Saint Etienne What Have You Done Today, Mervyn Day?

• Words: David Hemingway
• Label: Foreign Office
• XLR8R Rating: 7/10

Though plastic and petrol were invented there, East London's lower Lea Valley is now an unloved and derelict industrial wasteland. Nevertheless, Saint Etienne and collaborator Paul Kelly have documented the area on film, ahead of its redevelopment to make way for the 2012 Olympics. Scattered with dialogue from the area's inhabitants, Saint Etienne's soundtrack is a thing of unassuming beauty, chock-full of vaguely wistful instrumentals that neither romanticize nor disparage the subject matter. Saint Etienne has always been a group of collectors; somewhere along the way they've become social historians, too.