Leyland Kirby

James Leyland Kirby’s near-mythical ‘The Death Of Rave’ material finally given a proper release - original rave classics deconstructed into hazy, ambient flashbacks* Finally, after years of haranguing, Leyland Kirby finally yields 'A Partial Flashback' 8-track vinyl edition of his 204-track dancefloor elegy 'The Death Of Rave'. Conceived after a visit to Berghain in 2006 where, according to the artist "For me personally something had died… Rave and techno felt dead to me", the monumental and uncannily prescient series was released via V/Vm's now defunct website as "an inverted paean" to the rave years circa 1988-1996 which engulfed and enchanted our favourite anti-hero. Gutting samples from all the big hits (and misses) of the time, Kirby augmented their desiccated essence to manifest a nebulous remembrance reflecting the lost spirit and soul of original rave music as a "document from a dead past". Euphoric hooks, rushes and stabs were deconstructed, sublimating their physical energy and affect into metaphysical apparitions, at once poignant yet disturbing. Now clad in lush artwork by fellow rave veteran Ivan Seal and given some of the best track titles ever, such as 'Machete's At The Banshee', 'Acid Alan, Haggis & Scott', or 'Big Eddie's van - Bowlers car park', The Death Of Rave feels all that more palpable as a physical product, re-animated by a subtle remaster from Matt Colton to rightfully assert its position as the antecedent to so much gnostalgic material from Lee Gamble, IVVVO, Kareem, alongside so many young producers infatuated with that intangible, rose-tinted perspective of rave filtered back thru youtube videos and magpie aesthetes who impose an ersatz spirit onto pallid imitations. In the words of Leyland himself taken from Simon Reynolds' Retromania; "Everyone thought everything was possible on those long nights. The World was ours. Now I think this generation is very disillusioned. They saw a glimpse of light on the dancefloor, but that light has gone out and the future seems grim and predictable.