Well, it was my birthday last weekend – the segment known in this nation as ‘Saturday’ - and I celebrated by watching the feted Gloucester club vanquish in a match of rugby union against a fine French outfit known as Bourgoin before travelling to Bristol for the Portishead recital. My gifts included a decent crop of CDs and I shall attempt to list them now.
My most played item is the Burial album, Untrue, which builds on the murky anti-glamour of the eponymous debut album by the young prince of dubstep, but is, if possible, even more evocative and redolent of the dank and drizzly streets of a forgotten and unfashionable London district. It is a splendid, challenging long player. And The Refinement Of Their Decline by Stars of the Lid is a remarkable double CD of minimalist ambient electronica. I’m playing it late at night and it’s putting me to sleep faster than a double dose of Night Nurse. I’ve always admired a drone and the very long synthesised notes on this recording overlap hypnotically. It’s very unusual and by no means an easy listen. I also got another Trojan reggae compilation. Comic artist Savage Pencil has compiled a host of Trojan treasures and called it Lion Versus Dragon In Dub. I’m spinning this recording as I write these words actually. The sleeve notes warn that a predilection for the sounds of Augustus Pablo means that there is quite a lot of melodica on the album. I’m not complaining; the choices are intelligent and blend together beatifically. Riddim!
I have the latest Rachel Unthank and the Winterset album, The Bairns, a folky treat that has been much lauded this year and named in many best-of-2007 lists. It’s a very beautiful, almost fragile, set of songs and the version of Robert Wyatt’s Sea Song is, like the delicate and respectful cover of Nick Drake’s River Man on the first Winterset long player, breathtaking. I’ve got the three disc Young Marble Giants collection too. Disc one is the astounding post punk classic, Colossal Youth, a stunning and skeletal act of genius. The other discs contain EPs, singles and the obligatory Peel session. The sleeve notes, by Simon Reynolds, are worth the effort of unwrapping the blighter alone. File under ‘Must Have’. Finally, Stephen Duffy and the Lilac Time’s Runout Groove remains forlornly unplayed. I’m working on it.
The elder Cole daughter merrily models the Savage Pencil reggae compilation.
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