Insect Near Piha Beach

One of the things I gained from lockdown was walking daily and despite being back at work now and being home later I've been trying to keep it going. I walked briefly on Wednesday night, just as it was going dark, and it suddenly felt autumnal with a definite chill in the air, the street lamps all on before nine and everywhere full of shadows. The roads are much busier than they were. Back in April and May another of the small joys of lockdown was he almost complete absence of cars. The A56 at the top our road (Washway Road/ Chester Road/ Cross Street) is four lanes of traffic. In April you could walk down the road- the middle of the actual road- safely. The silence out in the streets was startling. I got a touch of deja vu on Wednesday night, the rapidly falling dark, the chill and the quiet and the route I was taking, took me straight back to late March and those first few days and weeks in lockdown. Back in March I was listening to Four Tet's then recently released Sixteen Oceans album. I'm not sure that Sixteen Oceans breaks any new ground (and Four Tet is an artist who has broken new ground more than once I think) but it does pull together much of what makes him so good. This track particularly struck me- the instantly thumping rhythm track, the swell of finger picked guitars, the two note bassline, the Indian influenced instrumentation and the vibrancy and immediacy of the production- and although I didn't have it playing in my ears while walking on Wednesday night, I could hear it all as I walked.

Insect Near Piha Beach