Centered around re-recorded versions of four songs from the band's two Wilde Club singles and the seven minute lovelorn "Black Metallic" - which was referred to as the "Like a Hurricane" of the æ90s - the deeply rich Ferment firmly established Catherine Wheel amongst the shoegaze contingent of the early æ90s. The band would proceed to denounce the shoegaze tag, but it was a fitting one, at least with everything they released prior to 1993's harder edged Chrome. Along with bands like {$Lus...   [ read more ]

CD $13.28

The original title, Crank, would have been apt. Producer Gil Norton (Pixies, Echo & the Bunnymen) was brought in to toughen this band's sound and set them apart from the wave of U.K. upstarts who were pounding U.S. shores. That he did. But it's not necessarily progress; Talk Talk's master experimentalist, Tim Friese-Greene, gave Catherine Wheel's brilliant debut, Ferment, a dripping beauty, opulent textures illuminating barely hidden firepower. On even the most angry, aggressive tracks...   [ read more ]

CD $9.48

Since the breakup of Talking Heads, David Byrne's solo work has been notoriously inconsistent. But before that band's dissolution, he made a couple of very fine albums on his own: My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (with Brian Eno) and The Catherine Wheel, a musical score commissioned by Twyla Tharp to accompany her dance project of the same name. Byrne's score is always interesting and frequently brilliant; it draws on the instrumental talents of such session greats as drummer {$Yogi Horto...   [ read more ]

CD $11.38