This one is a nice tale of how record shopping should work. Kind of; it has a modern twist. I guess I'd been working during the day but got fed up but for some reason didn't want to go home straight away. Maybe I was going out afterwards. Anyway, I had some time to kill so went to hang out in the record shops of Berwick Street. In Sister Ray (which in my mind is still Selectadisc) they put on an album whilst I was flicking through the new release LPs that caught my ear. The first song was incredible and had this woman singing bitterly about LA. In the past I've often wondered up to the counter to ask what was playing (on three separate occasions in was Nick Cave). I'm not sure why I didn't that day. Perhaps I was just feeling lazy. So I googled the lyrics (the "modern twist"!) and found out it was by E.M.A. who I'd never heard of. I look at Pitchfork everyday (rarely read it) and she'd got a lot of attention but it had passed me by. So I read about her (still in store) and found out she used to be in a noise/drone/folk duo called Gowns. Took this information in but thought nothing more of it for the moment. I didn't buy anything because I rarely can afford records in there and strolled down to the second hand store by the market.
Here, by some strange coincidence, I found the Latitudes session by the band I'd just been reading about. Their live show and this record had rave reviews and here was a limited edition record, second hand but in mint condition and on green vinyl, which I'd learnt there were only 300 copies of. So despite having never heard the band, just one song by half of them, I decided to buy it. I was getting some cheap as CDs anyway, and once my wallet is open I get quite spend happy. I'm glad I did. The first two songs are monster, growing, fuzzy noise pop. The first song on side 2, Marked, is possibly my favourite, more immediate, catchy. A brief spoken word tune follows, and another grower to finish, a killer with crazy wailing vocals.
I had one other Latitudes sessions record before this (William Elliot Whitmore) so knew they did some pretty cool stuff. The list of bands they've recorded is pretty impressive and given the chance I'd buy plenty of others too. The artwork on the LP sleeves is the same across all of them, but absolutely lovely. The labels are then all different and poke through the die cut sleeve. I like it.
Months have now passed and I've not looked into getting any more of their records. I really should. I knew when I bought it they'd broken up and I'd missed the boat entirely. You can tell by the record that they'd have been mind-blowing to watch live. Still, I'm glad I at least stumbled across this one.
Format: 12", die cut sleeve, cd-sized inner
Tracks: 5
Cost: £10 second hand
Bought: Soho
When: 10/11/11
Colour: Transparent green
Etching: none
mp3s: no
