Galaxie 500 - Uncollected Noise New York '88 -'90 - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

Temps is a 40-strong international music collective, consisting of artists across multiple genres, fronted by a cartoon alligator. Featuring such geniuses as Quelle Chris, John Dieterich, Joana Gomila, Laia Vallès and Seb Rochford, Temps' ten-track debut PARTY GATOR PURGATORY was produced, curated and devised by UK stand-up comedian James Acaster. This mind-bending opus rose from the ashes of a mockumentary aborted due to lockdown. He spent the next two years sending tracks back and forth, between himself and his heroes, as they gradually discovered an album together. Genres were disregarded in favour of tightly-packed experimentalism. Everyone was given free reign to do as they pleased then Acaster would cherry pick his favourite bits, the methodic touchstone being Incha DIY Gorillaz or a homemade My Beautiful Dark Twisted FantasyInch. Vast in scope and scale, and fizzing with an experimental energy, the trippy PARTY GATOR PURGATORY manages to blend a host of ideas, guests and moods into an album that draws you into it's own unique world.

So much has changed since the of The Big Moon's debut album in 2020, and it continues to change, and promises to change some more. And in this world of constant change, we yearn for the familiarity of a constant. Thankfully, one constant remains the unique, jubilant, unassailable bond that sews this brilliant London band together and what that does for their music, too. Another such constant is their collective ear for melody and knack for writing smart, sharp, and infectious indie-pop knockouts. Vocalist Juliette Jackson might have started lockdown teaching fans how to play guitar on Zoom to help pay the rent (including, to her eternal bemusement, one Courtney Love), she ended it as mother to a super little human being. 'Here is Everything' documents the arrival of that fragile but mighty baby in real time, and the excitement and fear felt by this fragile but mighty mother. Meanwhile, the rest of the band doubled-down in the studio, taking Jules' embryonic song frameworks and stepping forward as one, revelling in an innate, giddy togetherness and with a clutch of genuinely fantastic tunes. Single 'Wide Eyes' is a pure, uplifting song of collective jubilance. It sounds like a band in the form of their lives, having the time of their lives, and against all the odds. It sounds instantly like The Big Moon whilst sounding unlike any of the music that's gone before it.

After a storied first year as a band releasing and touring behind their critically acclaimed debut album Today, Galaxie 500 closed out 1988 with a quintessential performance at New York City's famed CBGB with every bit of their signature intimacy and autumnal bombast on display. The unusual bill which also included Sonic Youth, B.A.L.L. and Unsane was a benefit show for the zine shop See Hear.Captured here in a raw but inspired board mix by Kramer and restored and mastered from the analog source by Alan Douches at West West Side Music, CBGB 12.13.88 is a live snapshot of a Galaxie fully formed, punctuating the end of their first chapter while poised to step into their next with On Fire the following year.