i feel i should apologise for the lack of new music round these parts of late. not that i’m apologising for what we have posted, since it’s all been killer.

i’ve been spending a little quality time with my archives recently, letting the shuffle function lead the way and this tracks familiar malladry (i think just made that word up) seeped into my journey to work this morning.

i’m starting to get used to how life changes, everything’s a little upside down at the moment - the weather is so consistently out of season that i’m becoming accustomed to wearing thick woollen cardigans in mid summer; so listening to late-night gitane-flavoured pastoral blues on the way to work seems to fit too.

i’m having a hard time believing that this album came out five years ago - both in the sense that it feels so much older and still quite undiscovered. beth gibbons & rustin man’s out of season was an odd release for 2002 that didn’t fit in to any particular movement that was going on at the time, nor did it spark a swathe of smokey, fuzzed-out, sweepy, bluesy tributes but instead stands on its own aside from the mess and muddle of bandwagon jumping and scenesterism with some outstanding pieces of musical production, lush orchestral soundscapes, and poetic lyrics.

it almost feels like the soundtrack to a movie that will never get made; songs to follow images which can’t ever come to fruition and therefore only part of a bigger picture. its an oddly melancholic but comforting album, otherworldly and strangely uplifting.

sort of like having winter in the middle of the summertime.

beth gibbons & rustin man - mysteries