I've always been thrilled and relieved in equal measure that my first contact with live music was the synthetic touch of Jean Michel Jarre upon the tidal isle of Le Mont Saint-Michel, Normandy. I've no recollection of it whatsoever and was purportedly propped up in a baby backpack scarcely within earshot of the ambient overlord, but it's a tale to better one of an insalubrious soirée down Wembley Arena gorging on some faddish pop and an exorbitant hotdog. Such evenings did later come to pass. However this one's a tale told morning, noon and
LateNight; one I'll never be able to fully substantiate yet one that's ever perpetuated by continual repetition. Jarre therefore has and always will occupy the warmest ventricle of my heart or a more fluidic canal of my inner ear. Either or. Another formative musical thing for reasons multifarious was Groove Armada's
AnotherLateNight compilation. Comprising everything from Al Green's Truth 'N' Time, to Shuggie Otis' Strawberry Letter 23, to the filthy grooves of Kleeer's Tonight it was a steep learning curve well worth clambering and proffered about the most masterful mixing class I'd ever had. It's not since been surpassed. Although it was
Andy Cato and Tom Findlay's very own idiosyncratic rewiring of Bart Howard's Fly Me To The Moon – made famous of course by Sinatra – that really had me hooked. A muffled scuffle of elate ambience, it never picked up the plaudits of which it was indubitably worthy but no matter: in the glint of my rose-hued eyes, it's the best thing the duo ever did. Similarly, the highlight of
Metronomy's forthcoming
LateNightTales comp is – to intertwine the two voluble tales above – a kitsch interpretation of an instrumental Jarre obscurity, Hypnose. Originally recorded with French 'Magic Super Star' Dominique Webb a few years prior to his seminal
Oxygène LP, it's here given a somewhat sinister spin by Joseph Mount et al. that pivots around Gbenga's seesawing bass and synths evocative of the troupe's very own
Nights Out. Categorically worth staying up for.
Metronomy's LateNightTales is expected September 3rd.
