FADE OUT

I was a bit surprised to find Loop on the PA pages. When this came out it reminded us of The Stooges and Jesus & Mary Chain. Two bands that are not very prog I would say... But Loop takes their trip miles beyond the limited horizons of J&MC. Only the sound is reminiscent. In fact, at the end of the 80's, Loop was one of the last indie bands to emerge from the UK that could stir up some emotions in me. Together with Spacemen 3 they made psychedelic space rock for the new age. Spaceman 3 was a bit more diverse and more rock song oriented. Loop was a much more droning affair. I don't know if there is a relation but the first two albums of Monster Magnet do have a strong echo of the sound here.

If you ask me to describe them now I'd say the create an irresistible hypnotic mix of 1969-Stooges, 1970-Can and a bit of 1971-Hawkwind. Heavy on sustained guitars, delay and wahwah pedals.

The interesting thing about this album is that at the time of its release, I didn't know next to nothing about space rock and kraut. I was raised on symphonic prog and I knew just 2 songs from Can and that one from Hawkwind. But thanks to this very album this was soon to change. I started to investigate Can because the original CD issue had an 11 minute cover of Can's Mother Sky. And Hawkwind was soon to follow because of a Brainstorm cover that Monster Magnet did a few years later.

Or how indie can bring you back to the prog dynasty. A really good album but probably of little interest to prog fans.