Loop

 A Gilded Eternity is the third and final album from Loop, it originally came out in January 1990, and was recently reissued as part of the Loop Remasters on 2CD in 2009. The 7 tracks on the album (plus the two tracks on the bonus 7”) are from a band at the absolute peak of their power; there was far more to Loop than bludgeoning riffs and cranking up the gain control. Here was a band that also traded in textures, pace and a no less intoxicated alternative to the saucer-eyed ravers who were ‘avin’ it large to the bands that had always had a dance element to their music. A Gilded Eternity was the moment that Loop slipped loose the anchor and set sail into a universe that was entirely their own.

A Gilded Eternity was and is a collection of hypnotic mantras, tracks that used repetition deliberately and methodically to induce a trance-like state. The epic ‘Be Here Now’ is a typical case: built around a circling, swooping riff, its build-up is both subtle and jarring, coming on with all the stealth and power of an unexpurgated LSD trip.