Cult jangle/shoegaze outfit 14 Iced Bears are to get the full retrospective once-over on a new compilation. 

Typically lumped in with the C86 generation of cheery indie-pop troupes, 14 Iced Bears caught notice with their buoyant, ramshackle psych-pop. The Brighton-based group released a clutch of singles on the Frank label in the mid-1980s, and also put out material on legendary twee-pop imprint Sarah Records. Two albums followed: 1988’s 14 Iced Bears and 1991’s comparatively grand Wonder, the latter of which saw them emulating (with varying degrees of success) the fuzzy melodrama of contemporary shoegaze acts.

Evidently a group who many feel never quite realised their potential, they’ve been compiled numerous times: Overground Records collected their best bits on 1998’s Let The Breeze Open Our Hearts, and Slumberland pulled together their early works on 2001 compilation In The Beginning. Despite having dissolved in the early 1990s, they’ve recently ambled down the reunion trail, playing intermittently since 2010.

Valuable indie archivists Cherry Red are to collect all of the band’s recorded output in one place. Hold On Inside – Complete Recordings 1991-1986 will run to 40 tracks over two discs, and will assemble all of their singles, EPs and albums into one neat package. That’s no typo in the title, incidentally – the material is presented in reverse chronological order, with debut single ‘Inside’ closing the collection.

Hold On Inside is due on Cherry Red later this month.

Tracklisting:
Disc One
1. Hold On
2. Heaven Star
3. Smooth In The Sun
4. These Are The Things
5. When It Comes
6. Rare (like You Are)
7. Love On A Sugar Mountain
8. Eyes
9. Red Now
10. Summer Nights
11. In The Morning
12. Falling Backwards
13. World I Love
14. Rise
15. Beautiful Child
16. The Wonder Of Coincidence

Disc Two

1. Take It
2. Holland
3. Train Song
4. Moths
5. Hay Fever
6. Florence
7. Spangle
8. Dust Remains
9. Cut
10. Surfacer
11. Coming Down
12. Mother Sleep
13. Come Get Me
14. Sure To See
15. Unhappy Days
16. If I Said
17. Miles Away
18. Balloon Song
19. Train Song (different Version)
20. Like A Dolphin
21. Lie To Choose
22. Blue Suit
23. Cut (different Version)
24. Inside