“Faster than fairies, faster than witches, Bridges and houses, hedges and ditches,
And charging along like troops in a battle, All through the meadows, horses and cattle,
All of the sights of the hill and the plain, Fly as thick as driving rain,
And ever again, in the wink of an eye, Painted stations whistle by.”
From A Railway Carriage – Robert Louis Stevenson.
Robert Louis Stevenson seemed almost caught off guard by the speed, sights and sounds he encountered on his first train journey. Born in 1850, trains were seen as a marvel of modern technology. In the intervening 161 years, our excitement has dampened somewhat. Trains are now a means to an end, rather than the end themselves.
That doesn’t mean we can’t still enjoy them. I vividly remember a train journey, at the impressionable age of 17, from London Paddington to Swansea. I enjoyed the “woosh” of the automatic doors, the lurch as the train pulled out of the platform and the banked curves of the track. The mystery of it all was more than enough for me and I settled down to listen to The Postal Service’s Give Up, an album awash with electronic gimmicks and romantic notions.
It was with that memory nestled firmly in my head that I spent myself traversing the UK, from east to west and back again, during my half term. Once again, I was listening to beeps and glitches, not from The Postal Service, but from the likes of Floating Points, Four Tet and Cloud Boat.
I’ve decided that my play list from those journeys is worth sharing. It’s only 10 tracks, 50 minutes. Not a biggie. The tracklisting is below, featuring some names we’ve banged on about before, some that you will almost certainly know already and a couple that will hopefully be new:
- Shells – Pastels
- Dauwd – Shimmer
- Four Tet – Locked*
- Cloud Boat – Bastion
- Lanterns On The Lake – Lungs Quicken
- Samaritan – Got Time
- Floating Points – Sais (Dub)*
- Massive Attack – Paradise Circus
- Sigur Rós – Untitled #2 (Sekuioa Remix)
- Big Deal – Seraphine
The starred tracks have been pinched from Four Tet’s brilliant Fabriclive 59 set. I’d recommend listening to the whole thing in its 27 track glory.
As ever, this mix is intended as an introduction (or timely reminder) to the artists featured. Please go and buy their records, turn up for their shows, buy their merchandise and generally allow them to keep doing what they do best.
Also, if you’re an artist and you’d like your track removed, please let me know and we’ll take the mix down.
Enjoy.
P.S. – The image used for the cover is not mine. It’s of Paddington Station, taken by Sean McTex and used under the creative commons license. Check out his Flickr account by clicking here.