in comments

Dread Zone - 360° (1993 Creation)

It would be easy to describe Dread Zone as Big Audio Dynamity minus Mick Jones plus sampler but there's much more to them. Their debut album 360° started the huge electronic dub scene in the 90's and, 17 years later, this mixture of cinematic sounds, heavy basslines and creative drumming still sounds pretty acceptable.

mp3 I 320kbps I 58 minutes I 134mb I link in comments

A Certain Ratio - Looking For A Certain Ratio (1994 Creation)

In 1994, the Creation sub label Rev-ola started releasing reissues of many forgotten new wave album including 'O' Level (another project featuring Ed Ball), Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers, Fire Engines and also six classic A Certain Ratio albums available for re-release after Factory Records finally went bankrupt. This remix collection followed the successful single Shack Up (yes, that old funky stomper by Banbarra) and includes some fresh names like Way Out West or Graham Massey (808 State) as well as pretty old names including both New Order members side projects (Electronic and The Other Two), Andy Connell (Swing Out Sister, ex-ACR member) and Mark Brydon (ex-Hula, later Moloko). I've also included the Shack Up single as a bonus.

01 A Certain Ratio-Shack Up (Radio Edit)
02 A Certain Ratio-Flight (Massey Mix)
03 A Certain Ratio-The Fox (MacSilva Mix)
04 A Certain Ratio-There's Only This (Sub Sub's Rainy City Mix)
05 A Certain Ratio-Mickey Way (Manchester City Mix)
06 A Certain Ratio-Touch (Primetime Mix)
07 A Certain Ratio-Wild Party (Way Out West Mix)
08 A Certain Ratio-Life's A Scream (Emergency Ward 10 Mix)
09 A Certain Ratio-Blown Away (Puffin'stuff Mix)
10 A Certain Ratio-Bootsy (The Swingfire Mix)
11 A Certain Ratio-Si Firmir O Grido (Bandini Bimba Mix)

mp3 I 320kbps I 64 minutes I 148mb I link in comments

Ruby - Revenge, The Sweetest Fruit (Salt Peter Remixed) (1996 Creation)

Ruby was a collaboration of riot grrl Lesley Rankine of Silverfish and EBM producer Mark Walk (Pigface, Skinny Puppy) and their debut album Salt Peter was exactly what you'd expect. Fortunately this is a remix collection with tracklist full of great names sweetening the sour aggresive activist edge to acceptable level.

01 Ruby-Flippin' Tha Bird (Ceasefire Remix)
02 Ruby-Salt Water Fish (Peshay Remix)
03 Ruby-Heidi (Scream Team Remix)
04 Ruby-Paraffin (Red Snapper Mix)
05 Ruby-Hoops (Da Lata Remix)
06 Ruby-Tiny Meat (Monkey Mafia Meat For The Feet Dub)
07 Ruby-Heidi (Num Num Mix)
08 Ruby-Swallow Baby (Tim Brown Remix)
09 Ruby-The Whole Is Equal To The Sum Of It's Parts (Fila Brazilia Remix)
10 Ruby-Bud (Rootless Mix)
11 Ruby-Carondelet (Don't Fear The Remix)

mp3 I 320kbps I 71 minutes I 163mb I link in comments

Scuba - Underwater Symphonies (1995 Creation)

Kate Holmes released this great little album of techno beats, ambient textures and lush vocals under Scuba moniker (not to be associated with King Britt's project of the same name) with great deal of help from electronic producers like Felix, Simon Posford (Walter Ego), Stephane Holweck (Juno Reactor), and vocalists Kirsty Hawkshaw and Sophie Barker. Virginia Astley meets The Future Sound Of London?

mp3 I 320kbps I 43 minutes I 100mb I link in comments

Conspiracy Of Noise - Chicks With Dicks And Splatter Flicks (1993 Creation)

...and finally the Conspiracy Of Noise. I clearly remember that when i first played Chicks With Dicks And Splatter Flicks promo, i thought the disc was mispressed. Get it if you wonder why, because in case of this album, why seems to be the crucial question.

mp3 I 320kbps I 31 minutes I 71mb I link in comments

Love Corporation - Intelligentsia (1994 Creation)

Three years after the hit single Gimme Some Love Ed Ball released the second and last album of his dancefloor-oriented project Love Corporation. Intelligentsia is much more complex than the first album Lovers, from jazzy intro/outro Translucent / Translucence to the single Cathedrals Of Glitter (shameless but groovy The X Files theme pastiche). Fans of mid-90's electronica won't be disappointed.

Request: There's also extremely rare remix collection Dance Stance. I used to have it but now i can't find it, so please, if you got it, share it. Thanks!

mp3 I 320kbps I 57 minutes I 131mb I link in comments

Teenage Filmstars - Star (1992 Creation)

It's really hard to take the first Teenage Filmstars album seriously. Most of all it's a reflexive response to the flood of Creation Records' notorious shoegazer acts like My Bloody Valentine and The Telescopes. Take a crazy psychedelic trip on heavily effected guitars flavoured with some nice ambient textures and lush vocals. It's the artisan nature of Mr. Ball that brought us an instant MBV album. Just add water.

mp3 I 320kbps I 54 minutes I 124mb I link in comments

The Times - Alternative Commercial Crossover (1993 Creation)

In their 12 years history The Times released more than dozen indie guitar pop oriented albums. Alternative Commercial Crossover is diferent. The influence of relatively successful rave project Love Corporation is audible in many tracks including Lundi Bleu (a cover version of New Order's Blue Monday; here remixed by The Grid) and Finnegan's Break (featuring raggamuffin Tippa Irie). Other memorable moments are Baby Girl (which seems to be a dub version of Scritti Politti's The Sweetest Girl, the original version is available here) and How Honest Are Pearl Jam?

mp3 I 320kbps I 60 minutes I 137mb I link in comments

E is for Edward

The best indie label ever, Andy McGhee's Creation Records, hosted some of the oddest personae of the UK indie scene including Bill Drummond, Nikki Sudden and Momus, to name a few. No wonder it was also a home to many projects created (and then destroyed) by Edward Ball, the man who helped Patrick McGoohan escape. In the following posts we will take a short trip through long career of this true indie enfant terrible, We will explore The Times' last album, then lift off mit der Teenage Filmstars, later we'll join The Love Corporation and in the end we'll deconspire the Conspiracy Of Noise, if i'll have the guts to listen to their album once more.

VA Beyond The Machines (1993 Infonet)

The Infonet label saga continues with first real label compilation showcasing what used to be called ambient techno back then. Contains some real killers like Sulphuric's Better Come Together and two tracks from Infonet's best known artists Bandulu (today known as Space DJz). This is INF002.

mp3 I 320kbps I 68 minutes I 156mb I link in comments

VA 313 Detroit (1992 Infonet)

Infonet was short-lived techno/trance sub-label of Creation Records. Although it is best known for releses by Reload, Bandulu and other UK acts, this compilation covers the Detroit techno scene of 1992 and contains many great and otherwise unreleased tracks by Kenny Larkin, Juan Atkins, Carl Craig, Eddie "Flashin" Fowlkes and many others (full tracklist here). For record collectors: this is INF001 and i will post most of the Infonet CDs soon.

mp3 I 320kbps I 51 minutes I 117mb I link in comments