still-sound 108. Iceblink luck

When I lived in Paris for a fine art residency, I travelled back to London occasionally to visit friends and sort out the little details that failed to get noticed before my abrupt exodus from the UK.  On one of these trips I accompanied my best friend Kirsten to the club night she helped organize at the Vauxhall Tavern.  It was called What We Like.  Her girlfriend Lesley Lush dj-ed.  So did her ex-girlfriend, Max.

The first few trips back to a place that used to be home feel poignant.  Eventually your connection and trace disappear and it feels like someone else's home.  During the What We Like-days, London was still home but I was a visitor.  This felt exciting. 

Lesley and Max had me on the dancefloor most of the night.  They are both former goths and instinctively chose music with a dark, romantic soul.  I find this music easy to dance to.  In between Siouxsie and Crystal Castles, poppier Le Tigre and LCD tracks edged their way in.  Late into the night, after a particularly dark litany of songs, the opening notes of Cocteau Twins' Iceblink Luck pierced the Vauxhall Tavern.  I had never heard a Cocteau Twins track in a club before.  The roof was removed and the building instantaneously filled with an unyielding radiant light.  The musical choice was startling to most and even more surprising was the realization that everyone seemed to know the words.  Anyone familiar with the Cocteaus' distinctive, ethereal glossolalia would recognize that this was unusual and amazing.  We all, literally, spoke the same secret language.

This morning on my drive to work, the shimmering introduction of Iceblink Luck filled my car unexpectedly.  A surprising choice from KCRW.  It felt most certainly like a blessing and a reassurance.  My lips mouthed the words of the entire song.


Thank you for mending me babies....