Felt “Index”/”Break it” (Shanghai SRTS 79 / CUS-321)

No, of course I don’t own a copy.

2 tracks, both an unaccompanied distorted cheap guitar recorded on a mono cassette player, bash bash bash, chunka chunka, chord A to chord B, add the little finger, take it off and back again. Oh, and what might be a bit of mumbling in the background, although, unlike their Midlands contemporaries Swell Maps, Felt didn’t credit anyone with actually ‘mumbling’. And on and on it goes (especially the longer ‘A’ side); you try really hard to listen to it, to catch every nuance, but it defies that process utterly. It’s just there and you exist parallel to it. You can’t really relate to it. No verse chorus thing, no conventional structure, no bleedin’ letup. One texture, one approach, one sound. It’s not sinister or wistful or angry. There is no mood; it’s just someone playing a guitar. That’s all it is. That’s all you can say about it, really.

Apart from it’s as choice UK 70s DIY as it gets. Of course it was only the start and the legend lives on forever but even if they’d never recorded another note Felt’s infamy would surely be guaranteed by this release.