Primal Scream [UK]

Primal Scream’s career could in many ways be read as a microcosm of British indie rock in the ’80s and ’90s. Bobby Gillespie formed the band in the mid-’80s while drumming for noise-pop pioneers the Jesus and Mary Chain. Primal Scream pursued a different kind of indie pop — one that was sweet and jangly, not dark and menacing — and while these early records were quite influential on the C-86 indie scene in the U.K. in the mid-’80s, Gillespie abandoned the sound at the close of the ’80s after being introduced to acid house by Alan McGee, the head of Creation Records. Scream signed with Creation and cut Screamadelica with producers Andrew Weatherall and Hugo Nicholson. Screamadelica’s fusion of indie pop and dance broke down musical boundaries and changed the face of British pop music in the ’90s, helping to make dance and techno acceptable to the rock mainstream. Primal Scream confounded expectations with Give Out But Don’t Give Up, the 1994 sequel to Screamadelica which abandoned dance for classic rock boogie. This abrupt switch in sound established a pattern the band would follow for the rest of their career, where they’d pursue a different direction from a subsequent album, but the twin releases of 1997’s heady dance album Vanishing Point and its experimental successor XTRMNTR pushed the group back into the underground, where they’d concentrate on making art-pop on such albums as 2006’s Riot City Blues and 2013’s More Light.