Mummer Love

The sounds of bird song, singing bowls and water rippling invite us to Peradam, which takes as its entry point René Daumal’s early 1930s novel Mount Analogue: a Novel of Symbolically Authentic Non-Euclidean Adventures in Mountain Climbing, in which the French writer, critic and poet mapped a metaphysical journey to “the ultimate symbolic mountain” in search of meaning. In it, Daumal introduced the idea of the “peradam”, a rare, crystalline stone – harbouring profound truths – that is only visible to seekers on a true spiritual path.

Oh What a Feeling: A Vital Collection of Canadian Music is a 4-CD box set released in 1996 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Juno Awards. A second box set, Oh What a Feeling 2, was released in 2001 to mark the awards' 30th anniversary, and a third set, Oh What a Feeling 3, was released in 2006 for the 35th anniversary. All of the sets feature popular Canadian songs from the 1960s onward. The sets were titled for the song "Oh What a Feeling" by rock band Crowbar. The original 25th anniversary box set peaked at #3 on the Canadian Albums Chart and was certified Diamond in Canada.

XTC almost never wrote a sentimental song– which is strange, when you consider how much of their music deals with nostalgia, home and country, and yearning. Their lyrics are bittersweet and escapist, but even in the lost summers of Skylarking, they cling to some element– biting words, knuckle-cracking hooks, or just a distractingly loud arrangement– that keeps their most heartstring-pulling, young-love-eulogizing songs from drifting away. Which is why their 1999 release Apple Venus Vol. 1 is so much more complicated and concrete than a first impression suggests. That album, plus its 2000 counterpart Wasp Star (Apple Venus Vol. 2), came out after a break of seven years. In that time, Andy Partridge, Colin Moulding, and Dave Gregory– who formally left the band before these albums were released– walked out on Virgin, stayed home making demos, and came back with this pair of records on TVT. And five years and no further material later, XTC have packaged them together in the Apple Box, along with lyrics, liner notes, and two demos-and-outtakes albums.