Heya! Taking a few blogging days off to finish up the edits for Queen Ophelia’s War (and also take a well-earned rest after a crazy-busy couple of days at the Day Job). Will be back next week!
Fly-by: brb, working on edits
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I’ll take hip-hop with a side of punk rock and some country-western to go
I’ve told many already that I am absolutely thrilled that the independent station that I’ve been listening to religiously online for the last six or seven years, KEXP, is now on the air here in the Bay Area, having snagged the 92.7 FM frequency in a bankruptcy deal and gone live last Tuesday. They truly are independent, relying not on commercial breaks but fund drives and listener donations. [I’ve been ‘powering’ the station since at least 2019.] Their playlist remains the same for the moment, though they’ve already made plans to add some shows focused on the local scene in the near future.
What’s the appeal? Good question. Several of the daily shows come very close to free-form radio, a sadly now-rare style that does not rely on numbers and algorithms or rotation schedules. DJs like the Morning Show’s John Richards (pictured above, who is also currently the station’s associate program director) connect with their listeners on a personal level, whether it’s in celebration like their International Clash Day, or in mourning like their Death and Music talks. These DJs aren’t putting on an act, they’re simply music nerds that love what they play and want you to share it with you.
My tastes in music have definitely changed in those past six or seven years, having gone from the very commercial Live 105 to the indie KEXP. [I’ll listen to Live 105 now and the difference is extremely telling, to be honest.] Several bands I’ve seen at Outside Lands are bands I heard first on that station. Pretty much most of my music library over the last several years comes from their playlist.
From what I’ve heard, the response to their Bay Area presence is overwhelmingly positive. They’ve always had a strong fan base thanks to their online streaming, and their base is already global. And yes, I’ve already added them as a preset in the car, heh.
Check ’em out here! —> https://kexp.org/
Listening to 2000’s era Cure, Pt 5: The last (?) Cure album
Another four years after their last studio album, the band finally dropped the unexpectedly upbeat 4:13 Dream in late 2008. It had a very interesting origin story behind it: it was supposed to be a sprawling double album swaying between light and dark, with over thirty songs prepped and nearly ready for release. However, at the last moment they’d chosen to dial it back to using only the lighter songs in a tight thirteen-track single record. Only one song breaks the five-minute barrier, the lovely opener “Underneath the Stars”.
The band chose to tease the album’s release by releasing four singles beforehand, followed by a six-track remix EP, then dropping the album in full afterwards.
The first single was the crunchy and peppy “The Only One”, which felt like a track from Wild Mood Swings. The second was the twitchy “Freakshow” which, interestingly enough, feels like it’s from The Top with its off-kilter beat and ‘I’m in an uncomfortable social situation’ theme.
The third single, on the other hand, had that polished-gloom sound of Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me (it’s got the same tension as that album’s “Shiver and Shake”). “Sleep When I’m Dead” was actually an old song dating from 1985’s The Head On the Door, which makes sense here.
And finally, fourth single “The Perfect Boy” sounds the most current, very similar to something off Bloodflowers. It’s also the closest to their recognizable classic sound, though surprisingly it did not get all that much airplay at the time.
The album itself dropped in October of that year, and though it was a welcome return, the sheen had worn off, and both the critics and the fans weren’t exactly sure what to think of it. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great record and their most mature…but it kind of lacks what made them the band that they are. The production is similar to Wild Mood Swings in that it feels a bit too polished, though thankfully the flow of the album is much tighter.
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That said…once they released this album, did their tours and so on, they just…kept touring and stopped recording. Given Robert Smith’s penchant for announcing one thing online with the best of intentions yet never quite following through for varying reasons, we never knew if we were going to get a follow-up, a leftovers collection, or a breakup. Sometimes it was all three. As the years went on, we’d occasionally get a “we’re working on new songs” only to hear them in rough form during their endless live shows and then nothing. The deluxe reissues would continue after a long delay (with the highly awaited Disintegration in 2010, Mixed Up in 2018 and featuring brand new remixes under the name Torn Down, and a grand package for Wish in 2022. We also had a handful of live albums, like Bestival Live 2011 and the anniversary celebrating 40 Live… but that was about it.
In late 2023, we finally heard a few more brand new tracks that they were road testing in live shows, once again hinting that they might be in the studio after a decade and a half. Do we still know what’s going on here? Smith is once again furtive and playful, hinting but never quite following up. We’ll know when we know, I guess!
Listening to 2000’s era Cure, Pt 5: the Deluxe Editions II
The second wave of Deluxe Editions surfaced a year and a half later in early August 2006 with 1984’s The Top, 1985’s The Head on the Door and 1987’s Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me. This was the peak of their original 80s fame, when they’d finally broken through that indie barrier (with partial help from the 1986 singles collection Standing On a Beach). But it wasn’t a sudden rise to fame, however…they still had a few ghosts in their closet that needed purging.
I’ve always felt The Top was their psychedelic album, written and recorded deep in their mid-80s booze and drug haze. It’s certainly a head trip and full of high weirdness like the freaky opener “Shake Dog Shake” and the odd “Piggy in the Mirror”, not to mention the Salinger-influenced “Bananafishbones” and the hazy folk of the lone single “The Caterpillar”. Even the darker moments are unsettling, like the mental breakdown of “The Empty World” and the dissociation of “The Top”. It’s not the easiest listen — it’s a band barely holding itself together. Most of the extras on the deluxe edition are demos and a few live tracks, but it also includes a few great outtakes that would become bootleg favorites, “Ariel” and “Forever”.
The Head On the Door, on the other hand, is a much cleaner and stronger Cure with a revived lineup and a focus on shorter and tighter songs. The original album clocks in at just over a tight half hour of ten songs, nearly all of which could have easily been singles or radio hits. The first single “In Between Days” is brisk and swinging and fits Robert Smith’s playful side that he’d too often hide in the past. Follow-up single “Close to Me” is just as fun, trading the energy of “Days” with a light jazz (similar to “The Lovecats”, come to think of it). It helped that both tracks were made into irresistible oddball videos by director Tim Pope, who seemed to instinctively know how to capture the true spirit of the band. There are also wonderful deep cuts here as well, like the freeing “Push” or the dramatic “A Night Like This”. About the only old-school Cure track here is the closer “Sinking”. The deluxe edition features nearly all demos including several tracks that would end up as b-sides.
The double-album Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me — the title taken from the first line of the first song, the epic noisefest “The Kiss” — is intriguing as it takes elements of both albums and melds it into a very kaleidoscopic record. For each pop song like “Just Like Heaven” and “The Perfect Girl” there are psychedelic moments like “The Snakepit” and “Like Cockatoos”. There are even literary moments like the Baudelaire influenced “How Beautiful You Are”, and utterly silly moments like the singles “Why Can’t I Be You?” and “Hot Hot Hot!!!” It’s a glorious mess but it’s a clean mess unlike The Top. They’re having fun with this record instead of being hedonistic with it. The deluxe edition also contains more demos and live tracks.
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Next up: A new album (and several false rumors about more)!
Listening to 2000’s era Cure, Pt 4: the Deluxe Editions I
After the promotion of The Cure and the Curiosa Festival had come and gone, the next phase was about to begin: a massive reissue of their early catalog. While this may not have been all that important in the UK where they’d stayed on the Fiction label for years, in the US they’d appeared on several: the indie PVC, A&M, Sire, and eventually an extended stay (complete with minor reissues) on Elektra. This would finally bring the majority of their discography together on one label, with its original packaging.
The new reissues of their back catalog began of course with their debut album Three Imaginary Boys in late 2004. Most Americans knew most of its tracks from the US collection Boys Don’t Cry or via the import. [I’d bought the original version at Al Bum’s in Amherst probably in early 1987 and much preferred this one. It flows much better and the band’s early gloom is much more prevalent here.
The bonus disc of this reissue would of course include the singles “Boys Don’t Cry” and “Jumping Someone Else’s Train”, both post-album stand-alone singles, though surprisingly it did not contain their debut single “Killing an Arab”, though that was most likely due to its questionable source material. Still, it did contain several demos and outtakes that are quite fascinating to hear.
The next three album reissues would appear all on the same day: Seventeen Seconds, Faith and Pornography, in late spring 2005. The first two had been released at different times in the US, including as a double-disc two-fer called Happily Ever After, which I owned on cassette.
Seventeen Seconds expanded on their post-punk sound and added a pastoral feel to their sound, thanks to the melodic bass lines of new members Simon Gallup and the keyboards of Matthieu Hartley. This album definitely feels like something you’d listen to alone, on headphones, sometime around 2am. It was a huge inspiration to my writing in the late 80s and got a ton of play late at night. The extra tracks on this reissue are more focused on live recordings, some of which would show up on the cassette version of the live album Concert.
Faith, on the other hand, was a much darker affair. It too is perfect late night listening, but it leans more towards isolation and loneliness. There are two faces here: the anger and tension of songs like “Primary” and “Doubt”, and the atmospheric fog of “All Cats Are Grey” and the title track. The original cassette had included the twenty-seven minute (!!) instrumental track “Carnage Visors”, which they’d recorded for an animated film that would play before their live shows. This epic is included on this reissue, along with several studio outtakes and live tracks, as well as the non-album single “Charlotte Sometimes”.
Pornography, on the other hand…is not an easy album to listen to. Hartley had left, leaving the band as a barebones trio that only added to the album’s sparseness. They took several steps further down into the bitterly cold abyss, well past the darkness of Faith. Depression, desolation and entropy abound on this record. Is it any wonder that this was in super heavy rotation on my Walkman in the late 80s, then? While it’s not as violently dismal as, say, The Downward Spiral, it could probably be seen as its goth equivalent. Interestingly enough, its closing title track (like “Hurt”, come to think of it) hints at a sense of strained hope. This too features a lot of studio demos and live tracks.
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Are these reissues that you must have in your collection? Well, if you’re a huge fan like I am, then yes, definitely. The remastered tracks sound great, and the extras are all sorts of fun to listen to. For completists they are missing a few things here and there, such as a few single-only b-sides (which, to be fair, were easily available on the Join the Dots box set), but it’s worth checking out.
Coming Up Next: the final three reissues of the decade
Listening to 2000’s era Cure, Pt 3: the self-titled album
Interestingly, this album hardly gets any notice or play on the radio nowadays. Most commercial stations stick with “Love Song” or “Pictures of You” or “Just Like Heaven”, all released during their 80s heights. At the time, however, it was a long-awaited and extremely welcome return for a much-loved alternative band that was now picking up new generations of fans.
The slow-build track “Lost” sets the tone and the sound for the album: somewhat dissonant, a bit uncomfortable, and a lot heavier in sound. Where Robert Smith usually emotes a feeling of detached misery in his older works, this track is more of a primal scream, something he hadn’t really let himself reach since perhaps Pornography (and even then, that album was more a deliberate loss of sanity than the fear of losing it).
A few tracks later with the single “The End of the World”, he embraces that alterna-poppy catchiness the band perfected with 1992’s Wish. While the track seems upbeat and fun, there’s a darker edge to it, both sonically and lyrically. Even the video for it is of two minds: fanciful and nightmarish. This track got considerable play in the summer of 2004 on alternative radio.
The next track, “Anniversary”, is my favorite from this album, and it’s a perfect example of The Darker Cure Sound: a nightmarish crawling through Smith’s gloomier lyrics, driven not by a slow build but by the irritation it causes. You want to know where it leads, whether there will be a major lift in the song, yet it never quite gets there, on purpose.
The next single, “alt.end”, is similar to “The End of the World” in that it’s catchy as hell…and just as dark. It too sounds like something off of Wish, working that light/dark dichotomy as far as it can go.
Oh, and remember that Dragon Hunters song I mentioned in the previous entry? Here’s the original song it was based off of, released in the UK as the alternate to the “alt.end” single. While it’s not nearly as catchy, it’s a solid track that works well.
All told, the album is one of their strongest, and also one of their most unique sounding, considering that they’d chosen Ross Robinson as a co-producer — he’s more known for producing alt-metal bands like Korn, Slipknot and At the Drive In. While the band is no stranger to heaviness (Pornography) or widescreen theatrics (Disintegration), this is the only one that sounds so bare-bones and yet so sonically intense.
They promoted this album via a massive touring festival called Curiosa, a multi-stage, multi-band day long experience that included several other bands influenced by (or were favorites of) The Cure: Mogwai, Interpol, The Rapture, Muse, The Cooper Temple Clause, and more. I got to see their stop at the Tweeter Center in Mansfield MA (still known as Great Woods back then), with a perfect seat just in front of the lawn area. I loved pretty much every single band I saw that day, even ones like Cooper Temple Clause who I’d never heard of (and bought their CD right after their performance). I of course didn’t quite stay for the entirety of the Cure performance as it was getting late and getting out of their parking lot is a nightmare (not to mention it’s an hour-plus drive back to central MA), but by then I was exhausted yet extremely pleased.
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Next up: The Deluxe Editions
Listening to 2000’s era Cure, Pt 2: Hits, Dots, and One-Offs
While Bloodflowers was a great album, it wasn’t my favorite of their latter years. I think part of it was that it came out at a time when my time at the record store was coming to a close, but it was also that it simply just didn’t resonate with me as deeply as some past albums had. Still, this sparked off a slow but steady stream of increased visibility. They were constantly on tour at the start of the decade, and followed it up with a number of collections and appearances.
The band released the Greatest Hits collection in late 2001 as a contractual obligation to the Fiction label. It features many of their best known tracks, chosen by Robert Smith himself, and also two new tracks: the poppy “Cut Here” (the title an anagram of the band name) and the perky “Just Say Yes” featuring Saffron from Republica. It’s by no means a must-have collection, but it’s a good place to start, and also a good mix for those not interested in a discography deep dive. The expanded version features a second album’s worth of the same songs, this time recorded acoustically.
Smith kept himself busy by appearing on a few albums, many of which are definitely worth checking out. He provided vocals on the great track “Perfect Blue Sky” on Junkie XL’s Radio JXL: A Broadcast from the Computer Hell Cabin — an expansive two-cd collection of upbeat radio-friendly electronic tracks and expanded house instrumentals. This album is one of my favorites of 2003 and also features vocals from Saffron, Dave Gahan, Gary Numan, Chuck D, Terry Hall, and more. It also features the groovy reimagining of Elvis’ “A Little Less Conversation” which had showed up in 2001’s Ocean’s Eleven. It’s a record worth picking up.
Also in 2003, he featured on…a Blink-182 album?? Sure, why not? The punk pop trio called The Cure one of their influences, and he features on the track “All of This”.
Then in spring of 2004, he featured on the second album by tweaker, drummer Chris Vrenna’s collective project. The album 2am wakeup call is about Vrenna’s wife’s insomnia so much of the record is dark and moody…but not necessarily gloomy. I listened to this album incessantly for most of that year, not just in the Belfry during my writing sessions (I was writing The Balance of Light at the time) but during my commutes to work. I highly recommend checking this record out.
Backing up a few months, The Cure also released the box set Join the Dots: B-Sides & Rarities 1978-2001. It’s a four-disc collection that proves that these oddities weren’t just throwaways or one-offs. Their b-sides, like “Just One Kiss”, “Breathe” and “The Big Hand”, could be just as amazing and memorable as their album tracks and singles, and even their soundtrack and compilation offerings like “Burn” (from The Crow soundtrack) and the cover of Depeche Mode’s “World in My Eyes” (from For the Masses) are great. It’s worth checking these out.
But wait! There’s one more thing! One that often gets overlooked!
They also did the theme song for the French animated series Dragon Hunters by taking their track “Taking Off” (which would show up soon on their next record) and repurposing it into this fun and boppy theme. This one doesn’t show up on any greatest hits, reissues or box sets (at least not yet anyway), but it’s easy to find online.
Coming up: finally, another new album!
Listening to 2000’s era Cure, Pt 1: Bloodflowers
I stopped listening to The Cure so much probably about the time 1996’s Wild Mood Swings came out, and for a few reasons: one, I’d long grown out of my penchant for sinking into a depressive spiral with Pornography and Disintegration as its soundtrack, and two, WMS was just not a Cure album I could sink my teeth into no matter how much I tried. [In hindsight, I think it was a mix of it being too long and it feeling a bit too overproduced.]
So when 2000’s Bloodflowers was announced — and billed as a spiritual link to those two classic dark and gloomy albums I just mentioned — I looked forward to hearing it. It was released in my final year working at HMV, so as you can well imagine, it got a lot of play in the back office where I worked, as well as in the Belfry where I was just about to embark on writing the Bridgetown Trilogy. To me, Bloodflowers was a long-awaited return to form that I’d missed.
It’s an album that was purposely written to be listened to as a full album, and there were no official singles released from it, although the meandering “Out of This World” and the catchy “Maybe Someday” were both provided with promotional edits for radio play. The latter got significant play on WFNX at the time.
And thankfully, the rest of the album features some absolutely lovely deep cuts that became favorites, like the song “There Is No If…” which Robert Smith had written during his late teens but never tried recording, fearing that it was too cheesy, until he delivered a devastatingly desperate version here.
There’s also the other rarity here: Smith singing about getting older. “39” was written about him slowly approaching his forties. Would he continue down this road of writing his patented doom and gloom, or write something uplifting and trite? There’s also a little bit of concern here: he’s honestly surprised he’s lasted this long, given his drug and alcohol infused past.
I remember the critical response to this album being mixed: some were absolutely thrilled that they’d returned somewhat to form, while some felt a bit like they’d heard this many times before. I can definitely feel its similarity to Disintegration — minus the reverb-drenched echoes on everything — in that it felt like something coming to a close. Whether it was youth, bacchanalia, or goth gloom, it definitely felt like closure.
It would be another four years before their next album, although they would spend most of that time going on extended tours and releasing a greatest hits album with two new songs and a box set of b-sides and rarities.
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Coming up next: The Cure and the Curiosa Tour
What I’m Listening to: February 2024 Edition
Wait, it’s already the end of February? It’s been a busy month at work and I’ve also been working hard with finishing off the latest go-round with Queen Ophelia’s War (and prepping myself for the new version of Theadia), so it’s a miracle that I’ve also been able to keep up with the new releases dropping lately! But I’ve been making an effort to connect with these new releases (and occasionally revisit some old ones). This month has given us some surprises!
Billy Joel, “Turn the Lights Back On” single, 1 February. His first new song in forever, and he hasn’t lost his musical touch at all. A stirring ballad of wondering whether or not you’ve been away from the spotlight for too long, what you’ve missed, and what you remember with older and more mature eyes and heart. A lovely surprise.
Paul McCartney & Wings, Band On the Run Underdubbed Mixes, 2 February. These were the rough mixes created before the orchestra and final overdubs had been added, and it’s a fascinating listen. Some tracks (like “Jet”) reveal only minimal differences, while album closer “Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five” really spotlight Paul’s masterful piano playing and the sheer oddness of the track.
Kula Shaker, Natural Magick, 2 February. After the wild psych-folk (and the welcome return) of their previous album, the band chooses to return to what they’ve always done extremely well: a hybrid of British pop influenced by India grooves. It’s a fun album that doesn’t set out to prove anything other than to have fun and occasionally say what might be on their minds.
Ducks Ltd, Harm’s Way, 9 February. This band follows in the path of twee pop like Belle and Sebastian with a little bit of early Cure as a secondary influence, which makes them sound unique and a little bit unsettled, but it’s a super fun listen.
Brittany Howard, What Now, 9 February. The Alabama Shakes singer has always been fearless in her loud, funky and bluesy style, and this new solo record is full of all of that. Definitely worth checking out.
Omni, Souvenir, 16 February. I mentioned this trio just recently, and yes, I do love that they’ve fully embraced that Wire-influenced ‘angular’ post-punk sound, and they pull it off really well without sounding like copycats. Even their songs embrace that tight late 70s/early 80s style, right down to the lengths, most of which are under three minutes. An intriguing listen.
IDLES, TANGK, 16 February. I’ve been a fan of this punk band for quite a few years now, and I love that they are not afraid to try out different styles, even when they veer perilously towards pop. Nor are they afraid to touch on different subjects and say what’s on their mind. Always a fun band to listen to loud.
Geographer, Got It Wrong, 23 February. We saw this local singer at Outside Lands once and I’ve been a fan ever since. His music tends to be calming and warm, but it can often go in really interesting directions, sometimes dark and sometimes light.
Real Estate, Daniel, 23 February. This Jersey indie band has been around for ages but I’ve only recently gotten around to paying attention to them, and I’m sold on this new one. It reminds me of the meandering laid back college rock I used to listen to back in the day!
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Coming soon in March: new tunes by Yard Act, Liam Gallagher & John Squire, The Jesus & Mary Chain, Elbow, and Ride!
Twenty-five years ago…
I’ve been going through some music from 1999 the last couple of days and finding a bunch of albums and songs I used to listen to quite a bit then that I haven’t listened to in ages, and some I’ve even completely forgotten about. This was during the back half of my tenure at HMV, and by this time I’d been tasked with ordering the imports and, if I could get away with it, some of the obscure indie titles that I figured someone aside from me might like. A lot of these got considerable play down in the Belfry during my writing sessions.
Medal, Drop Your Weapon, 24 May 1999. This Oxford quintet’s music had that sort of epic moodiness that was at odds with a lot of what was big at the time, but their sound was perfect for my writing sessions, especially the slow groove of “Possibility”. Well worth checking out if you can find it.
Arab Strap, Cherubs EP, 1 September 1999. I kind of liked the lead track off this, but it was the slow and sludgy “Pulled” that drew my interest. Sure, it’s seven-plus minutes long and takes its own sweet time getting somewhere (and even then the tempo subtly shifts all over the place), but it’s the two-minute wall of noise coda that makes the entire song. Considering that I’m a huge fan of the quiet/LOUD style, this fit perfectly in my wheelhouse.
Days of the New, Days of the New II, 31 August 1999. Remember this guy, Travis Meeks? Promising musician with a growly semi-acoustic grunge sound? They had a minor hit with “Touch Peel and Stand” from the first album but the second record kind of got passed over. Thing is, this second record was absolutely amazing. Really tight musicianship and songwriting, and definitely more adventurous. Sadly his group imploded (apparently his backing band quit in frustration and started their own group, Tantric, who had a few minor hits in the early 00s. I listened to this one a hell of a lot that summer.
Tin Star, The Thrill Kisser, 9 February 1999. How the heck did I latch onto this…? I think the BMG rep handed a promo to me and thought I’d like it, and yes, like it I did! Not quite electronica, not quite indie, but a hybrid of both with a heaping dollop of British eccentricity added into the mix, it’s cool, funky, and a really great record. This got a ton of play in the Belfry for a good couple of years.
Kill Holiday, Somewhere Between the Wrong Is Right, 23 February 1999. I’d heard “In Closing (Memorial Day)” on The River one night driving home from work and immediately ordered the album on my following shift! Y’all know how much I do love an epic final track with a slow build (and again with the quiet/LOUD thing). One of my favorite indie releases of that year.
Trashmonk, Mona Lisa Overdrive, 25 March 1999. Ever wonder what Nick Laird-Clowes did after The Dream Academy? Well, he dropped this one really weird album named after a William Gibson book that sounded nothing like his former band. Sometimes experimental, sometimes groovy, sometimes hauntingly beautiful, it’s definitely worth checking out if you can find it.
Lamb, Fear of Fours, 17 May 1999. More experimental and much darker than their debut (and nearly all the songs contain quirky time signatures outside of 4/4), it’s the one that captured my attention to the point that they became one of my favorite bands of the late 90s/early 00s.
Rico, Sanctuary Medicines, 16 August 1999. This Glaswegian industrial musician could probably be compared to Nine Inch Nails but without the dire levels of nihilism. I don’t even remember how I came across this one aside from the fact that I really dug the whole industrial metal sound and that it wasn’t trying so damn hard to fit into the goth stereotypes like some other bands.
Handsome Boy Modeling School, So…How’s Your Girl?, 19 October 1999. Only Prince Paul and Dan the Automator could get away with naming their band after an episode-long joke from Chris Elliott’s bonkers TV show Get a Life…and loosely basing AN ENTIRE ALBUM on said episode. But it’s a damn fine record and one of the best of the year on many critics’ lists. It’s a super fun record worth owning.
The All Seeing I, Pickled Eggs & Sherbet, 20 September 1999. Another ‘where the heck did I hear about this’ import and the only album from this electronica collective, though this sounds more like a quirky British indie band instead if you didn’t know their background. It’s extremely eccentric and I have no idea what they were trying to prove with it, but it’s a fascinating listen.
Walk In Silence 