July 2026
Five records listened to with eyes closed. No rankings, no algorithms. Just ears.
-
01Spirit of Eden
Talk Talk · 1988Post-rock
I put this on when I need quiet but not absence. In 1988 Talk Talk had a pop contract and handed in this instead: six pieces that rise out of nothing, hold for whole minutes, erupt for three seconds, then withdraw. EMI had no idea how to sell it. On a July evening with the windows open, it's the record that reminds me music is allowed to take its time.
Which pressing? Check it on Discogs ↗
-
02Journey in Satchidananda
Alice Coltrane · 1971Spiritual jazz
Thirty seconds into the title track — Alice Coltrane's harp, Cecil McBee's walking bass — and you're already somewhere else. This is spiritual jazz in the literal sense: music built to leave the body. I bring it out on Sunday mornings, low volume, and let it fill the room. A 1971 Impulse! that, with a good reissue on the right turntable, explains why some people will never give vinyl up.
Which pressing? Check it on Discogs ↗
-
03Come to My Garden
Minnie Riperton · 1970Orchestral soul
Pulled from a budget bin years ago with no idea what it was, it's still my best crate-digging score. Minnie Riperton's voice soaring across five octaves, Charles Stepney's arrangements like spun gold: nobody bought it in 1970, and now it's a small chamber-soul treasure. I play it when I need reminding why I dig through bins instead of scrolling new releases — some things you only find with dust on your hands.
Which pressing? Check it on Discogs ↗
-
04Selected Ambient Works 85–92
Aphex Twin · 1992Ambient techno
For me this is still where it all begins. Richard D. James recorded it as a teenager on makeshift gear, and in 1992 it arrived sounding like the future: warm, fragile, human ambient techno, the opposite of the cold-electronics cliché. I listen late at night, on headphones, and it hasn't aged a day. If this month's Boards of Canada is the nostalgia, this is the spark that lit it.
Which pressing? Check it on Discogs ↗
-
05Pink Flag
Wire · 1977Punk
Yes, two picks from me this month — but Talk Talk and Wire are the two poles I've always moved between. Pink Flag is the exact opposite of Spirit of Eden: twenty-one songs in thirty-five minutes, some of them over in a minute flat, before you've worked out what's happening. In 1977 Wire took punk and stripped it to the bone, and half of English post-punk grew out of this. I put it on when I need a wake-up call, not a lullaby.
Which pressing? Check it on Discogs ↗
Groov-illa participates in the Amazon and eBay Partner Network affiliate programmes. Purchasing through my links may earn me a small commission at no extra cost to you.
← All editions