Friday, June 10, 2005

Slates - The Fall

My turntable didn’t survive the ravages of time and on off house moves. So once I’d finally accepted that I wasn’t going to fix it cheaply myself (and that took some time) I bought a Debut Project 3 in a funky shade of blue. After a lot of fiddling the previous evening, all right fine tuning for optimum sonic performance, it was ready to go.
I spent the next day at work mulling over which of all my too long since last heard vinyl would be the one to make the debut on the Debut. It was a beautiful afternoon, so I left work early, enjoying the ride back, the weather and the knowledge that I’d have the house to myself for an hour. Quality buffet time. It had to be Slates by The Fall. 10inch mini Lp with the guide price "£2 only u skinny rats" and the usual Fall mixture of murky photos and scrawled notes. In fact the sleeve looks like the record sounds. Leave The Capitol is warm and fuzzy sounding with the vocals mixed low and the guitars and bass weaving round each other. "Then you know in your brain, you must,leave the capitol, exit this Roman shell."
There a couple of lyrics on Fit and Working Again which I always listen out for. "I’m cranked up like a Wimpey crane" and "I feel like Alan Minter". Sometimes you just think you know what Mark E Smith means. Buffet Time ended before I could get through any more of my must play playlist. Still vinyl’s back on the menu…and it sounds bright blue.