Hollow Earth

Sam discusses Papa Sprain. He's mad about UK Post-Rock that geezer! He even has his own UK Post-Rock Forum, what a trooper! I have that "May" one on H.Ark! and also the Butterfly Child one, which is like a toothless MBV, reminds me a bit of Huey Lewis and The News, and which disc in the "flesh" has almost exactly the same sleeve as the Papa Sprain's. Same colours/designers/lithography - kind of like Russell Mills on a shoestring. The Papa Sprain disc is infinitely superior though. Actually I can confess with some embarrassment that I didn't know H.Ark! was Rudy and Alex's label until now.



Sam mentions them (and it's funny that 4AD sleeve designer Mills crops up too) but coincidentally I was thinking the other day that The Cocteau Twins have a great deal to answer for. We certainly wouldn't have had either A. R. Kane or My Bloody Valentine without them, the Cocteau's stranglehold on the student readership created the environment within which those two greater groops were understood and enjoyed by most people, not whatever outlandish music people twin them with these days. Yet today they seem strangely, perhaps thankfully, forgotten. The day before yesterday I heard "Donimo" on some net radio stream. It was quite affecting, and I liked the big gaps, but Elizabeth Fraser's elfin gibberish is ultimately off-putting.

I saw The Cocteau Twins, alone naturally, at The Barrowlands circa "Heaven and Las Vegas" and remember dancing slightly mentally through the entire show while everyone around me stood sensibly impassive clutching their beer. I'm pretty sure even Elizabeth was un-nerved by me jigging up and down under her nose, like, who is this idiot psychopath? This summer I found a copy of "Victorialand" in Cannes (I used to own "Treasure") I clutched it for about 20 minutes as I waded through racks of Blues Rock before eventually deciding I could live without it.