NME C96 CD

Mogwai had barely existed (this was pre-Young Team), but they still had so many better songs out there that would’ve fit much better. “Tuner” and “Summer” both immediately come to mind.

I haven't heard this CD in a number of years so I'll bring out out again in the next few days. The reserved brother of MM's Fiddling While Romo Burns.

I dug the Comet Gain and Quickspace at the time but I'm not at all surprised to find I agree with the OP on the best track here. (At least at first glance -- I shall peruse the playlist...)

86 was more diverse than it was remembered for. Had a few shambling bands pursuing a more beefheart inspired or whatever direction and a few other things but I think became shorthand for janglepop. So described more than one scene possibly or maybe the scene wasn't as siloed as it became.
Looks like James Brown the fanzine/NME writer has a book out or forthcoming so he's being interviewed on a few podcasts this week. Heard him on the Hanley bros one saying he and other fanzine writers had been covering a lot of the same bands a couple of years earlier. & I'm more interested in the ones that were tied into the same network as the Membranes were.
I don't remember there being as much hype of a scene created by the C96 set but I was already living abroad. Not sure when NME turned bad and then folded either is that a few years later? Didn't it become really glossy and a different layout
I think there was a C81 too wasn't there

how come I don't know any of this music? is it because it's not very good or does it just sort of fall in between what for whatever reasons turned out to be more memorable/marketable phases of indie?

was there a C06? that would be around the time I started noticing the nme as where bands I didn't like kept coming from. which was several years after the strokes who I understand changed everything. I wonder if the shift from whatever this was to whatever that was felt gradual or sudden at the time?

The thing is that this was not a scene, and the bands don't sound anything like one-another, it's a moreorless random selection of UK indie acts that were new (or new-ish) in 1996. I would say lots of the music is good / very good, not that it's very well-represented here. I have a box of ~200 singles I bought at the time, still think many are superb.

Should note that almost none of these bands would have the support of the NME in '96-'98, in particular Tiger were one of a few groups who were continually slagged off, one of the reasons I stopped buying the paper.

Mr Snrub - Yes, imagine Mogwai had meant for Summer or Helicon to be on here, at this point I already had their Tuner/Lower 7" (bought due to the Eska connection, wonder if anyone has ever mentioned Eska on ILM) - certain that this track was never meant for release.

I assume cd was still the prevalent medium in 06 , streaming a bit later. Probabaly easier to organise a streamed unit, though presumably still has similar rights to be cleared etc for an organised thing for mass release?
& when did the paper go mainly online? is that early 00ies? Am I remembering right that it became a free giveaway from news stands around cities for a while after that?

it became a free magazine in 2015, and they stopped printing the magazine in 2018, so quite a bit later than early 2000s, don't blame you if you blocked out the Conor McNicholas era though.

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