Was several weeks late in picking up
Maida Vale Sessions, the 24-bit version. Upon listening to the first few tracks, the involuntary thought I had was, "Woah, this is better than just about everything."
Broadcast are one of those bands I've liked pretty much from the ground floor up, ever since the compilation of their early singles,
Work and Non-Work, came out on Warp. To a seventeen-year-old kid going on eighteen, it was something, a window into another reality, and a finely rendered one at that. It still holds up. If you count that as an LP, it and the three major ones that followed are all worth picking up and compliment each other well. Have still got a couple of odd recordings of theirs to snatch up. Only recently got
The Future Crayon and its collection of B sides is a more mixed, less essential affair, though it does have some real standouts like "Poem of Dead Song."
Did get to see Broadcast once, at The Abbey Pub, circa
Haha Sound. And it was cool.
Trish Keenan was a wonderful vocalist, perfectly matched for that style of music, even when they went "more electro" as a two-piece with
Tender Buttons. The bass tone on
The Noise Made By People...have wondered at times if it was consciously modeled after that of something like
this John Barry song. I think it's safe to say the band spent loads of time listening to library music/soundtracks as well as the likes of The United States of America (particularly
"Love Song for the Dead Che"), BBC Radiophonic Workshop, maybe YMG, etc. They may have been into the Free Design too, but that band is almost too upbeat to fit faithfully as a discernible influence.
NC.
ZzzZzzZzzz . . .