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Hi there Sorry State newsletter readers. I trust we find you well.
A quick bit of housekeeping before I proceed. In these pages last week, I was giving the thumbs up to Finnish jazz and to Ville Valavuo, whose recent album I really liked. I said I wasn’t aware of his other projects, but that wasn’t true. Jeff reminded me about one that we stock here at Sorry State and one that yours truly promoted when it came out, namely Modem and their Megalomania LP. Sorry Ville, I didn’t mean to forget that one. We are all fans of that record and are looking forward to seeing you next month when you hit Raleigh on your US tour.
For those of you into cool synth-based electro pop, check Modem out on that tour and pick up a copy of their album, if you haven’t already.
Okay, with that addressed, what else have I been listening to this week? Inspired by John Scott’s French vacation, I recently picked up a nice French pressing of an album by the original Ye-Ye girl herself, Sylvie Vartan from 1967 called simply Sylvie. The album has her covering some Motown numbers like Same Old Song and You Keep Me Hangin’ On, along with a few other rock and pop hits of the day. My favorite so far has been L’amour Est No. 1, which has a cool fuzz guitar riff going on in it. The album packaging also must be mentioned. A gatefold, with great photos of Sylvie in the studio on the inside and a cool color pic of her on the back cover wearing a sharp military jacket. Tres chic. This French RCA pressing sounds great too. Cheers to the US dealer on Discogs who gave me a great price on it and santé to John Scott. I hope it’s nice in Nice mate.
Here at the store, we have been enjoying stocking represses of two great groups, Broadcast and Stereolab. I love them both. The Stereolab reissues have all been well done, with plenty of bonus material and sounding great. Fill your boots on any missing in your collection. The Broadcast demos and BBC sessions however are a must for fans. Highly recommended if you haven’t heard these versions.
With that in mind and having already spoken about Modem, if you were still hungry for more sophisticated, cool electro-pop that has always been tough to get on vinyl, then you must pick up the reissue of 604 by Ladytron. The band’s debut from 2001 still sounds fresh almost twenty-five years later. Another fine act from Liverpool, let it be noted. They had a bit of a time with their record labels over the years, resulting in vinyl pressings of their albums becoming in short supply. I was shocked to see the current prices on their back catalogue. Fortunately, as with Broadcast and Stereolab, their music does seem to be getting new vinyl pressings. Their follow-up to 604, Light & Magic, is also now available, and their critically acclaimed third album, Witching Hour, is about to get an anniversary repress. So that’s good news. We’ll make sure we get copies of those in for you. I wish for Light & Magic the original UK artwork was used, but I guess most people only know the US version and so it makes sense to use that, but I wonder about the thought process back in 2002 for then label Emperor Norton to release the record with the close-up shots of the band members as artwork instead. Not that it’s a bad cover; just different. They probably couldn’t go with a cover that didn’t show the group and looked more like it was a Factory or Creation Records release from ten years ago. Maybe?
I admit to not being a huge fountain of knowledge on Ladytron, but they are an internationally recognized and successful group, and a quick click of your mouse will take you to all the information you should need. Because their albums haven’t been so widely available on vinyl, as with many artists, I just haven’t had the opportunity to come across copies and spin them. I don’t tend to listen to much music that isn’t a record. I know that sounds like a crazy luddite. I just don’t stream and download that much, if at all. It’s always been records for me, with tapes being okay and then CDs. I just like physical media. That’s all to say that I had 604 and Light & Magic on CD, but that’s as far as my listening to them went, unless I heard them out somewhere etc. I’ve been enjoying listening to 604 again after so many years, and this current vinyl pressing sounds decent to my cloth ears.
I’ll sign off with copying excerpts apparently taken from the record’s original press release at the time. Whether that is true or not is almost immaterial as they are perfect descriptions:
• ‘methadone ABBA’
• ‘Kraftwerk meeting Nico in the 24-hour chemist’
• ‘the hit stage version of Brave New World’
• ‘a teasing glimpse of how Britney Spears might have sounded, had she been born in the GDR and a heroin addict........’
There you go. If that appeals, then you know what to do. See you next time. Thanks for reading our newsletter and supporting the store and the artists that we stock. It means a lot to us all.
Cheers - Dom