Disco Inferno
| Disco Inferno | |
|---|---|
| General information | |
| Genre (s) | Post rock |
| founding | 1989 |
| resolution | 1995 |
| Founding members | |
| Ian Crause | |
| Daniel Gish | |
| Rob Whatley | |
| Paul Willmott | |
Disco Inferno were a rock band from London .
Alongside Bark Psychosis, the band is considered to be one of those for whom the English music press created the label Postrock . It all started in the usual area of "normal", albeit good quality, indie rock .
Band history
Ian Crause, Daniel Gish, Rob Whatley and Paul Willmott formed the band in East London in 1989. Gish soon left the band, however, and joined Bark Psychosis . The other three members toured locally in front of a few viewers and recorded their first single Entertainment in 1990 with the small record company Che Records . The album Open Doors, Closed Windows and the EP Science followed . All three publications were well received by the trade press and hardly at all by the public.
At the same time, the time after Open Doors, Closed Windows formed the most striking break in the group's musical style. Until then, she had a style somewhere between Joy Division , New Order , The Cure and U2 , but with an unmistakable sound. In 1992, however, the EP Summer's Last Sound was released , from which Disco Inferno was to become one of the most misunderstood, unsuccessful, but in retrospect, most independent and perhaps even most important bands of the 90s .
The band had started to use electronic instruments more and more. In doing so, however, they went far beyond the usual framework of mixed guitar / keyboard bands. They recorded noises from their environment, such as bird calls, running water, traffic, confusion of voices, etc., processed the signals digitally and did not simply use them as samples via synthesizers , but ran their conventional instruments over the samples. They achieved a sound that had not been heard before (and until now). In many songs, melodies only appeared as rhythmically underlaid fragments that were accompanied by instruments played over samples. At some point Ian Crause remarked that Disco Inferno would have been the only band that dedicated themselves fully to (digital) technology and still basically remained a guitar band.
The years 1992 to 1994 saw a number of experimentally oriented EPs and ultimately the second album DI Go Pop , probably one of the albums in pop history that does not live up to its name. With the EP A Rock to Cling To (1993) the band switched to Rough Trade Records . It is these recordings, from Summer's Last Sound (1992) to DI Go Pop (1994) to It's a Kids World (1994), that established Disco Infernos' reputation as sample pioneers and sound makers in the early 90s . Most of the pieces are dominated by mostly rather barren and unusual soundscapes that evoke associations of gloom, beauty, fragility, despair and joy. On some EPs, however, there were always pieces that at least outwardly reminded of their early days and strongly of New Order . These "outbreaks" are mostly interpreted as attempts to win the attention of a wider audience after all.
The album Technicolor followed in 1996 . Stylistically, it largely followed on from its predecessors, but offered little that was really new or exciting. The attempt to finally be successful can be heard quite clearly in the recordings. The pieces are more accessible, less fragmented, more melodic and apparently more geared towards commercially successful bands like New Order, REM and the Beach Boys . Nevertheless, in terms of the joy of experimentation and the progressiveness of the sound image, it leaves most recordings of the time far behind. There was still little success with the listeners, while the reviews of the music press were often enthusiastic.
Soon after the release of Technicolor , Disco Inferno broke up, largely due to its continued failure. The Mixing It Session EP was released in 1999, but it was no longer an artistic highlight.
After Disco Inferno, Ian Crause ran the Floorshow project and in 2000 released the single "Elemental" (Tugboat Records).
Discography
Albums
- 1990 - Open Doors, Closed Windows
- 1994 - DI Go Pop
- 1996 - Technicolor
EPs
- 1991 - Science
- 1992 - Summer's Last Sound
- 1993 - A Rock to Cling To
- 1993 - The Last Dance
- 1994 - It's a Kid's World
- 1994 - Second Language
- 1999 - The Mixing It Session EP
Singles
- 1990 - entertainment
Compilations
- 1995 - In Debt ( Entertainment , Open Doors, Closed Windows , Science )
- 2011 - The 5 EPs ( Summer's Last Sound , A Rock to Cling To , The Last Dance , It's a Kid's World , Second Language )