The Joshua 3

[Shinesalight]

Believe it or not, I've not heard anything by Loop. Which album is a good starting point? In fact, how many albums did they make? Actually, I saw someone with a Loop t-shirt on at The Heads gig on Friday...was that you Is?

[supershonn]

hey ads, if you wanna look into loop, check out perfect perscription!

[nickh]

Personally I thought they were a bit of a rip-off but that didn’t matter too much live. On a good night Loop could be awesome, unfortunately of the half a dozen or so times I saw them they only really nailed it for me once at the National Ballroom in Kilburn in around 91, 92? Bruce Gilbert came on and played with them at the end.

I don’t own anything by them now apart from an MP3 of The Nail will Burn. I bought an Italian (?) bootleg from Runcible which was pretty good, The John Peel session album Wolfflow wasn’t a bad record either. I would steer clear of the official albums though as I always found them pretty tedious.

If they are reforming I would save yourself a few quid and wait for the inevitable re-releases because when Loop records show up on e-bay they usually go for big bucks.

I am not certain I would buy a ticket to see them live, they were an ‘of the moment’ band and I wasn’t too sad to see the back of them to be honest.

[Shinesalight]

"If they are reforming I would save yourself a few quid and wait for the inevitable re-releases because when Loop records show up on e-bay they usually go for big bucks."

Like this you mean!:-

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/LOOP-WORLD-IN-YOU ... .m14.l1318

[nickh]

Exactly.

[runcible]

I disagree with much of this thread so far. I was actually into Loop before I discovered Spacemen 3 ironically.

Nick is right when he says Loop could be incredible live - most of the gigs I saw were fantastic, including the one with Bruce Gilbert. But I think he's completely wrong in terms of some of the official albums. The debut, 'Heaven's End' is fantastic - a reverb/buzzed up fuzzy monster that veers from out-and-out guitar (Straight To Your Heart) to laid back psych (Carry Me). I still love it. Even better though is the one someone's linked to here 'The World In Your Eyes'. This is a compilation of the 1st 2 EPs with a couple of extra tracks. It is utterly magnificent - an incredible double header - and it still sounds brilliant 20 years later. It features 'Burning World' which rates as one of the most brilliant shimmery guitar tracks I have ever heard (seriously) and still marvel at today. That was one of the ultimate tracks to lie on the floor and listen to while fucked up. Also included is the 2nd single 'Spinning' - also completely amazing and a real stomper. The rest is pretty excellent - 'Head On' is great, 'I'll Take You There' (so Spacemen 3 it's untrue!) also, and 'Deep Hit' which just warbles long in a deliciously monotonous manner. Seriously Nick - you don't like these songs? Listen again!

Having said that I think Fade Out is boring for the most part, A Gilded Eternity is patchy, but the red live album is rather good. Wold Flow is radio sessions and is pretty good. Some of the singles (Collision, Arc Lite) are also decent. But after the 1st offcial release the quality went down for me although they were great live.

These prices are odd. When I was selling stuff the 1st 2 EPs would go for over £20, then you could get them on Ebay for a few quid or so a few years ago. Now the prices are up again.

Ads - PM me and I'll burn you what you need to hear...

[ArcLight]

Seriously guys slow down on this one. I got into Spaceman 3 through Loop so the chicken and egg argument doesn't really hold for me. At the time I always found Spaceman 3 to be a bit fey in comparison to be quite honest. True, they may have been around at the same time but were completely separate entities. I dusted off the Loop stuff about a year or so ago and I'm not sure I've heard anything in the past 15 years that touches tracks like 'Pulse' and 'This is where you end' for that level of pure hypnotic abandonment. Seriously. Granted Loop also produced some shite early on but Fade Out and A Gilded Eternity are great albums.

I'm all for nostalgia and I could do with a new Loop t shirt, can't be any worse than a MBV reunion.

[runcible]

The Loop camp is divided!

Not quite as 'chicken and egg' as you say Arclight. Loop would never have made the music they did without the Spacemen no matter what anyone says. A friend of mine was almost in Loop having been in a few bands with Josh before. He said Josh was totally obsessed with Spacemen 3 and kept trying to persuade my mate to get into them. I interviewed him one time (as documented in Erik Morse's book) and he talked about gigs with Spacemen 3.

Once Loop became popular Josh used to say such idiotic things as 'we single handedly started the wah-wah revival'. Last time I saw him was at a record fair in about 1996 and he slagged off the huge Spacemen 3 section I had on display and went on about he'd always hated them and thought they were crap, saying he would give Pete Kember a pasting if he ever met him again. Ironically Josh showed up at a Spectrum gig in New Cross a few months later as he was into one of the support bands (might have been Tortoise), and he and Pete sat in the dressing room without any sort of pasting activity even hinted at. Josh certainly had a reputation as a big mouth...

[ArcLight]

I never really payed that much attention to the start dates at the time, not sure I was even aware of inter-band tension either as I always thought they came from Catford, ahh to be a naive 17 year olds again, apologies. Can't get my yousendit account working but here's a taster of the past. As for nostalgia good ol' Snub TV eh.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQvkNaYv ... re=related

[NarcoTerrorist]

I'll give another "thumb's up" to Heaven's End. Recently someone recommended the Black Angels to me. After being utterly underwhelmed by them, I had a sudden urge to hear Loop in order to hear "this sort of thing" done properly and Heaven's End was what I could find in my iTunes library. What a great, droning, buzzing bit of sonic sprawl. Derivative? Sure. But so what? I really love it for that pure, churning space-rock sound, the "blanga" factor that Hawkwind fans sometimes speak of (minus the "bloop-bloop" factor!)

I don't own Gilded Eternity currently, but I remember it having a bit more of a Floydian "Set the Controls" kind of vibe.

[runcible]

Now, whither Thee Hypnotics?

Oh yes. Soul Trader is a devastating EP - that track and Earth Blues are monstrous.

Can't see much Floyd in A Gilded Eternity - it's an uncompromising and brutally heavy record for the most part.

[sunray]

Nick is right when he says Loop could be incredible live - most of the gigs I saw were fantastic, including the one with Bruce Gilbert. But I think he's completely wrong in terms of some of the official albums. The debut, 'Heaven's End' is fantastic - a reverb/buzzed up fuzzy monster that veers from out-and-out guitar (Straight To Your Heart) to laid back psych (Carry Me). I still love it. Even better though is the one someone's linked to here 'The World In Your Eyes'. This is a compilation of the 1st 2 EPs with a couple of extra tracks. It is utterly magnificent - an incredible double header - and it still sounds brilliant 20 years later. It features 'Burning World' which rates as one of the most brilliant shimmery guitar tracks I have ever heard (seriously) and still marvel at today. That was one of the ultimate tracks to lie on the floor and listen to while fucked up. Also included is the 2nd single 'Spinning' - also completely amazing and a real stomper. The rest is pretty excellent - 'Head On' is great, 'I'll Take You There' (so Spacemen 3 it's untrue!) also, and 'Deep Hit' which just warbles long in a deliciously monotonous manner. Seriously Nick - you don't like these songs? Listen again!

Gotta agree with everything Runcible says here, Heavens End & The World in Your Eyes are fantastic. I think Deep Hit was always my favourite, every time i heard it i just wanted to hit the psychedelics! I do like Fade Out but found A Gilded Eternity to be the worst album of theirs by a long way. WolfFlow is definitely worth picking up too. Also agree about the singles, Collision just hits the spot everytime.
Managed to catch them live in 1990 and really enjoyed it. They had the most minimal,yet very effective, lightshow i've ever seen; just one red light that swirled round & round!
There has been talk for a while now of the albums being remastered & released with bonus material, God knows when it'll happen though.
Would also agree with Is' suggestion to check out The Hair & Skin Trading Co's first 2 albums, they were pretty decent records and a good live band too.

[Shinesalight]

Ha - I saw the man in the Loop shirt, too, and I'd wondered if it was YOU Ads. Obviously not...

No, I was wearing a Warlocks T-shirt. I wonder who the Loop fan was then?!

[nickh]

I knew I would be in for a bit of a (gentle) kicking on this one and it made me smile to read some of these posts.

Yep, I will admit that The Burning World is genius, that bass line can stick in my head for hours. Loop also turned me onto Can and the Pop Group with their covers of Mother Sky and Thief of Fire (cheers chaps).

I also realise I have contradicted myself by saying Loop were a fucking great live band and then saying I wouldn’t buy a ticket to go see them if they reform, might have to have a little rethink on that one.

But I’m afraid the studio albums still don’t do it for me! (anymore)

[repeater]

I love LOOP, think they're hugely underrated and overlooked. The Spacemen 3 comparison is inevitable I guess - especially given the historical circumstances - but ultimately I think the differences were crucial. The Spacemen to me always felt like they were grounded in the blues, some kind of earthy sensibility if that makes sense - whereas Loop had a very cold, sharp, spacey sound. They could never write a song like "Amen", just like you'd never hear Spacemen 3 get anywhere near the detached creepiness of something like "Afterglow". Personally I think the first two albums are slightly marred by pretty tasteless 80s production, my favorites are "World In Your Eyes" and "Gilded Eternity", the latter is just so incredibly hard hitting and still sounds fresh today.

Anyway, this whole reunion thing I presume was just a joke? I was too young to see them the first time around.

[spzretent]

i saw them on their first(only?) US tour. Detroit was the first show. One of their guitarists bailed before the tour and they came over anyway and were really good. Loud and heavy as I recall.

[repeater]

Joke?

If so, I assure you that I'm posting in good faith - people are checking it out as we speak; I was so excited I had to share it with the group!

Then this is great and slightly bizarre news!