Pitchshifter were undoubtedly one of the most significant bands of my youth. When I was 15 a copy of Kerrang! magazine came out with a free cd stuck on the cover called "The Devil's Music, Vol. 1". My school was up the road from a newsagents and Hugh had bought a copy before school. We all spent the day reading his copy and each bought one ourselves on the way home. The cd was pretty incredible for our young ears (Google the tracklisting now, it's still impressive - Glassjaw, One Minute Silence, High on Fire). There were bands on there we knew, but mostly bands we'd never heard of, but either way I ended up getting into most of the bands on there. The first track was Everything's Fucked by Pitchshifter and it blew us all away. I still remember the next day walking up to school and my friend Paul raving about it. We got into the band in a big way and bought tickets for a warm-up show they were playing in The Wedgewood Rooms in Portsmouth ahead of a larger London show (possibly my third ever gig).
Over the years that followed I bought all their albums and saw them countless times. I once even travelled from Lancaster to Portsmouth to see them in the Pyramids just because we'd seen them play there on the same date two years and four years beforehand (but also because I didn't know anyone at university who wanted to go). They broke up and reformed more times than I can remember; I think we may have seen equal amounts of break-up shows, reformation shows and regular shows.
But through all of this, the dot com album (as we came to know it) was their peak, an incredible, classic album. It was almost always described as being ahead of it's time, which I guess it was. It was definitely a punk album in so many ways, but in a handful of important ways it was also a dance album. Nothing else we were listening to had the beats Pitchshifter had. But their background in industrial metal was also there, although dramatically less so on this album than any of the ones before. The combination of styles made the live shows fun to be at, and kept us coming back every time they played, and buying every album they put out. It would be easier to list the weak points than list the highlights on dot com, but even 14 years after it came out there aren't any of those; the tracklisting could practically read as a Best Of.
I found this LP on eBay in 2006. I've always preferred vinyl and my dream would be to have all my favourites on 12" rather than 5". With that in mind I bought it and I'm very glad to have it in my collection. There was an era when a lot of albums weren't released on vinyl and I'm glad this wasn't one of them.
I've always sat down and listened to the album whilst writing these posts (part of the reason I started this was to make sure I wasn't neglecting any of my records). I haven't listened to Pitchshifter in quite a while - there's a lot of music out there and only so much time. I kinda knew I'd still enjoy this one, but I've been sat here tapping away and reminiscing like crazy. When Please Sir came on I remembered jumping around in the pit to it at one of their break up shows; it was the last song they played and I knew I had to make the most of it. Between the ages of 15 and about 18 I couldn't get enough of bands like Pitchshifter and One Minute Silence and their incredible live shows are key factors in why I go to so many gigs now. I may have started listening to other things, but it's great that just playing this album can take me back to all that youthful excitement. I love that music can do that.
Format: 12"
Tracks: 13
Cost: £5.50 second hand
Bought: eBay
When: 03/08/06
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no
