Crumbling The Antiseptic Beauty and The Splendour of Fear are two of Felt's early albums, both beautifully melodic, both idiosyncratic and awkward. Crumbling The Antiseptic Beauty is their first LP, and feels like it--the rippling guitars are pretty, and it sounds marvellously fresh, though a little unfocussed--but its utter fragility makes it an acquired taste. In its quiet way, The Splendour Of Fear is a minor classic. Mostly instrumental, rich with slow, reverberating guitars, it has an atmosphere all of its own, eerie, brooding and hypnotic. Equidistant from The Byrds and Brian Eno, it's a modest, unsettling beauty. There has never been another band quite like Felt. Their perversity was a consequence of their classicism: they operated according to their own strict aesthetic, which meant that they would never be commercial, despite their records being uniformly beautiful and easy to enjoy. --Taylor Parkes