In his definitive chronicle of the very publication you’re reading, The History Of The NME: High Times And Low Lives At The World’s Most Famous Music Magazine, former staffer Pat Long explained the big idea behind ‘C81’, the first instalment of our legendary mixtape series. “In January 1981,” he wrote, “NME responded to the indie boom” with “a cassette that reflected the disarray of the current indie scene.”
So there was jangle-pop from Orange Juice, deconstructed post-punk from The Raincoats and frenetic ska from The Specials – a pleasingly diverse selection of bands that signified the creative fallout from punk half a decade earlier. Even more influential was the belated follow-up ‘C86’, which famously opened with Primal Scream’s ‘Velocity Girl’ and documented the fabulously fey ‘80s indie landscape epitomised by The Wedding Present and The Soup Dragons.
Such is the celebratory spirit of the iconic C-Series, which we brought back in all its glory with ‘Bose x NME: C23’, our talent-packed 2023 mixtape that was made available on streaming and vinyl. Now, we’re proudly continuing the annual revival with the recently dropped ‘C25′, which echoes the diverse sounds of the original thanks to artists including pop pranksters CA7RIEL & Paco Amoroso, 16-year-old indie prodigy ZIN CHOI and tech house don Cloonee. In light of the big release, we reckon it’s time to look back on a lesser-known mixtape from our archives, the final instalment in the series before we revived it almost three decades later. ‘C96’, anyone?
“C-what?,” you might be asking – and you probably wouldn’t be alone. Where ‘C81’ has proved a fascinating historical document and ‘C86’ encapsulated a scene while sending it overground – and thus inspiring countless bands in its wake – ‘C96’ has flown relatively under the radar. Pat Long didn’t even mention the compilation in his otherwise exhaustive 2012 book, while its title isn’t quite the shorthand for a certain musical style, as ‘C86’ quickly became.
In hindsight, though, the 14-track compilation, released to mark a decade since the seismic ‘C86’, is stuffed with goodies. Compiled by then-editor Steve Sutherland and staffers John Mulvey and Roy Carr, the latter of whom worked on ‘C86’ and oversaw ‘C81’, this enjoyably ragged collection brings together the likes of post-rock innovators Mogwai and experimental psych-poppers Broadcast. Available on CD and cassette and sold via mail order, it offers a valuable insight into the British music scene as the Britpop bubble ignominiously burst.
Also in the mix are cult indie rockers Comet Gain, snotty lo-fi punks Dweeb and Scottish “nofi” post-punks Spare Snare. Much of the music here defined by its defiant air of underachievement: Mogwai’s ‘A-70’ might feature an enormous guitar sound, but the vocals are deliberately deadpan, while Scottish alt-rockers Urusei Yatsura turned in the blistering ‘Skull In Action’, which features the slurred lyric: “Ner-ner-ner–ner-ner-ner-ner…”
In fact, a striking number of the bands on ‘C96’ are Scottish, with Mogwai and The Delgados part of the so-called ‘New Scottish Underground’ scene that sprung up in the mid-‘90s. (Although they’re from Watford, Dweeb sound so much like ‘New Scottish’ exemplars Bis that they might as well be honorary members of that ragtag crew.) It’s tempting to see this as a reaction to the London-centric nature of Britpop, given that the ‘C96’ bands’ self-evident lack of ambition was the antithesis of the bid for world domination that Oasis and their competitors represented.
The tape is, in this sense, a true spiritual successor to the comp released 10 years previously. When ‘C86’ arrived with a swish of its floppy fringe, the charts were dominated by Wham!, Culture Club and synth whizz Howard Jones. Bands such as Primal Scream were allergic to this glossy pop aesthetic. Consciously or not, the ‘C96’ bands, with their ragged and/or experimental sounds, similarly kicked against the accessible guitar rock Britpop had revelled in.
Like ‘C86’, which showcased The Wedding Present and Primal Scream before anyone really knew who they were, the follow-up caught certain bands well before they went on to critical and commercial success. Broadcast (whose oddball contribution, ‘Lights Out’, is all skittering sound effects and spooky synth) and Mogwai had only formed the year before they featured on their NME mixtape. The former later scored a Top 10 album on the US dance charts (with 2003’s ‘Haha Sounds’) and, astonishingly, the latter bagged their first UK Number One album some 29 years afterwards with 2021’s ‘As The Love Continues’.
Of course, though, that kind of commerciality was never the point of ‘C96’, which is perhaps summed up by Quickspace Supersport’s (they later dropped the last word of their cumbersome moniker) ‘Song For NME’. A dissonant growl of motorik bass, thrashing cymbals and vocals buried in the mix, the chaotic track reflects the glorious “disarray” of the febrile music scene around it. And that’s the job of any C-Series mixtape – be it 1996 or 2025.
Stay tuned to NME.com/C25 for more on the return of the iconic mixtape
English (US) · 