Our occasional series “Secret History” features profiles of classic D.C. albums as a way of looking back at the District’s contributions to music over time. In this installment, DCist speaks with members of Edsel about the band’s major-label debut, Techniques of Speed Hypnosis (Relativity, 1995).

A post-hardcore band with oversized hooks, Edsel occupied an odd spot in D.C.’s 1990s musical landscape. Guided by a consistently experimental and stylistically ambitious mindset, they cranked out quality noise difficult to pigeonhole, and specialized in a layered, tightly-wound racket informed as much by American acts like Pavement and Fugazi as by European outfits like Swervedriver, Spiritualized, and My Bloody Valentine.

“The truth is that we never fit in with any of it,” Edsel’s guitarist and singer Sohrab Habibion tells DCist about the band’s place in D.C.’s ‘80s and ‘90s indie rock scene. “Our sound was too punk for the pop kids and too pop for the punk kids. But the bands in D.C. were much more receptive and generous to each other than the audience that grew around them. I definitely felt a camaraderie with all kinds of groups that we’d never share a stage with.”