Totally, completely and utterly fallen for them in a big, big, big way. I'm going to tell you about it. This will be TL;DR for sure, i will have handed in essays shorter than this at college, but I'm feeling the need to write it down. I don't ever want to forget this feeling of discovering something and going head over heels for it. I want other people to know how incredible this band is.

It goes like this.
At Uni about 7-8 years ago I bought the Geogaddi Triple Vinyl LP and gave it a couple of spins, but never really clicked with it. It was confined to my pile of LP's and never bothered with again, apart from when I've moved house and carted it around with me.

A couple of years ago I saw Music Has The Right To Children on CD in a second hand record shop for well cheap and thought "I'll give these a good go now, for sure."

I never did. It's sat unused somewhere on my CD shelves since the day I bought it.

Now, i'm moving to New Zealand next month and have been up the wall and super busy, selling all my stuff and sorting through all my old records to store in my folks house, deciding on which to keep and which to sell on. I spotted the Geogaddi Vinyl amongst the LP's and thought about getting rid of it, thinking it might get a decent price these days, but then thought "No, I'll definitely give them a chance after all these years."

How over the moon am I about this decision? Spectularly so. An absolutely unreal band.

Over the past 3 weeks, i've flipped out completely and listened to nothing else. I've gotten their entire back catalogue, and feel like the whole thing is one epic world I may never want to leave again. I really feel like no other music will affect me as much as this, and that there is no point in listening to anything else. I'm certain that this will pass once the honeymoon period is over, but for now I'm trying to put my finger on why i've gone so crazy for them.

I've been mental hectic lately, what with moving away and stuff, and not really had any time to pause and reflect and just chill out with myself, gather my shit together. Every time i've got a few minutes to spare, I'll sit down and listen to a record or watch some TV, but my mind is still racing and trying to answer questions I haven't really asked yet. There's a constant stream of thoughts always flowing around the edges of my head which I can't really get to settle down.

But this music i've finally discovered, this band, seem to have created the sound of my mind. The soundtrack to what i've got going on up there behind the eyes in recent months. I've never in my life experienced a period where my mental state has been so perfectly complemented by the music i'm listening to.

I feel absolutely overwhelmed with comfort when I listen. Whispers of melodies and creeping notes here and there, surrounded by a fog of swirling samples and synths which are never quite fully realised, but always present and always genuinely spine-tingling.

The cold walks to and from the train station on the way to work each day as the sun rises and sets have become an absolute joy.
Pulling my coat on, putting my wolly hat on, and pressing the headphones into my ears, I cannot describe the warmth and happiness I'm engulfed with.

Examples.

During '1969' on Geogaddi, in the sections with the heavily vocodered vocals. The ice sparkling on the pavements beneath my feet seemed to glisten in perfect sync with the sound of the trilling, warbling keyboard melody in the background. I could've sworn there was some higher power giving me my own lightshow.

The shuffling rhythm of 'Telephasic Workshop' on Music Has The Right... seeming to match exactly the speed and sway of the train as it heads past the frozen tower blocks and industrial estates on the way in the city centre, whilst distant bedroom lights flicker and twitch against the sky.

As i'm walking into a cold wind and my eyes begin to water, blurring the edges of my vision with pretty cobwebs of light I can't quite define, and Zoetrope's twinkling synths frame my aural landscape with astral melodies I cannot quite put my finger on, creating a total sensory haze unlike anything i've come across before.

The bassline that opens Roygbiv, taking the stinging chill out of the air when a smile spreads across my cheeks as I walk past strangers. At that point, 'Beware the Friendly Stranger' popped into my head. I switched songs immediately.

The swelling, overdriven bass that chugs through The Dawn Chorus as lorries go hurtling past me down towards the docks....

I could honestly go on all night like this. I could go on for the rest of my life. I want to.

I fucking love this band.

X