I was struggling to articulate all sorts of things in this excerpt from Pantry For The World, and Sarah Records got caught in the crossfire.  A less violent, retrospective assessment of the label was delivered as part of B/w 42 on St. Christopher.

The sky blue colour of the cover of Pantry For The World was partly chosen in tribute to the covers of the first two Another Sunny Day singles.  It’s great to see Harvey’s early work available again in the form of London Weekend (Cherry Red).  I still love the contrast between the focussed musical rush of ‘What’s happened to you, my dearest friend?’ and its bewildered lyric, and the way the sound comes together with the words to create the yearning tug of ‘Green’.

The Orchids were definitely one of the more accomplished groups to record for Sarah.  They were consistent too, and the LP Striving for the lazy perfection lived up to its own billing.  It wouldn’t be quite true to say the same of the single ‘Thaumaturgy’ – miracle-working – but it’s not far off, and full marks to the Scots for helping to extend our vocabularies back in those days.

• Another Sunny Day – What’s happened to you, my dearest friend?
• The Orchids – Thaumaturgy