CHAMPAGNE RECEPTION

Out of print on vinyl since the day of it's release in 2000, Radio Khartoum has just recovered a small stash of the 10" edition of "Champagne Reception" which got lost in Southern Wales. First release in a decade, and the dawn of the new Hepburns era. The philosophy of The Hepburns is intact and shining: character sketches inimitably drawn (presumably from the pages of "Clinker," Matt's novel in progress), and a knack for precisely arranged guitars and backing vocal flourishes which speak pure caprice. The cinematic sensibility which was lost on the UK press ten years earlier is still there, and quite possibly stronger than ever. A soundtrack for a film set in a village of dilapidated buildings, obsolete soda pop machines, and gardens, haunted with the ghosts of boxers, Disney's pirates, Nick Drake, and Jackie Onassis.