Sunday 29 July 2018

Songs: Ohia - Ghost Tropic


Ghost Tropic has long been one of the Jason Molina albums I've struggled with the most. I found a copy on cd in Amoeba Records in San Francisco in 2015 having been on a huge Molina-trip for a couple of years. It was great and I was finding gem after gem in his back-catalogue. I think Ghost Tropic threw me off because I wasn't instantly floored by it. Years later, I still play it the least often.

Ghost Tropic represents a side of Molina that appears occasionally - playing very sparse, long songs. A few such songs have appeared on splits or singles, but Ghost Tropic is the only album where that is the theme. Whereas Magnolia Electric Co. were the very full-band side of his songwriting, most of the Songs: Ohia work was folky but still busy - there are great songs where he races through lyrics with only an acoustic guitar and some accompaniment, and that speed was one of the things I enjoyed the most.

The effect of the slow pace of Ghost Tropic has it's pros and cons. Every single word, guitar strum, or note from any instrument sounds intensely deliberate. Turn it up loud enough and you find yourself thinking about each individual note, hit or pluck; you can picture the various musicians very carefully and thoughtfully striking each moment. More than on a lot of his albums, this one to me conjures the images of the four of them in the studio, crafting the songs with great precision. In that respect, it's an incredible album, unique in what it makes you feel.

The problem however was that I wasn't ready for that experience and, as interesting as it is, it doesn't result in anything that I'd consider a highlight. It's only really a small step away from some other Molina work - you'd still broadly categorise them in the same way - but it's far enough to throw the listener off. When I got back from SF it was at the top of my pile of music to listen to and I remember being baffled. I distinctly remember being surprised by how little happened and how long it seemed to go on for. The second half comprises two 11-minute plus songs - I recall glancing at the cd player and being amazed by digital readout of how long the song had been playing. It could have been during either of Not Just a Ghost's Heart or Incantation.

The first half prepares you for those songs in their sparsity, but not quite their duration. Lightning Risked It All feels like it's building to something but never does. The lyrics get increasingly spread out until they eventually stop; the song continues for a bit then also ends rather unceremoniously. The Body Burned Away broods in a similar way, but reaches more of a conclusion. In a lot of ways, there are comparisons to Low, a band I wouldn't normally consider as having much in common with Molina's work - their albums are often full of songs that feel like they're intentionally not going where you want them to.

I found this copy online recently and picked it up along with a few other bits. I'm trying to flesh out my Molina collection and I'd certainly like to have them all on vinyl. I was pleased to get a copy, but knew I'd never play it as much as Magnolia Electric Co., Let Me Go or Josephine (or any of the others really - it's hard to name the highlights when there are so many). Strangely the labels are on the wrong sides of the record, but it's instantly obvious as side B has two very large chunks of uninterrupted groove. What's more confusing is the that information etched in the run-out groove implies that side B is in fact side A, so the error must go back as far as the masters. The artwork is as bare as the cd - just the title in white in the top right corner. People often refer to the first, self-titled album as "The Black Album", but in artwork, theme and sound, this album is almost certainly the more deserving of such a definitive title.

Format: 12", insert
Tracks: 8
Cost: £15 new
Bought: Norman Records
When: 07/03/18
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code



Saturday 28 July 2018

Manic Street Preachers - No Surface All Feeling


So here it is, the new holder of the dubious accolade Most Expensive Record in My Collection. Previous holders have included Radiohead's Ok Computer boxset and The Smashing Pumpkins' Mellon Collie on triple vinyl. Both of those were albums (landmark ones at that) and contained a large number of songs; this is a 7" with just one song on it. One song that I already have on three cds, cassette, a minidisc (yes, really) and two LPs.

On the other hand, there exist only 100 of these in the world, and each has a different sleeve, so it is unique - along with being the most expensive I think it's also the rarest record I own, so the price should be starting to make (some) sense.

Each year, seven songs are pressed onto vinyl and each given unique sleeves drawn by artists who submit their work to be involved for Secret 7's. The resulting records are then sold with the money going to charity - this year to Mind, a mental health charity, and a cause I can get behind. I've been aware of the project for a couple of years (Max Richter had a 7" of a song from Sleep a year or two ago) and always thought it was cool. This year it was announced that one of the songs would be No Surface All Feeling by the Manics, the closer from Everything Must Go, and a song that has had a bit of a resurgence since the 20th anniversary shows and made it back into regular setlists.

Just to dwell on that for a moment - I'm really pleased that No Surface All Feeling is finally getting the respect that it deserves. I've always had a lot of time for it and thought it was neglected being tucked away at the end of an album that is quite front-loaded (but the positioning of A Design For Life is always going to weight things unfairly). I feel that, unlike a lot of bands, the Manics aren't known for their grand closing statements on albums (feel free to tell me I'm wrong) - they've always written such huge singles that the albums tend to focus around them. That is to say, I don't think the song was positioned last because they necessarily wanted the album to finish with it, or wrote it as a closer; it was just the best place for it. Both times I've seen them play this year, not only did they play it, they played it third, right after Motorcycle Emptiness. That's quite a promotion to go from "last track on the album" to "played amongst the biggest singles". I'm pleased for it, if that isn't a ridiculous thing to say. I always thought it was a great song, and it's nice to know I'm not alone.

Back to the 7". My Manics collection has had it's ups and downs over the years. For a while, I stopped altogether, but in recent years have fallen back in love with the band, and rekindled my love for eBay too, meaning I've been chipping away at parts of the collection here and there. But I've long known my collection will never be complete; I just can't see any scenarios where I have enough disposable income to buy an original Suicide Alley or those excellent looking limited edition Japanese reissues (although I hope I do!). So I was a bit unsure what to do when the news of this 7" came out - I could admit that I was never going to complete my collection and let this be a hole in it, or I could commit to doing the best job possible and buy it. I very much doubt I'll ever have the chance to buy one of these again, and I shudder to think how much it would go for then. This was my best and probably only chance, so I went for it.

However, I didn't go for it to the extent that I travelled to London to buy one when they were exhibited. We were going to a wedding that day, but even if we weren't, I wasn't going to get the train all the way to London for it (plus, I don't think my wife would agree that it's a valid excuse to leave her with the baby for the day). I hoped that all 100 wouldn't sell out on the day and, to my luck, they didn't - 38 were to be auctioned on eBay the following week. The £50 selling price and the £30 train ticket would have put it near the most expensive record anyway.

By some brilliant coincidence, the eBay auctions all finished during the hour in the evening in which I was going to be on the train to London for a gig anyway. Had they finished any other time or day, I might not have been able to stalk the auctions and get an understanding for the market/going-price (this, I think, was key). Had I not been going to that gig, they'd have finished whilst I was bathing and putting the baby to bed, a set of activities that aren't easily done with eBay in the other hand. It was too good a coincidence.

So I sat there on the train (with wifi) and watched the first 7" finish - it was one of the sleeves I liked the most and sold for an impressive £127. The next few had some of the worst artwork in my opinion and all went for about £100. At this point I assumed that maybe the going-price would drop as potential buyers became owners, but I was wrong. Clearly there are more than 38 Manics collectors out there and I suspect some people were buying multiple copies. Prices started to rise to around £110. The next ones I really had my eye on (all with interesting geometric designs) were quite a few auctions away and I was worried by then the prices would be even higher. The bidding was always happening in the last few seconds - classic eBay - luckily I have many years experience of sniping auctions in the dying seconds so was prepared for this.

The next one that came up with artwork I thought was good was the one in the picture above. As the final few seconds rolled around I snuck in with a bid that was a bit higher then the last few had gone for (along with the usual £1.53 I add on top, just to outbid the people who think an extra £1.50, or £1.51, or even £1.52 will clinch it over the people who foolishly bid in round numbers - I'm yet to lose an auction to a person bidding £1.54 extra, but have pipped a few people to the post by just a penny or two). The auction ended a few seconds later and I had won, at an eye-watering £115. I kept an eye on the auctions that followed and prices rose a bit further, but not hugely so; the ones with geometric designs I'd been eyeing up sold for more, which validated my plan.

I think we can all agree that £115 for a 7" is a ridiculous price to pay. Luckily, the proceeds are going to charity, which allows me a pleasing get-out: in my mind, I didn't pay £115 for a 7", but instead gave £115 to charity (the postage was a similarly expensive £7.50, so that was the cost of the 7" in this excuse (which is still pretty pricey for a 7"!)). I try to give to charities from time-to-time, but I'm aware that I don't give often enough and could give more. If a friend does a charity run/cycle/whatever, I try to make sure I donate a decent sum. This 7" is the equivalent of, say, three friends doing a charity activity, but the best part is that no one had to run 26 miles and I got a 7" out of it. I can definitely get on board with record collecting for charity.

Format: 7", insert, unique artwork, single-sided
Tracks: 1
Cost: £122.50 new
Bought: eBay
When: 12/07/18
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no



Friday 27 July 2018

The Cat Empire - The Cat Empire


A few months after returning from Australia, I was pleased to find a copy of The Cat Empire's debut album on cd in the excellent Resident Records in Brighton. I'd got into the band when I was living in Canberra (or, more specifically, somewhere between Darwin and Adelaide on an epic road trip) and picked up a second hand copy of Two Shoes in my local second hand cd shop a few months later. Their albums were easily found over there, and they'd just released Cities (a Cat Empire "project"; I still don't have a copy so don't really know what they meant by that) so it was easy pickings. As is often the way, this resulting in me not buying their other albums whilst abroad and finding them much harder to come by in the UK. (I was also running low on funds and had, perhaps foolishly, planned to go to Roskilde Festival immediately after returning to the UK, meaning my student loan had to stretch even further.)

I was pleased to find a copy that day in Brighton, but knew these songs well from being in Australia. As debuts go, they don't mess around in introducing everyone to the already well-established Cat Empire sound - How To Explain is a quintessential Cat Empire song and lets the listener know exactly what to expect from the next hour. Days Like These could have equally started the album for the same rasons. Track four on an album was always the traditional spot for the biggest single, and The Chariot fits that role perfectly - a song about how great music and friends are, and the most triumphant trumpet solo - it's got song-for-a-mixtape written all over it. Hello and One Four Five are both instant crowd pleasers, although in subtly different ways and The Rhythm rounds of side B with some more excellent trumpet and piano. The Wine Song, however, is the unlikely highlight - there's almost something circus-esque to it, and the way it builds up is kinda cheesy, but brilliantly fun at the same time; I challenge you to not take some enjoyment from it. I think they've played it live every time I've seen them and it's always the one that gets everybody moving. Even though it's the slowest song on the album (perhaps because of it), I've always had a real soft-spot for The Crowd - the extra vocals in the chorus are perfect and the chorus eventually explodes in an almost post-rock way. Finally, the horns at the very end of All That Talking are brilliantly filthy sounding. 

I bought this vinyl reissue the same time as I bought Two Shoes in Truck in Oxford. I've seen the band play in Oxford twice, which is more than pretty much any other band (bands rarely come to Oxford it seems, and less so twice!), so I guess someone in the record shop has a particular fondness for them. I just noticed that it was nearly exactly ten years after buying the cd that I bought this LP, which I would have timed better had I known in advance (and could have relied on the records not being bought by someone else in the intervening two weeks).

Format: Double 12", gatefold sleeve, picture sleeves
Tracks: 13
Cost: £21 new
Bought: Truck Store, Oxford
When: 07/11/16
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no





Thursday 26 July 2018

Gnarwolves - The Chronicles of Gnarnia


The title of this record deserves a special mention for being an excellent pun; if they'd released it under any other name, you can guarantee someone would have suggested it later and they'd have been kicking themselves.

As the title suggests, this record chronicles Gnarwolves' first three EPs onto one handy LP. I have a copy of the 2x7" reissue of Fun Club and wrote about that here - Decay and Reaper are still huge songs. The Cru EP was released sometime between Fun Club and Fun Club being reissued, so it was long sold out by the time I got that 7". Actually, I vaguely remember it coming out, thinking I should get a copy only to be surprised that it sold out so quickly. That was the first clue that the band were gaining a lot of popularity. History is Bunk and Community, Stability, Identity are the highlights there, the latter reaching new levels of slow/doom for the band. I don't really remember Funemployed coming out, but I think Melody Has Big Plans was a single (in some sense) - the title certainly sounds familiar for some reason. It's a strong song.

I picked this up in Banquet not long after it came out. I'd had that slight urge to get the other EPs at some point, but getting this record quenched that particular thirst - there was already such a lot of hype about the band by that point that I didn't fancy paying the going price for the original releases, not to mention the countless colour-variants that they put out (speaking of which, this is the green/blue/purple mix, although it's mostly green until you hold it up into the light). The songs all work together well as an album, although the production on Funemployed is notably different and doesn't sound as rich as the other two.

Format: 12", insert
Tracks: 15
Cost: £15 new
Bought: Banquet Records, Kingston
When: 22/03/14
Colour: Green/blue/purple mix
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code



Wednesday 25 July 2018

Chuck Ragan - 'Til Midnight


This is the fourteenth Chuck Ragan record I've written about on here, so you all know the drill by now. The interesting thing about this record is that it remains the last proper/traditional album Chuck has released - now four years and counting (I'm not including The Flame and the Flood here, although it is an excellent record). For a long time, Chuck was redefining the word "prolific" in the quantity of music he was putting out. 2011-2014 showed a marked slow-down in this rate, with only this album and the Live at Skaters' Palace live album. Since then, we've barely heard from him at all, and seen him tour even less often. I suspect he's busy being father, but I hope for more music at some point.

'Til Midnight is his fourth LP, and continues fairly seamlessly where Covering Ground left off, but I'd say is an even better album than it - the songs are full, well-rounded and feel like they were written with the band in mind. Something May Catch Fire is a huge song, the closest thing to a "classic" since Glory on Gold Country, and Non-Typical is similarly great. Side B starts out strong too with Gave My Heart Out and You and I Alone is surprisingly energetic for a song squirrelled away so late in the album. The drums on the closer For All We Care are perfect and create an epic way to finish off the album.

The sad thing is that without seeing him live so often (I've only seen him play solo once since this album came out) these songs haven't had the chance to become live favourites; I'd like to hear them in that setting and give them the chance to shine.

Format: 12", gatefold sleeve, insert
Tracks: 11
Cost: £11 new
Bought: Banquet Records, Kingston
When: 21/04/14
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code




The Desert Sessions - Vol V. Poetry for the Masses (Sea Shed Shithead by the Sea Sore) / Vol VI. Poetry for the Masses (Black Anvil Ego)


I started writing about this record last year when I wrote about Volumes 1 & 2 and 3 & 4 but completely forgot to finish it off. Volumes 5 & 6 are a strange bag of things, Vol 5 features a huge opener in the form of You Think I Ain't Worth..., full-on punk-rock on both I'm Dead and an early version of Punk Rock Caveman which found greater fame as a Queens song. But the problem with Vol 5 is that they ruin it with Letters To Mommy, a terrible joke song that doesn't even stand up to being a hidden track on the end of an album. Not only is it shit, it goes on far too long too. I get that they were probably high when they thought it'd be worth including but it just ruins the flow entirely. Goin' To a Hangin' is nothing to get excited about either.

Vol 6 similarly has its highs and lows; A#1 is just a classic stoner tune and Like a Drug might be my favourite across the whole series. It's smooth and unlike anything else - if all the experimental songs sounded like that I would be very happy. Rickshaw is quite fun too. But then there are songs like Take Me To Your Leader, which the series would be better without.

One of my complaints about this series of, admittedly slightly shitty, bootlegs/reissues is that the sleeves are paper thin. I've never seen an LP on such flimsy cardboard. However, my copy of Vol 5 & 6 has a further annoyance in the form of a large defect in the vinyl at the start of I'm Dead - it looks like a bit of something got caught in the pressing and has left a dent in a few grooves (see the picture below). It's a shame it had to be there, and not a few millimetres further out and ruined Letters To Mummy instead

If I had to sum up the six volumes of the Desert Sessions that I'm familiar with, I'd say that there is a lot of shit that could be culled easily but you'd then be left with one (long) album of incredible songs; the good songs are so good its a shame that they're surrounded by some really bad ones. The problem is, of course, that on vinyl it's not so easy to skip the bad songs (especially when you're already changing the record so often) so I basically don't listen to these records very often. It's a shame because there really are some great songs and I don't give them the time I should.

Format: 12"
Tracks: 10
Cost: £13 new
Bought: Spillers
When: 04/11/08
Colour: Blue
Etching: None
mp3s: no



Tuesday 24 July 2018

Bob Marley - Legend


Once upon a time, I very nearly bought a Bob Marley best-of - it was £9 but had three whole cds of Bob's songs. After a shift in my part-time, teenage job in Sainsburys' I was strongly contemplating buying the copy they had there. There was a party at a friend's house that evening (as there often was, back in the day) and I thought that turning up with three cds of Bob Marley's greatest hits would be pretty cool. I then considered my bank balance and the lack of enjoyment I'd get from those cds at any point in the future and decided to buy a bunch of beers instead (guaranteeing that money wouldn't go towards anything with future enjoyment - it is funny to think back to when a hangover didn't knock out the next few days, creating future pain instead).

I've since spent a week in the Caribbean and heard altogether far too much Bob Marley. The worst thing about that sentence is that it's not even entirely true -  I've been to the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica, which definitely isn't the Caribbean, but still heard too much Bob Marley. Everywhere we passed, sat, ate or drink was playing Bob Marley. No matter how much you like him, that's going to get on your nerves.

Sometime between those two events, this record entered my collection. The worst part of that sentence is that this is the first time I've even bothered to play it. There are very, very few records or cds in my collection I've not played - colour-variants of albums and a small pile of sampler cds that I really do plan to listen to one day, but know they're very unlikely to change my life (queue future posts about bands I had songs by on neglected samplers that I'd wished I'd got into earlier).

There are a few reasons why I've never played this album:
  1. I got it for free, in a hold-all of records a guy I used to work with found in his attic (a bag that also contained Springsteen's Born to Run, Marvin Gaye's Anthology and an Elvis Costello's compilation, all records that have been played a lot). I can't imagine any other circumstances whereby this record would have found itself wedged between Mariachi El Bronx and The Mars Volta in my record collection.
  2. I never found myself in a situation where I though "I really fancy listening to Bob Marley". I was 22 when I got this album and my friends were all on the other side of their "weed phase". It just never seemed like a good time. I think I took it from that bag of records thinking there might one day be a reason to play it, but that hasn't happened in the last decade. Who knows what the future holds though.
  3. Finally, there's basically no need to ever play this album - everybody everywhere knows these songs better than they realise, having heard them at various points throughout their lives. I suspect that three-cd best-of I nearly bought had some rarities and oddities on it, but Legend is the core Marley tracks squeezed onto two sides of vinyl.
On one hand, there are some really good songs here - No Woman No CryGet Up Stand Up, and Exodus. There are also some songs I really hate, like Could You Be Loved and Buffalo Soldier - songs that I heard on the radio all the time growing up and came to associate with being really bored on a Sunday afternoon knowing school was the next day (there are a whole bunch of songs where that is my main association - I don't know what radio station my parents played on a Sunday afternoon, but it really did a number on me). I also have a very vivid memory of hearing I Shot the Sherif on the radio whilst studying a Lego catalogue (which was the bulk of my childhood, to be fair) - I was looking the red Lego Technic supercar from the late-80's trying to understand the construction whilst also wondering what the song was about (we don't have sherifs or deputies) - it's deeply imprinted on my mind; it's funny the inconsequential events that stay with you.

Anyway, the most interesting thing about this particular record is that deep inside the sleeve was a roached packet of Rizlas, as you can see in the first picture below. I can't think of a single more appropriate thing to fall out of a Bob Marley record sleeve than such an iconic symbol of drug use. I love that whoever owned it before it ended up in my hands was doing the exact same thing that so, so many other people have done whilst listening to Bob Marley.


Format: 12", gatefold
Tracks: 14
Cost: free second hand
Bought: Gunnar's attic
When: 25/03/09
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no




Saturday 14 July 2018

The Draft - In A Million Pieces


I listen to this album quite a lot, but haven't got very much to say about it. That sounds mean - it's a really good album, but I just have no interesting stories about it. If this blog were more about music reviews than it is me reminiscing about music then I might be able to comment on the things that make it a record I like to play a lot, but it's not.

The Draft were the band that guys in Hot Water Music who aren't Chuck Ragan formed after he left the band. I heard about them around the end of university, as a friend's band got a spot supporting them in Cardiff, or possibly Newport or Swansea; South Wales for sure. They were pretty excited, all being big HWM fans. The comparisons to HWM are easy to make, but I'd say it's a much easier listen than a lot of HWM records - there are big choruses and hooks and I know what they're singing some of the time. New Eyes Open is a huge way to start the album, and Alive or DeadBordering and Longshot are all brilliantly catchy. The highlight for me is Wired with the horn section lifting the chorus even further. Days after listening to In A Million Pieces, I find the chorus of Wired in my head, but that's never a bad thing. All We Can Count On is a strangely positive and upbeat song given that the chorus is "All we can all count on is death". There are great songs throughout, which is probably why I turn to it so often. I have no idea if it has as high a standing in the punk community in general as it does within my record collection.

I picked this copy up in Damaged Record in March of 2008, the second in my monthly-record-from-Damaged year (I didn't start it until February it seems). At £9 it was a bargain then and even moreso now. The vinyl is a purple-ish marble, which doesn't remotely narrow down which pressing it's from, not that it really matters.

I got a chance to see The Draft at Fest in 2013 which was great fun. I'd been listening to these songs for five years at that point and I really enjoyed jumping around to them. We'd already watched Lemuria, Paul Baribeau and The Underground Railroad to Candyland, and afterwards watched Obits, Toys That Kill and The Bouncing Souls. It was quite a day.

Format: 12", A3 insert
Tracks: 12
Cost: £9 new
Bought: Damaged Records, Cardiff
When: 01/03/08
Colour: Purple marble
Etching: Side A: "Welcome to the zoo" Side B: "The zoo needs you"
mp3s: no



Tuesday 10 July 2018

Le Peuple De L'Herbe - Triple Zero + [Promo]


Le Peuple De L'Herbe are a French hip-hop band that my friend Steve got into when he was living in France on his gap year. I remember him raving about them on his return and having a t-shirt of theirs, quite possibly featuring the art in the top corner of this sleeve.

Roll on three years or so, and I found this record in a charity on Albany Road in Cardiff that often had some interesting things - lots of promos that someone was routinely dropping off. I figured it was worth a £3 punt; it's worth dwelling on mine and Steve's musical tastes for a moment - there are bands and musicians that Steve and I have agreed on in the past, and some of them are amongst my all-time favourites (Jason Molina sits at the top of that list, but we've also both enjoyed Pavement and Pavement-a-likes, Car Seat Headrest). However, the vast, vast majority of stuff we don't actually agree on - he hates a lot of the bands I like and a lot of the ones he really loves do less than little for me. Here, I was willing to take his praise as recommendation but it was certainly not going to be a sure fire bet.

Le Peuple De L'Herbe is not really for me. As the name (and leaf on the sleeve) suggests, the band spend a lot of their time Very High. I imagine if you are Very High that this might be interesting music. But sat here, sober and in my thirties it's really pretty dull. I've never got very much from it and it's spent almost all of its life sat in my record collection, unloved. Herbman Skank has a fun beat for a while, but quickly descends into something unlistenable with a flat, programmed drum beat and a guy saying "Give me the weed". There are only four songs here, but their obsession with weed wears thin very fast (Electric Wiazrd's Dopethrone is a great example of a record obsessed with weed that doesn't make you wish they could sing about literally anything else, but it's very likely I'm saying that because I like doom-metal and not whatever genre of hip-hop this belongs to).

I'd go so far as to say that Le Peuple De L'Herbe are really quite terrible. I wonder if Steve's enjoyment came out of the rare intersection of the Venn diagram featuring hip-hop, French musicians and cannabis.

Format: 12", promo insert
Tracks: 4
Cost: £3 second hand
Bought: Albany Road Charity Shop
When: 09/10/07
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: None



Monday 9 July 2018

Various Artists - First Kiss


This record came out on Record Store Day in 2013, but I didn't buy a copy until over a year later. I can't remember why it was that I didn't buy a copy in 2013, but it would have been for one of three reasons: Banquet hadn't got any copies in stock; it was in stock but all gone by the time I got into the shop; or I simply forgot to pick up a copy. Given how much stock Banquet get in, it's likely not the first reason and I know what I'm like, so it's quite likely the last.

The main reason I was keen to get a copy was that my friend Matt's band, Among Brothers, was on the compilation and I really like their music. Their EP Homes is the only thing of theirs I have mp3s of, but still gets pretty heavy rotation. The other nine songs were mostly bands I hadn't heard of, or only knew the names because Matt knew them (particularly in the cases of Samoans and Without Maps). At the time I thought I was fairly in touch with a lot of what was going on in the British music scene, but this compilation is proof that I really wasn't - or at least the scenes I knew about were existing in entirely non-overlapping circles with these bands. I'd moved out of Cardiff a few years before this compilation and, I assume, before a lot of these bands had their Cardiff connections, so I moved away assuming the punk scene was all there was.

The compilation is ten songs from ten bands who made up the first ten releases on Jen Long's label, Kissability. It open with one of the weaker songs in my opinion - DZ Deathrays' The Mess Up which doesn't do as much as I keep thinking it's going to. Cut Ribbons compare themselves to Deftones, which nearly comes through in the guitars, but Mew is a much more obvious comparison in my mind. It's nice and I imagine they'd be good to watch live. The Among Brothers song, Keep, is unmistakably them, but sounds quite different - as ever, they fit a lot into a short song. It lacks any central theme to hold it together, which was also my criticism of the 7" they released. They're followed by Without Maps, whose math-rock is much more to my liking, and reminds me of a lot of bands I've enjoyed over the years, including Grown Ups, a band Matt got me into. Thumpers close the record out nicely with Velveteen - apparently they released an album on Sub Pop, which is pretty impressive.

Anyway, a year after RSD13 this record did find it's way into my collection. I was in Manchester to see Neutral Milk Hotel with my friend Aled and went record shopping during the day. Piccadilly Records (a great record shop with some really interesting stock) still had at least one copy in their shelves, and had been sat there for over a year. I was pleased to finally add it my collection, so included it in the armful of records I was buying that day (as an added bonus, it was reduced to £5). The sleeve is numbered (#22/100) and has what I think might be an actual lipstick kiss in the corner. The insert looks like it was supposed to chopped about an inch shorter in each direction, or it's possibly intentional that all the print/layout stuff is left around the edge. It didn't come with a download code, so it's not had very many plays at all, which is a shame. I'm not sure I would have become a huge fan of any of the bands had I listened to the songs many more times, but it would have been nice to feel more in touch with a clearly active part of the UK music scene.

Format: 12" white label, insert, numbered 22/100
Tracks: 10
Cost: £5 new
Bought: Piccadilly Records, Manchester
When: 18/05/14
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: None



Saturday 7 July 2018

Explosions in the Sky & David Wingo - Prince Avalanche OST


This record has the interesting accolade as the first record we listened to after my wife and I got engaged. I proposed one Saturday in our living room, and after the excitement, I thought this would be a nice record to play as we phoned our various friends and relatives to tell them the news. Vicky had enjoyed it when I'd played it before (which can't be said for many of my records), so that was one of the reasons for choosing it. It's also an incredibly calm but positive album. There's some elements of classic EITS in there, but they're not the majority; it sits both within my EITS collection, but also outside it.

I've not seen the film Prince Avalanche, nor do I really know anything about it. I do know that I ordered it into Banquet as soon as they announced the pre-order because I'm a big Explosions fan. That was before I'd really found my feet with soundtracks-as-albums, so it was perhaps a gateway drug into that world. I also know next-to-nothing about David Wingo, but I assume it's his influence that makes this sound very different from EITS's regular albums. That, along with the nature of writing a soundtrack I suppose.

The other unusual thing here is that the song lengths are a fraction of what we've come to expect from the band (although recent albums have seen shorter songs and, as a result, more songs). That then draws the attention to the few longer songs (all still sub-five minutes) as you realise that they've had more time to build and do things - the pair on the first side, Alone Time and Hello, Is This Your House? really shine, as does the closer Send Off.

Like so many of the albums I have soundtracks for, I do hope to one day see the film they were written for. It's always a slightly strange experience. For now, I still get plenty of enjoyment from this as an album and all the nice memories I have associated with it. My only complaint is that the labels aren't stuck on the exact centre of the vinyl, so it makes a god-awful noise when it ends.

Format: 12", gatefold sleeve, picture sleeve
Tracks: 15
Cost: £14 new
Bought: Banquet Records, Kingston
When: 07/09/13
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code




Thursday 5 July 2018

Boards of Canada - Trans Canada Highway


I've bought many records from many places over the years, but this is one of two records I've bought in a garden centre (the other was at the same time). Near where I live there is a large garden centre which possibly does better business from selling the many things there that aren't garden related than those that are. Inside the strangely large building is an antiques market with hundreds of things of wildly inconsistent quality and equally inconsistent ideas of a fair price. Some days we find nothing of any interest at all, other days you find the perfect piece of furniture for nothing. One day I found this sealed Boards of Canada EP, and the massively over-hyped Cosmogramma by Flying Lotus for £5 each (more on that second one another time). On that particular stall there were only a handful of records, the rest unsealed and slightly dog-eared. How these two sealed records came to be there I'll never know.

I've not got any other Boards of Canada music, but they're a band I've known about since I started going to All Tomorrow's Parties and learning about the various bands who existed in those circles. A guy I used to work with who I had some very interesting conversations about music with used to wear a Boards of Canada t-shirt, so that was another stamp of approval. I've also heard people rave about their album Music Has the Right to Children, which has one of the greatest album titles I've ever heard.

However, I long suspected they weren't a band for me. I had a song on an ATP compilation cd that didn't do much for me, and the descriptions of their music always contained some words that were off-putting. I'm sure I must have tried streaming some songs at some point as well, concluding that it wasn't going to be my thing. Then, confronted with a sealed 12" for £5 in a place that had no business selling such records, I thought it'd be rude not to, and so Trans Canada Highway entered my collection.

I can appreciate the record for what it is, but it hasn't set my world on fire. The songs are nice, but I've come to like more drama from my instrumental music - many of the many post-rock bands I love play off the quiet moments against the loud, and that's what I really love about them; Boards of Canada make beautiful quiet, contemplative music, but I rarely want that. A classic case of "it's not you, it's me".

The only other thing left to say about this EP is that I definitely played it on holiday a few years ago whilst driving along the Trans Canada Highway; you almost have to. It's a long road (as you might expect) so there was plenty of time. I also played Trans Canada by Constantines, which I took far more enjoyment from.

Format: 12", picture sleeve
Tracks: 6
Cost: £5 new
Bought: Antiques Market, Yarnton
When: 20/09/15
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code



Wednesday 4 July 2018

Small Brown Bike - The River Bed


Through no fault of its own, The River Bed is the Small Brown Bike record I listen to the least. The main reason for that is that it didn't come with a download code; it misses out on all those times when I'm out and about and have a craving for SBB and has meant that I've found myself listening to the other records much more.

On top of that, I bought it in a flurry of SBB purchases that, in hindsight, I should have spread out better. In 2008 I got Dead Reckoning on cd and listened to it a lot. Three years later I bought their comeback album Fell & Found, which I got into pretty well. Then, just two months later I bought their debut, Our Own Wars and then another two months later this album and the Nail Yourself to the Ground EP at the same time. I got these two at Fest, two days after seeing them play an incredible set in the Florida Theatre (the very first set we saw at Fest); I was on a SBB high and wanted to complete my collection. The downside was that I also bought 14 other records in three days and couldn't play any of them until I got back to the UK. Between that and the lack of mp3s, it was a perfect storm of neglect.

It's a shame because The River Bed is an excellent album. It doesn't hit as hard as Dead Reckoning does (that's a very high standard to reach), but is a strong album. Deconstruct / RebuildSafe in Sound and A Declaration of Sorts all have huge choruses, which is unexpected after an album with no choruses at all - they make a great way to open the album. Sincerely Yours is another great song and The Outline of Your Hand Still Remains on My Hand is an unusually slow number that works surprisingly well. I feel that this album and the first have the most in common of all their albums (or maybe it's just that Dead Reckoning and Fell & Found are the only ones I got into well enough to truly tell apart).

This appears to be the black vinyl from the first pressing, but it seems unlikely that No Idea would still have copies of the original run eight years after it came out, so perhaps the Discogs listing has incorrect data. Either way, it's on black vinyl and pre-dates the 150g reissue in 2015. Also, they all list Tragically Ending as the first song on Side B, but here it closes Side A, so maybe it's all wrong on there. Doesn't really matter I suppose. No Idea used to keep a really detailed list of their pressing runs, but that appears to have fallen off the internet, which is a shame.

Format: 12", insert
Tracks: 10
Cost: £4.96 new
Bought: Fest
When: 30/10/11
Colour: Black
Etching: Side A: "When in doubt, floss" Side B: "Quadruple the garlic"
mp3s: None





Sunday 1 July 2018

Max Richter - Recomposed: Vivaldi - The Four Seasons


This, on the surface, might seem like an odd record in my collection, but in the same way Max Richter isn't your average classical composer, nor is his re-imagination of Vivaldi's Four Seasons your average classical album. Needless to say, I know very little about classical music - my parents grew up listening to Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd, and therefore, so did I (my wife on the other hand has been around classical music since the day she was born, and is routinely embarrassed by my lack of knowledge) - but I know of Vivaldi and his Four Seasons; I think that is one of the basic bits of knowledge that everyone gets for free.

I was introduced to Max Richter's work by Infra, an album I have a huge amount of time for. I bought a copy after seeing him play it live at Cadogan Hall in London in 2010 and loved it. I bought a few more albums as and when I found them, discovering a new genre along the way ("neo-classical", my local record shop likes to call it). I heard he was releasing an album of a "re-imagination" of Vivaldi's Four Seasons (a world apart from Dirty Projectors' re-imagination of Black Flag's Damaged, in case anyone was curious if the comparison made sense). In 2012 he played said album in the Barbican and I got tickets to go with Matt (who partly got me into Infra) and Rich, who loves anything in the Barbican. We had pretty decent tickets on the first row of the balcony (the night before we'd watched Efterklang from the front row, as Rich was a massive fan and bought eight tickets straight away - I also saw Max Richter play a brief set in the Apple Store immediately before that show, which was great).

I'd made a note to listen to a more traditional performance of Four Seasons ahead of time, but obviously forgot. Like the noob I was (and am), I recognised bits of Summer and Winter - the ones everyone knows (if you're curious about which bit you know, you definitely know Winter I). That evening in the Barbican, with Daniel Hope frantically playing the violin, it sounded incredible, as it does on the record. I still haven't listened to a traditional recording for Four Seasons, so this is the version I know and love. I couldn't possibly comment on the "Recomposed" nature of it - even if I had listened to other recordings, I wouldn't have the technical ability to say what was different (I'm usually bluffing when I talk about parts of punk songs, let alone anything that doesn't go verse-chorus-verse). It's safe to say that anything electronic wasn't there on the original.

Two years later, I found this copy in Truck Store, not long after we moved to Oxford. I was very pleased to add it to my collection, but also that Truck stocked such music. I've since bought a good number of Max Richter's countless releases there. The pressing is lovely - 180 gram vinyl which sounds brilliantly both quietly and turned up loud; the sleeve is die cut so the four coloured bands of the picture sleeves change as you pull them out (like seasons...). I'm not sure why it took me two years to buy a copy, but it's likely that I just never found it anyway before that point.

The second disc is all additional material, which on paper might not appeal to most classical fans, but demonstrates Max's modern take on the genre - Side C is "electronic soundscapes" - the electronic moments from the album in a concise format - and Side D is remixes, which mark the biggest departure in style - the Robot Koch remix of Summer 3 features a sample of someone saying "yeah" a few times and the Fear of Tigers remix of Autumn 3 suddenly breaks from a fairly tame remix into something more akin to a dance song sampling a few bars of violin. Not my thing exactly, but it's nice to hear what people can do when they're remixing something so traditional.

Also in the pictures is the program distributed around the Barbican that night, which I kept in with another of his records until I got round to buying this. I was lucky enough to see him play it again in Blenheim Palace, which is just around the corner from where I live. The seats we had that night weren't so good, but it was a lovely way to spend a summer evening.

Format: 12"
Tracks: 22
Cost: £23 new
Bought: Truck Store, Oxford
When: 07/06/14
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code