4. Tony ConradOutside The Dream Syndicate

When I first heard this I didn’t think much of it. I had been getting really into Faust and had sort of explored everything there. I found this in a record store in the Faust section, even though I guess it would be classified under Conrad. I had no idea who Tony Conrad was, but at the time I was experiencing a lot of anxiety. I was trying to find natural ways to reduce my anxiety, so I started long-distance running. I realised that I was pretty good at it, but distance running for me isn’t much fun when you’re listening to three-minute pop songs, because you can really tell the time is going by. Every three minutes feels much longer. So I started listening to this as I ran because it’s two songs, and each track is 25 minutes each, and so when you listen to these when you’re running you feel as if time isn’t really happening. I’m not sure if anything even happens in these songs, they’re so still and monotonous, in a great way. This record for me just merged with this calming, mediative, anxiety-reducing ritual I would go through.