The album also explores a time where Britain last felt optimistic, they say, although it was tempered by disillusion even shortly after New Labour was elected. “We must be near the bottom of it for politics now, though,” says Stanley. Wiggs’s son is heavily into Suede, he adds – he seems to find this strangely funny – “out of nowhere… but what’s strange is we don’t hear it that much. We normally think of teenage bedrooms with loud music coming out - kids these days are always using their headphones. And they can access so much music so easily, which of course we couldn’t, so they have these very intense, private worlds.” They sense that this way of consuming music – being able to access any period, at any time – has also broken down the generation barrier. Wiggs talks about how his daughter came home from school recently, dying to talk to her dad. “The teacher was showing some examples of good basslines in music and he put on the video for [Saint Etienne’s 1990 single] Only Love Can Break Your Heart and there I was in her classroom! The teacher didn’t know!” How did your daughter feel? He answers shyly, but happily. “She said she was proud.” While listening to these reissues during an oppressively gloomy, rain-sodden East Coast springtime, I also re-read Martin Amis' London Fields, a vision of the city as the second millennium drew to a close that's almost Foxbase's inverse: A world of venal yuppies, reprehensible con-men, and lost souls who've long since given up on love. Saint Etienne's heart-on-sleeve protagonists (and audience) were too earnest to conceivably survive a day in such an overwhelmingly beaten-down environment. The sort of "decaying violent reality of the harsh urban etcetera" that Mr. Ewing's essay suggests Saint Et caught shit for "ignoring."

Saint Etienne have frequently fashioned excellent singles out of lessons learned from pop's glittering past. But the real joy of the band is discovering the gems that lurk awkwardly in the shadows on LPs, B-sides and even stranger places." - resist retreat Mercury Music Prize: Short Listed Albums - photographic image" (JPG). Static.guim.co.uk . Retrieved 11 September 2021. Stanley, Rod (2006). "Saint Etienne: Foxbase Alpha". In Dimery, Robert (ed.). 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. Universe Publishing. p. 668. ISBN 978-0-7893-1371-3. I’m Trying to Tell You’s hazy musical style is influenced by something unexpected: YouTube videos made by younger people Stanley became obsessed with a few years ago. “It was this warped, woozy music like chillwave or vaporwave, but it’s mostly samples of 80s American music, set against stills of abandoned shopping malls. There are virtually no records or CDs [of this music] – it’s all on YouTube and it definitely seems outside of the conventional music industry, which I find fascinating.” Other [The Inspirational Choir] – Billy Nasty, Gareth Sweeney, Jeff Barrett, Jon Savage, Martin Kelly

On The Go

In the interviews around the original release of Foxbase Alpha, you all talk about how you made that music to share your tastes. Was that why you worked in record shops? Or was it just to get discounted records? Lechner, Ernesto (21 July 2000). "*** 1/2 Saint Etienne, "Sound of Water," Sub Pop". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035 . Retrieved 13 March 2016. I think C86 is the part of Foxbase Alpha that people ignore, in favour of the clubbing part of it. Because I think, in sensibility, it’s very much an indiepop record, even if it doesn’t sound like one. Especially in its fetishisation of the 60s. What it reminds me of more than any actual record is the collaged covers I used to do for mixtapes with bits from 60s Penguin book covers – the photos and the quotes that are all unrelated but work together.

Saint Etienne: Foxbase Alpha". Q. p.139. Fusing '60s girl group pop with cut-ups and samples, their records reimagined Burt Bacharach as a house producer. Petridis, Alexis (6 November 2009). "Saint Etienne: Fox Base Beta". The Guardian . Retrieved 24 July 2016. This release was sold exclusively through the band's official online store. A small second batch of the "Subbuteo Edition" was sold in August 2013, with and without the 2CD set included. The band's most recent film is I've Been Trying to Tell You (2021), directed by Alasdair McLellan and set to the music of the album of the same name. Unlike their previous films, it was filmed all around England; its premise was memories of teenage years and the late 1990s. [23] Songs in other films and television [ edit ] We're in the City" from the Places to Visit EP is featured in Jamie Babbit's 1999 film But I'm a Cheerleader. Also in 1999, "Wood Cabin" from the Good Humor album appeared in " I Dream of Jeannie Cusamano", the first season finale of The Sopranos. [25]During the early 1990s the group enjoyed extensive coverage in UK music weekly papers NME and Melody Maker and gained a reputation as purveyors of "pure pop" in the period immediately prior to the Brit-Pop explosion. So Tough reached No.7 in the UK Albums Chart. Their most popular singles of this period were " You're in a Bad Way" and " Join Our Club" (which reached No.12 and No.21 in the UK Singles Chart). [13] Richard X (3 August 2009). "Interview With Richard X". HitQuarters. Interviewed by Barry Wheels . Retrieved 3 August 2020. In 2000, they shifted toward a more atmospheric type of electronica with the release of Sound of Water. [16] Clever’s a bit of a problematic word. Does it mean arch? We used to be called ironic all the time. We didn’t like things that suggested we were using reference points because we thought they were funny, rather than because we liked them. I remember in that interview he refused to believe we liked Dazzle Ships by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, which these days is accepted as a great record. That album was a huge influence on us – a massive pop group putting together two or three recognisable pop songs and loads of found sounds. But what’s clever? Where does that come from? One thing that often goes unremarked on in coverage of British indie culture – except in David Cavanagh’s book about Creation – is the importance of Channel 4, which helped repopularise trash culture, the 60s pop art aesthetic, French and continental styles, and mixed it all up with the brashness of contemporary pop culture. So you’d get The Munsters, The Avengers, The Tube and a Godard movie on the same evening. It created a cultural melting point that was really attractive to a certain kind of person.

That’s true. I never felt particularly clever myself. I think what annoyed us was clever and ironic being seen as the same thing. Betty Boo never got called clever, and I could never see any difference between us. Happy 30th Anniversary to Saint Etienne’s Foxbase Alpha, originally released October 14, 1991. (Note: Select sources cite September 16, 1991 as the official release date.) a b c d e Larkin, Colin, ed. (1997). The Virgin Encyclopedia of Popular Music (Conciseed.). Virgin Books. p.1053. ISBN 1-85227-745-9. In addition to the Richard X collaboration on the "This is Tomorrow"/" Method of Modern Love" single, 2009 also saw the limited release of Foxbase Beta, the producer's reworking of the band's debut album Foxbase Alpha. [21] In 1993, the band collaborated with Kylie Minogue for two songs: a cover of "Nothing Can Stop Us" (intended at the time to be her first single release for her new label) and "When Are You Coming Home" (unreleased).Archived copy". Archived from the original on 12 September 2007 . Retrieved 19 August 2007. {{ cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title ( link) The band recorded the theme song and incidental music for Maryoku Yummy, a 2010 children's television show that aired on Tiny Pop and The Hub. Christgau, Robert. "Robert Christgau: CG: Saint Etienne". robertchristgau.com . Retrieved 7 January 2023. This compilation ℗ 2009 Saint Etienne Limited under exclusive license to Universal Music Operations Limited. In 1995, the band co-recorded the Reserection EP with French pop singer Étienne Daho; later, they also worked on his album Eden and single "Le Premier Jour".

The 90s seem like yesterday': Saint Etienne on 30 years as pop auteurs". The Guardian. 5 September 2021 . Retrieved 10 September 2021. We’re recording a brand new album at the moment and will be bringing you news on that very soon. We’re also planning a couple of Christmas bashes so stay tuned via all the usual places!! Still: What about when Saint Etienne was new, maybe even a potential commercial prospect? Listen to this new reissue of the band's debut album, 1991's Foxbase Alpha and you'll hear that, then as now, Saint Etienne made lovely, accessible music. But Foxbase is also far closer to capital-P pop than the band's recent refined blend of exuberance and melancholy. So why didn't I hear Saint Etienne songs like Foxbase's "Nothing Can Stop Us" and "Only Love Can Break Your Heart"-- both Billboard #1s on the dance charts-- burbling from communal boomboxes in eighth grade?

Rate/Catalog

Lynskey, Dorian (17 May 2009). "Pop review: St Etienne, Foxbase Alpha: Deluxe Edition". The Observer . Retrieved 22 February 2017. Propelled by multi-layered dub basslines, house rhythms, piano loops, and pounding drum breaks, the group’s interpolation sounds little like Young’s 1970 single, save for the equally plaintive power of Lambert’s ruminations. While the album version stuns, the various remixes orchestrated by the likes of the late Andrew Weatherall and Masters at Work are worth seeking out as well. Saint Etienne tease 2021 Christmas single, new album for 2022". Retro Pop. 10 September 2021 . Retrieved 29 December 2021. By 1988 – 1989 (the so-called Second Summer of Love), everybody and their dog was dropping E’s and streaming as one to the empty airfields where huge open air all-night ‘secret’ raves were taking place. It was a truly exciting time to be young – and not so young – as there was a palpable sense of optimism at the imminent passing of the decadent and materialistic 1980s which in turn ushered in a new found optimism for the new decade to come. And in many ways it felt like that, with the first signs of the death throes of Thatcherism happening. The much reviled Prime Minister stepped down in 1990 after the Poll Tax Riots – a mass national revolt of defiance partly instigated by the same clubbing community that acid house raves galvanised into action to resist and challenge authority – effectively brought her tenure to an end. Saint Etienne’s story begins in 1966 outside a butcher’s shop in Croydon, south London. Stanley and Wiggs’ mums, both working-class women moving towards more middle-class lives, were queuing up outside, their young sons in pushchairs. They became lifelong friends and Wiggs grew up in awe of Stanley, who was 18 months older than him: “I was always so excited to see him because he was obsessed with music and would play me records all the time. ‘Hooray! We’re going to see Bobby!’”