Loop are an English

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band, formed in 1986 by Robert Hampson in

Croydon Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an extensi ...

. The group topped the UK independent charts with their albums ''

Fade Out Fade out, Fade-out or Fadeout may refer to: Technical engineering * Fade-out or fade, a gradual decrease in sound volume * Fade (lighting) or fade-out, a gradual decrease in intensity of a stage lighting source * Dissolve (filmmaking) or fade-o ...

'' (1989) and ''

A Gilded Eternity ''A Gilded Eternity'' is the third studio album by the rock band Loop. Released in 1990 on Situation Two, it was a commercial success, topping the UK Indie Charts (as their previous album ''Fade Out Fade out, Fade-out or Fadeout may refer to: ...

'' (1990). Their dissonant "trance-rock" sound drew on the work of artists like

the Stooges The Stooges, originally billed as the Psychedelic Stooges, also known as Iggy and the Stooges, was an American rock band formed in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1967 by singer Iggy Pop, guitarist Ron Asheton, drummer Scott Asheton, and bassist Dave ...

Suicide Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Mental disorders (including depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, personality disorders, anxiety disorders), physical disorders (such as chronic fatigue syndrome), and s ...

and Can, and helped to resurrect the concept of

space rock Space rock is a music genre characterized by loose and lengthy song structures centered on instrumental textures that typically produce a hypnotic, otherworldly sound. It may feature distorted and reverberation-laden guitars, minimal drummin ...

in the late 1980s. The group split in 1991, with Hampson going on to form the experimental project

Main Main may refer to: Geography * Main River (disambiguation) **Most commonly the Main (river) in Germany * Main, Iran, a village in Fars Province *"Spanish Main", the Caribbean coasts of mainland Spanish territories in the 16th and 17th centuries ...

with guitarist Scott Dawson, and Mackay and Wills forming

The Hair and Skin Trading Company The Hair and Skin Trading Company is a British drone / avant-noise group formed in 1991 by ex- Loop members Neil Mackay (vocals/bass) and John Wills (drums). Joined by Nigel Webb (Guitars) and Richard Johnston on samples (who left as a band memb ...

. In 2013, the 1989–90 line-up of Hampson, Dawson, John Wills, and Neil Mackay briefly reformed for a series of gigs, and the following year Hampson unveiled a new line-up of the band with himself as the sole original member.

Career

Loop were formed in 1986 by Robert Hampson (vocals, guitar), with his then-girlfriend Becky Stewart on drums. Stewart was later replaced by John Wills (

The Servants The Servants were an indie band formed in 1985 in Hayes, Middlesex, England by singer-songwriter David Westlake. The band was the original home of Luke Haines. The band’s '' Small Time'' album was well received on its 2012 release, more th ...

) and Glen Ray, with James Endeacott on guitar.Strong, Martin C.: "The Great Alternative & Indie Discography", 1999, Canongate, Their sound was influenced by

Krautrock Krautrock (also called , German for ) is a broad genre of experimental rock Experimental rock, also called avant-rock, is a subgenre of rock music that pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique or which experiments ...

and No Wave influences and relied heavily on three chord

riff A riff is a repeated chord progression or refrain in music (also known as an ostinato figure in classical music); it is a pattern, or melody, often played by the rhythm section instruments or solo instrument, that forms the basis or acc ...

s. Initially releasing records on Jeff Barrett's Head label, their first release was 1987's "16 Dreams", with debut album ''

Heaven's End ''Heaven's End'' is the debut album by British alternative rock band Loop. It was released in 1987 by Head Records and peaked at #4 in the UK Indie Chart The UK Independent Singles Chart and UK Independent Albums Chart are charts of the best-sel ...

'' following later that year. The band was then signed up by Chapter 22 Records. Loop returned with a more polished sound with the "Collision" single in 1988. A second album ''

'' followed in 1989, reaching No. 51 on the UK album chart. Endeacott left the band in 1988, Scott Dowson joined the following year. They changed labels again to Beggars Banquet subsidiary

Situation Two Situation Two (a.k.a. Situation 2) was a British independent record label founded in 1981 by Peter Kent as an offshoot of the Beggars Banquet label. At the time, Beggars Banquet releases were often distributed by WEA; to appeal to the indie ...

, releasing the "Arc-Lite" single in 1989 and the third and final studio album ''

'' in 1990. The band played at the

Reading Festival The Reading and Leeds Festivals are a pair of annual music festivals that take place in Reading and Leeds in England. The events take place simultaneously on the Friday, Saturday and Sunday of the August bank holiday weekend. The Reading Festiv ...

in 1989. The band split in 1991, with Hampson briefly joining

Godflesh Godflesh are an English industrial metal band from Birmingham. The group formed in 1982 under the title Fall of Because but did not release any complete music until 1988 when Justin Broadrick (guitar, vocals and programming) and G. C. Gre ...

before forming

with Dowson. Hampson's Main project was discontinued in 2006 and while he now releases under his own name in 2010 he announced the return of Main, albeit as a collaborative project with other sound artists. Wills and Mackay went on to form

, which last released in 1995. Wills now performs and records as

Pumajaw Pumajaw are a Scotland-based electronic duo, composed of Scottish singer-songwriter Pinkie Maclure (vocals, synths, samples, concertina) and English musician/producer John Wills (guitar, samples, synths, drum programming). The duo met in London ...

. Loop recorded three

Peel sessions John Robert Parker Ravenscroft (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey (DJ) and radio presenter. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly fr ...

for

John Peel John Robert Parker Ravenscroft (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey (DJ) and radio presenter. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly fr ...

(11 August 1987, 14 June 1988 and 21 January 1990). A collection of these sessions entitled ''Wolf Flow'' was released in 1992. Following the split Loop's official studio albums were re-released on their Reactor label. Some of the

records A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, ...

featured

cover version In popular music, a cover version, cover song, remake, revival, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording by a musician other than the original performer or composer of the song. Originally, it referred to a version of a song release ...

s of

The Pop Group The Pop Group are an English rock band formed in Bristol in 1977 by vocalist Mark Stewart, guitarist John Waddington, bassist Simon Underwood, guitarist/saxophonist Gareth Sager, and drummer Bruce Smith. Their work in the late 1970s crosse ...

and Can tracks. Hampson's MySpace pages referred to friendly pressure to again re-release the Loop albums and these were eventually released in November 2008 on the Reactor label.

Reformation

Loop reformed for 2013 and 2014 activities, as presented by a statement from Robert Hampson. The line-up included the original ''Gilded Eternity'' era members Robert Hampson, John Wills, Neil Mackay and Scott Dowson. In November 2013, the band played their first comeback show and also co-curated the final holiday camp edition of the

All Tomorrow's Parties "All Tomorrow's Parties" is a song by the Velvet Underground and Nico, written by Lou Reed and released on the group's 1967 debut studio album, ''The Velvet Underground & Nico''. Inspiration for the song came from Reed's observation of Andy Warh ...

festival in Camber Sands, England. Wills, wishing to focus on his own musical projects, left the band and was replaced by Wayne Maskell. Loop then played in April 2014 as headliners of the Roadburn Festival, followed by more than 20 dates in the USA, headlining the opening night of Milwaukee Psych Fest 2014 at Cactus Club on 24 April. They concluded this comeback tour with the

Primavera Sound Primavera Sound (commonly referred to as simply Primavera) is an annual music festival held in Parc del Fòrum in Barcelona, Spain that takes place between the end of May and beginning of June. The first edition took place in 2001 in Poble Espanyo ...

festival in Barcelona in May 2014. In November 2014, a new line-up emerged; still led by Hampson (vocal, guitar), the band performed with Hugo Morgan (bass) and Maskell (drums) from The Heads as well as Dan Boyd (guitar). They played at the Garage (London) and in the Netherlands. Their set featured a new song, "Precession". They also announced they would be playing ATP Iceland 2015. In June 2018, the band played as part of Robert Smith's curation of the Meltdown Festival. The first studio album in 31 years, ''Sonancy'', was released on 25 March 2022.

Musical style

Their musical style has been described as

psychedelic rock Psychedelic rock is a rock music Music genre, genre that is inspired, influenced, or representative of psychedelia, psychedelic culture, which is centered on perception-altering hallucinogenic drugs. The music incorporated new electronic sound ...

, drone rock, and

noise rock Noise rock (sometimes called noise punk) is a noise-oriented style of experimental rock that spun off from punk rock in the 1980s. Drawing on movements such as minimalism, industrial music, and New York hardcore, artists indulge in extre ...

Members

Current line-up: * Robert Hampson (

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

s) * Hugo Morgan ( bass) * Dan Boyd (guitar) * Wayne Maskel (drums) Previous members: * Becky Stewart (Bex) (

drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a she ...

s) 1986–87 * Glen Ray (bass) 1986–7 * James Endeacott (guitars) 1987–88 * John Wills (drums) 1987–90, 2013–14 * Neil Mackay (bass) 1987–90, 2013–14 * Scott Dowson (guitars) 1989–90, 2013–14

Discography

Albums

Compilation albums

Singles

References

External links

Official 'Soundheads' websiteRobert Hampson's official website2008 interview with Robert Hampson
*http://thequietus.com/articles/00731-loop *http://thequietus.com/articles/01801-loop-a-guilded-eternity-the-world-in-your-eyes-reissue-album-reviews {{DEFAULTSORT:Loop English space rock musical groups English noise rock groups Musical groups from London Musical groups established in 1986 Musical groups disestablished in 1991 1986 establishments in England Situation Two artists