Trespassers Williams - Vapour Trail (Bella Union, 2003)

Languid version of the Ride shoegaze classic.

Now, let's be honest, it couldn't be better than the original. However, Trespassers William's slow, soft version of the closing track on Ride's perfect debut album is a joy.

The jangling, ringing guitars of the original are replaced with a steady piano line and yearning, male Shoegaze vocals are replaced with a blissed-out female take and heavenly backing vox. Beautiful.

Download Trespassers Williams 'Vapour Trail' (shoegaze mp3, Ride cover, mp3) (Mediafire)

The Boo Radleys - I Will Always Ask You Where You've Been... (Creation, 1993)

Delightful skronk-then-sweet vignette.

Blessed with one of the greatest (and longest) songtitles of all time, this was tucked away on the b-side of 'I Hang Suspended'.

'I Will Always Ask You Where You've Been Even Though I Know The Answer' starts with a soup of skronk and primordial, I've-just-been-listening-to-My-Bloody-Valentine-in-the-bath-with-my-head-under-the-water atmospherics before bursting into a sweet, joyous piece of Martin Carr songwriting.  

Download The Boo Radleys 'I Will Always Ask You Where You've Been Even Though I Know The Answer' (indie, shoegaze, mp3) (Divshare)

The Boo Radleys - Spaniard (Creation mp3, 1992)

Widescreen, Spaghetti Western-meets-Shoegaze doozy.

'Spaniard' is the opening track from The Boo Radleys' 'Everything's Alright Forever' album.

The use of the trumpet right up-front seems to signal their intent to break-free of the noise-pop confines. It succeeds and ushers in one of the best albums of that or any other era whilst paving the way for another one ('Giant Steps').

Download The Boo Radleys 'Spaniard' (indie, Shoegaze mp3, Creation mp3) (Mediafire)

Ride - Chelsea Girl (Demo) (1989)

Sweeter, Buffalo Springfield-meets-The Field Mice version of the Ride classic.

Whither the blizzard of distortion and the maelstrom of drums? And vocals?

This demo version of Ride's 'Chelsea Girl' sounds like The Field Mice have just necked a bag of sherbet and washed it down with two litres of Sunny Delight.

Set against a polite drum machine beat, the song and melodies are present and correct. It's a sun-doused stroll, gentle and more plaintive where the single version is almost desperate.

All in all, very much in thrall to Sarah Records but the bent-strings and layers of guitars and arpeggios - to me, anyway - also suggest a degree of West Coast/Byrds/Buffalo Springfield about them.

Sweet.

Download Ride 'Chelsea Girl (Demo)' (indie Shoegaze mp3) (Mediafire)

The House Of Love 'Shine On (Fuck Version)' (Creation, 1988)

Brittle, stripped-back version of The House Of Love's second-greatest moment.

All the thrilling bombast and shimmering anticipation of the single version is stripped back to just Guy Chadwick and a guitar. Reveals the tension and classicism of the songwriting. As well as that Guy Chadwick was somewhat plummy of intonation.

Originally given away as a flexi at a House Of Love gig, this mp3 is lifted from the wonderfully-titled 'Pensioners On Ecstasy' compilation (1990). Listen carefully and you'll hear that it's actually mastered from the flexi itself. How very Creation Records.

Download The House Of Love 'Shine On (Fuck Version)' (indie alternative rock) (Badongo)

Hypnotone 'Dream Beam (Hypnotone Original Version)' (Creation Records, 1990)

Chunky piece of acid house-indie dance cross-over madness.

Having recently posted Hypnotone's remix of The Lilac Time's 'Dreaming', I found myself returning, drawn to this Hypnotone single from the same era.

'Dream Beam' is pretty much a handy template for Primal Scream to follow on 'Don't Fight It, Feel It'. Love both records, though. Hypnotone carry over some bleep from Sweet Exorcist into their Acid House melange.

Download Hypnotone 'Dream Beam (Hypnotone Original Version)' (Acid House, Indie Dance, mp3) (Divshare)

The Lilac Time 'Grey Skies And Work Things' (Creation Records, 1991)

Gorgeously melancholic, wistful tune from a forgotten masterpiece.

By 1991, Stephen Duffy pretty much was The Lilac Time, another major label deal down and with a new home on Creation Records. Adversity suits him though, because Astronauts is a beautiful, brittle, fairly austere record.

'Dreaming' had seen 'In Iverna Gardens' from the album turned into a post-Acid House, indie dance bliss out. Elsewhere on the album lurked more reflective treats like 'Madresfield' which is a beautiful song about a Malvern village in Winter. A metaphor maybe.

And so to 'Grey Skies And Work Things'. It counts down the working hours till you can be with a lover, forming a companion piece with 'Work For The Weekend' from the 'Paradise Circus' album. A slow, acoustic number until some lovely jazzy, tremelo electric guitar, piano, bass and brushed drums come in towards the end.

Beautiful.

Download The Lilac Time 'Grey Skies And Work Things' (indie folk mp3) (Mediafire)

The Lilac Time 'Dreaming (Hypnowah Mix)' (Creation, 1991)

Blissed-out, bleepy instrumental from the glory days of indie dance.

Stephen Duffy had a few near-misses with fame between 'Kiss Me' hitting the charts in 1985 and co-writing a slew of massive-selling songs with Robbie Williams in 2004 and 2005.

The Lilac Time should have been massive. They gave you melody, lush arrangement, genius songwriting - what's not to like. However, as the 80s turned into the 90s, they found themselves out of their major label deal and on Creation Records. Stephen Duffy was creating the bleak but beautiful masterpiece that was the 'Astronauts' album pretty much as a solo artist.

However, with 'Screamadelica' wind in Creation Records' sails, they thought they could turn the track 'Dreaming' into an indie dance hit. With that goal in mind, bleep masters Hypnotone were tasked with the job. The result was a chunky, indie dancefloor shuffler that got, I believe, to number 41 in the charts. Success narrowly averted once again.

Download The Lilac Time 'Dreaming (Hypnowah Mix)' (CRE104X, indie dance mp3 download) (Box)

Teenage Fanclub 'Interstellar Overdrive (Pink Floyd Cover)' (Creation Records, 1991)

Wild and free cover of the Pink Floyd classic from 1991's rare album, 'The King'.

Classic, psychedelic riff-ology from Pink Floyd rendered by Teenage Fanclub in heads-down, metal mode. 'Interstellar Overdrive' was included on 'The King' limited edition release that marked Teenage Fanclub's album debut for Creation Records.

More akin to the My Bloody Valentine of 'Feed Me With Your Kiss' or Swervedriver than The Byrds and Big Star moves they would become famous for on 'Bandwagonesque' and beyond.

Download Teenage Fanclub 'Interstellar Overdrive (Pink Floyd Cover)' (indie alternative mp3 download, Creation Records mp3) (Mediafire)

Download the whole of Teenage Fanclub 'The King' (indie mp3 download, Creation Records mp3 download) over on archive:live+rare mp3s

The Boo Radleys 'Lazarus (Demo)' (1993)

Fascinating blueprint of the ground-breaking indie/jazz/dub masterpiece.

'Lazarus' in its full "Sun Ra meets the Rockers Uptown with Kevin Shields at the controls" guise is a wonder to behold. It's a breathtaking journey of a song, an explosion of joy from seeds of self-doubt. Trumpets erupting in a chorus that arrives from a tasty broth of dub and noise.

It sounds like a classic studio creation but this demo version reveals that it's nothing of the sort - Boo Radleys songwriter Martin Carr had scoped it all out in his demo. All the parts are there though the vibe is sketchier. You can hear the same mind at work on the previous demo I posted for 'Upon 9th and Fairchild'.

Total genius.

Download The Boo Radleys 'Lazarus (Demo)' (Creation Records, genius, indie mp3 download)

Download the complete 'Giant Steps - The Demos' over at archive:live+rare

Momus 'The Hairstyle Of The Devil (12" Version)' (Creation Records, 1989)

Outsider artist goes to the disco in the company of New Order and the Pet Shop Boys.

Momus has had a long, distinguished career, veering from Old Testament folk singer to Casio keyboard pervert-diarist to electronische balladeer and beyond.

His run of albums on el and Creation in the late 1980s and early 1990s are great, though I have to confess that I haven't kept up to speed with him more recently.

This minor-key indie disco classic managed to break the proper Top 100 and even received airplay on Steve Wright's afternoon show on Radio 1. That doesn't sound like much of an achievement nowadays but at the time it was almost unheard of. It was possibly one of the first Creation Records to do so.

'The Hairstyle Of The Devil' marries the spoken word observationalism of the Pet Shop Boys with the Chic-filtered dark disco style of New Order's 'The Perfect Kiss'. Momus, naturally, makes it more seedy and desperate than either of those bands could/would, this 12" Version unleashing seven minutes of dank magic and ending with some backwards-masked whispering - "Beelzebub's my master..."

Should've been massive. Maybe Cher Lloyd will cover it one day.

Download Momus 'The Hairstyle Of The Devil (12" Version)' (indie, disco, pop, CRE063T, mp3) (Box.net)