Chris DeLine

It looks like one of my favorite stores growing up in Calgary, Soundsaround, shut down in 2012. I have some good memories from that place, specifically the Southwest location where I remember picking up a lot of electronica albums that weren’t available elsewhere in town. In the mid-to-late ’90s this meant acts like Fatboy Slim, the Prodigy, and the Chemical Brothers; the latter of which remain one of my favorite groups to this day.

It was likely the video for “Setting Sun” that served as my introduction to the duo’s music, and from there I double backed and picked up their earlier releases including Exit Planet Dust and the Loops of Fury EP (that’s the CD I remember snapping up at Soundsaround). Shortly thereafter I purchased a Dig Your Own Hole poster at a shop in Southcenter (somehow that stayed with me through college). What an interesting time that is to look back on, and it’s kind of amazing that I’m not only still listening to them, but that they’re still putting out music I care about—last year’s No Geography was one of my favorite albums of the year. In hindsight, I think I’m off by a year or two, but a couple weeks back I sent M. a text reading “It’s strange to think I’ve been listening to [Exit Planet Dust] for 25 years.” On one hand, it’s humbling to think about how old that makes me now, while on the other I feel grateful for having had their music with me for as long as I have.