Immerse yourself in Madonna, Solange and more at these pitch-black listening parties

You know how it is these days. You’ve got Spotify in one ear, a Tube announcement barking into the other, trying to get a bit of wifi while navigating in between hundreds of people doing the exact same thing.

Essentially, London in 2018 is not always an environment conducive to really sitting down and appreciating the finer details of a record. Enter Pitchblack Playback: a series of listening parties designed to cut the distractions and plunge you fully into the audio world of a chosen album. Taking place in – you guessed it – total darkness, you’ll listen to a record in full, on proper speakers (no iPhone headphones here) with nothing but the music to focus on.

Rather than a nerdy muso-fest, the sessions – taking place at various London venues including the Everyman Cinema and the Institute of Light – have picked a truly diverse series of albums to highlight including Madonna’s classic ‘Ray of Light’, Solange’s recent masterpiece ‘A Seat At The Table’ and The Stone Roses’ iconic self-titled debut.

So switch your phone to airplane mode for an hour, bed down and shut out the outside world. Doesn’t that sound pretty damn great?

Like it better live? See this week's London gig listings.