15 essential Broadcast tracks and the records where you can find them

Broadcast
‘Man Is Not A Bird’
(From HaHa Sound, Warp, 2003)

Listen / Buy

James Cargill has often stated that 2003’s HaHa Sound album was the closest the group ever came to having its initial vision for a release be reflected in the final product. A kaleidoscopic soundworld overflowing with intricate instrumental arrangements, daringly abrasive abstract textures and romantic melodies, it both reflects the band’s influences at the time and transcends them. Songs inspired by cult Czech film Valerie And Her Week Of Wonders, British composer Basil Kirchin, and the esoteric library music pop experiments of Roger Roger and Nino Nardini are given lush, ambitious environments in which to frolic. The results – from the whirring, sun-soaked dance of opener ‘Color Me In’ to the looking-glass delirium of ‘Lunch Hour Pops’ – make for not only Broadcast’s warmest, most playful album, but one of the finest psychedelic albums of the new millennium.

The real star of HaHa Sound, though, is drummer Neil Bullock, a concert and session drummer who earned his chops in the British jazz scene. The band recorded Bullock’s parts in a local church, and his intricate, dexterous rhythms are a vital ingredient in the album’s success. ‘Man Is Not A Bird’ plays like a showcase for his talents, its rolling snare, thumping toms and Echoplexed cymbal hits giving way to an extended outro that lets him cut loose. Bullock toured with Broadcast to promote the album, and Cargill cut a series of additional library-inspired pieces with him for the first volume of the group’s Microtronics tour EPs. His presence was so distinct that when he left the group to pursue other gigs, Keenan and Cargill never replaced him.

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