VOLUME THREE (1992)

The first in a series of posts celebrating the pioneering FreeEP format, the Volume CD magazine - a CD with a 192 page booklet complete with interviews and facts about the artists contained on the CD. A haven for rare tracks, 17 Volumes were issued in total plus a wealth of spin offs. As well as some of the biggest names in indie contributing tracks and remixes to the format, the magazine also celebrated new and upcoming acts, some of which really did come up and others disappeared as we shall see...

We kick of with Volume Three.

1. I Feel Insane (Live) - Daisy Chainsaw

Breaking through at the beginning of 1992 with the Lovesick Pleasure EP, featuring the pop thrash of Love Your Money, Daisy Chainsaw's profile soon waned. Thanks to coverage on The Chart Show the EP hit #26 but follow up singles and album, Eleventeen fared less well. Famed for her manic stage appearances singer Katy Jane Gartside quit the band in 1993 and disappeared for  6 years until she re-emerged with Queen Adreena. I Feel Insane is featured on Daisy Chainsaw's sole album, this live version exclusive to Volume.

2. Innocent X (Remix) - Therapy?

Originally featured on Therapy?'s debut (mini) album. Babyteeth, this remix remained exclusive to this release for three years. In 1995, at the height of the band's commercial success, Volume released an EP of their own compilation highlights  and chose this as the lead track along with a remix of Orbital's Belfast. The EP hit #53 in the charts making it Volume's only chart appearance.

3. Daughters Of Darkness - Depth Charge

DJ Jonathan Saul Kane, under the names Depth Charge and Octagon Man, has released a wealth of 12" singles influencing a generation of electro and trip hop artists along the way. Credited  with pioneering the big beat and trip-hop movements with his dark sample based tracks, Kane released his first 12", the eponymous Depth Charge in 1989. This track was exclusive to this release until inclusion on his 1994 compilation Nine Deadly Venoms.

4. California Uber Alles - The Disposable Heroes Of Hiphoprisy

Before forming Spearhead in 1994, Michael Franti fronted DHoH specialising in socially aware, politically charged rap. The band's one and only album, the classic Hypocrisy Is The Greatest Luxury hit #40 in the UK featuring the single Television Is The Drug Of The Nation which reached #43. The album also featured this cover of the notorious Dead Kennedys track updated to mention then current Governor of California, Pete Wilson.

5. Cloud Shine - Levitation

Exclusive 2 minute track from this progressive psychedelic band fronted by the eccentric Terry Bickers, ex-House Of Love. The band released a number of singles, EPs and a chart album (Need For Not - #45) between 1991 and 1994 and were plagued by touring troubles, kicked off support slots by both Transvision Vamp and The Fall allegedly for their excessive stage demands. Bickers quit in 1993and the band stumbled on with little impact until their demise the following year.

6. Over Rising (Instrumental) - The Charlatans

A huge rarity, this is the only place you can legitimately find this track so it's a must for all Charlatans collectors. In between their debut album, the #1 Some Friendly and the less successful but underrated follow-up Between 10th & 11th, the band released two singles in 1991. The original version of this track, Over Rising, was the first and hit a respectable #15 to good reviews. The second single, Me In Time, is perhaps the Charlatans' least known and least favourite of their three-dozen singles and has never been reissued on any official album or compilation despite it being the first to feature long term guitarist Mark Collins. The track's lowly #28 placing signalled the beginning of an early sales lull for the band - however, they'd steadily turn it round....

7. Jesus Timeshare Experience - Psychotropic Vibration

Another exclusive - and this CD contains the full Psychotropic Vibration discography in one fell swoop, the band releasing this track and nothing else. It was formed by singer/guitarist Neil Parfitt who originally formed The Perfect Disaster and released four albums between 1985 and 1991. Before forming PV, Parfitt worked with both halves of Spacemen 3 and after, formed Oedipussy whose 1995 featured the aforementioned Terry Bickers (see below)

8. Safari (Remix) - The Breeders

We all know about Kim Deal, her sister Kelley and Tanya Donnelly but what of other Breeder Josephine Wiggs? She was also in The Perfect Disaster with Neil Parfitt and it was that band supporting Pixies that brought Jo to Deal's attention. Although Wiggs wasn't a member of The Breeders' late 2000s incarnation, she has played with the band on several occasions. Back to Safari, this was the title track from their 1992 EP which hit #69 in April 1992.

9. Let's Sail Away - Honey Tongue

A short lived band who released one album in 1992, Nude Nudes, which featured this track. Honey Tongue consisted of percussionist Jon Mattock, who has performed with Massive Attack, Spiritualized.....and The Perfect Disater with Josephine Wiggs....who just so happenes to be the other half of Honey Tongue. Anyone sense a theme here?

10. My House (Remix) - Terrorvision

Without a doubt containing no-one from Perfect Disaster within their ranks, Terrorvision still remain Bradford's (and nearby Keighley's) number 1 music export despite, reunion shows every once in a while aside, splitting up as a working band over a decade ago. This is an exclusive remix of the band's debut single from 1992 which preceded their first album, Formaldehyde, in 1993. My House also gave the band their big break when the track was re-released in 1994 hitting #29- complete with their cover version of Men At Work's Down Under. Several Top 30 hits and a certain track about a certain alcoholic drink later, Terrorvision were (kind of) no more. Is it too late to get Tony Wright back on Never Mind The Buzzcocks?

11. Criminal (Remix) - Public Image Ltd

An exclusive remix from a track previously only available on 1991's Point Break soundtrack, this is a genuine collector's item for all Lydon collectors. The early 90s weren't kind to PiL. 1990 saw the release of their Greatest Hits Album only for Lydon and Virgin to come to blows over the tracklisting and the label's alleged decision to stop supply of the record to shops once the initial run had sold out. The album only scraped the Top 20 and the title Greatest Hits...So Far proved to be a misnomer. Only one single, Cruel, and one album, That What Is Not, followed, both missing the Top 40. The band split but Lydon's career carried on regardless via his collaboration with Leftfield, a Sex Pistols reunion, calling the British public "cunts" on live television in the jungle, those butter ads and PiL's eventual reunion in 2009.

12. Sisterfy - Sweet Jesus

B-side to short-lived Rough Trade signings' debut single Honey Loving Honey. Several singles followed until the band morphed into Venus with little success.

13. Belfast/Wasted (Vocal Mix) - Orbital

Eventually released as a single in its own right with Innocent X by Therapy?, this was an exclusive vocal remix of Belfast from Phil and Paul Hartnoll's eponymous debut album with vocals courtesy of regular collaborator Grant Fulton. Orbital scored 2 Top 40 hits in 1992 with the Mutations and Radiccio EPs, the latter featuring the classic Halcyon which would appear in remixed form on their second eponymous album in 1993. A slew of classic albums and epic live performances continued for the next decade until the duo's break-up. The brothers Hartnoll reconvened in 2009 for more live dates and a AA side single featuring Don't Stop Me and The Gun Is Good, the former sampling Buggles' Video Killed The Radio Star. A new album is due in 2012.

14. Go (Subliminal Mix) - Moby

One of batch of remixes to complement the release of Moby's debut UK single, Twin Peaks theme sampling Go. The single initially stalled at #46 in the UK in July 1991 before being reactivated three months later, this time hitting the Top 10. Some commercial success followed over the following five years, Moby scoring 6 UK Top 40 electronic/dance singles. An aggressive punk rock album and his take on the James Bond theme followed (his second Top 10 hit) before his commercial breakthrough in 1999 with the ubiquitous Play album.

15. Find Our Direction (Remix) - Natural Life

Big on the festival circuit in the early 90s, Natural Life, a band that described themselves terrifyingly as a Bohemian rock collective, never broke through into the mainstream despite heavy airplay on radio and TV. Eponymous single, Natural Life got as far as #47 in March 1992 but the also eponymous album failed to make a mark and the band, sorry, collective, went their separate ways. Percussionist Shovell went on to greater success as a member of Mike Pickering's dance collective - M People.

16. Slow Down Speedy - LFO

Warp Records' LFO were one of the pioneers of acid-house, techno and IDM in the late 80s whose own eponymous debut single gatecrashed the Top 20 in 1990. The duo released two albums and a clutch of 12" singles until 1996 when members Gaz Varley and Mark Bell went their separate ways. However, their place in history is assured as one of the most influential techno acts of the last two decades. In 2003, the duo's other half, Mark Bell, resurrected LFO but not before finding time to produce albums for, amongst others, Bjork and Depeche Mode. This track is exclusive to this release.

17. Motorbike (Remix) - Sheep On Drugs

Insane techno from once mildly controversial dance punks. Motorbike became the band's second single in 1992 followed by their debut album, the ironically titled Greatest Hits, which hit #55 in 1993. The album produced two Top 50 singles including From A To H And Back Again which cracked the Top 40. The band's second album ...On Drugs, despite producing another Top 50 single in Let The Good Times Roll tanked and the band knocked it on the head until the inevitable reunion in 2010.

18. Overload (Live) - Interference

A mega rarity for all followers of Tim Simenon - better known as the man behind Bomb The Bass. Interference was - it's that word again - collective founded by Simenon and drummer Keith LeBlanc involving musicians as diverse as Skip McDonald, Bim Sherman and Doug Wimbish to play gigs embracing dance, dub, reggae and jazz. The band played a number of gigs and released on single Global Game in 1994 which featured a remix by Adrian Sherwood. The short-lived project made another appearance in 1998 remixing Simple Minds' classic 1981 hit The American.

NME: RADIO 1 SOUND CITY (1998)

1. Carrot Cake & Wine (Live) - Stereophonics

The only place to find the official audio of this, a live version of the track which originally appeared on the A Thousand Trees single. You can view the performance on the video/DVD Cwmaman Feel The Noize.

2. Kalifornia (Simon's Edit) - Fatboy Slim

Simon being presumably engineer and mixer Simon Thornton, this is an exclusive edit of the 'You've Come A Long Way Baby' album track, chopping off about a minute and a half.

3. Lipstick - Rocket From The Crypt

RFTC went from cult concern to Top 20 chart stars with the infectious On A Rope. Despite releasing the follow up When In Rome (Do The Jerk) as a limited edition picture disc to prove they hadn't fully sold out, they attempted the big time yet again with this pop punk blast. However, the single stalled at #64 and they became cult figures once again. This is an exclusive BBC session recorded for Radio 1's Evening Session on 16th August 1998.

4. Get A Real Tattoo - Six By Seven

Typically sprawling but magnificent 7 minute opus from Nottingham's criminally under-rated space rock group Six By Seven. The fact that this was merely a B side to their For You single shows how good their debut The Things We Make was, and is.

5. Root Cage - Tiger

Tiger's mullets and fuzzy indie sound were strange sight in 1996 but they secured an early following with John Peel and the music press with their debut single Shining In The Wood. Such was the love for them, their second EP Race even made the Top 40. But as soon as they came, they went, their album We Are Puppets thought by the majority as a disappointment. This was taken from their much delayed second album Rosaria which was finally released long after this compilation in May 1999. The band folded soon after.

6. Pull Yourself Together (Didjeridu Mix) - Hefner

A far cry from the Playboy Mansion, Hefner were a indie folk band from East London championed by John Peel. Never a friend of the charts, Pull Yourself Together was one of the band's more well known singles. This remix did the rounds on free CDs - this and another in Germany - and was finally released on Hefner product on their Best Of in 2006.

7. Hush The Warmth - Gorky's Zygotic Mynci

Where fellow countrymen Super Furry Animals became arguably, not just Wales', but the UK's most successful cult band of the 90s and beyond, Gorky's could never escape the trappings of cultdom. But, my God they tried. Seemingly, all their singles hovered around the 41-75 mark without breaking the magic #40 barrier. This is from their album Gorky 5, a #67 smash.

8. Kimberly - Clinic

This was taken from Clinic's single Cement Mixer and later appeared on their self titled rarities compilation before they signed to Mercury and sold about 58 more records...

9. Guacamole - Super Furry Animals

This uptempo blast of a tune was featured on SFA's B side compilation Out Spaced having appeared as an extra track on the If You Don't Want Me To Destroy You single. Not only is it ridiculous that songs of such quality festered as B sides but this was a last minute replacement for The Man Don't Give A Fuck when the infamous Steely Dan sample initilly failed clearance. Madness.

10. Spanner In The Works - Terrorvision

From the album Shaving Peaches which was a huge disappointment sales-wise for the Bradford rockers. They were down and out but were given a temporary and unexpected reprieve by the Mint Royale remix madness that was Tequila. When such an unstoppable juggernaut of a hit couldn't save the album, the writing was on the wall....

11. Harsh Shark - Campag Velocet

We heard from this lot earlier...this was recorded Live At Reading in 98. I actually saw this performance live - which isn't very interesting but probably the most interesting thing about it. The original turned up on the Bon Chic Bon Genre album a year later.

12. I Don't Know What To Say - Mogwai

Completely then-exclusive studio track from post rock masters Mogwai, a big deal at the time. This eventually reappeared on the 2008 reissue of their Young Team album

13. Are Friends Electrik (NME Edit) - Plastikman

Originally a twelve and a half minute techno track on the album Artefakts, and with no edit already existing, NME saw fit to edit it themselves to 7 and a half minutes. Odd, but exclusive and now rare. Nothing to do with Gary Numan, by the way.

14. Circles, Squares And Lines - Symposium

Everybody was on Symposium's side when they appeared in 1996 with a succession of pop punk indie hits. When they beefed up their sound and started to get serious, no-one seemed to care anymore. This is taken from their first album proper On The Outside. Funnily enough, it's their opening mini album One Day At A Time that contains the hits.

15. Be Myself - 3 Colours Red

Alan McGee said that 3 Colours Red were the most exciting band since the Sex Pistols. Anyone who might want to trace the downfall of Creation Records might want to start right there. This was an exclusive trailer for a track which ended up on their 1999 album Revolt.

16. Olympian - Gene

Forever compared to The Smiths, Gene's lush sound wasn't typical of the Britpop crowd of the mid to late 90s. They eventually burnt out and this, the title track of their debut album, remained their signature tune as its appearance here 3 years after its initial release testifies. This is an exclusive version recorded live at the Royal Albert Hall.