What’s the opposite of an inferno? A deep-freeze, I suppose. Listening to the 15 tracks, spanning a not insubstantial 75 minutes and 50 seconds, it’s hard not to wonder if the moniker was intended ironically. Although the 5 EPs represented here were all recorded between 1992 and 1994 predate the chillwave explosion by some clear margin, a number of the tracks represent the very epitome of the style, drawling largely on elements of shoegaze and ambient while pinning the samples and washes of sound to gently pulsating basslines.
What this compilation highlights, though, is the diversity of aspects Disco Inferno approached dream-pop indie from. From the clean, jangly, drum-machine led ‘The Long Dance’ which suggests more than a nod to New Order, to the bleepy electro-ambient hybrid of ‘Lost in Fog’, the evidence is all there to show just how innovative Disco Inferno were, and how much they pushed against the parameters of genre. It also highlights the position of DI as a band of quality producing great music that’s out of step with its time and consequently – not to mention criminally - overlooked, in much the same way The God Machine were.
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Take, for example, the claustrophobic and vaguely Curesque post-punk of ‘A Rock to Cling To’, which pitches and rolls along an insistent guitar motif, and the 9-minute ‘From the Devil to the Deep Blue Sky’. It’s just too tense to chill to, but then it’s not Britpop and it’s not grunge either, and as such it doesn’t belong.
‘D. I .Go Pop’ turns up the heat a fair bit, too, and its warping deluge of sound blasts vaguely reminiscent of MBV – and while it sure as hell ain’t disco, and it’s debatable as to whether or not it’s pop, it is bloody good. Hindsight is indeed a wonderful thing.
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