It’s not really record playing weather today. Muggy and humid, the air is almost crackling with static charge, and even after a whiz on the Loricraft with L’Art du Son, (which I think does a better anti-static job than the 50/50 ethanol/distilled water mix I sometimes use) things are pulling to the sleeve, and drawing dust from the air. It’s tipping it down at the cricket (50 miles away in Manchester), and we could do with a drop of that here.

Furthermore, it’s definitely not valve-amp weather. I’ve got the windows open, which I don’t normally do when I play records, because I respect people’s peace and quiet. But, with Tramlines in full swing,there’s music wafting everywhere across the city already, and I’m not planning to be long.

First up is a 12” on Deep Distance, by XAM. The three-colour sleeve art makes me think of a late 60s IBM technical manual, possibly because of all the horizontal bars, and possibly because first track Werk & Play sounds like incidental music from an old television program or film which is in some way about computers, even though no one involved in writing or making the film really knew what a computer was, or did. It’s a good track.

The next one Coke Float takes minimal repetition further than anyone probably needs to. It starts, it repeats, very little else happens until it stops repeating much later.

I can’t work out what speed to play side 2 at. Either way, it’s a very, very long song which is, again, very repetitive. The electronics sound like early digital to me, too stable and clean for old analog.

Maybe it’s the weather, but this has all the ingredients for me to enjoy it far more than I am. I can’t be bothered doing any more. The other records will have to wait.