Leyland Kirby - Sadly, the future is no longer what it was

  Boomkat.com said:

*Incredible new project from James Kirby, aka The Caretaker. There will be three double vinyl albums followed by a triple CD collection of all three parts, Be warned - these deluxe vinyl editions are strictly limited to 450 copies for the world* James Leyland Kirby is the real name of The Caretaker, an artist formerly known as V/Vm. In recent years his tireless trawl through obsolete 78rpm discovered in a Stockport record shop have provided the source material for a ghostly new sound centred around that school of Hauntology identified by Simon Reynolds. Since moving to Berlin over two years ago, Kirby has been exploring a sound beyond the mottled loops of his 'Persistant Repetition Of Phrases', seeking to encapsulate a deep feeling of loss and alienation. What started out as a concept for a single album, soon blossomed into a triple double-vinyl series, and triple CD pack as the material proliferated. To give some background to the feelings exposed in this music Kirby himself says "Here we stand, twenty years on from the first CD, and our optimism has been gradually eroded away collectively. 'Tomorrows World' never came. We are lost and isolated, many of us living our lives through social networks as we try to make sense of it all, becoming voyeurs not active participants. Documenting everything. No Mystery. Everything laid bare for all to see". And it is with this pessimistic, and individuated sense of being that Kirby constructs these incredible pieces, weaving field recordings, found sounds, layered drones, treated piano and unidentifiable fragments of sound to create a deeply mesmerising sequence of music designed to overwhelm and absorb. These deeply personal tracks somehow betray a yearning to connect with something deeper, to rediscover visceral emotions that have been buried under so much daily detritus and feelings of being short-changed by the glorious rave era which so many people of this generation have experienced, but can now only look back upon with selective, and often warped memories. It's a return to ambience, to the soporific sounds which have been in the background during our shared experiences, contrasting the "togetherness" of the halcyon rave daze with our current "pod existance" by subliminally and psychedelically affecting our sense of time and place by tracing and retracing musical steps until it's a blur, reliving the same momentary motif with incremental differences, trapped in our own feedback loops of lost emotion. This feeling is also reflected in the original artwork by Ivan Seal, whose original composition is painted over and again through the six separate releases, shifting patterns with traces of what came before them affecting the layers that succeed them. To us, this album feels like the music of Eno, Debussy, AFX, Basinski, Köner and Badalamenti channeled through the spirit of a Berlin or Manchester nightscape and delivered with a brutally honest appreciation of the world we live in. Some of the finest music you'll ever feel.

Audio previews and release dates here - http://boomkat.com/downloads/228872-leyland-kirby-sadly-the-future-is-no-longer-what-it-was

I'm a huge fan of the Caretaker alias of his but this just takes it to another level. Simply stunning sounding stuff.

I've been looking foward to this for ages. I'm waiting for the 2CD version to arrive, and I'll be ordering the 3CD version as soon as it's available

I can easily see this being my favourite album of the year

i dont understand why the 3cd seems to be the standard cd version, but then there's another 2cd which is just a little different and with one less cd? what's with that?

looking forward to this too.

ordered

  On 9/13/2009 at 9:55 PM, Hanratty said:

i dont understand why the 3cd seems to be the standard cd version, but then there's another 2cd which is just a little different and with one less cd? what's with that?

The 2CD version is a limited release that is being sent to people who pre-ordered the release in the early stages (when the album was still expected to be a single CD), and has some different tracks/different versions of tracks on the standard release.

I am going to have to pick this up.

Yeah, I think I'm going to have to as well.

the artwork is beautiful

why is the release so extremely limited?

What was that limited vinyl release he put out called with the Twin Peaks samples?

  On 9/14/2009 at 10:41 PM, triachus said:

why is the release so extremely limited?

My (unfounded) theory is that it's to do with Mr. Kirby's lack of finances to fund the project - He's paying for the production et al himself after all

  On 9/15/2009 at 5:56 PM, patternoverlap said:

What was that limited vinyl release he put out called with the Twin Peaks samples?

There were a couple - V/VM - There Was A Fish In The Percolator (12''), and V/VM - The Owls Are Not What They Seem (7'') ... they're both kinda strange !

Excellent. Thank you.

this is so fucking good

Thanks for the kind words and interest about my new releases. In answer to a couple of points, the vinyls were limited as i didn't expect as much demand for them all (as there were three lots of 450 copies and doubles). What with rising postage costs and production costs it's not so easy to make things as cheap as you would like too these days and in the past simply selling 200 copies of something is not so easy right now.

The 3CD version captures all of the vinyls in one place and has been pressed in a greater quantity so should be easier to find out there as it will have moderate distribution.

Quite rightly as pointed out above the 2CD version was given away for free to all the people who pre-ordered any of my new releases earlier this year. It's slightly different as it has a lot of different mixes of tracks on there and also a few different tracks all together than the 3CD version and in some ways is a little more personal.

A limited number of these discs will be made available too in Mid-December for anybody interested.

Incase you also missed it too, i did a remix E.P. for my friends L.D.W.R. you can download it for free here

L.D.W.R. (Version 14) - Free Download

The audio will also be released as part of a 6CD boxset on L.D.W.R. in the new-year.

Best wishes.

Now I've had a chance to listen to all 5 CDs, I just want to say that this is ridiculously good

They're bloody great aren't they. I'm still to hear the 3rd of the 12'' (it's been sitting on my shelf for nearly a month) but yeah one of the highlights of the year musically.

I hope I'll be able to get the 2xCD release when it's released ....

i just got the 6xlp off of boomkat last week. anyone clamoring for selected ambient works 3 needs to listen to this immediately. not to diminish the incredible uniqueness of the music though. seriously beautiful and affecting music. its a cold foggy day outside, and this is perfect.

is this all beatless?

Yessir, yessir it is. You can preview the whole thing here - http://www.boomkat.com/item.cfm?id=228872

  On 11/11/2009 at 2:18 AM, Broxburn said:

Thanks for the kind words and interest about my new releases. In answer to a couple of points, the vinyls were limited as i didn't expect as much demand for them all (as there were three lots of 450 copies and doubles). What with rising postage costs and production costs it's not so easy to make things as cheap as you would like too these days and in the past simply selling 200 copies of something is not so easy right now.

 

The 3CD version captures all of the vinyls in one place and has been pressed in a greater quantity so should be easier to find out there as it will have moderate distribution.

 

Quite rightly as pointed out above the 2CD version was given away for free to all the people who pre-ordered any of my new releases earlier this year. It's slightly different as it has a lot of different mixes of tracks on there and also a few different tracks all together than the 3CD version and in some ways is a little more personal.

 

A limited number of these discs will be made available too in Mid-December for anybody interested.

 

Incase you also missed it too, i did a remix E.P. for my friends L.D.W.R. you can download it for free here

L.D.W.R. (Version 14) - Free Download

The audio will also be released as part of a 6CD boxset on L.D.W.R. in the new-year.

 

Best wishes.

Thanks for the info! Cool to see you posting here. I ordered the 3xCD and look forward to getting it in the mail.

put off buying the vinyl and now it's sold out everywhere :(

  On 11/6/2009 at 2:06 AM, Capsaicin said:

this is so fucking good

boom (discounted price)

fuck me this is some grade A shit, wow.. WOW.. WOW..

  On 3/8/2011 at 3:06 AM, halisray said:

fuck me this is some grade A shit, wow.. WOW.. WOW..

This. For some reason I had avoided the release and then I picked it up during that Boomkat sale not too long ago. One of the best purchases I've made in awhile. It's all excellent, but the 1st and 6th tracks on the second album fucking kill me.

I'm glad this thread was revived, I too originally passed on this and then forgot about it. It looks really promising

wish i had known about this when the vinyl was out...would love to add this to the collection.

though I wouldn't call it a successor to SAW II...its still an amazing record in its own right. hats off to ye.