Before this session, I knew very little about Kate Bush and her music. I was aware that she’d taken an interest in the work of the Greek-Armenian mystic G.I. Gurdjieff, as some years ago, a friend lent me a book about his teachings by the Russian philosopher P.D. Ouspensky. I was nineteen, hungry for knowledge, and devoured every page.
In 2007, I picked up Ashley Beedle’s edit of ‘Running Up That Hill’ which became an end of night favourite at my DJ residency at Mosquito. Nick Vernon, the club manager at the time, was a great fan of Kate Bush and delighted in Beedle’s well-crafted extension.
Beyond this I was clueless, and I chose not to learn any more about the life or music of Kate Bush so as not to taint the relative purity of the listening experience.
I was surprised to hear ‘Running Up That Hill’ was the opening track – its power, beauty and expansiveness eclipsed everything that followed. Bush’s vocal is captivating throughout, but despite her crystalline timbre, the album didn’t envelop me like I hoped it would. Most of my favourite LPs took many plays to fully unfold; the very best still reveal undiscovered nuances with every listen. Unfortunately, and despite its opening moment of brilliance, this first listen of ‘Hounds Of Love’ didn’t draw me in enough to inspire a return visit.
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