Los Angeles, CA · alternative · space-rock · alt-rock

Failure

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'90s space-rock that everyone else spent decades catching up to — heavy in texture rather than tempo, 'Fantastic Planet' the cult document.

Failure formed in Los Angeles around 1990, led by Ken Andrews and Greg Edwards, who shared writing, singing and instrumental duties. They signed to Slash Records in 1992 and recorded their debut album, Comfort, with producer Steve Albini at Pachyderm Studio in Minnesota, releasing it that September before touring with Tool.

Unhappy with Comfort's raw, unmixed sound, Andrews and Edwards produced the follow-up themselves. Drummer Kellii Scott joined partway through these sessions after Greg Edwards had briefly covered drums, and the resulting album, Magnified, appeared in 1994. On tour with Tool that year, Adam Jones joined Failure onstage each night to play guitar on the Comfort track 'Macaque'.

Sessions for what became Fantastic Planet took place in 1995 in a house in the hills outside LA rented from Lita Ford, with Andrews handling much of the engineering himself. A collapse in their label's distribution deal delayed the record for almost a year, during which the band members worked on side projects, including a covers album under the name Replicants.

Warner eventually released Fantastic Planet in August 1996, with guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen joining around the same time. Its lead single, 'Stuck on You', became a rock-radio hit, reaching number 31 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart, though the album's cult reputation grew mostly after the band had already split.

Their music is characterised by detuned guitars, layered production and slow, deliberate tempos, an approach often labelled space rock and cited by many later bands. Failure reunited in the 2010s and have continued to record and tour since.

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