‘If I had a band, I’d want it to sound like Loop’
At some point in the late 80s, I said those very words. That the person I said it to sniffed in violent disagreement isn’t important. You can have your Jesus & Mary Chain and your Spacemen 3, I was froot-loops for Loop. Their crushing white-hot minimalist guitar mantras were the perfect pulverizing intersection between La Monte Young, The Stooges and Suicide. They were as intense as Killing Joke or The Pop Group and they took their name from a Velvet Underground rarity. Yes, please!
It wasn’t like there was ever a lot of press about them at the time they were active (late 80s to 1991) and as you can see from the SNUB TV interview clip (below), the group’s reticent leader, Robert Hampson, really didn’t give journalists a whole lot to work with, either. They seemed like a relatively enigmatic band, at least on this side of the pond. I recall reading at the time that they supposedly sat on stools during their sets with their hair in their faces, deep in heavy muso concentration, man.
Robert Hampson and Scott Dowson formed the dark ambient duo Main in 1991, but eventually the name was used for Hampson’s solo material. Loop reformed last year for All Tomorrow’s Parties and will be headlining the Roadburn Festival in The Netherlands in April and the Austin Psych Fest in May. Their albums Heaven’s End and Fade Out come highly recommended.
My favorite Loop number was/is “16 Dreams.” This riff is a motherfucker, is it not?
The aptly titled “Collision” will body check you at the right volume.
“From Centre to Wave”
Live on MTV’s 120 Minutes with “The Nail Will Burn”
“Arc-Lite”
Loop cover Suicide’s “Rocket USA”
Loop cover Can’s “Mother Sky”
SNUB TV interview from 1990