The Leaf Library - Library Music: Volume One 2LP

The Leaf Library - Library Music: Volume One 2LP (
Where It's At Is Where You Are / UK)

I am one of the few (only?) people in the United States carrying this release. Huzzah!!! It is limited to 500 and nearly sold out via Bandcamp.

IMPORTANT: The post office wasn't gentle with the boxes as they traveled overseas. If you are someone who requires a pristine album cover, please note these covers has some small dings.

Listening Notes: Switched on drone, retro-future pop, percolating synths, a party in a library, Jazzercising motoriks, and odds & ends collections that make for a cohesive body of work in album form.

Mood: Barberella in the chamber of dreams

They Said:

"These are all pretty much perfect pop songs." - Moof Magazine

"A record that captures the group's essence and character in all its guises. Is this a 'best of The Leaf Library' album? No, but it might just be my favourite." - 8/10, God Is In The TV

"So stuffed with an embarrassment of rediscovered riches it's hard to know where to start discussing its highlights. Fans of the spirit and diversity of Stereolab's Switched On series and Yo La Tengo's Genius + Love = Yo La Tengo compendium should rightly revere Library Music: Volume One." - Concrete Islands

Library Music: Volume One is a sixteen track double LP documenting the North London drone pop band’s 7” singles, one-offs and compilation tracks spanning the first 14 years of the group’s existence. It includes synth pop, indie fuzz and moody motorik workouts, alongside pastoral folk sketches, dubby electronics and the occasional drone experiment. More immediate than their stretched out and slow-burning recent album tracks, the music here is taken from limited vinyl releases, album bonus tracks and music for compilations on labels as diverse as Bezirk Tapes, Second Language, Modern Aviation, and Concrete Tapes as well as the band’s home for the last seven years, Where It’s At Is Where You Are.

The compilation is a happily cohesive record of an inventive band that rarely stands still for long. The group says, “We wanted to gather all our early, scattered work before we move on to our next album, to remind ourselves (and others) of some of the poppier and less characteristic things we’ve done. We’ve always felt a lot more relaxed and freer making one off things for people – it’s a chance to try things that might otherwise be daunting on a full record.

“We have been introduced to loads of bands that we love initially through non-album compilations – Broadcast, The Chills, Stereolab, Piano Magic, Flying Saucer Attack amongst others – we wanted to add our own to that (admittedly slightly daunting) lineage.”

Always a prolific group this is by no means an exhaustive collection, the title giving a clue to how much more they have left to share.