Biography
Manchester's Magic Roundabout emerged among the numerous groups that arose in the mid-'80s wake of British acts fusing '60s pop melodies with abrasive, lo-fi production methods. The band's scant surviving recordings occupy a space between the Jesus and Mary Chain's raucous sonic assault and the Shop Assistants' delicate vulnerability. While active, the group issued just a single track; Third Man Records later assembled their complete body of work across 7" and LP formats years afterward.
Formed in 1986 under the influence of the Velvet Underground, the members began performing live prior to achieving technical proficiency on their instruments. After assembling an initial set of material, they appeared alongside My Bloody Valentine, the Pastels, Loop, and the Blue Aeroplanes. Their energetic approach and melodic compositions drew the attention of Pulp's Mark Webber, who included the tracks "She's a Waterfall Part 1" and "She's a Waterfall Part 2" on his 1997 cassette compilation Oozing Through the Ozone Layer. Additional songs followed, among them a video for the hook-driven, stop-start number "Sneaky Feelin'," which stood poised as a potential debut single. The band nonetheless disbanded before the decade closed and receded from view to such an extent that neither of the songs released during their existence appeared on later anthologies surveying the period.
Ian Masters of the Pale Saints later acquired the master tapes for two recordings, "Sneaky Feelin'" and "Song for Gerald Langley." Impressed by the material, he forwarded the tapes to Warren Defever, his occasional collaborator in ESP Summer and a mastering engineer at Third Man HQ in Detroit. Upon playback, label principal Dave Buick encountered the tracks and, struck by their impact, opted to issue them as a single while pursuing the remainder of the group's archives. The outcome of this recovery effort is the six-track album Up, which gathers the band's distorted, high-energy rock pieces, introspective folk-tinged fuzz numbers, and an extended experimental cut approaching 20 minutes that echoes Loop's style. Third Man released the collection in September 2021.
Formed in 1986 under the influence of the Velvet Underground, the members began performing live prior to achieving technical proficiency on their instruments. After assembling an initial set of material, they appeared alongside My Bloody Valentine, the Pastels, Loop, and the Blue Aeroplanes. Their energetic approach and melodic compositions drew the attention of Pulp's Mark Webber, who included the tracks "She's a Waterfall Part 1" and "She's a Waterfall Part 2" on his 1997 cassette compilation Oozing Through the Ozone Layer. Additional songs followed, among them a video for the hook-driven, stop-start number "Sneaky Feelin'," which stood poised as a potential debut single. The band nonetheless disbanded before the decade closed and receded from view to such an extent that neither of the songs released during their existence appeared on later anthologies surveying the period.
Ian Masters of the Pale Saints later acquired the master tapes for two recordings, "Sneaky Feelin'" and "Song for Gerald Langley." Impressed by the material, he forwarded the tapes to Warren Defever, his occasional collaborator in ESP Summer and a mastering engineer at Third Man HQ in Detroit. Upon playback, label principal Dave Buick encountered the tracks and, struck by their impact, opted to issue them as a single while pursuing the remainder of the group's archives. The outcome of this recovery effort is the six-track album Up, which gathers the band's distorted, high-energy rock pieces, introspective folk-tinged fuzz numbers, and an extended experimental cut approaching 20 minutes that echoes Loop's style. Third Man released the collection in September 2021.
Albums
Singles
