Last Monday's long song, the DFA remix of Le Tigre, was a little on the short side, clocking in at just over six minutes. To atone for this today we have a twelve minute epic, from DFA main man James Murphy's headline outfit LCD Soundsystem. I could probably run LCD Soundsystem/ DFA songs in the Monday slot all summer without running out of either tunes or inspiration.
In the first decade of the 21st century LCD Soundsystem re- wired dance music, Murphy taking his influences- The Fall, Talking Heads, Bowie, Can- and infusing them with dance and electronic music. Their first single, Losing My Edge, was one of 2002's best, a still astonishing seven minutes. In 2006 Murphy made 45: 33, a 'conceptual jogging soundtrack', commissioned by a major US sportswear manufacturer (Nike), and some of that piece of music became 2008's Someone Great, one of the standouts from Sound Of Silver, an album that is as good as any released in the 21st century. In 2007 45: 33 came out as a CD single with three Sound Of Silver B- sides including this one...
Twelve minutes of limitless ambition, drums and bass, percussion, choral vocals, horns, groove- the first half is like a New York version of Screamadelica, amped up soul and slo mo dance music crossed with cosmische synthlines. The voices chant, 'If we do it again/ I'm gonna freak out/ So do it again', a phrase that reverberates long after the song has finished. At six minutes forty five there's a drum solo- a full minute and a half long, rolling round the kit drum solo- and then the second half begins, Starry Eyes. Wired keys and synths, Tom Tom Club style lyrics and vox and another chant, 'Starry eyes/ doot doot'. It's ridiculously, effortlessly, confidently cool, the sound of a band in complete control in the studio, a B-side that eclipses many band's A-sides.
LCD Soundsystem played Glastonbury on Friday, an early evening set on the Pyramid Stage. They were very, very good indeed. It's on the iPlayer for the next thirty days (if you're in the UK).
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