Leyland Kirby - Sadly, The Future Is No Longer What It Was (Part Two) 2xLP

Label: History Always Favours The Winners

Our Review:

Sadly, The Future Is No Longer What It Was is the second chapter in a trilogy of releases from the drone haze ambient masterpiece from the man behind the Caretaker, first released in 2009. Beginning in the mid '00s, Leyland James Kirby began releasing a highly acclaimed catalog of maudlin ambient recordings culled from melodic phrases looped and blurred from old 78s. The bulk of these recordings (typically released under the Caretaker moniker) find Kirby living under the grey skies of Berlin having relocated from grey skied Manchester; lo and behold, he's still making cold, rainy grey music for cold, rainy days. And yeah, he's pretty damn good at it.

Just like all of Kirby's other records, the album works as an endless loop of flipping the two records, forgetting which track you've drifted in and out of, and wondering where to start next. These pieces of blurred ambience, obfuscated field recordings, and sad piano melodies hint at the furniture music of Erik Satie, the mood engineering of Angelo Badalamenti and the emotional resonance of William Basinski.