The Cakekitchen

World Of Sand

Lesser-sung heroes get the 25th anniversary treatment. Flying Nun is best known for a bittersweet, thistly kind of jangle, but the label also has dark roots, such as This Kind Of Punishment, an indomitably gothic-slanted bunch fronted by brothers Peter (vocals) and Graeme (guitar) Jeffries. After three albums in the ’80s, they went separate ways, with Graeme – who also possessed an imposing, ragged baritone – guiding The Cakekitchen through regularly changing line-ups. Alongside 1991’s Time Flowing Backwards, Dais are reissuing 1992’s equally longunavailable career peak World Of Sand, evidence that Jeffries was increasingly letting chinks of light penetrate the knotted gloom, while mirroring labelmates Tall Dwarfs’ restless shifts of recording (studio and lo-fi-bedroom) and style, from post-punk storms (Walking On Glass) to handsome ballads (Dogs And Cats), wyrd folk (Don’t Be Fooled By The Label) and ‘classic’ Flying Nun (Tomorrow Came Today). Martin Aston