Nikki Sudden, formerly of the Swell Maps and more recently a veteran of countless recordings with and without partner in scarves Dave Kusworth, passed away over the weekend.
There are bigger fans and close friends more qualified to eulogize Sudden than this correspondent, but anyone whose brains were fried by the synapse-snapping proto lo-fi of the Swell Maps, or was moved by Sudden’s gorgeous, sweeping recordings for the Glass label in the 1980’s will surely feel a sense of loss today.
Oh, how I love “Robespierre’s Velvet Basement.” Those records with Rowland Howard and company were pretty great too. What a shame.
Jacobites actually played Emo’s on perhaps the worst possible night to ever play a gig in Austin– the Monday or Tuesday after SXSW — six or seven years back. 20 people saw a surprisingly inspired tour through the back catalogue and I walked out of there with a hideous t-shirt and a Christmas 7″ simply because they needed to scrape together enough cash to get to the next town (or at least pay for a few more rounds).
by chance i saw him in london just this past january, felt like i lost my best friend when i heard the news.
steve, nacogdoches, tx