During the latter half of the 80s a new breed of guitar-orientated bands began to emerge in the UK - armed with an overt pop song craft sensibility, and enamoured with a conflicting post-punk spirit and adoration of the 60s, many of these unlikely acts – all anoraks, Dr Martens and charity shop chic – would go on to become Top 40 regulars and set the tone for music beyond these shores, culminating in ‘The Stone Roses’, an album that defined a generation.

‘Cut Me Deep’ – named for a Jasmine Minks track which captured that spirit – presents a snapshot of that time and place, via essential independent labels such as Creation, Sarah Records and 4AD, and their major backed counterparts in Blanco Y Negro et al, alongside distribution via Rough Trade and other like-minded outlets.

With an electric guitar in hand (no Stratocasters here please), and resplendent in clothes as immaculately and cheaply curated as their record collections, a new generation of British musicians kickstarted what would become the only credible challenge to the increasingly dominant synthesiser pop scene of the late 1980s. Indeed, the entire movement might be understood as a reaction against that, and a return to the aesthetics of The Byrds and the universally adored Velvet Underground.

A must for the curious, and an essential addition for any collectors of our previous titles documenting the ‘80s British guitar pop scene, ‘Cut Me Deep’ chimes with familiar favourites, long lost curios, major hits and minor also rans, all of which share a pop minded commonality.

4CD SET EXPLORING THE INDIE POP SCENE, 1985-1989. COMPILED BY THE TEAM WHO BROUGHT YOU THE CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED ‘SCARED TO GET HAPPY’, ‘TO THE OUTSIDE OF EVERYTHING’, ‘THE SUN SHINES HERE’ AND THE ‘C86’ SERIES.

Tracklist:
DISC ONE
1  Lloyd Cole & The Commotions - Lost Weekend
2  Hurrah! - This Boy
3  Grab Grab The Haddock - Wan But Smiling
4  The Woodentops - It Will Come
5  Fantastic Something - The Night We Flew Out The Window
6  Del Amitri - The King Is Poor
7  The Dentists - I Had An Excellent Dream
8  Happy Mondays - Oasis
9  The Loft - Lonely Street
10  The Jesus & Mary Chain - Taste The Floor
11  Yeah Yeah Noh - The Short-Cut Way To Saturday
12  The Mighty Lemon Drops - Now She's Gone
13  Jamie Wednesday - I Think I'll Throw A Party For Myself
14  The Housemartins - Sheep
15  The Wedding Present - Once More
16  We've Got A Fuzzbox And We're Gonna Use It - Rules And Regulations (EP Version)
17  The Servants - She's Always Hiding (Single Version)
18  The Chesterf!elds - Love Mountain
19  The Beloved - A Hundred Words
20  The June Brides - This Town
21  That Petrol Emotion - Natural Kind Of Joy
22  Mighty Mighty - Everybody Knows The Monkey
23  The Razorcuts - I'll Still Be There
24  Bid - Reach For Your Gun’
25  Anthony Adverse - Eine Symphonie Des Grauens
DISC TWO
1  The Bodines - Heard It All
2  Band Of Holy Joy - Who Snatched The Baby
3  The Wise Acres - So Finally Sweet
4  The Weather Prophets - Naked As The Day You Were Born
5  The Stitched-Back Foot Airman - Some People
6  Shop Assistants - All That Ever Mattered
7  J.C. Brouchard With Biff Bang Pow! - Someone Stole My Wheels
8  Gol Gappas - West 14
9  St. Christopher - Charmelle
10  The Soup Dragons - Head Gone Astray
11  Pop Will Eat Itself - Runaround
12  The Primitives - Stop Killing Me
13  The King Of Luxembourg - A Picture Of Dorian Gray
14  The Brilliant Corners - Brian Rix
15  The Hit Parade - I Get So Sentimental
16  The Wolfhounds - Cruelty
17  The Flatmates - Happy All The Time
18  The Hepburns - The Bath House
19  The House Of Love - Flow
20  The Passmore Sisters - Every Child in Heaven
21  Talulah Gosh - Escalator Over The Hill
22  The Waltones - Closest To
23  Revolving Paint Dream - 7 Seconds
24  A House - Snowball Down
DISC THREE
1  The Sugarcubes - Birthday
2  Edwyn Collins - Don't Shilly Shally
3  The Heart Throbs - Make My Day
4  The Sea Urchins - Summershine
5  The Bachelor Pad - Jack and Julian
6  Mood Six - Flowers And Boxes
7  McCarthy - The Well Of Loneliness
8  The Wonder Stuff – Unbearable (Original Version)
9  Miaow - Break The Code
10  The La's - Endless
11  Yeah Jazz - The Girl The Years Were Kind To
12  One Thousand Violins - If I Were a Bullet (Then For Sure I'd Find A Way To Your Heart)
13  Blow Up - Pool Valley
14  Rosemary's Children - WW1
15  BMX Bandits - Figure 4
16  The Man From Delmonte - Water In My Eyes
17  King Of The Slums - England's Leading Light
18  The Orchids - Give Me Some Peppermint Freedom
19  The Lilac Time - Return To Yesterday (Original Version)
20  The Senseless Things - (All You've Got To Do Is) Stay Together
21  The Vaselines - Molly’s Lips
22  14 Iced Bears - Come Get Me
23  Cud - Under My Hat
24  The Groove Farm – The Big Black Plastic Explosion
DISC FOUR
1  The Jasmine Minks - Cut Me Deep
2  The Darling Buds - It's All Up To You
3  Ambassador 277 - The Pop Up Man
4  The Pooh Sticks - 1-2-3 Red Light
5  Rote Kapelle - San Francisco Again
6  Benny Profane - Rob A Bank
7  The Golden Dawn - My Secret World
8  The Corn Dollies - Map Of The World
9  Inspiral Carpets - Butterfly
10  Bradford - Dodging Around In Cars
11  The Sundays - I Kicked A Boy
12  The Times - Heaven Sent Me An Angel
13  Treebound Story - Rain, Rain, Rain
14  The Popguns - Down On Your Knees
15  Another Sunny Day - What's Happened?
16  The Lightning Seeds - Pure
17  The Stone Roses - Mersey Paradise
18  The Telescopes - Sadness Pale
19  BOB - Convenience
20  The Claim - Wait And See
21  Milltown Brothers - We’ve Got Time
22  The Mock Turtles - The Willow Song
23  How Many Beans Make 5 - Let’s Get This Thing Finished
24  East Village - Back Between Places
25  Pale Saints - She Rides The Waves
26  Lush - Baby Talk