While no one would ever call them a "singles" band, Loop certainly did put a great deal of great tracks on 7" and 12" singles and such that never made it to their albums, except as bonus tracks on hasty CD reissues. This was originally a single disc compilation from the late 1980s of mostly Heaven’s End era singles and b-sides, but this new reissue adds in everything from the more obscure Eternal album (Fade Out era tracks), as well as a smattering of latter period singles and other unreleased tracks into a three disc compilation that serves as good of an introduction to the band as any.
Reactor
Each disc roughly corresponds with the band’s studio albums. Disc One features the early garage stomp of "16 Dreams" as well as an earlier take of "Head On" that would be more polished and sped up for Heaven’s End. The oddly out of place "Brittle Head Girl" is here as well, which with its synth flourishes and levels of tremolo make it sound like some odd hybrid of early Cure and Spacemen 3. It’s an very different track that resembles a different path the band could have taken, though I would say the more forceful heavy space rock they ended up going with was a much wiser choice.
The heavy hitters on this disc are the two titans of "Burning World" and "Spinning." The former is a slow, morose track of shaky tremolo and funeral drumming that trudges along in a barbiturate haze into worlds where psychedelic drugs aren’t even necessary. The latter is an unabashed blast of tremolo laden '60s guitar rock with just enough of a post-punk edge to make it a creature all its own. Of course it appears here in the "full" version, which appends a longer instrumental outro after an initial fadeout. Both tracks appear in different variations as well: "Spinning (Spun Out)" is an alternate recording that’s just a bit faster and more up-tempo, but feels too immediate, rather than the expansive swirl of the original. The previously unreleased demo of “Burning World” is a rougher take on the track, emphasizing repeated guitar solos and even more buried vocals. It’s a notably different, though not superior, version.
Disc Two is mostly the Eternal/Fade Out era material, and could almost be considered the "covers" album, because more than half of the disc are various covers from tribute albums and singles. Leading out with the strong, reverb covered "Collision" (which appeared in a Peel Session form as well); it is a more polished version of that rock monster that would have been a perfect fit on Fade Out. "Crawling Heart" is a perfect bridge between the two studio albums, as its psych rock rhythm is matched with a distortion laden bassline and cutting guitars. The haunting "Circle Grave" is the strangest piece here, with its hollow guitar ambience and shrill feedback, making it by far one of the most dissonant tracks the band ever recorded, and another demonstration of Robert Hampson’s early infatuations with musique concrete.
The covers here are an eclectic mix: The Pop Group’s "Thief of Fire" gets two runthroughs: the first being all jagged guitar and echo chamber hell vocals while the longer "Motherfucker" alternate mix is more stripped down, allowing the flanged guitars to go off in their own trajectories. Here, Hampson’s more impassioned vocals being the only thing keeping it together. Their cover of Can’s "Mother Sky" unfortunately ditches the original’s in medias res opening, but is still over 10 minutes of sharp mechanical drumming, and alternating restrained and manic guitar riffs. While it lacks the virtuosity of Jaki Liebezeit, it is otherwise a faithful, if somewhat unadventurous take on the classic. It is also the track that made me check out Can as a teenager, so it’s definitely got its charm. Nick Drake’s "Pink Moon" receives a reverent treatment, leaving just acoustic guitar with little effects or processing. Neil Young’s "Cinnamon Girl" also gets a throwback to the more hazy Heaven’s End Technicolor sound with more than a smattering of old school psychedelics.
Disc Three is a bit less diverse, with the front end featuring no less than three mixes of "Arc-Lite." The "Sonar" version is the original one, with its echoing vocals and repetitive guitar riffs being pushed along by a rhythm that doesn’t really lock into where it should be for about half the track. The Daniel Miller mixed "Radar" and "Radiated" versions take different directions, with the former sounding more like an alternate mix, just with different effects and layering on the guitars, while the latter is cut and pasted over a Suicide-like monotone drum line, bringing the buried bass melody to the surface and resembling some of the later period Wire/Wir work. Between all of these is "Sunburst" which is just as beautiful as the more widely released Peel Session version, though I must say I prefer that ones urgency to the studio polished version that appears here.
There are also three tracks from the live Prisma Uber Europa EP, with "Afterglow" and "Got to Get It Over" both appearing as harder edged, muscular takes on the album tracks. The third one, "Burning World" (labeled "Burning Prisma" on the initial issue of this album) draws the already long track out even longer, with a faster pace and a more aggressive guitar line that is just the right level of hypnotic repetition and improvised squall. The closer is the legendary cover of Godflesh’s "Like Rats" from the Clawfist Loopflesh/Fleshloop 7". The sound quality is far and away better than the lo-fi mp3 I had of this track for a few years, but the death metal growl vocals from the original aren’t Hampson’s forte, and thus aren’t quite as effective as Godflesh’s cover of "Straight To Your Heart" (which isn’t included here). It is nice to hear a more psyched out take on this track though, and the pained guitar solo here is a lot different than the metallic squeal of the original.
Again, this compilation is as indispensable of a release as any of the band’s studio albums, but does function well as an overview of the band’s career. While there is not an abundance of unheard material here, the tracks are so strong that hearing them cleaned up and remastered is worth the price of admission alone.
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