The
psychedelic British dance group Primal Scream began in
1984 as a jangly
guitar-
pop side-project for
Jesus and Mary Chain drummer Bobby Gillespie. After releasing a few
singles and landing a deal with
Creation Records in
1985, Gillespie quit the 'Chain and recruited
guitarists
Andrew Innes and
Robert Young for his new band, which released their full-length
debut,
Sonic Flower Groove, in
1987. Shifting from
Byrd-style pop to
Rolling Stones-influenced
rock for a
1989 eponymous release, the group noticed the growing influence of
techno in British
music and asked
DJ Andrew Weatherall to
remix their track "I'm Losing More Than I'll Ever Have." Completely altering the
style of the single, Weatherall retitled the
track "
Loaded" and released it to
club audiences. It became an
underground hit in the
U.K., prompting the group to continue their collaboration with Weatherall on their
1991 breakthrough album Screamadelica. The
record's unique blend of
acid house,
dub and
rock made waves in Britain, bringing techno dance music into the mainstream.
Strangely, the band departed from their trend-setting sound on their 1993 follow-up Give Out But Don't Give Up, an R&B-influenced hard rock album. I quite like the album, it isn't all great, but there are some classic rock tracks on their, including Rocks, and the song used in a Levis commercial, Jailbird. However, it was lambasted by critics and fans, the group returned to their older sound with a cut on the 1996 Trainspotting soundtrack, and continued their dance-rock fusion experiments on their 1997 album, Vanishing Point, a darker album which marked the debut of ex-Stone Roses bassist Mani with Primal Scream. That album was influenced by the cult movie of the same name and the song Kowalski included samples from the movie. This was the album that drew me to Primal Scream and if you like varied and interesting music, I highly recommend you give it a listen. In between all the psychedelia, there is a straight slow rock song Star and the excellent hard rock number Medication.
They then followed this up with an album of remixes entitled Echo Dek, and their latest album was released in March 2000, named Xtrmntr. I haven't heard it yet (haven't found it here in South Africa yet), so I can't give an impression on it.