Catherine Wheel: Ferment (LP+12", 180g) [FONTANA]

Why you'll love it

This reissue copies the original 1992 Fontana UK edition on 180g vinyl and adds the live 12-inch EP from Bath Moles Club. "Black Metallic" reached No. 9 on Billboard's Modern Rock chart, and Pitchfork ranked Ferment No. 23 among the 50 best shoegaze albums.

This edition

• Bonus live 12" EP
• 180g vinyl
• Replicates the 1992 Fontana UK edition
• Cut at 45 RPM
• Stereo mix

About the album

Catherine Wheel came from Great Yarmouth, a seaside town better known for piers than for wall-of-sound guitar. Rob Dickinson and Brian Futter built that wall anyway, and on their debut they had help from Tim Friese-Greene, the Talk Talk producer, who co-produced with John Lee.

Four songs had already appeared on early independent 12-inch EPs and were recorded again for the album. "Black Metallic" is the centrepiece, seven minutes of slow-building swirl that earned heavy MTV rotation, while "I Want To Touch You," "She's My Friend," "Shallow" and "Salt" balance the haze with big choruses. The bonus EP, cut live at Bath Moles Club on November 6, 1991, catches "Shallow," "I Want To Touch You" and "Salt" with the volume up.

The band moved on to a harder sound with Gil Norton on Chrome, which makes Ferment the most psychedelic record they made. A 2010 reissue added the 30th Century Man EP and both sides of the Balloon single. Paste even recommended it to people who don't like shoegaze, which is a bit like a bakery recommending itself to people on a diet, and it worked.

Also at Kops: more Catherine Wheel on vinyl · browse Alternative

Tracklist

Listen

On Fontana (cat# UMCLP043), a reissue of the 1992 album.