Growing out of the shoegaze and dream pop scenes, inspired by the burgeoning electronic sounds all around them, and following in the experimental footsteps of sonic explorers ranging from abrasive post-punks, abstract German art rockers of the 1970s, avant-garde jazz dreamers, and hard-to-define artists like and , a breed of bands sprung up in the U.K. during the early to mid-'90s who defied most established rock conventions and provided a much-needed respite from the oft-cloying nostalgia of Britpop. is the first collection to take a good look at a cross-section of groups who were intent on breaking down traditional rock music forms and rebuilding them in unforeseen and always interesting ways. Sometimes they used glimmering repetition, as on 's "Every Day Shines (D Mix)"; sometimes they stitched their music together with the seams showing like do on "Naturally Occurring Anchors" or with glitches like 's (The) Weight." Other bands did updates on post-punk funk -- bleating ( 's "City Poison") and slinky ( 's "Starry Night") -- or gave shoegaze a gentle kick into outer space ( 's "In the Light of Time"), while sounded like they were only using the afterglow and echoes of music to build their songs and took the dreams out of dream pop and turned them into swaggering nightmares. It wasn't so much of a scene as it was people making use of the freedom that came with new technology ( 's dubaquatic "Through You"); casting off verse-chorus songwriting for something more oblique and open-ended ( ' cascading, ultra-emotional "A Street Scene"); or forsaking the seriousness of art for something looser and more innocent ( 's "Loose Threads" and 's "Sun Drawing"). This set manages to gather up most of the main players -- though is conspicuously absent -- and uncovers a couple of groups who didn't get much press coverage at the time. are one of the more straightforward groups here -- there are some C86-style jangles lurking on their track "Play Away" -- and do the German rock thing very well. is a very overdue collection for a sound and approach that was underserved at the time and continues to be so, even though after one listen it's clear that the bands here were inventing the future. It's hard to imagine from a decades-later perspective just how jarring (in a good way) songs like the cut-up and sample-driven "Second Language" by were or how thrilling it was to happen upon one of these groups and realize that music didn't have to follow the established rules. Much of the set still provides that same kind of feeling of thrilling discovery, and this is only the tip of the U.K. post-rock iceberg. The brilliant music here, and 's illuminating liner notes, serve as both an edifying summing up and a fine starting point for much more exploring. ~ Tim Sendra