~Kitten Wine~#20: Clouds Of Tranquility

"A Typical Day At The Streetlamp HQ":

So here's what we did yesterday(2nd October 2010).....

Griff, Ray and I convened at the Streetlamp HQ on a beautiful, if a little wet, Autumnal Saturday with nothing in mind but to listen to some old Sha-La-La and Sarah flexidiscs, some classic Indiepop singles, devise new videos for our Blog, trawl the Internet for new bands to listen to and basically discuss and work on the Blog in general.
Fuelled by the twin drugs of soup and tea we beavered away in a world so irrefutably Tweepop, whilst Jill worked away in the other room scanning images and record sleeves for us. An almost idyllic setting. If we could do it full time, you can bet we wouldn't hesitate to do so.

And so it was that amongst the pile of 7" goodies that we listened to that afternoon, we stumbled upon 'Tranquil' by The Clouds. This is a record that is almost PURE 'Streetlamp', it practically symbolises EVERYTHING that we stand for, represent and love.
It's a 7" single, the only proper release The Clouds ever made(although they did have a track called 'Jenny Nowhere' on a flexidisc but sadly we've never seen or heard it), it's on Subway Records and was recorded in Edinburgh in 1987. It's a vibrant and essential slice of pure Scottish Indiepop, and despite the obscurity of both the band and the single itself, it is very much treasured amongst the Indiepop community....check out Sean Forbes' comments about the single in the booklet that accompanies Rough Trade's Indiepop 1 CD compilation.
Of course, being this was the Streetlamp, we also felt the nostalgic pull back to more innocent days when the single was still a current release and when the world felt like a good place to be a part of and our lives still had a long way to unfold. And in the golden glow of a beautiful Saturday afternoon in October, the giddy wondrous music made us grin madly and forget the shittier things in life like our jobs and the Cameron/Clegg Utopia!

Take it away...




As we sat listening, glowing with contentment, it occurred to me that what motivates us is the very passion with which all of the records we write about are created. And it made me wonder about the people out there who only listen to, say, Level 42, Simply Red, Dire Straits or UB40....bland, turgid music with lyrics bereft of any sentiment or emotion, and I came to the conclusion that the people who listen to this kind of music are probably people who never really feel any true emotions, never really feel anything resembling passion or drama, people for whom music is simply wallpaper. How empty their lives must feel. I know that people tend to slag of trainspotters, stamp collectors or those who go angling, but I can understand that desire much more than I can people who simply use music as a garnish for their dinner parties.

We've never stood for it, and we never will. For us, music is everything and the bands, record labels and individuals that we champion all have that same hunger, desire and madness that we have. The music we write about and promote here is so full of passion, so full of life that it has become a full time job for us to keep banging on about it.

But for once....it's a job that we love!!

~Gordon~