Sodium
Small-town Fiction
An offcut from Small-town Fiction's debut EP, this tune didn't fit the broader aesthetic of the rest of the album, but seemed too good to waste. Of the composition, band leader Whates has this to say:
“When I was young, I often stayed at my Grandparents' house. I would sleep in the spare room where they had an old 12″ CRT TV. It had a tuning dial you would need to turn if you wanted to change the channel. I would often stay awake into the wee hours of the morning watching late-night terrestrial television, the warm glow of the sodium street lights coming through the net curtain. Floral polyester bedding. Artex ceiling and textured wallpaper. The flicker of that TV as I drifted in and out of sleep. Nostalgic, complex memories tinged with sadness now my Grandparents have passed away.
“I aimed to encapsulate some of the above feelings in this work and for the accompanying video decided to marry it up to some 70s NASA documentary—precisely the sort of thing I would have stumbled across at that time.”
Listen
- 2 tracks
- 9m39s
Credits & Notes
- Producer, recording & mixing engineer: Douglas Whates
- Artwork: Douglas Whates
Small-town Fiction is:
Douglas Whates—bass
Pauli Lyytinen—saxophone
Phil Cardwell—trumpet
Tom Gibbs—keyboard
Doug Hough—drums
Music by Douglas Whates
Recorded 10 November 2021 at Red Stereo, Kilmaurs, Scotland
Visuals and voiceover comprised of edited excerpts from Moonwalk One, the 1971 NASA feature-length documentary film about the flight of Apollo 11, directed by Theo Kamecke.
Lathe cut vinyl by Bladud Flies!
This recording was made possible by the generous support of Help Musicians
(P) 2023 Douglas Whates under exclusive licence to ELSWHR LTD / Pyrofon
(C) 2023 ELSWHR LTD / Pyrofon
Video
Small-town Fiction—Sodium (official video). Visuals and voiceover comprised of edited excerpts from Moonwalk One, the 1971 NASA feature-length documentary film about the flight of Apollo 11, directed by Theo Kamecke.