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at a glance...
Hometown: Glasgow, Scotland
Year Formed: 1985
Personnel:
Bobby Gillespie -vocals
Andrew Innes -guitars
Robert "Throb" Young -guitars
...and lotsa guest types
Bands In The Family:
The Jesus and Mary Chain, The Stone Roses, Dot Allison, Sabres of Paradise, The Orb, Jah Wobble's Invaders of the Heart, PIL, My Bloody Valentine, Paul Weller, Leftfield
Notes:
Primal Scream singer/founder Bobby Gillespie got his start as stand-up drummer for The Jesus and Mary Chain, but split from the Reid brothers when they parted ways with Creation Records, the fledgling label started by Gillespie's friend Alan McGee. Primal Scream began as a jangly, slightly psychedelic guitar group whose ultra-melodic "Velocity Girl" single and subsequent Sonic Flower Groove LP made slight waves on the British indie scene. The band quickly evolved into something heavier on the Stooges/MC5-inspired Primal Scream LP, before Andrew Weatherall remixed the Stax ballad "I'm Losing More Than I'll Ever Have" into "Loaded" and the group's legendary dance-rock cross-pollination period began. Screamadelica inspired dozens of terrible bands to get danceadelic, and the band reacted with the retro-Stones pastiche of Give Out But Don't Give Up in 1994. Despite being an entirely enjoyable Black Crowes album, the record's reviews and escalating drug habits almost killed the band before they resurfaced in experimental mode with the "Trainspotting" and "The Big Man and the Scream Team Meet the Barmy Army Uptown" singles. Reinvigorated and with an inspired Innes at the production wheels, the Scream released the metallic dub rock opus Vanishing Point on an unsuspecting world in 1997 to rave reviews.
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Primal Scream
Screamadelica
Creation, Released 1991
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They say it takes talent, luck, and hard graft to achieve greatness. Screamadelica is proof that you just need the love.
Bobby Gillespie loves music. He's possessed by the sounds of Phil Spector and Lee Perry, the spirit of Lemmy and Lennon and Arthur Lee's Love. He worships in the church of Aretha and exorcises demons last seen possessing Keith Richards and Keith Moon. He can barely play an instrument. His voice has absolutely no range. But Screamadelica's magic is Bobby's. It's all in the love.
Screamadelica is all over the place. "Movin' On Up" and "Damaged" are pure Stones, "Inner Flight" and "Shine Like Stars" Wilsonian symphonies to God, "Higher Than the Sun" and "I'm Coming Down" like nothing on earth. If that's not enough, there's dub reggae and an electrified cover of a 13th Floor Elevators song that'll spin your head. Yet it's all strikingly cohesive, thanks to a miraculous song sequencing seemingly designed to recreate the peaks and valleys of an E trip.
Ah yes, drugs. Bobby didn't conjure this perfect record out of thin air, you know. His years of dedication to the cause were finally rewarded in the late '80s by the acid house revolution. Suddenly a new counterculture, a new sound and a new drug were conspiring to change everything, and Bobby wasn't about to miss his chance. With help from Innes, Throb, and acid visionary Andrew Weatherall (who produced most of Screamadelica), he crafted the defining record of the era. And like all perfect pop moments, Screamadelica is both of its time and timeless.
If you like Primal Scream, check out:
Primal Scream Exterminator
The Stone Roses The Stone Roses
Spirtualized Lazer Guided Melodies
Culture Two Sevens Clash
The Rolling Stones Their Satanic Majesties Request
The Beach Boys Pet Sounds
The Byrds The Notorious Byrd Brothers
-- jf
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Copyright © 1997-2002 Ink Blot Magazine. All rights reserved.
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