Peel Sessions

These three Peel Sessions capture Bristol’s Movietone in developmental stages, each of the sessions loosely aligned with the group’s first three albums. The first Peel Session, from June 1994, is rough and unyielding; it dips further back into the group’s pre-history with the raucous, punky “Stone,” a thrill to hear, though the lasting moments here are the more paced songs, like “Heatwave Pavement”, where you can hear their interest in beat poets nestling amongst Arcadian, peaceable folk-rock. The second session, from January 1996, is minimal, elemental, much like its attendant album, Day & Night – there’s something skeletal about the arrangements here. The set finishes with three tracks from 1997, including a psychedelically delirious take on “Hydra” that almost bests the version on their album The Blossom Filled Streets.