Long before Spotify and Bandcamp, one of the chief ways to discover new music was to actually mail honest-to-goodness mix tapes to other people that you met on discussion forums and email discussion lists. I don’t remember which internet acquaintance sent me the mixtape that contained, among other tunes, the first three songs from Bark Psychosis’ 1994 masterpiece, but I am forever in their debt.

I was entranced by those songs when I first heard them, and especially by “Absent Friend.” A gorgeous eight-minute sprawl of jazz-inflected drumming, reverb-laden guitars, and Graham Sutton’s breathy vocals and cryptic lyrics, it culminates in a long, elegant denouement of shimmering, Steve Reich-esque synths that hints at the sort of urban exploration and adventure that only happens long after midnight.