Finally packaged together for all the non-vinyl believers, or simply those who are too glum to get up and turn the record over, Leyland Kirby's 'Sadly The Future Is No Longer What It Was' triple CD crate-set brings the series to an epic close, or an opening, depending on your perspective. For folk who have followed the arc from The Caretaker through to Leyland Kirby, this series has provided some of the most visceral, absorbing, disturbing, and bleakly beautiful musical journeys of the last few years, making an indelible impression on the sonic psyche of anyone who's stood in its path. In CD form, each disc features new and specially painted artwork from Ivan Seal, and similarly, no tracklistings or liner notes, other than the title. This is partly designed to reinforce the ambient/amnesiac effect of the recordings, and partly to reflect the library record-like anonymity of the music within. As its predecessor - the Caretaker project - started out making use of loops taken from dusty 78's found in a Stockport record shop, both out of a DIY necessity, and a willingness to engage with a forgotten past, the Leyland Kirby series has turned into a very personal project for its creator James Kirby. To give some background to the feelings exposed in this music Kirby himself says "Here we stand, twenty years on from the first CD, and our optimism has been gradually eroded away collectively. 'Tomorrows World' never came. We are lost and isolated, many of us living our lives through social networks as we try to make sense of it all, becoming voyeurs not active participants. Documenting everything. No Mystery. Everything laid bare for all to see". A pessimistic, but brutally honest outlook which he articulates with a very particular accent in his music. For us, there's echoes of Eno, Koner, Deathprod, Debussy, Badalamenti and Lynch executed with a dark yet emotional determination encapsulating the spirit of a Berlin or Manchester nightscape, but it's all open to interpretation and we're sure you'll try and work this one out for yourself. Truly life affirming sounds, and without doubt one of the most important, substantial releases of the year. (Boomkat)