The Student Playlist

Showcasing the Best New Music, Curating the Classics

Tag 25th anniversary

25 YEARS OLD: Smashing Pumpkins – ‘Gish’

by Ed Biggs Any discussion of Smashing Pumpkins’ career tends to get dominated by their twin masterpieces, Siamese Dream (1993) and Mellon Collie And The Infinite Sadness (1995). Which is fair enough, as these are unquestionably two of the greatest alternative rock records of the nineties, testament to Billy Corgan’s unique vision for heavy rock, but crucial in explaining those albums’ successes is the group’s debut Gish.

CLASSIC ’90s: Massive Attack – ‘Blue Lines’

by Ed Biggs 25 years after its release, it’s difficult to conceive of how different British urban music might sound if it wasn’t for Massive Attack. The Bristol trip-hop collective’s debut album Blue Lines did an enormous amount to broaden the horizons for the fledgling British urban music scene. Chief producer Andy ‘Mushroom’ Vowles adopted the sampling and production culture of American hip-hop and filtered it through the aesthetics of the

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CULT ’90s: The Orb – ‘The Orb’s Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld’

by Ed Biggs Marking pretty much the precise point at which dance music became epic, Alex Paterson turned an on-off DJing gig into a fully-fledged project with The Orb’s first studio album after years of EPs and singles. Sprawling over nearly two hours, The Orb’s Adventures Beyond The Ultraworld certainly doesn’t short change on the promise of its title.

CULT ’90s: Slint – ‘Spiderland’

by Ed Biggs A quarter of a century after the release of Spiderland, the second and final studio album by the short-lived Louisville four-piece Slint, it’s extremely difficult to imagine the state of the modern guitar music scene without it. Released on Corey Rusk’s Chicago-based Touch And Go label, one of the impressive network of indies that made up the 1980s American underground, it sold virtually nothing at the time, and

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CLASSIC ’90s: Happy Mondays – ‘Pills ‘n’ Thrills And Bellyaches’

by Ed Biggs Transforming from awkward underdogs to the biggest indie band in the country in the space of just two years, Happy Mondays’ third LP Pills ‘n’ Thrills and Bellyaches encapsulates the short-lived media obsession with ‘Madchester’ at the start of the ‘90s more than any other album. While it brought the shenanigans of their colourful lead singer Shaun Ryder and maracas player / backup dancer / lucky mascot Bez

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Heavenly Recordings at 25

by Matthew Langham Founded by Jeff Barrett, formerly of Alan McGee’s legendary Creation Records, Heavenly Recordings is now into its 25th year and has seen a number of the UK’s biggest independent artists pass through its door. In light of the celebration, the label has released a celebratory compilation featuring artists from its current roster spread over two discs. This compilation, released on September 18th and entitled Heavenly 25 will feature

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CLASSIC ’90s: Public Enemy – ‘Fear Of A Black Planet’

by Ed Biggs The late eighties saw a couple of seismic events that had same sort of effect on rap that punk had on rock music: those events were N.W.A. and Public Enemy. Just like the brutal basicness of punk’s dictates, these two groups left a profound sonic legacy upon the nascent rap scene that changed it forever. But if N.W.A. were The Sex Pistols in this analogy – with

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