Quickspace

This single (and other surprises which are still to come in an evergrowing Singles Club) is one of those which help Elefant Records to be placed among the main independent labels in the world, with a catalogue full of jewels. It’s a honour for any label to release an exclusive reference by a band which is about to pass from the status of a cult band to that of an unavoidable reality in such a moody scene as its is in Britain, whose new steps are followed with perverse satisfaction by fierce fans all over the world.

To know the origins of the band we must go back to the first years of the essential label Too Pure, when the white-hot art-rock of TH’ FAITH HEALERS (a band in which Tom Cullinan, now in QUICKSPACE, used to write most of the songs) shocked the underground scene of London. After the band split up, Tom joined Sean Newsham (formerly an employee at Too Pure), and they formed QUICKSPACE SUPERSPORT, which quickly became one of the most admired bands in the crowdy Camden circuit. Later on they would cut down their name to QUICKSPACE and start working full-time on their own label, The Kitty Kitty Corporation.

In their record for Elefant Records Singles Club, with a wonderful cover artwork by Chin (drummer of the band), they’ve given us a very special present, which has immediately turned this single into a collectors’ item: the Spanish version, in a pure Cliff Richards style, of their song "Friend". Hence, the record comes out as a double A-side, since it joins the two main tracks in two of their best singles (in the flipside there’s the splendid song "Rise").

Two outstanding songs, which join each and every values of the band: melodic intuition, hypnotic repetition, analogic minimalism, abstraction, avant-garde pop... You can call it metapop, avant-pop or krautrock with a like for melody, or even imagine a hypothetical meeting between Gavin Bryars and STEREOLAB, but those would only be ready markets trying to define what is impossible to express with words: QUICKSPACE’s beautiful music.