Bleep

The indie-pop heavyweights see their odds-and-sods collection Continental pressed to vinyl for the first time. A collection of recordings taken during the band’s ‘wilderness years’ of 1996 and ‘97, the album was only available in Japan until 2009. Though the record may be cobbled together from various sessions in various places, Continental feels just as lucid as full-lengths like So Tough. Tracks like ‘Burnt Out Car’ and Blondie-with-a-drum-machine ‘He’s on the Phone’ - the latter featuring Etienne Daho, no less - broil with the same inner monologue as Pulp, but pack more of a techno punch. Elsewhere the band really show their range on the likes of trip-hop-indebted ‘Sometimes In Winter’, the stormy torch-song ‘Down By The Sea’ and breakbeat excursion ‘The Sea’.