I would rather wait until it's all too late

If there's one time in my life I look back to with a fondness that borders on n*stalgia, it's the early to mid-1990s when Greek indiepop was carrying me around the way that indiepop does now: a huge wave of fun, unstoppable and sincere, part of nothing and connected to everything. I made so many friends back then, exchanged a ridiculous amount of mixed tapes, went to all the popshows, thought it was forever. But it was all over before we knew it and the sparkle didn't just fade away; it evaporated. Hardly anyone remembers what happened back then but when I put a Kissamatic Lovebubbles song on, my heart flutters at the memory of their drunken gigs, Vassilis singing down his microphone as if the end of the world was imminent, and the wonders of Sarah and Heaven Records didn't seem so far away because we had it all there before us. Of course, Greek indiepop didn't suddenly appear in the 90s and things have picked up again in the last few years. But there is something in the sound of those bands I saw back then that makes my sense of having witnessed something special more and more intense as time goes by.

From Fantastic Something to something fantastic. Here's a short Greek indiepop mix. Hope you like it.

Download the mix (zipped mp3s, 41 MB)

One Night Suzan - Until
Impossible Tymes - Dreambrushpaint
The Occassional Flickers - A word of a friend
Starblind - Crush on you
Next Time Passions - Untitled
Kissamatic Lovebubbles - Roxanne
The Happy Balloon - Always you
Fantastic Something - If she doesn't smile
The Jaywalkers - (You can't be) happy all the time
Pillow - Pure pure pure
Raining Pleasure - Capricorn

Lalalalondon popfest

So what's everyone doing at the end of February?

This last week has been all about finally starting to tell the world about our little pop secret and it's such a relief to make it real and see everyone getting so excited. We have friends travelling from all over to be here which makes me feel scared, proud and happy in equal 33.3333% measures. I hope the tube is working that weekend. I hope everyone shows up like they said they would. I hope everyone has a smile on their face.

If you'd told me 10 years ago that I'd be able to play a small part in doing things like this, I'd have built a time machine to make it all go faster. The question is, would I have skipped the part where I got mildly obsessed with an ELO song?

The Hit Parade, 'I Get So Sentimental'