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Library Music: Volume One

by The Leaf Library

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  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      £8 GBP  or more

     

  • Limited edition double vinyl
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Double LP with insert [sold out here but plenty of copies in shops and at wiaiwya.bandcamp.com]

    Includes unlimited streaming of Library Music: Volume One via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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  • Limited edition double vinyl + Black Ink Lake lyric book
    Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Double LP with insert + Black Ink Lake: The Leaf Library Lyrics 2008-2022 (A5 48 page lyric book printed on recycled paper).

    [sold out here but some copies with books available at wiaiwya.bandcamp.com]

    Lyric book available individually at: theleaflibrary.bandcamp.com/merch/black-ink-lake-the-leaf-library-lyrics-2008-2022.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Library Music: Volume One via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

    Sold Out

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Soundings 03:18
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Diagram Loop 03:31
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Tired Ghost 05:20
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about

"This comp works as both a great point of entry for new fans of the band and as a testament to their enduring excellence. Let's hope they stick around long enough to give us volumes two and three and four and on and on." - #79 in The Quietus's compilations of 2022

"These are all pretty much perfect pop songs." - Moof Magazine

"A record that captures the group's essence and character in all its guises. Is this a 'best of The Leaf Library' album? No, but it might just be my favourite." - 8/10, God Is In The TV

"So stuffed with an embarrassment of rediscovered riches it's hard to know where to start discussing its highlights. Fans of the spirit and diversity of Stereolab's Switched On series and Yo La Tengo's Genius + Love = Yo La Tengo compendium should rightly revere Library Music: Volume One." - Concrete Islands

Library Music: Volume One is a sixteen track double LP documenting the North London drone pop band’s 7” singles, one-offs and compilation tracks spanning the first 14 years of the group’s existence. It includes synth pop, indie fuzz and moody motorik workouts, alongside pastoral folk sketches, dubby electronics and the occasional drone experiment. More immediate than their stretched out and slow-burning recent album tracks, the music here is taken from limited vinyl releases, album bonus tracks and music for compilations on labels as diverse as Bezirk Tapes, Second Language, Modern Aviation, and Concrete Tapes as well as the band’s home for the last seven years, Where It’s At Is Where You Are.

The compilation is a happily cohesive record of an inventive band that rarely stands still for long. The group says, “We wanted to gather all our early, scattered work before we move on to our next album, to remind ourselves (and others) of some of the poppier and less characteristic things we’ve done. We’ve always felt a lot more relaxed and freer making one off things for people – it’s a chance to try things that might otherwise be daunting on a full record.

“We have been introduced to loads of bands that we love initially through non-album compilations – Broadcast, The Chills, Stereolab, Piano Magic, Flying Saucer Attack amongst others – we wanted to add our own to that (admittedly slightly daunting) lineage.”

Always a prolific group this is by no means an exhaustive collection, the title giving a clue to how much more they have left to share.

credits

released October 28, 2022

Recorded at Soup Studio, Hackney Road, Studio Klank, The Drone Lodge and various homes and rehearsal rooms between 2008-2021

Played by Kate Gibson, Matt Ashton, Gareth Jones, Lewis Young, SJ Nelson, Melinda Bronstein and Daniel Fordham with Ben Smith, Mike Cranny, Mark Nicholas, Simon Trought and Giles Barrett
Additional production on B4 by Robin Saville and Antony Ryan

Thanks to Mark Cremins, Where It’s At Is Where You Are, Modern Aviation, Second Language, Concrete Tapes, Kingfisher Bluez, Bezirk Tapes and Cowp for originally releasing this music. Thanks, as ever, to John Jervis for the support and encouragement

Compilation mastered by Antony Ryan at RedRedPaw

All tracks P&C 2008-2022 The Leaf Library
All music by The Leaf Library
All words by Matt Ashton (except A4 and B3 by Matt Ashton and Kate Gibson, and C1 by Matt Ashton and Melinda Bronstein)

wialp109

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tags

about

The Leaf Library London

Electric drone pop from North London and beyond feat. Kate, Matt, Gareth and Lewis (+ more).

“World-weary yet innocent, blissful dreampop” – Uncut
"A melancholy wonder" – The Guardian

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