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Primal Scream – Screamadelica (1991)

In the early nineties the indie landscape was represented by two pretty distinct movements. Stateside grunge was gaining speed and about to change music forever with Nirvana’s Nevermind. In the UK the mop-tops were infusing nu-wave and mod with dance grooves. Bands like the Happy Mondays, The Charlatans and Suede were dominating the indie charts. Appearances and earlier albums suggested that Primal Scream were comfortably embedded in that scene and whilst they had a propensity for jangly guitars and Stones-ey blues, there were no obvious clues that they had a paradigm-shifting masterpiece in them. Released during the latter part of 1991 Screamadelica was exactly that. It single-handedly redefined the sonic landscape of indie rock and its influence can still be felt almost two decades after its release. Importantly, unlike Nevermind which published a new sonic blueprint for alternative and indie rock, it borrowed musical elements from a wide spectrum of popular music and showed that indie rock could be much more than jangly guitars and torn denims. It married drug culture, deep house, techno and dub to more traditional stoned blues, acid-fried psychedelia and pop music. Producer Andrew Weatherall was instrumental in successfully coalescing the disparate elements into what remains the most exciting and convincing audio metaphor for an e-induced drug trip in recent memory. Screamadelica was to nineties drug-culture what Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart Club Band was to the sixties, and despite the fact that it never bridged the commercial divide like that epochal Beatles album it remains no less essential to the modern listener.

Key Track: Higher than the sun

Further Listening: The Psychedelic Sound of the 13th Floor Elevators, The Orb’s Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld and Tarot Sport

Why should I buy it? Quite simply breathtaking in it’s sheer scope and execution. The perfect distillation of nineties drug-culture regardless of whether you partook or not. The perfect bedfellow to Trainspotting.

Buy it: Kalahari or Amazon