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• Saturday, December 8, 2007 02:07 AM

  Hey Simon Reynolds!

  Loved your recap. The Britbox sounds like something I'd buy if I had money. (Okay, so I might track it down anyway -- maybe used on e-Bay or Amazon, or at a secondhand store, or....who knows? I love stuff like this, but I hate finding new ways to STORE all the stuff I accumulate.)

  So -- you wrote for Melody Maker? Then you're OK by me!

  In college I spent a lot of time in the library. While people were doing real research, and others were apparently masturbating (according to the school newspaper's police reports), I was digging into the library's periodical sections to pore over issues of Melody Maker and New Musical Express. (I also made thorough use of the media library and the newspaper microfiche, but that's another story.)

  I read Melody Maker religiously -- it was my favorite. Maybe I read your reviews? I enjoyed learning about all the great, weird new Brit bands. Bands with names like Crispy Ambulance. (Crispy Ambulance? What the fuck?!) I was obsessed with 4AD bands like Cocteau Twins and Colourbox, and read the Melody Maker review of "Pump Up the Volume" by M/A/R/R/S and went out and bought it on its first vinyl pressing, which I still own. As far as I know, that record is the first record to set Arabic female singing to a hip-hoppy dance beat, save perhaps Eno/Byrne's "My Life in the Bush of Ghosts." God that record got a lot of play in my little dormitory!

  It's funny you mention so many bands I love. You mention the Sundays' song "Here's Where the Story Ends." I am not making this up, but just two days I made a mix CD for a high-school friend a thousand miles away, and it features that very song sandwiched between two other bands you also mentioned -- Saint Etienne ("No One Can Stop Us Now") and Lush ("Scarlet").

  Then you mention the Felt song "Primitive Painters," which yes, I own on both vinyl and CD. I am so happy to own the vinyl of that song! Elizabeth Fraser is the best female vocalist of all time, in my opinion. Sure, Dusty Springfield and Nina Simone and Blossom Dearie and Yma Sumac are pretty good and all, but Elizabeth Fraser blows them all way. If she released an album of her gargling with mouthwash, I would buy it....though I'd much rather hear her having an asthma attack.

  You also mentioned the Cocteau Twins' song "Lorelei." That's like my favorite Cocteau Twins song...it's perfect. It is the song that goes with the goose bumps you get while watching a beautiful girl ice skating.

  Thanks for your article. Do you perchance have an extra copy of the Brit Box lying around that you'd be willing to part with? I will send you 10 awesome mix CDs, hand-made to your taste specifications. I am a devotee of Wire and XTC and the Chameleons and the Sad Lovers and Giants and Robyn Hitchcock and Billy Bragg and pretty much every other band that John Peel ever heralded. I try to keep up with the new bands, but I am getting old.

  —Xrandadu Hutman Read Xrandadu Hutman's other letters
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