In Strict Tempo, vol. 81: A Sound Day Out
Hello and welcome to this weeks In Strict Tempo. It was my birthday on Wednesday so I took a the day off and headed into London for the afternoon.
First stop was lunch, but after that I wanted to hit up a few record shops, so off we went. Rough Trade was Rough Trade, I’m sure you’ve all been there, it’s an utter behemoth of a record shop, with loads of choice. There’s some good stuff in there if you’re happy to dig around, but it’s unashamedly aimed at the mass-market so the weirder stuff doesn’t get quite as much racking space as your bit pop and indie acts. I miss the old dance counter in there too, they always had good selections.
Flashback was simply too hot to spend any real time in, but I’m sure I would have found some gold had I stayed.
My final stop was to somewhere I’ve wanted to go for ages - World of Echo. They’ve recently moved to a new spot on Cheshire Street, just off Brick Lane, for whatever reason I never made it to their old Columbia Road location, but I’ve been buying things from them online (in part due to their excellent mailer & social media) for some time. What a revelation this place is - a record shop for proper ‘heads. The records racked on the walls are really well curated, stuff is separated into sections that make sense so you know you’ll find something good, and their second hand section… my God their second hand section. I could have bought almost everything. It was all really well priced too, which isn’t always the case with second hand shops (I will say Flashback are generally fairly-priced as well). On top of all this they had a great selection of zines and tapes too. Basically, what I’m saying, is that I think I’ve found the best record shop in London, and a worthy successor to Low Company. Why it’s taken me so long to go there I don’t know?
After I’d treated myself to a little pile of tunes we wandered over to the Barbican for their Feel The Sound exhibition. The Barbican’s always been one of my favourite spots in London to hang out at, I’ve seen loads of great concerts there including Spiritualized (twice), Actress, GAS and Theo Parrish and their cinema is great too. Feel The Sound is a series of interactive installations exploring the body’s relationship with sound - I won’t spoil too much of it, but it’s really enjoyable with installations from the likes of Ryuichi Sakamoto, Jan St Werner, Holly Herndon and a load of others. It culminates in their underground car park with a number of modified ‘Max Power’ style cars with soundsytems in their boots. If you remember my previous newsletter about cars and music you’ll know that it’s right up my street.
In other news this week you might have seen the news that JD Twitch from Optimo has been diagnosed with a serious brain tumour. A great DJ, a great bloke and the genius behind one of the best records on Blackest Ever Black - Tomorrow The Rain Will Fall Upwards. My thoughts are with his family, friends and the wider Glasgow music scene.
New Music
On to this weeks new music, I’ve been listening to that new Pulp album loads, and their set at Glastonbury was great too. Britain’s best band? By far.
Death Disco - Death Notes [Downwards]
This came out digitally at the start of the year, but now sees a limited vinyl release from Regis’ Downwards. Proper punk/EBM face melters, this could have easily come out on BEB, but these days, really, it was only Downwards who could have put this out.. Simply unmissable.
Externalism - False 03 [False Aralia]
One of a glut of releases from the Peak Oil sublabel, this has been described as "Sade crossed with T++ so you should have some idea what you’re letting yourself in for here.
Giulio Erasmus & The End of the Worm - Hard Sell [disques de la spirale]
Proper mad lo-fi dub punk gear here. In part we’re listening to someone soundchecking, such is the laid-back nature of this recording. I think this is gonna take a few more listens to really get under the skin of this one.
April Magazine - Sunday Music for an Overpass [Tough Love]
Originally released on tape a few years ago this is coming soon to vinyl via Tough Love who’ve got form for this kind of thing. What’s it sound like? If you’d have told me it was Jason Pierce singing I’d have believed you. So yeah, somewhere between late Spacemen/early Spiritualized when they still had that tough of rawness. Don’t let this pass you by a second time.
LDLDN - Being Honest [Natural Frequencies]
NTS DJ & producer LDLDN is the man who brings a touch of Chicago to Hackney. His Natural Frequency label has dipped it’s toes in a variety of styles from acid to broken beat, but it’s classic US jazz-tinged house where it feels most at home, even if you’re listening to this next to the River Lea rather than Lake Michigan.
Iceman Junglist Kru x Degredation - Processed World [Brachliegen Tapes]
Forty-odd minutes of pure Iceman here, only on tape as is the norm from the many-monikered producer. This time he teams up with Degredation for a grimecore exploration through the industrial waterways and rave heartlands of a London pre-gentrification all fuelled by a petrol station Costa with a can of Monster Energy to chase.
