3CD - Various - C92

3 CD Set - UK Import

The latest in the hugely successful "C" series, riffing on the original "C86" cassette, explores the post-baggy, pre-Britpop indie scene of 1992. 1992 saw the British indie scene unwittingly poised to go overground and global in the wake of the guitar's revival in the early 1990s.

"C92" captures something of a no-man's land moment in time, with the "baggy" scene brushed aside by American grunge and the artists who'd come to define the rest of the decade only beginning to emerge.

From the intensity of shoegaze pioneers Ride and Lush, through to melody-driven 1960s revivalists Inspiral Carpets and The Stairs, in hindsight the year can be seen as a period of healthy transition and expansion which ultimately saw the scene pulled together by the music media under the umbrella term "Britpop".

Established names such as The Charlatans and Boo Radleys glided effortlessly over the landscape re-alignment, whilst soon-to-be household names like Radiohead and The Cranberries took their first tentative steps into a bigger world, enjoying the license to pursue their artistic persuasions with the luxury of major label financial backing. A sea change was clearly coming.