Stereophonic review – 70s band saga is an extraordinary, electrifying odyssey

XTC, ENGLISH SETTLEMENT This band has been largely forgotten, but their gorgeous instrumentation tempered by edgy lyrics and a pastoral snarl made them my personal Beatles. The lead singer, Andy Partridge, had a nervous breakdown and swore he would never tour again, so the band holed up in some tiny bucolic English town, and their music became less

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The function room above the King’s Arms was not the most spacious in town and, as soon as the band had begun to assault their instruments, the few dozen local devotees of thrash metal willing to pay seven pounds fifty to risk permanent hearing loss had quickly coalesced into a frenzied, sweating mass of hair and leather. Men and women – mostly men

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How to describe the music? Avant-garde, ambient/downtempo, experimental dance music with unusual instruments and sounds drawn from traditional Chinese music. This is a useful description, but it also feels a bit keyword -y, like I’m describing the album for a search engine and recommendations system.

Let me try again. It’s music you can dance to or ... See more