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Dec 15, 2015 Various Artists By Austin Trunick

Before Ride and My Bloody Valentine, and before Screamadelica and Oasis, Creation Records began as an outlet for indie scenester Alan McGee—with co-founders and Biff Bang Pow! Bandmates Dick Green and Joe Foster—to put out records by friends and fellow likeminded artists. Artifact: The Dawn of Creation Records is a comprehensive, five-CD box set which collects the singles, B-sides, radio sessions and live cuts from the iconic label’s earliest era, packaged inside a hardcover book full of photos, press clippings, and biographies of the bands found therein.

Not every track is a lost treasure—several of the more forgotten bands found here were forgotten because they just weren’t all that memorable—but there are plenty of gems, from bands such as The Loft, Bodines, and Pastels to Biff Bang Pow! and The Jasmine Minks. (There are also very early cuts from The Jesus and Mary Chain and Primal Scream—though here they sound only nominally like what we’d hear from them a couple years later.) Content-wise, it all feels very down-to-earth and DIY; many tracks bear some resemblance to the psych-ish pop music that was recorded by the label’s namesake ‘60s group, with a lot of pre-C86 tape jangle mixed in and the occasional excursion into the noisier fare which would eventually evolve into shoegaze. Most of it is very catchy, though—it’s easy to understand how these early singles would pique the interest of music fans and turn eyes and ears toward the budding label. A lot of what you hear in Creation’s later, more famous output can be heard her, but in its embryonic form.

Discs one and two focus on the singles, while disc three features archival rarities from the likes of the Mary Chain, Television Personalities, and The Mekons. Disc four is made up of previously-unreleased demos, and five is all live BBC sessions with John Peel and Janice Long. All-in-all, it’s more than 120 tracks of vintage indie, with enough quality material to gloss over the occasional dud song. (Though, you have to appreciate even the lesser tracks being included for comprehensiveness’ sake.) Topping it off in handsome, book-like packaging with copious notes—the band bios are essential, drawing connections such as shared members between all of the bands included herein—make it an easy recommendation for any fan of vintage indie.

As a box set, Creation Artifacts is best appreciated as an indie time capsule; a snapshot of Creation in its early years, from its humble beginnings as a homespun independent label to the moments just before it became that iconic, taste making juggernaut which reshaped a decade’s worth of British pop music. (www.facebook.com/CreationArtifact)

Author rating: 8/10