Aerial M - Aerial M (1997)

Bought in HMV in Reading, on or soon after 16th August 2005

With some records I’ll be able to tell you exactly when and where I acquired them. Most of the time this will be because they are among the more important ones in my collection. Not with this one. It’s a good record, but it’s only in listening to it now that I realise I am more familiar with it than I thought.

The reason I’m so sure of the when and where with this record is because I bought it when I worked at HMV. It’s not the sort of thing that is readily stocked, so I ordered it in. And there in the top left corner of the case is a price sticker (normal price stickers go in the right corner, left for customer orders so they’re easily recognised as such):

CUSTOMER  £14.99

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Aerial M Aerial M

CD WIGCD037

ANTHONY (STAFF) 16/08/05

065724/01 1

Working in a record shop can spoil you. It spoiled me to a degree. This purchase is a good example of how. I bought this record seven and a half years ago, and I could barely remember it before today. When you want to buy records, and you have a generous discount, and the easy means of ordering them in free of charge, it is easy to get carried away and buy stuff just for the hell of it. The readiness to hand cheapens it, allows you to take it for granted.

I’d become aware of David Pajo (a.k.a. Pajo, a.k.a. Papa M, a.k.a. Aerial M, a.k.a. M) some years previous when I bought another of his solo works after hearing the most blissful sound on a record shop stereo. Since then I’ve picked up the odd thing here and there, sometimes solo, other times in some band or other (Slint, Tortoise). His work is not the most readily available stuff, so one idle day I must have passed some time in HMV by going through his back catalogue and ordering his debut solo album in. Pay day will have come round and I will have gone to my hidden stash of wants and bought it.

Before putting this CD on my laptop I would have guessed that I’ve not heard it since I bought it, but it comes back to me on hearing. It’s a good short record, but not a startling one. As you would want from David Pajo, it’s a pared down affair, with judicious use of minimal instruments. There’s little more than guitar, drums and the odd synthy noise similar to some of the bleeps found on Pajo’s Tortoise albums. There’s a backwards track (penultimate track ‘Compassion For M’ sounds very close to a reversal of opening track ‘Dazed And Awake’, something that reminds me of ‘Waterfall’ and ’Don’t Stop’ on the Stone Roses’ debut album), but apart from that, it’s a straight and pleasant instrumental guitar album. Perhaps it's the unassuming nature of the album that has led me to neglect it for so long. I regret that, but it will be a fun thing to put right.