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Music

Ten Records That Sound Better in the Rain

We've been saving these for an overcast day with passing showers.

Not to sound like the Metro or anything but christ, isn't the weather terrible? One of the THUMP squad found themselves up north this weekend and there was a moment — somewhere between Hebden Bridge and Bradford — where it looked like we were going to be stuck up there forever. Sadly our panic-bought flatcaps were a waste of money as we somehow managed to make it back down to the safer terrain of the south.

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It seems that no one's safe from the infernal patter of the pissing rain and we're now sat at work staring glumly out of the window trying to remember the last time the sun shone. Yes, we know, it was Saturday, but you get the point.

Because rain doesn't actually call off work — unless you happen to be Andy Murray or a cricketer — we decided to be productive and put together a list of ten dance records that actually sound better on dismal days like these. Enjoy.

Carsten Jost - Krokus (Superpitcher Remix)

Apart from maybe dub-techno, microhouse was quite possibly the rainiest genre ever. It's rainier than listening to old jazz records with rainymood dripping away in the background while you sit at a bus stop in the middle of the sodden coutnryside waiting for a coastal service that's never been on time ever. Those sadlad synth washes, those crinkled, pitters and patters of skeletal percussion, those stuttering, stammering vocal cut-ups all added up to dance records that sounded like drizzle. In a good way, obviously. Superpitcher's birdsong assisted remix of "Krokus" is a classic of the genre — it's dark and brooding, windswept and lovelorn, like being pissed on in Sailtaire or something. Oh, and it was released on a remix compilation called You Don't Need a Weatherman. What more do you need? (JB)

Hudson Mohawke - Indian Steps ft. Antony Hegarty

[daily_motion src='//www.dailymotion.com/embed/video/x2td8mq' width='800' height='450']On an album of otherwise bright, lurid, neon flashes, "Indian Steps" is definitely Lantern's rainiest moment. Something about Antony's soft cooing vocals, and the percussive patters that flicker into action, make the whole thing sing of early morning rain heard through an open window. (AH)

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Sally Shapiro - Anorak Christmas

Rain is romantic and I don't care how "Want to come to mine and listen to Belle and Sebastian and drink knowingly cheap wine before petting one another heavily halfway through Manhattan" that makes me sound. There's just something about being sat in a bedroom, confined to a bedroom even, by elements beyond our control that gets me all gooey and soppy. It's a sentimental kind of romance, one wet through with sentimentality, one that drips with self-centred sadness. Christmas does that too. "Anorak Christmas" is a song about falling in love with a stranger and it sounds like rain and listening to it in the rain is like stepping into a less-shit-than-normal quirky indie romance film — the kind you'd only ever tolerate when love's just about to waltz in and out of your life. (JB)

The Electric Connection - Groovy

As Gene Kelly's character in Hollywood-satire-cum-Bauhaus-trip Singing in the Rain will tell you, often the best way of getting through sodden streets is by dutty wining in a puddle. "Groovy" is an excellent example of a track that has both dance-floor funkability, as well as a vein of weathered grey cynicism running through it. It is also dripping with full on, late-night, "driving through 1980s LA in the rain" sexiness – even if you're more "early-morning, trying to fix my umbrella under a bus shelter in Hull" sexy. (AH)

Burial - In McDonalds

Ever sat in a McDonalds in the rain, eating a double cheeseburger, looking intently sad, hoping someone will turn round, gaze sadly at your soggy mop of hair, notice the jacket stuck to your skin before giving you the kind of look that says, "things will get better. Have hope. Things will get better,"? Then, you my friend, have known true happiness. Burial makes music to get wet to and we wouldn't have it any other way. (JB)

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James Holden - Renata

Often, the best move with shitty, wild, and windy rain, is to accept that it is shitty, wild, and windy and get all end of the world about it. Pull your hood down and let the elements blast you. Scrunch up your face, fuck up your hair, get rain in your eyes, push your headphones as far into your ears as they will go, and stick this one on. You'll feel like Harrison Ford in Blade Runner, even if you look more like Wayne Knight in Jurassic Park. (AH)

Adolf Noise aka DJ Koze - Geklöppel B2

DJ Koze, for all his cheekiness and slightly-affected oddness, makes pretty rainy records. His less clubby material is saturated, coming on like a musical version of watching a technocolour-addled early 60s live action Disney film on a Sunday afternoon. "Geklöppel B2", which ends his classic All People Is My Friend mix, is a melancholy wash, a winding, whirling, walk through a wood you've not bothered since puberty. Actually, the whole mix sounds like that. Book a train home now. It's miserable and you quite want your mum to make you a cottage pie anyway. (JB)

The Bug - Pandi

This rumbling ambient slice from The Bug's unbelievable 2014 album Angels & Devils is perfect for thick, dense rain. For a record that stretches itself across dub, grime, and dancehall, "Pandi" is a pocket of unmanageably moody atmosphere, that swells like a great grey cloud at the album's middle point. Actually, in all honesty, if you did put this on and go for a long walk in the rain you'd probably end up falling to knees and yelling at the sky, so maybe not one for the commute. (AH)

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Danny L Harle - Broken Flowers

There are very few love songs that vividly evoke the sensation of pulling into a petrol station in the pouring rain, to buy a clump of tulips for £4, for someone who doesn't love you anymore. This one does though. (AH)

Kerri Chandler - Rain

GEDDIT!? (JB)

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