The Pooh Sticks 'The World Is Turning On' (Zoo, 1993)

Sweet, sugar-rush of indie pop joy.

The Pooh Sticks dealt in a tooth-rotting strain of indie-pop and found their way via C86 and a string of indie labels in the mid-to-late 1980s onto a major label. The results included this slice of frantic, sun-drenched buzzsaw pop.

The echoes can be heard in Teenage Fanclub, TPOBPAH and many more. It's proper songwriting, perfectly structured with great dynamics and a muscular rhythm section that provides an edge to the rush of indie pop vocals.

Beautiful.

Download The Pooh Sticks 'The World Is Turning On' (indie pop, C86, mp3) (Mediafire)

Primal Scream 'Velocity Girl' (NME/Rough Trade, 1986)

The Scream in fey, Byrds-ian jangle mode.

You have to hand it to them - 'Velocity Girl' is 82 seconds of sweet, catchy, direct indie pop beauty.

Reverb-drenched drum simplicity, spiralling melody from the plectrum of Jim Beattie, fey vocals in praise of a girl "with vodka in her veins".

Perfection - though not a perfection that even hinted at the dub-dance-jazz-madness that they would eventually unleash with 'Screamadelica'.

Download Primal Scream 'Velocity Girl' (indie pop, mp3) (Mediafire)

Download the full NME C86 compilation over on the Archive:Live+Rare blog

New Music - Dive 'Corvalis' (Captured Tracks, 2011)

Heavily-delayed guitar and sweet melodies in this US indie-pop supergroup (sort of).

Dive is a Brooklyn side project (Beach Fossils, Smith Westerns) due to be released on the pretty reliable Captured Tracks label - Wild Nothing and Blouse have been reported herein previously.

'Corvalis' is the b-side of the upcoming single and it delivers cascades of tumbling, delayed guitar melodies over what sounds like a stand-up JAMC drumbeat and some oozing flute-y synths. 'Sometimes' is more New Order-y with an icy Factory blast underpinning the woozy, multitracked vocals.

Nice.

Download Dive 'Corvalis' (C86, indiepop, shoegaze, mp3) (via Stereogum)