loop

Z

zhao

there are no accidents
what a great fucking band!!! it's a crime that I have never heard them until this week. (and another that all their records are out of print)

it's a PERFECT sound - minimalist motorik drenched in dissonant feedback, judicious use of power chords, like Spacemen 3 meets Neu! and Wire with doses of Suicide and a touch of J+M Chain.

think I'll upload all 4 albums onto my bwog...
 
Last edited:
M

mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
yeah, Loop were great, as were Main, Hampson's later band, check out their first album too if you see it around. Both Loop and Main were also fantastic live, which needs stating somewhere.
Main drifted into texture after that, haven't kept up with what Hampson's doing, probably writing on Dissensus somewhere...
 
B

BrokenFist

Crackin Skulls
I heard them cover a Godflesh song on a split the two bands did a while back and didn't think much of it. But I've been listening to their album, Heaven's End, religiously and I think it's absolutely lovely. It may just be the perfect album to fall asleep to.

Spacemen 3, on the other hand, I've never really looked into. I'm not sure why seeing as they could potentially be a band I'll enjoy immensely.
 
bruno

bruno

est malade
i wouldn't say great. loop were a very singular but also very irregular band, it's hit and miss. i love the hypnotic sound, the tunnel vocals, the album art, and they hinted at greatness on heaven's end, on things like collision, etc. but i feel they never delivered one solid, brilliant statement. unlike, say, spacemen 3, who have the perfect prescription. unfortunately, because the elements for greatness were there.
 
D

Don Rosco

Well-known member
I'm a massive Spacemen 3 fan, but i've never really chased up any loop. Funnily enough, I was reading a couple of old interviews with Sonic Boom where he disses them bad just last week. I should give em a whirl.

@BrokenFist - you really should check out Spacemen 3. I'd be curious to know how they sound to fresh ears. I really love listening to their stuff, but i'm unsure as to how much of the pleasure is just nostalgia kicking in. I fucking love them, though. I'm RAGING I never caught them live.

Check out Suicide live.
 
O

OldRottenhat

Active member
One of the first live bands I ever saw, when I didn't know how good I was getting it (come on - MBV twice, Sonic Youth by Nirvana, Fugazi ca. Repeater, Shamen supporting Happy Mondays, Dinosaur Jr., Young Gods etc etc) and I barely remember it, but someone else who was there tells me they commenced the gig by walking on stage, picked up their guitars and then stood in front of the amps until the feedback reached earbleeding levels. They were touring A Gilded Eternity then, and I would readily stack that album against anything that Spacemen 3 came up with. Fundamentally, you can take any Spacemen 3 album and track by track pick out where they nicked this sound and that lick from. Not only are they record collector rock, but these days you own all the records they stole from. If you can say that about Loop, I still don't own those records. I don't think they're readily reducible to the sum of their influences...they mainly sound like drugs.

Saw Dead Meadow play last night (supporting Blue Cheer, no less, who were terrible) and realised that short of Sunn O))), I hadn't seen a band recently that went in for dry ice, back lighting, strobes and the whole apparatus that was part and parcel of any gig for a band like Loop. Who now is out there making acid superfluous? Whose goal is to induce total sensory derangement through sonic attack? What happened to that whole volume aesthetic? What happened to leaving a gig barely able to stand, uncertain as to what the hell you'd just heard? That was Loop. They were an incredible band and it is ridiculous that their albums are out of print.

Robert Hampson had been a roadie for Spacemen 3 so there was bad blood about who precisely was stealing whose thunder - you can probably disregard anything Sonic Boom has to say on the matter as being strictly personal. There was a brief period in between Loop and Main where Hampson joined Godflesh - haven't heard anything from that time, but I think it's indicative. Loop were closer to Skullflower - Skullfower even lifted the same Apocalypse Now sample on Obsidian Shaking Codex - Spacemen 3 were closer to Yo La Tengo.

Though it might not be apparent, I actually love Spacemen 3 deeply.

The support band at the Loop gig was a very young Therapy?, back when they really wanted to be Northern Ireland's answer to the Jesus Lizard. Believe it or not, they were actually pretty good back then...James Joyce is fucking my sister, indeed.
 
M

mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
OldRottenhat said:
One of the first live bands I ever saw, when I didn't know how good I was getting it (come on - MBV twice, Sonic Youth by Nirvana, Fugazi ca. Repeater, Shamen supporting Happy Mondays, Dinosaur Jr., Young Gods etc etc) and I barely remember it, but someone else who was there tells me they commenced the gig by walking on stage, picked up their guitars and then stood in front of the amps until the feedback reached earbleeding levels. They were touring A Gilded Eternity then, and I would readily stack that album against anything that Spacemen 3 came up with. Fundamentally, you can take any Spacemen 3 album and track by track pick out where they nicked this sound and that lick from. Not only are they record collector rock, but these days you own all the records they stole from. If you can say that about Loop, I still don't own those records. I don't think they're readily reducible to the sum of their influences...they mainly sound like drugs.

Saw Dead Meadow play last night (supporting Blue Cheer, no less, who were terrible) and realised that short of Sunn O))), I hadn't seen a band recently that went in for dry ice, back lighting, strobes and the whole apparatus that was part and parcel of any gig for a band like Loop. Who now is out there making acid superfluous? Whose goal is to induce total sensory derangement through sonic attack? What happened to that whole volume aesthetic? What happened to leaving a gig barely able to stand, uncertain as to what the hell you'd just heard? That was Loop. They were an incredible band and it is ridiculous that their albums are out of print.

Robert Hampson had been a roadie for Spacemen 3 so there was bad blood about who precisely was stealing whose thunder - you can probably disregard anything Sonic Boom has to say on the matter as being strictly personal. There was a brief period in between Loop and Main where Hampson joined Godflesh - haven't heard anything from that time, but I think it's indicative. Loop were closer to Skullflower - Skullfower even lifted the same Apocalypse Now sample on Obsidian Shaking Codex - Spacemen 3 were closer to Yo La Tengo.

Though it might not be apparent, I actually love Spacemen 3 deeply.

The support band at the Loop gig was a very young Therapy?, back when they really wanted to be Northern Ireland's answer to the Jesus Lizard. Believe it or not, they were actually pretty good back then...James Joyce is fucking my sister, indeed.
Click to expand...


Thanks for writing that. I agree with you entirely, pretty much every word. I don't know where Loop went, but their later albums, post-acid. I dunno, they're so cold, so cold.
 
B

Buick6

too punk to drunk
I thought LOPP were the shit until I heard Spacemen3, and then LOOP went from THE shit to just shit..

I got Heaven's End, I haven't listened to it for about 18 years! Maybe I should pull it out. I also got that first MAIN album with the neat packaging that ripped off Faust. i hocked it, it was really, really boring..Even that E.A.R stuff is terrible and that brought together Loop/S3 AND MBV, in fact E.A.R in many ways way the final nail in the coffin for 'dreampop', well to my ears anyway...
 
D

D84

Well-known member
OldRottenhat said:
Who now is out there making acid superfluous? Whose goal is to induce total sensory derangement through sonic attack? What happened to that whole volume aesthetic? What happened to leaving a gig barely able to stand, uncertain as to what the hell you'd just heard?
Click to expand...

A question I've been asking myself lately too...

And even though I like a lot of metal (& I'm keen to check out Boris) I don't think the effect is quite the same as the bands you mentioned.

There was a brief period in between Loop and Main where Hampson joined Godflesh - haven't heard anything from that time, but I think it's indicative.
Click to expand...

Yeah I've got that one. It's called Pure and it's one of my favourite Godflesh albums.

I quite like the first Main CD - a bit dry but a good listen. I've got a Robert Hampson interview from around that time where he said that he thought ravers were a bunch of zombies or words to that effect... Oh well... what I've got of his music is pretty good nonetheless.

I haven't heard Spacemen 3 (I probably should) but the E.A.R. EP I've got is ok...
 
J

jwd

Well-known member
I recently realised that much as I was a complete Sp*3 nerd in my late teens, I enjoy Loop much more these days. They were so monolithic. A Gilded Eternity is their peak - one of the greatest rock records. Yeah it was monomaniacal, but in the best possible way, and no other record *sounds* like that one...

...Loop did heavy better, but I do think Spacemen 3 trounced them in their quieter moments (and perhaps I'm the only person who thinks Recurring and Playing With Fire are Sp*3's greatest.)

Main's Motion Pool and Hz series are both well worth hearing.
 
M

mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
Who now is out there making acid superfluous?


I heard good things about Serena Maneesh live, on record it sounds like Jonestown Massacre-lite though. Apparently Growing are very good as well, though yet to experience them. Think they're kinda sunn vs spacemen. For the record, I lost about two years of my life to the Spacemen 3, anyone who hasn't heard them before should approach with caution, they are aural heroin.
:)
 
IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
Loop did a version of Mother Sky that was so similar to the original it seemed completely pointless - I've never understood covers like that.
 
D

dHarry

Well-known member
I know nothing about Hawkwind, but recently heard "You Shouldn't Do That", which seems to pre-empt the entire Loop/S3 motorik-distorted-fuzztoned-Stooges-Neu-Can thing. Are they long overdue for re-appraisal?
 
O

OldRottenhat

Active member
dHarry said:
I know nothing about Hawkwind, but recently heard "You Shouldn't Do That", which seems to pre-empt the entire Loop/S3 motorik-distorted-fuzztoned-Stooges-Neu-Can thing. Are they long overdue for re-appraisal?
Click to expand...

Only if you don't already believe that Space Ritual is the best live album ever released bar none. It amazes me that you can still meet people who profess to love krautrock (especially the heavier end thereof) but will dismiss Hawkwind out of hand. Then again, there are people who think Acid Mothers Temple are the epitome of cool but somehow fail to clock their substantial resemblance to Gong. Anyhow, you can't go wrong with early Hawkwind: In Search Of Space (which features "You Shouldn't Do That" and Dave Anderson of Amon Duul II on bass), Doremi Fasol Latido, Space Ritual , Hall Of The Mountain Grill (all three with the classic lineup with Lemmy on bass) are all terrific and easy to find cheap, Warriors At The Edge Of Time is also great but inexplicably OOP and The 1999 Party is another live album from 1974 which suffers only by comparison with Space Ritual - monolithic riff after monolithic riff hammered to infinity.

And lets not even get started on the subject of Circle....
 
IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
"I know nothing about Hawkwind, but recently heard "You Shouldn't Do That", which seems to pre-empt the entire Loop/S3 motorik-distorted-fuzztoned-Stooges-Neu-Can thing. Are they long overdue for re-appraisal?"
Click to expand...
I think that "Shouldn't Do That" is a tune, likewise "Masters of the Universe" (if you ignore the vocal) that's also on the "In Search of Space" album. Their sound is definitely not as good as Neu! but it's kind of proto-motorik and Dave Brock (or one of the guys from Hawkwind anyway) wrote the sleeve notes for the first Neu lp.
When I bought In Search of Space from a shop in London I said in surprise to the guy behind the counter that Hawkwind had done some really good stuff - he replied "yes, but you must be careful not to get sucked in" - advice that I consider quite worthwhile.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top