Have you ever heard of Langley, British Columbia?
No?
Well I don't see why you would have. They haven't done too much. That is if you don't count the 1976-77 recordings of the Langley Schools kids choir that in 2001 became a cult phenomenon after being rediscovered by a Radio DJ obsessed with "Outsider Music." THOSE are brilliant. Recorded in the schools Gymnasium by school music director Hans Fenger, this collection (dubbed simply the "Langely Schools Music Project") captures a group of young students full to the brim with charm belting out the pop classics of their time. The Beatles, the Beach Boys, even a David Bowie song, all framed by sparse arrangements of acoustic guitar, chimes and mysterious warbles, and voiced by the painfully innocent. One cannot help but fall in love with these simple songs, their amateurish nature only adding to the mystique that is music made for its own sake. The new collection for these songs is called "Innocence & Despair," named thus due to the abundance of sad love songs, and the oddly chilled atmosphere that floats over every group of children who've ever sung a song beyond their understanding...
