LCD: Best Kind Of System!
LCD Sound-System should not work. That’s it, really. They cram tens of instruments into every track, let tracks wander and stumble around for minutes on end as if drunk out of their blissfull little minds, and then suddenly stop playing completely without warning, breaking into a new and odd beat, totally different from the last, but equally bizarre. But they do work. Don’t ask how. Not being able to work out how they do it is one of the beautiful things about listening to their music.
The ongoing project of record label DFA co-founder James Murphy, LCD is some kind of ‘Dance-Punk’–if we have to classify, which feels uncomfortable–that spends most of its time poking fun at the rest of the music world and laughing in the face of a life time of musical convention.
The first time I heard LCD I switched them off. Seriously, off they went! They did my head in. I couldn’t make sense of the music and then my friend said, “what are you doing? You’re a fool!” So I said, “not listening to this is what I’m doing. Or am I mistaken?” My friend looked at me smugly, like a boy might who’d just dug a hole on the beach and covered it with a lethal scattering of twigs, leaves and sand. He turned it back on and, as I sighed, said, “See?” And the rest is history. From that moment on, I was hooked for life.
Since then I’ve discovered that I wasn’t alone, though my friend has never stopped reminding me of that fateful day. So now when someone turns their nose up at easily one of the world’s greatest bands I smile and ask them if they’d like to reconsider. Usually they do so without me having to switch the CD on—that’s how much I love this band: I suppose I just can’t help but keep the smile off my face.
So, if memory serves correctly, it is my birthday soon and in case you are pondering what to buy me (that means you Carolyn) I have been looking at that dvd set for Last Of The Summer Wine, just in case you couldn’t think of anything…