We’re hated … and the reason we’re hated is that we’re ‘pretentious’ enough to try for something.
Ian Crause, quoted in Melody Maker, March 5, 1994
The whole is much greater than the sum of its parts … one of the most creative uses of sampling I’ve ever heard. It sounds like the future. I’m still figuring out just how cool they are.
Ben Goldwasser, MGMT quoted in Q Magazine, January 2011
Almost entirely out on their own, out of step with the times, Disco Inferno were widely ignored and underappreciated during their (pre-internet) existence. Remaining largely unknown beyond a small but slowly expanding cult of devotees, they were probably the most ambitious and isolated band of the ’90s. Over the three-year span (1992-95) that this compilation covers, they were also quite simply, jaw-droppingly great – a virtually peerless group mining a steady stream of uncompromising, pioneering recordings. One of the first wave of ‘post-rock’ acts (and perhaps it’s ultimate example), they combined avant-garde aesthetics with a basis in solid pop hooks, credibly depicting suburban alienation and national decay through embittered, intelligent lyrics.
Whilst it’s now almost second nature for a band to incorporate digital technology into their armoury, you’d struggle to find anyone who went anything like as far as DI. In 1992, they took the quantum leap from their modest beginnings to totally rewire themselves and become the most radical, forward-thinking guitar band on the planet, with a revolutionary sample-based approach that was simply years ahead of the curve. Whilst numerous acts were making use of the sampler and MIDI technology, no other band integrated it so thoroughly into the process. DI didn’t simply tack on a dance beat or spice things up with the addition of a few novel sonics or quirky quotations. The technology was hard-wired into the very heart of their music. Veering between the deeply challenging and the downright catchy, they continually attempted to push themselves forwards, resulting in two unrivalled albums and a dazzling collection of EPs that consistently redefined the boundaries.
Track-listed chronologically, this compilation gathers together for the first time all five long-out-of-print EPs which were originally released between 1992–95*, a period bookended by their radical rebooted re-emergence in Autumn 1992 and their depressingly premature demise in Spring 1995. Whilst these tracks were never originally conceived to fit together as a coherent whole, the compilation nevertheless functions perfectly as a sequential overview of the band’s development and the sheer breadth of ideas they explored. Even when comprising just two tracks, these releases were clearly construed as EPs, rather than singles in the established, album-marketing sense. Only one of them (‘It’s A Kid’s World’) was actually taken from an album. Regularly clocking in at between six and eight minutes long, each track received equal billing. There were no below-par b-sides, no dead weight. The release of each EP (on both CD and 12″ vinyl) set down a fresh marker, became the latest in a series of stepping stones leading further out in creative investigation of a set of different angles / approaches. As though functioning as the experimental R&D for the two albums, they didn’t just raise the bar for themselves, but consistently rewrote the ground-rules. They never dwelt on a formula, but continuously strove to push forwards exploring new possibilities.
Regardless of the injustices of history, DI were without doubt a trailblazing, unique, utterly important band. With huge ambition and integrity, they rejected the easy routes and rewards. Setting themselves directly against the stylistic regression and rabble-rousing bluster dominating Britpop and grunge, against the bland facelessness of so much of the dance / electronic scene, DI ought to have been widely championed as an antidote, a vital blast of nonconformist bravery and brilliance. In reality they received very little coverage. Buried away for way too long, their recorded legacy continues to offer revelations to the open-eared and actively inquisitive. Whilst it may have been their curse to have been overlooked throughout and long past their short existence, the chances of some overdue recognition rescuing them from the limbo of obscurity have nonetheless recently risen. In 2004, One Little Indian reissued both Rough Trade albums, targeting in particular the US market, where ‘Technicolour’ had never previously been released (‘Go Pop’ had been licensed to US indie Bar-None back in 1994, but inevitably achieved minimal sales), and where the band had never toured. The notoriously low-marking Pitchfork site’s 9.3/10 review of the ‘Go Pop’ reissue resulted in a swell of activity across internet message boards, and appears to have left a continued wake of interest. Certainly more popular now than they were during their creative peak, you might detect either direct influence or certain similarities in the likes of The Third Eye Foundation, Hood, Epic45, Piano Magic, Deerhunter (particularly offshoot projects, Lotus Plaza and Atlas Sound), Matmos, Animal Collective, Black Dice, The Avalanches, The Books, Battles, and No Age. But no-one has really come close to replicating their awesome output and utterly singular aesthetic. Whilst digital music technology has evolved dramatically, becoming smaller, faster, cheaper, and consequently far more widespread, Disco Inferno’s inspired approach and consequent sound seems unlikely to ever be reproduced without seriously compromising its futurist spirit. Littered as pop history is with unsung heroes and buried brilliance, few bands are so deserving of such recovery as Disco Inferno.
*The original EPs were: Summer’s Last Sound (Cheree, 1992)/ A Rock To Cling To (Rough Trade, 1993)/ The Last Dance (Rough Trade, 1993)/ Second Language (Rough Trade, 1994)/ It’s a Kid’s World (Rough Trade, 1994)
