Lo-fi pop, the great invention of New Zealand's independent musicians, became one of the main phenomena, world-wide, of the 1990s.

The scene in New Zealand was largely dominated by members of the old bands, and little was added to the canon by the new generations. Graeme Jefferies' Cakekitchen (1) concocted the adult blend of austere melodies, bitter philosophy and elegant arrangements of World Of Sand (1992), eventually achieving the intrepid and rarefied atmosphere of The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea (1996). Bailter Space (1), led by guitarist Alister Parker, gave their best with the hypnotic and atmospheric noise-rock of Vortura (1994), that capitalized on the innovations of My Bloody Valentine and Galaxie 500.

The Underground Lovers (1) updated the psychedelic canon with Leaves Me Blind (1993), drenched in exotic and mystical sounds. King Loser were unique in producing a huge noise a` la Blue Cheer on Sonic Super Free Hi-Fi (1994) and You Cannot Kill What Does Not Live (1996). More conventional hard-rock was played by the 3Ds.

In Australia, former Cannanes guitarist Randall Lee's Nice (Australia) and Ashtray Boy were typical of how the dynasties of the 1980s survived the 1990s. All Souls Alive (1994), by the Blackeyed Susans (1), formed by vocalist Rob Snarski and bassist Phil Kakulas, owed the charm of its folk/country chamber elegies to Triffids' guitarist David McComb, Dirty Three's violinist Warren Ellis and drummer Jim White. The Moles' Untune The Sky (1991), featuring Richard Davies, was perhaps the most charming oddity, worthy of New Zealand's classic pop.

USA, 1990-94

The legacy of lo-fi pop was felt much stronger in and around the American colleges. Olympia, near Seattle, ruled by Beat Happening, boasted the most fertile scene: Al Larsen's Some Velvet Sidewalk, the Kicking Giants, Lync (Sam Jayne's band, that later evolved into Love As Laughter), Rebecca Gates' Spinanes, etc.

The most influential lo-fi band of the 1990s was Pavement (2). Slanted And Enchanted (1992) was more attitude than art (and certainly more epigonic than original), but the chaotic, erratic and unassuming delivery was precisely the point, especially when combined with Stephen Malkmus' bizarre philosophy. Crooked Rain Crooked Rain (1993) was even catchy and marginally innocuous.

The contagion spread from Los Angeles (Refrigerator, originators of the "Shrimper scene"), to New York (Fan Modine, Fly Ashtray), from Kansas (Butterglory) to Virginia (Wingtip Sloat), from Oregon (Crabs) to Chicago (Number One Cup), to Toronto (Dinner Is Ruined).

David Berman's Silver Jews (1) coined a "lo-fi" version of the Velvet Underground's boogie-trance, like a cross between Luna and Pavement, on Starlite Walker (1994).

Shannon Wright's Crowsdell contaminated Pavement's style with roots-rock on Dreamette (1995).

Unfortunately, Pavement's idea was frequently misunderstood as meaning that a mediocre musician could produce an unlimited amount of music while at the same time disregarding any musical obligation. Independent musicians became more and more prolific.

Seattle's Modest Mouse (2) was the vehicle for Isaac Brock's honest, heart-felt vignettes on This Is A Long Drive For Someone With Nothing To Think About (1996), a sprawling chronicle of everyday life in the 1990s. His portraits of drifters, losers and disillusioned fools became much sharper and more musically assured on The Lonesome Crowded West (1998), and his most experimental work was Sharpen Your Teeth (2002), released by his side-project Ugly Casanova (1), featuring Black Heart Procession's Pall Jenkins and Califone's Tim Rutili,

Texas' Spoon, the vehicle for Britt Daniel, evolved from the alt-pop influenced Girls Can Tell (2001) towards a power-pop style that boasted memorable hooks but also a minimal approach to arranging, the opposite of Phil Spector's "wall of sound", as demonstrated on Gimme Fiction (2005).

Primitivism, 1992-95

The more creative strand, the one that descended from Half Japanese and the Residents, was kept alive by groups that shunned the mainstream.

San Diego's Trumans Water (2) Of Thick Tum (1992) sounded like a group of musicians who had no desire to play anything, and therefore each song was a bit of a torture. Their music was the opposite of "entertainment", as Spasm Smash (1993) proved: a carousel of spastic gestures. It was rock'n'roll filtered by the no wave and Royal Trux's Twin Infinitives.

Maryland's Velocity Girl (2) synthesized the new sounds of their time: Sonic Youth's noise-rock, Uncle Tupelo's alt-country, Pavement's lo-fi dynamics. The dissonant pop of Copacetic (1993) was a study in contrast: effervescent tempos, wildly off-key guitars, Sarah Shannon's seductive pop-soul register, naive melodies; and Simpatico (1994) merely capitalized on the primitive style of strumming/jamming that they had invented to produce postmodernist dissection of pop, soul and even jazz cliches.

Pop primitivism had many faces and was practiced around the country: Pennsylvania's Vegetarian Meat, with Let's Pet (1995); Texas' Sincola, with What The Nothinghead Said (1995); Louisiana's one-man band Quintron, with Internet Feedback 001-011 (1996); New Jersey's Kickstand; and many others.

Florida's Home (1) stood out from the crowd, thanks to a broad stylistic range (from cinematic prog-rock instrumentals to spastic pop songs) and to a focus on mundane events of the American youth (like a more serious Frank Zappa). Works such as IX (1995), containing the operetta Concepcion X (1996), arranged by the Devil's Isle Orchestra (horns, strings and choir), Netherregions (1998), their most deranged excursion, XIV (2000), a set of richly-arranged madrigals of abstract, psychedelic music, and Sexteen (2006), a concept on sex, called the bluff on rock music, both lyrically and musically.

New Jersey's Danielson Famile (2) reinvented Christian music as lo-fi pop on A Prayer For Every Hour (1995), Tell Another Joke At The Ol' Choppin' Block (1997) and Tri-Danielson!!! (1999), singing spirituals and gospel hymns with an off-kilter instrumental backing and frantic harmonies worth of the Holy Modal Rounders and David Peel.

Trumans Water's bassist Glen "Galaxy" Galloway also dedicated his project, Soul Junk, to Christian themes, best on 1952 (1995).

The prolific San Diego-based singer-songwriter and guitarist Rob Crow launched a number of parallel projects, starting with the progressive hardcore of Heavy Vegetable, documented on The Amazing Undersea Adventures Of Aqua Kitty And Friends (1994). He built a bizarre sound around vintage keyboards as Optiganally Yours on Spotlight On Optiganally Yours (1997) and Presents Exclusively Talentmaker (2000). An acoustic quartet named Thingy penned the avant-melancholia of To The Innocent (1999). Then he found a compromise of sort in Pinback's somnolent lullabies at the border between post-rock, new wave, psychedelic-rock and folk-rock, first on This Is Pinback (1999) and especially the EP Offcell (2003). Pinback kept twisting the formula of power-pop until they achieved a slightly angular format of lo-fi song on Summer In Abaddon (2004) and Autumn of the Seraphs (2007).