Pitchfork

Mute Records may have the thinnest indie pop roster this side of Merzbow's personal record collection, which means that whatever you say about their upcoming two-disc history class, Indiepop 1, due October 4th, you can't call it incestuous. Mute carved out a niche for themselves in the 80s on the grown-up side of industrial music, playing host to Fad Gadget, Cabaret Voltaire and the reunited Wire. Though they've since branched out further, twee they ain't. The compilation is a joint release with Rough Trade Shops (which is not the same thing as Rough Trade Records)-- in fact, the compilation conspicuously skips as many seminal Rough Trade artists as it includes. (Among the missing: The Go-Betweens, Young Marble Giants, and, if they count, The Smiths.)

The collection leaps around between the 80s, 90s and last month, giving equal time to crucial selections and baffling ones. Over half the tracks can't currently be found on CD, and some of the ones that can (like Felt's "Penelope Tree" and Beat Happening's "Indian Summer") have the kind of power that motivates reissue campaigns in the first place. This, however, doesn't explain Indiepop 1's inclusion of 2004 bands that have yet to finish making their stabs at immortality, nor of lifelong footnote-fodder like Pop Will Eat Itself. The record is also profoundly UK-centric, as befits a collection supposedly selected by the Rough Trade Shops staff themselves. That's one way to stop record-store clerks from picking holes in the tracklist. But it won't stop us. Join the fun:

Disc One:
01 Primal Scream: "All Fall Down"
02 Modesty Blaise: "Carol Mountain"
03 Popguns: "Waiting For The Winter"
04 The Clouds: "Get Out Of My Dream"
05 Sea Urchins: "Pristine Christine"
06 Jesus And Mary Chain: "You Trip Me Up"
07 Mary Lou Lord: "Some Jingle Jangle Morning (When I'm Straight)"
08 The Monochrome Set: "The Monochrome Set"
09 Felt: "Penelope Tree"
10 Juniper Moon: "El Resto De Mi Vida"
11 Shop Assistants: "Safety Net"
12 V Twin: "Gifted"
13 Jesse Garon & The Desperadoes: "Splashing Along"
14 Television Personalities: "Look Back In Anger"
15 Dressy Bessy: "You Stand Here"
16 The Wedding Present: "Once More"
17 Helen Love: "Beat Him Up"
18 Pop Will Eat Itself: "Black Country Chainstore Massacreee"
19 I, Ludicrous: "Preposterous Tales"
20 Heavenly: "Sort Of Mine"
21 Beat Happening: "Indian Summer"
22 The Groove Farm: "The Best Part Of Being With You"
23 Field Mice: "Landmark"

Disc Two:
01 My Bloody Valentine: "Paint A Rainbow"
02 Love Is All: "Spinning and Scratching"
03 Josef K: "Sorry For Laughing"
04 Talulah Gosh: "Talulah Gosh"
05 Aberfeldy: "Vegetarian Restaurant"
06 The Pooh Sticks: "I Know Someone Who Knows Someone Who Knows Alan McGee Quite Well"
07 This Poison!: "Poised Over The Pause Button"
08 The Magnetic Fields: "100,000 Fireflies"
09 The Vaselines: "Molly's Lips"
10 AR Kane: "When You're Sad"
11 Darling Buds: "Uptight"
12 Pastels: "Truck Train Tractor"
13 Camera Obscura: "Eighties Fan"
14 McCarthy: "Should The Bible Be Banned"
15 Lush: "Hypocrite"
16 June Brides: "Every Conversation"
17 The Velvet Crush: "Walking Out On Love"
18 The Flatmates: "I Could Be In Heaven"
19 Marine Girls: "Honey"
20 Bis: "Icky Pooh Air Raid"
21 Razorcuts: "Sorry To Embarrass You"
22 Eggs: "Government Administrator"
23 Spearmint: "Sweeping The Nation"