Nothing Ever Was: Compiled by DJ Sundae [LP]

Various Artists - Nothing Ever Was: Compiled by DJ Sundae [LP]

LP version. Consummate selector DJ Sundae returns to Efficient Space with Nothing Ever Was, an immaculate compendium of phantom independent melancholia spanning '60s/'70s village green folk, outsider shoegaze and new millennium domestic pop. Each recording an emotional exorcism, Sundae breathes oxygen into music that was barely there in its own time, made in quiet places and crawl spaces, shared only with a precious few via private presses, hobby labels and now-decaying CD-Rs. Free of any prescribed epoch, continent, scene or rarity, Noughties homemade indie pop opens both sides with the 4-track wonders of The Motifs and Betelmire, unlinked contemporaries finding their place alongside Andrew Jay's Crazy Horse rust, the regional-garage adolescence of Pauline Scribner and the anaesthetized Mancunian guitar-poetry of the late Quigley. The remaining coordinates zigzag between the UK and US. Folk wayfarers John Strang & Valentine Lewis Lloyd, Virgin Insanity, Kusudo & Worth, and Penny Wager's spartan Garden of Eden acoustica find their mirror in Empress and Slumber's close-quarters indie pangs. Chicago power pop fixture Phil Angotti is caught at his most tender, while Teri Rini takes the final bow with her universe-stopping hotel lounge torch song. A deeper, more personal exploration of Sky Girl's sentimental songwriting, Sundae found himself amassing a cache of tracks too undeniable to remain confined to his anonymous mixtapes for TTT, P.A.M. and Good Morning Tapes, or bi-monthly hour on NTS Radio. Again, his emotional sorcery draws together an unlikely cast, their unwritten narrative assembled from fragmented memories of past lives left behind by future horse trainers, ketamine therapists and Fab Four cover band careerists. With not a second squandered across album, it took a village to bring this new companion into being, with David Bergot's forensic audio restoration, dreamlike imagery from Matthieu Crozier, Ivan Liechti's elegant design and a perceptive foreword by kindred spirit Jessica Pratt.

Track Listing:

01. The Motifs - Matches
02. Andrew Jay - How Long
03. Quigley - Falling From Trees
04. Slumber - Wasteland
05. Virgin Insanity - For A While
06. Phil Angotti - World's Apart
07. Betelmire - Preston Parker
08. Kusudo & Worth - Something From Nowhere
09. Penny Wager - Gnostic Serenade
10. Empress - Cause To Doubt
11. Pauline Scribner & the Peppermint Triang - Hey Baby
12. John Strang & Valentine Lewis Lloyd - Village School
13. Teri Rini - Behind Every Mirror