13.
Campag Velocet – It’s Beyond Our Control
If you are about to diss this choice, then chances are you haven’t heard this record. I lived across the road from Pete Voss between 2000-2004, and for me, this record remains a diary of that period. It’s possibly one of the most unhinged records I’ve ever known, and that is exactly how I like my rock and roll. Veering somewhere between Kevin Shields fronting the Stooges mixed with Chicago house.
Many people will scratch at the surface and completely misinterpret what Campag’s purpose was: they had nothing in common with baggy, and were mistakenly lumped alongside bands who embraced lad culture. In truth, they were a far more complex and dangerous band. Lyrically bleak (‘Stranded by The Reeboks’, ‘Obsessed With Gloom’) and loaded with Voss’s unique syntax, the record peaks with ‘Ain’t No Funki Tangerine’ which still scares the fuck out of me. For me 2005 was the year guitar music lost its balls and fell into a whole new mainstream, even slightly bleaker then the one which haunted 1998. This record challenged that. A true lost classic.
