David Kilgour is, in my estimation, up there with the greats. I love Alastair Galbraith’s passionate assessment of Kilgour in The Clean:The sound of it! It was amazingly trebly. I never got over how wonderfully sharp it was, and how it seemed that two-thirds of the sound was just his guitar. You could hear the drums and you could hear the bass, but most of the sound was this beautifully simple tubey guitar sound, in clanging rolling, perfectly formed waves.
Remarkably, there are some people still without a copy of his 1994 classic, Sugar Mouth, scientifically proven to be the second best album released by Flying Nun. The recent CD reissue with extra tracks is an essential purchase if you’re one of those people without it (I bought it and I already have the vinyl – the extra tracks themselves are that good).
Among the Kilgour discography are 5 lathe cut 7”s. This one, featuring I Caught You Lookin and Way Down Here, was recorded at home in early 97, and pressed in a run of 75 copies.
6 comments:
And don't forget the Ajax Records CD release of his excellent home tape demo stuff which was called "first steps & false alarms" if my memory serves me correctly (which it frequently does not).
Oh & the Flying Nun album under the name "Stephen" (the band) is also excellent. It was re-issued on CD as "Radar of Small Dogs"
First Steps And False Alarms (I have the vinyl, but I'll take your word that it's on CD, too!) is a 'best of the worst'; I haven't played it for years. Perhaps I should refresh my memory.
I have the Dumb ep by Stephen, although I've never got round to picking up the ROSD compilation. I will, one day...
Picked up the 2001 CLEAN album (CD) on Matador for a fiver in Rough Trade East en route to Popfest on Thursday. Had multiple copies too,
If you're at the popfest today or tomorrow, come and say hello. Probably easiest to find me on Sunday as it's the Hangover Lounge, so I'll be DJing.
Did you ever get Vehicle by The Clean? I'm certain it's their finest moment.
Okay... so what, scientifically, is the best LP released by Flying Nun? Surely it must be The Verlaines' Juvenilia, right?
No, not Juvenilia. A very strong collection (and even if I didn't rule out compilations, it still wouldn't be the best) but no match for Before We Go Under
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