LP – Limited Dinked Archive Edition #27: Opaque \”lily pad\” green swirl vinyl * Signed photo postcard * Dinked Archive obi strip & gold foil sticker * Limited pressing of 500 * * = EXCLUSIVE to Dinked Edition Following the breakthrough success of Suburban Light, the 2001 collectionof The Clienteles initial singles and EPs, tastemakers and aficionados were eager to hear what the trio of Alasdair MacLean (guitars, vocals), Mark Keen (drums, piano), and James Hornsey (bass) could make if set loose inside a studio to record a full-length album. What they emerged with from Londons Medina Road Studios in the fall of 2002 was tantalising: Their already sharply realised motif of 60s psychedelia and modern fuzz-pop took on inflections of jazz, particularly in how the space afforded by the LP format allowed for a keener articulation of atmosphere. The Clientele stretch the early evening of The Violet Hour out infinitely, manipulating the structured time of the pop song the way poets manipulate the structure of languageto capture place, mood, stray thoughts, disappointments, potential, and, above all, longing. It is a shimmering jewel of a record, its languid melodies and reverb-drenched choruses at once sublime and tragic, its hazy, dreamlike discursions at once recalling the warmth of a favourite record played over a midsummer rainstorm while yearning for the mist-veiled future of a yet unwritten night. The Violet Hour has endured decades later as a signature album inThe Clienteles catalog, not only perfecting the sound that made the banda message-board phenomenon but revealing entirely new depth to it. In its wake, it was no longer possible to declare them one of the best-kept secrets in indie pop. The Clientele were, and remain, one of the genres most important figures, and The Violet Hour was, and remains, one of their most vital statements: a lush invitation to their underground. Tracklist: SIDE A1. The Violet Hour2. Voices in the Mall3. When You and I Were Young4. Missing5. Jamaican Born Rhumba6. House On Fire7. Everybodys Gone8. Porcelain SIDE B9. Haunted Melody10. Prelude11. Lamplight12. The House Always Wins13. Policeman Getting Lost