(cover of Saint Etienne’s Tiger Bay, still from the film Leolo)
“‘Tiger Bay’ is their third and youngest, and takes the slow train from Lake Geneva to the Finland station via Milan and Mallorca, Cardiff and Covent Garden: the scenic route. 77 seconds in and the first moment happens as “Urban Clearway” tosses its Gucci hardbag through the sunroof and burns out of a techno tunnel into a Switzer vista wearing Starsky stripes . . . and we’re already à bout de souffle.” (Simon Price’s line notes, 1996)
(cover of Richard Youngs’s Festival, photograph credited to “Annie”, design by John Malic.)
Orthogonally: where Saint Etienne smash together English folk with the techno & dub of the moment, Richard Youngs smashes English folk with noise & psychedelia. Chronologically: Allmusic assures me that this also came out in 1996, though I certainly didn’t hear it until 1998 or so, as I don’t generally pay attention to things like this. But more specifically: there’s a moment here that’s just like Simon Price’s description of what happens in “Urban Clearway”, only stretched out: at 2:19 a drone breaks through the skittering noise that’s settled in to stay, and then at 2:44 there’s a glorious glockenspiel that could go on forever as far as I’m concerned. Probably I am the only person who would like a house version of this, oh well.
