Loop

"Twelves" (Album 3xLP, 2025) !Recommended!

Reactor Records

A very fine compilation of (you guessed it) 12” singles from Croydon's finest. Named after the first ever Velvet Underground recording (an experimental tape loop composition - hence the name). What set them apart from the Shoegazing crowd was a grounding in punk and founder (and only consistent member) Robert Hampson’s thorough knowledge of avant-garde electronics from Can and Neu! to Suicide and Cabaret Voltaire. Essentially, they were a (post?) punk band who played '60s influenced drone-rock, rather than revivalists. They really were phenomenal, both on record and live for pretty much their entire career.

So, what do you get? All six 12” releases compiled over three 33.3.rpm discs, with the songs from each single covering one side of vinyl, with the original front covers and labels, a poster and a print of the front cover artwork. It would have been six 12” singles, but the costs were prohibitive. It’s still not cheap, but if you don’t own the original releases, it’s cheaper than trying to track them down on the internet, and the artwork/ design is, as you would expect, first rate.

16 Dreams (1987): Still a three piece, but pretty much there, just needing that 2nd guitar to give it that extra oomph. The drums are slightly too loud, but it gives it a drive that (again) sets it apart from the Chapterhouses of this world. Head On has a fabulous Stooges style wah-wah freak out, and Burning World is nine and a half minutes of phased trancey gloriousness. I love the sound of feedback in the morning...

Spinning (1987): Originally released over two sides of a 7" (because Television did it with Little Johnny Jewel), a surprisingly light-weight bit of neo-psychedelia with the heavier (and more obviously druggy) Deep Hit and I'll Take You There bringing up the rear.

Collision (1988): They REALLY hit their groove with this one. I think I first saw them (at ULU) around the time of this release and it was pretty much a "Wow" moment. Riffs a-go-go on the title track, experimental meanderings on Crawling Heart, followed by two absolutely astounding versions of The Pop Group's Thief of Fire.

Black Sun (1988): The lead single from the Fade Out LP is a gorgeously dark bit of psyche-punk, with the bass taking the lead position and running with it for the duration. Circle Grave worms its way into your head and crawls around in your mind for five plus minutes. The cover of Can’s Mother Sky is less than vital, but definitely an improvement on the original.

Arc-Light (1988): The final ‘proper’ 45 (they would bow out with the astounding A Gilded Eternity LP in 1990), and all their ducks are in a row - The three mixes of the title track (Sonar, Radar and Radiated), with its repetitive, motorik bass groove; heavy, pounding drums; abrasive, circular riffs; references to the darker side of the '60s (in this case, Vietnam); and the filmic works of Stanley Kubrick (The video was filmed on the East London locations used in Full Metal Jacket) with the bonus of the 7" B-Side mix (Radiated) pointing back to Can and Neu!, and the abstraction of Sunburst pointing forward to Hampson's post-Loop project Main. It's almost the perfect Loop release, lacking only an extended version of Arc-Light (four and a half minutes is relatively short by Loop's standards).

Prisma Uber Europa (1991): Given their propensity for extending and improvising when playing live, I'm surprised there isn't a proper live Loop album. There are bootlegs of course, but this is the closest to an official live release you're going to get. A limited release for US radio stations, it captures them at their peak, around the time of A Gilded Eternity, featuring fabulously gnarly versions of Afterglow, Got To Get It Over (both from A Gilded Eternity) and Burning World (from the first single).

So to sum up – riffs, drones, punk/ post punk attitude, experimental headfuck sonic warfare, druggy trance-inducing interludes, self-effacing vocals, intensity/ aggression, fine attention to detail and feedback. Lots and lots of feedback. The only way this release could be better is if it had been the intended set of 12” singles. 10/10

Nick Hydra (June 2025)