Saint Etienne's 1991 debut Foxbase Alpha is an album that perfectly summarises time and place (autumn 1991 to be specific), a cohesive record from start to finish taking from pop, the 1960s, wider British popular culture, the purity of the 7" single, house music and club culture, couple of cover versions that show the breadth of their influences (Neil Young and The Field Mice), samples from TV and radio and more besides. It concludes with a song named after Melody Maker photographer and drummer Joe Dilworth, a short piece of 60s influenced pop, fading in on a shimmer of synths, a ton of reverb on Sarah's voice and some lovelorn lyrics- 'Oh babe/ I know you've gone/ I won't be sad alone/ Cos the song you left me/ Has the sweetest refrain'. Piano and swelling synths drift on, then suddenly replaced by traffic noise and voices talking about the 90s, the decade ahead and finishing with the two word phrase- waffle cardigans. After the dreampop and feedback of the previous song, Like The Swallow, an intense trip that borrows from the spirit and sound of The Stone Roses backwards songs and AR Kane, it's a classic Saint Etienne nod and wink.
Joe Dilworth played/ plays drums in Stereolab, Th' Faith Healers and Cavern Of Anti- Matter. This song, Void Beat, was on Cavern Of Anti- Matter's 2016 album Void Beat/ Invocation Trex. Cavern Of Anti- Matter were formed by Dilworth and fellow former Stereolabber Tim Gane, based in Berlin and is very pleasant way to spend the best part of ten minutes, cosmische to the max.