Sounds of Summer

Worker drones up and down the land are packing their swim shorts, cigar cutters and unlined horse-bit loafers in anticipation of their annual summer break.

Music will always get you in the mood, so here we suggest summer mood music for the demob-happy (including us).

We're building up our sounds of summer from previous years with another triple-bill. I had to cut this list down a lot. Shirley Horn was in the running, so too Washed Out and Bill Evans, but the axe had to fall somewhere.

The brief is simple: the music has to be the perfect accompaniment to gin and tonic ice cream.

Durutti Column - Sketch for Summer

A classic from Vini Reilly's Mancunian band, Sketch for Summer is the first track on the 1979 album The Return of the Durutti Column, produced by Factory Records legend Martin Hannett. Reilly's delicate and chiming guitar playing offers a reflection on the wondrousness (and unlikelihood) of an English summer — perhaps. The album was originally released in a sandpaper sleeve, such was the situationist bent of Factory at the time.

Keith Mansfield - Before Summer Ends

Put your hand to your chest and feel your heart rate plummet as British composer Keith Mansfield's intro to Before Summer Ends takes you into 'ice jazz' territory. This tune will cool you from the summer heat. Ideally, you want to be floating in a swimming pool to this one.

Durutti Shores - Lemonade

More Durutti, Tweedy? I can assure you, dear reader, that there's no subtext to discover. We make no claim to depth at Tweed Towers. The Brooklyn-based band — where else? — Lemonade merely used the name in the title of this song from their album Minus Tide. That's singer Callan Clendenin in the picture at the top.

A summer sound and a summer visual for Durutti Shores from director Oscar Boyson in the accompanying video (below), which was shot in our dear Venice and its Lido. (Don't get any ideas about bum bags from the clip, okay?)