BROADCAST
Spell Blanket - Collected Demos 2006-2009
(Warp Records)
After Trish Keenan, co-founder of Broadcast passed in 2011, James Cargill, her partner in the band and in life, said he would compile and album of Keenans demos recorded after the release of Tender Buttons in 2005 (for the sake of completeness they released an excellent collaborative album with The Focus Group in 2009 and provided the soundtrack for Berberian Sound Studio after Keenans passing).
Mostly taken from rough demos, rehearsal tapes, even acapella snippets recorded while out walking, the 36 tracks in 64 minutes are beautifully sequenced into a beautiful whole. It's a fascinating, beguiling listen, very intimate at times.
With so many pieces to choose from in such a short space of time it's hard to pick out a specific track as the record works as a magnificent whole but the stand out for me is I Want To Be Fine, just an acoustic guitar, Keenans beautiful multi tracked harmonies and some spoken word.
It is a credit to James Cargill that he has been able to stitch together such a fine tribute from essentially scraps of materials which is just as great as anything that Broadcast ever released.
Essential Information
Broadcast performing at Sónar Galicia in A Coruña, Spain on 18 June 2010.
