It’s no longer an aberration for artists to collaborate in the cloud, given the ease with which most of the world accesses high-speed internet. And A Sunny Day In Glasgow—collectively based in Philadelphia, Brooklyn and Sydney, Australia—creates the sort of impressionistic guitar pop that feels ripe for working in the ether. But that doesn’t mean the process of writing fine new album Sea When Absent (Lefse) across three cities and two hemispheres was ideal. In fact, the method was so present that it became a centerpiece of its narrative. The band will be guest editing magnetmagazine.com all week. Read our new feature on the band.
Ben Daniels: I didn’t know this until I moved to Sydney, but Australia makes the best coffee in the world. I say this with complete conviction, and I am confident that anyone who has been to a major city in Australia will agree with me. It is predominantly espresso-based, which means that it is strong and, on average, has so much more flavour than any kind of drip coffee. For reasons I do not understand, the main kinds of coffee here are called “long black” and “flat white.” A flat white involves milk, so that’s the “white,” but why “flat”? Why is a coffee without milk “long”? I have no idea, but it doesn’t matter because this is the best that coffee can taste and it is goddamned great.
I am uncertain of the history of these drinks, but I believe they go back to the large wave of Italians who migrated to Australia in the last century. They brought with them their espresso machines and well-developed senses of flavour. The purpose of this post, however, is not a history but just to alert non-Australians of this novel and incredible coffee making method. If you like coffee, I promise you that, at the very least, you would want to try this. And if indeed the long black does originate from 20th century Italian migration, then somewhere in Philly, with its huge Italian population, there must be someone out there who can start making these in America. And that person will have the busiest, most successful coffee shop in the city.
