Doesn't Mean That Much To Me.

If I were ever pressed to name my favourite album of all time I think I'd have to say Eg and Alice "24 Years of Hunger". Something about this particular album is truly special. Ask anyone who knows this record and they'll tell you so.

They may refer to things such as, the way Alice Temple sounds like she's about to burst out crying when she sings, or the brilliant playing, or the lush soundscapes, and the songs, so achingly bittersweet. The vocal interplay between the pair seems so effortless and intimate that you almost fall in love with that alone. Indeed it's an album about love and regret like so many great records, but it is delivered without pretentiousness or overwrought complexity. It captures perfectly the atmosphere of the time and place it was made, north London in the late 80's. Recorded, so legend has it, in Eg's kitchen above (or below) a Chinese takeaway in Notting Hill. The atmosphere here simply oozes out between the songs as we hear little sound vignettes of things like rain, dogs howling, bits of incidental chat, doors closing etc. Overall it's a work of breathtaking maturity considering its makers were only in their early twenties at the time and it works its way deep into your emotions. Just take a look at the reviews on Amazon and you will see how much those in the know really 'love' this album. Notice also how much you'll pay for a copy of the cd!

At its root the basic songs are pure class already but with the addition of Eg's atmospheric and somewhat angular keyboards, evocative samples, live and programmed percussion plus some absolutely out of this world bv's, guitar and bass playing, then they really grow wings.
There are loads of super guest players on here too, Eg has obviously enlisted a dozen genius friends to contribute extra bits of sparkle to this unknown masterpiece. Really though, it's the overall effect that makes the album so memorable, the way the songs sit together and the myriad moods they sweep you through, by the end you just need to hear the whole thing again.

I have compiled this little compendium of Eg and Alice stuff because I want to spread the word about them, funnily enough most fans ended up losing their albums because they lent them to people they were trying to convert and never got them back.

So, here we have '24 years of hunger', 'Turn me on I'm a rocket man' (Eg's beautiful solo follow up and a mighty fine record to boot) , a 4 song Ep single with some remixes and an odd number called 'Lazy Woman' and finally a video I found on youtube the other day...yes a real video exists of a young and beautiful Eg and Alice on ITV... amazing!

The good news is that Eg is just about to release a new album "Adventure Man" including a collaboration with Alice Temple (you can hear it on his myspace page.)

Actually, Alice too did apparently release a solo record called 'Hangover' on V2 records in the States but I don't think it ever came out, if it did it's impossible to get. However you can hear allot of her new songs on her myspace page. She's really veered away from any kind of urban soul now and deals in a much more hard edged sound, which is probably what she always wanted to do anyway.

I could say a ton more about Eg and Alice but really it's time to let the music do the talking.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I have this last 20 years.

24 years of hunger 78.9 mb

Turn me on I'm a rocket man 50.32mb

'Doesn't mean that much to me' ITV chart show 1992 on Youtube

Doesn't mean that much to me (cd single) 28.07

Alice Temple Myspace

Eg White Myspace

(Disclaimer, I am only posting this music here until such time as it becomes commercially available again or until the artists or their representatives ask me to remove it.)

Inneresting.