I saw this advertised in a magazine. How many albums do I discover via adverts? No others that I can think of. But just being aware that this existed, two CDs of all the old Peel sessions, was all the prompting I needed to buy it. I remember wondering who these Bella Union people were that were putting it out, and only finding out some years later that the label was founded by Simon Raymonde and Robin Guthrie of the Cocteau Twins.
Then it turned out that the old Peel sessions weren't the real value of the album. Because they used tapes and drum machines for the rhythm backing, the session recordings are not sufficiently different from the album and EP recordings to be interesting. Also those 1983 drum machines get pretty wearing on your ears if you listen to a whole 70-minute CD's worth — much better to listen to one side of vinyl at a time.
No, the real revelation for me was the two sessions recorded in 1996. You see, the Cocteau Twins disappeared off my radar after the Victorialand album. I saw them play at Sheffield City Hall in 1990 (I think), but was overwhelmed by the dry ice (it did my throat in) and underwhelmed by the performance. The Mark Radcliffe session, in particular, is heart-stoppingly beautiful stuff, with the sound mellowed out (quieter and better drum programming). Half-Gifts could almost be Jon and Vangelis.
 MusicBrainz entry for disc 1disc 2 |
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