FM
History
You know when you hear a piece of music and it effortlessly invokes a national or regional characteristic? Oompah bands are forever Bavarian, skirling gypsy violins transport one to Hungary in the blink of an eye, a samba lands you on Copacabana beach; you get the idea. Well, Sundae Club are British. Not a 'rolling green hills and Jane Austen' type of Britishness, more the 'wet bank holiday at Skegness' kind, with the whole family stuffed into your dad's Hillman Hunter, eating fish-paste sandwiches while watching the rain, and hoping your little sister doesn't throw up on the way back to the B&B. But if you think this is starting to sound a little negative, think again...
Technostalgia is a celebration of growing up in the '60s and '70s in Britain, with everything that implies; I keep being reminded of the interval music in the local Odeon, with the cheesy, badly-made adverts for local boutiques and Indian restaurants, and the ubiquitous wobbly Hammond they invariably used as a soundtrack. Nostalgia is the key element here, simultaneously with and without irony; the beautifully-designed CD digipack opens out to reveal the dashboard of an unidentified '70s British car (maybe that Hillman Hunter?) in loving detail, the icing on the cake being the pile of Ladybird books in the glove compartment, the bottom one of which is titled, "How it works: the Mellotron". If you're reading this with non-British bemusement, I apologise; I didn't make the album or design its sleeve, but I'm glad someone did.
