Primal Scream - Reverberations (Travelling In Time) BBC Radio Sessions & Creation Singles 1985-86 (LP)

Reverberations (Travelling In Time) BBC Radio Sessions & Creation Singles 1985-86 lands like a time capsule cracked open in 2024, and it is a joy for anyone who still gets a thrill from a chiming Rickenbacker. Before Screamadelica rewired club culture, Primal Scream were daydreamers in paisley shirts, filing into BBC studios with guitars tuned to the Byrds and hearts set on sunshine pop. This set pulls together those early Creation singles and radio takes from 1985 and 1986, when Bobby Gillespie was still drumming for The Jesus and Mary Chain by night and leading his own jangle brigade by day. You can hear the split life in the music. There is feedback in the DNA, but the songs reach for light.

The headline draw for many will be Velocity Girl. Barely a minute and a half, yet it carries a whole era in its pocket. It turned up on NME’s C86 tape and became a calling card, the kind of B-side that outgrew its host. Here it sits alongside Crystal Crescent, where the guitars sparkle and tumble, and the debut single All Fall Down, which still sounds like a band in love with the idea of being a band. The track Spirea X is here too. That title would become Jim Beattie’s next project, a neat breadcrumb for the obsessives who always knew there was more to this story than a single hit.

The BBC sessions give the set its heartbeat. There is a Janice Long feel to the intimacy, and a Peel-ish crackle to the urgency. You can picture the scene in Maida Vale, red light on, the band finding the pocket quickly because the clock is ticking. These takes are leaner and a little brasher than the Creation versions. The vocals sit a touch drier, the twelve-strings get more air, and the drumming keeps everything honest. It shows how tight they were at this point, not yet washed out by studio polish or the big budgets that would come later.

What is striking, listening front to back, is how clear the aesthetic was even then. The reference points are obvious, but there is a Glasgow melancholy that sets them apart. It is not cosplay. It is closer to a teenage obsession turned into craft, and the craft is sharp. Bobby sings like a fan who willed himself onto the stage, and Beattie’s guitar is the real star, picking out little filigrees that stick with you long after the needle lifts. If you already collect Primal Scream vinyl, this sits neatly next to Sonic Flower Groove, but it also tells you why that album exists in the first place. The seeds are all here.

Sound quality matters for archival sets like this, and the transfer treats the material with respect. Nothing boomy, no modern brickwall job. The highs are glassy without being brittle, the bass is modest but present, and the vocals ride the middle like a good radio mix should. That tasteful approach is why Reverberations (Travelling In Time) vinyl feels like the right way to live with these songs. If you are crate-digging at a Melbourne record store, you will know it when you see it. The cover summons the era, and the sequencing flows like a session reel that just happens to contain a handful of future indie staples.

There is history baked in. Creation Records gave the band a home and a sense of purpose, and you can hear Alan McGee’s faith paying off in real time. The leap from these sides to the later psychedelic swagger was not a clean break. It was a long conversation, and these tracks are the first chapters. That is why this set matters beyond simple nostalgia. It fills in gaps, and it does so with music that still carries a charge.

If you are looking to buy Primal Scream records online, make space for this one. It is an easy recommendation for anyone exploring the band beyond Loaded and Movin’ On Up, and a no-brainer for those who already file Primal Scream albums on vinyl next to C86-era favourites. For collectors in vinyl records Australia circles, it is the kind of release that starts a chat at the counter, the record you put on a Sunday afternoon and then play again because Velocity Girl is over too quickly. The past does not always echo kindly. Here, it rings out bright and true.