This is not a biography of Black Cow, but a biography of Left.
Left is the opposite of a snapshot album; it's a sprawling chunk of life condensed into 50-odd magical minutes of sound. It was a labour not of weeks, but of years.
While songs were written, rejected, rewritten, resurrected and in some cases chopped up like firewood, the members of Black Cow were filling the time between recording sessions with births, deaths, marriages, divorces and piano lessons. Not to mention leaving the band, rejoining the band, moving to Sweden and moving back again. In short, the story of the album's creation is just as epic as the album itself - which partly explains why it took so long.
The recording took place at Camel Heights - more a state of mind than an actual place, as the name ended up referring to the spare rooms of at least three different flats dotted around South London. If the biggest challenge of all was turning all that chaos into one coherent musical entity (and yes, iPod-shufflers, this is still important), the biggest triumph was that they succeeded.
Singer/guitarist Pete gives his take on the process: "We started this a century ago and back then the mission seemed clear. Among other things, we would do it by ourselves, for ourselves, leaving nothing to chance… but as usual, things turned out differently.
"One morning I turned up at Camel Heights to record some vocal tracks and Dickie told me Elliott Smith had killed himself. Another day, a half-plugged pedal summoned the voice of Nicky Campbell. We ditched songs and recovered others... we held listening sessions and made notes on post-it pads then threw them all away.
"I can't say much about it now, except that it is what it is and if I knew what that was I wouldn't be saying it... though maybe, like most things you do for yourself, it has been a way of dealing with what is left."
Pete, drummer Cormac and all-round instrument-botherer Dickie had almost finished their home-recorded monsterpiece when bassist Darren entered the picture in 2006. With the fresh input of his expert ears, Black Cow were soon ready to emerge from their lowly cattle-shed into the dazzling daylight of Streatham. By the time the album was officially finished in summer 2007, the new line-up had already popped its live cherry with a storming gig at the Windmill, Brixton.
POSTSCRIPT:
...and then Pete moved back to Sweden again. Typical.
The Cow lives on as a long-distance file-sharing collaboration, and as of November 2013 the next album is coming on very, very nicely. Keep your eyes on the news page.
