Gameface + Errortype:11 - What's Up Bro?

Errortype:11 were a name I knew because some of the members ended up in a band called Instruction with one of the guys from Quicksand. Instruction supported Hundred Reasons in a great, sweaty gig we saw in the Wedgewood Rooms in Portsmouth in 2003 and mainly made an impression because they had the guy from Quicksand in, and I was (and still am) a big Quicksand fan. A year and a bit later I picked up their album God Doesn't Care and enjoyed about half of it.

Some years later, I found this in Damaged Records and picked it up because I was in a mood for spending money and not really finding much I wanted (I also got a record by The Sainte Catherines, which is equally an outlier in my collection). Gameface are a band I know literally nothing about, other than they did a split with Errortype:11. Their songs are fine I guess, but the crazy catchy hook in the Tom Petty song they do is the only really memorable part of their side (which I guess isn't a great review). It also ends with a pointlessly long drunk phone-call recording, for some reason. Who thought that was a good thing to put on the record, I don't know.

The Errortype:11 songs are nice, but sound appalling; so much so I was just checking my needle to make sure it wasn't broken. Maybe it's jut a bad pressing. I'm no audiophile, but it is hard to enjoy the songs when they sound so flat. I'm guessing the singer was in Instruction, because the vocals are very familiar from that record. Musically, they're a bit more upbeat, which works. They also offer a cover - I Got You by Split Enz - another song I don't know, but is catchy enough. I didn't need this record, but for £6 you can't really complain.

Format: 10", insert
Tracks: 6
Cost: £6 new
Bought: Damaged Records, Cardiff
When: 22/08/09
Colour: Orange
Etching: none
mp3s: none

Goodtime Boys - Are We Now, Or Have We Ever Been

I got into the Goodtime Boys because, in a lot of ways I kind of had to. Two friends were in the band at various points of time, they toured with my housemate's band and released a split EP with them, and they were just so intrinsically linked to the Cardiff punk scene at the time that it was impossible to avoid them. They were also quite good, despite myself not really expecting to like them; there were a bunch of bands with broadly similar sounds that I wasn't into and it was a very "all or nothing" scene. I didn't commit hard to it, so I have only a few Goodtime Boys releases and very few by the bands that moved in similar circles.

It's hard to talk about the Goodtime Boys without mentioning that the singer used to be in The Automatic and made a good chunk of money from that song about a monster coming a hill. I imagine he'll never get away from that particular bit of trivia. Some might say it's also why this band are quite so heavy - you'd never suspect there was a connection.

Anyway, I got a copy of the split with Solutions shortly after seeing them play together in London, a strange night in a pub in London I'd never been to before or after (apparently, The Flower Pot). It was nice to see Nicky and Kai, and it was fun to see Pennie throwing himself around from tables in an otherwise unsuspecting pub. As it happens, the cd release of this EP includes the songs from the split (and I know that because I got a copy of the cd for free from Palm Reader Records when they were trying to shift them).

I bought this one afternoon in Banquet about two years after that gig (I'd also seen them that January with The Saddest Landscape in another venue that I'd not been to before or after - The Star of Kings). I only bought this and a cd, so it must have been one of those times where I'd just gone in a bit bored and not really found anything I was particularly after. I dropped the bag on my walk back somehow, which is why the record has a slight ding to the corner of the sleeve. As for the music, it's basically as enjoyable as all the other music they recorded, which is to say, somewhat. Like I said, I'm not hugely into this scene, but I enjoy it every now and again. Sometimes you just need very heavy, angry music and Goodtime Boys do exactly that.

Format: 10", picture sleeve
Tracks: 5
Cost: £10 new
Bought: Banquet Records, Kingston
When: 07/05/12
Colour: Transparent blue
Etching: none
mp3s: none

Pacer - No. 1

Pacer released two very good albums, this EP and a split with Iron Chic, all of which I have in my collection. Between 2011 and 2013 I saw them six times and then they sort of disappeared as their regular lives took over - recently they've played a couple of shows and I hope to catch them again soon. I picked this up when I saw them supporting The Bouncing Souls (on the second of the two nights I saw them play together).

I think one of the reasons I liked Pacer so much is that they didn't sound like a lot of the other bands in the UK punk scene at the time - OK Pilot and The Shitty Limits were the only other bands from around then that had the same frantic energy and heaviness. I guess, most crucially, they weren't trying to sound like Hot Water Music (which is neither a criticism of HWM or the many, many bands we used to see who were trying to sound like HWM - I enjoy both).

Anyway, No. 1 is their debut EP and comes and goes in 16-minutes and seven songs. Everything's Fine and The Long Drop are the highlights, possibly because they have enough time to do some different things (much like on Flutters, my favourite song of theirs by a good distance which is also one of their longer songs despite still not quite hitting the 3-minute mark). It's a solid EP and every bit as essential as their albums for me.

Format: 10", insert
Tracks: 7
Cost: £5 new
Bought: Gig
When: 03/08/11
Colour: Grey with black splatter
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code

Rage Against the Machine - The People of the Sun

I remember seeing this 10" a bunch of times in the shop I bought it from before eventually deciding to get it. Over the years I'd been going in there sometimes they'd have a copy and other times they wouldn't. On all the times it was there before May 2003 they also had a bunch of other records I wanted to buy instead, so it never made it into my purchases. But as the years went by, the amount of money I was spending on records increased, so it was no surprise that I did finally pick it up. I also bought Siamese Dream and Pretty Hate Machine on vinyl that day, so it was a strong day for a very particular part of my record collection.

The record itself is a strange one - I never quite got the bottom of why it was released on Revelation Records, a label I wouldn't have thought would have normally had much to do with band like Rage. They'd been on a major label from the start and Epic released the cd and 7" versions of single. At the time I thought it was odd that it was on a record label that I wasn't that familiar with (of course, I eventually got to know Revelation Records well), and that a single would be so readily available so many years after it was released. I think in a lot of ways I stopped caring about the answers to these questions - they don't keep me awake at night.

It's a nice little record for a number of reasons - you've got some live songs, a collaboration/cover with Chuck D from Public Enemy and some non-album songs. The three album tracks are all from Evil Empire, which in 2019 has become the Rage album I play the most often - I think its underdog status back in the day helps, partly because I didn't over do it back in the early 2000's; I know the self-titled album like the back of my hand, and whilst The Battle of Los Angeles had some huge songs, they weren't the lasting classics I thought they'd be. People of the Sun and Bulls on Parade are the studio versions and both great singles. Without a Face is a huge late-album gem and the outro never fails to put a smile on my face. The live recording is a great reminder of how incredible they were to watch.

The other songs are fascinating - with Chuck D they cover Public Enemy's Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos and segue pretty much seemlessly into Zapata's Blood, a great song that often appears live, but never in the studio (at least, in my limited research). Hadda Be Playing on the Jukebox is a funny one - an Allen Ginsburg poem set to music, recorded live in Detroit in 1993. At 8-minutes, the duration is actually one of the most interesting things about it - when forced to stretch themselves over more than 5-minutes (due to the length of the poem) the band almost lean into post-rock. The relationship between Zach's vocals and the three instruments is perfect - when Zach gets louder, the music is there rising up and teasing him on; and when he does get loud, he shouts in a way you never hear elsewhere. But he's not necessarily leading everything - Tom's guitars show hints of the peaks to come from early on, as do Brad's drums. Like I said, almost post-rock in the way it holds back but gives hints of whats to come throughout. I like it. Makes you wonder what could have happened if they'd played more music like this - I don't imagine it would have been anywhere near as popular, but it would have made for very interesting listening. Worth the entry fee for that song alone.

Format: 10", insert
Tracks: 5
Cost: £9 new
Bought: FM Music, Southampton
When: 03/05/03
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: none

The Decemberists - Florasongs

This was a thoroughly non-essential purchase, but I can't turn down a bargain. It also seems that I'm a big Decemberist fan, despite only really considering myself to be a casual Decemberists fan; my record collection certainly suggests the former. I remember when this 10" was announced sometime after their seventh album, What a Terrible World, What a Beautiful World (an album I bought a week after it came out - maybe I am a big fan?). I remember thinking I wasn't going to buy it because I wasn't that big a fan, but here we are.

In March 2016, about six months after it came out, this copy of Florasongs found its way into the Norman Records sale and got added to my basket along with five other records. Despite my apathy towards buying it, I do quite like it. The opener, Why Would I Now?, is just one of those great Decemberist songs - moves along at a good pace and very memorable (the next song, Riverswim, fails on both those counts). Fits and Starts is basically a punk song and The Harrowed and the Haunted is a good example of a slower song that works (the hook is infectious), but Stateside is probably the highlight of the record for me. If the song isn't a direct reference to The Replacement's Answering Machine then I'd be amazed - the gentle strumming of a melancholy electric guitar and the fact the drums never kick in no matter how much you're expecting them to puts it right alongside Answering Machine. Another clue is that Colin Meloy literally wrote the book on Let It Be (albeit more of an autobiography of a very particular time in his life - as 33 1/3 books go, it's probably more interesting for a Decemberists fan than a Replacements fan, but luckily I'm both). That song alone justifies the £5 I spent on this 10" - thoroughly recommended.

Format: 10", insert
Tracks: 5
Cost: £5.24 new
Bought: Norman Records
When: 29/03/16
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code

Final Fantasy - Spectrum, 14th Century

On August 2nd 2009 I saw Owen Pallett for the first time, or Final Fantasy, as he was known back then (the flyer for the show has been inside this sleeve since that day). I've been to a lot of gigs in my time, but that one was particularly memorable for a number of reasons - his set was incredible; I'd never seen one man get so much out of one instrument; the venue was lovely; the applause was so great that he agreed to play a few more songs in car park after the show finished - I've never known so many people be so silent so that everyone could hear his unplugged violin and voice.

At the end of the show (and before the after-show) I bought this 10" record from the merch table. They also had the Plays to Please 10" which I've still not heard. I can't remember why I picked this one, but I did based on no information. I guess I liked the cover. Anyway, it's a nice EP. It's loosely related to his 2010 album Heartland and musically I'd say they're quite similar too. Most notably, neither have as many stand-out moments as the albums around them - around this time he seemed to be writing very nice but ultimately very similar songs; the closer The Ballad of No Face is the only one that really stays with you after the record is over. It's a nice EP though.

Format: 10", booklet
Tracks: 5
Cost: £10 new
Bought: Gig, Cardiff
When: 02/08/09
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code

Poison the Well - Ghostchant

I never really got on with Poison the Well's third album, You Come Before You, but I think that's mainly because I left it far too late to hear it. Tear From the Red was huge and I was into from the off; The Opposite of December and Distance Only Makes the Heart Grow Fonder were heavier but I was into them too. It helped that I heard all those albums within a little over a year of each other (and that that year was 2003, a good time to be a fan of Poison the Well). I also got this 10" single of Ghostchant that year for £3 in Selectadisc London, the day we went to see Deftones play Wembley Arena (for the first time) and also the day I got my Aeroplane Flies High boxset. It was an ok single, but didn't grab me like some of the songs on Tear From the Red. There's very little memorable about it - I've literally just played it and couldn't really tell you much about it.

What probably didn't help was that the day I bought this was also about a week before I started university, where I was introduced to all sorts of new bands - in the first few months alone, some Americans in my halls introduced me to Hum and Black Eyes; these were exciting times and Poison the Well definitely got left behind. In fact, it'd be 2006 before I finally bought a copy of You Come Before You (a cheap cd purchase in the HMV in Sydney, just days after I'd found my surprisingly rare copy of Hum's You'd Prefer An Astronaut on vinyl). Australian summer, combined with being a few years older were not the right conditions for enjoying Poison the Well's metalcore. Moreover, it felt like they'd done away with the unexpected acoustic guitars and shameless emo that made Tear From the Red so interesting; similarly, there were none of the hooks or breakdowns that made the earlier stuff fun too. And, like that, I pretty much stopped being a Poison the Well fan. I still play Tear From the Red from time to time, but not very often at all.

Anyway, there are two other songs here: Midair Love Message, which has some strong blast beats but not much else, and a demo of Sticks and Stones Never Made Sense from Tear From the Red, which is just a scrappy version of the album take (I know that's what demos are, but usually ones that get released and a bit more interesting). It's not one of the more interesting records in my collection, but for £3 you can't really complain. Red vinyl, numbered (#1018, out of 2000 it seems).

Format: 10"
Tracks: 3
Cost: £3 new
Bought: Selectadisc, London
When: 19/09/03
Colour: Red
Etching: none
mp3s: none

Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra - Kollaps Tradixionales

I've been gradually working on my Silver Mt Zion back-catalogue ever since Fuck Off Get Free We Pour Light on Everything blew my socks off in 2014 and became my album-of-the-year. That process has been very gradual - so far averaging two years between purchases. I could happily increase this frequency, but I just don't see the albums in records shops often enough. Still, it's giving me good time to get into each record as I buy it.

The second Silver Mt Zion album I bought was this double 10" copy of Kollaps Tradixionales, which happens to be the album before Fuck Off... (and, as it happens, the third purchase at the start of this year was the one before this one; it appears that I'm working backwards). Norman Records had one of their big sales on and I got it quite discounted - I can't remember the original price, but I paid just under £16 for this, which is a good price. The package is really lovely - Godspeed levels of attention paid to every part - there are two posters, a book, a lyrics sheet (which I have two of, for some reason) and the album on cd. The attention to detail throughout is incredible. I still love the line "and everybody sang" in the notes.

The album itself is really good too. It didn't grab me as instantly as Fuck Off... but over the years I'd say it's settled at a point where I listen to them about as much as each other. Kollaps makes clever use of the four sides of vinyl, grouping the songs on each - it's bookended by two 15 minute songs that take up whole sides of 10" each. There is a Light is a very positive and triumphant song benefiting from some extra horns, Efrim's vocals straining just before Sophie and Jessica take over singing the same lines much more softly. As per my thoughts on the first time I heard the band, Efrim's vocals aren't an easy listen, but they're such a major part of the band you have to love them a bit. Side two features two songs about "metal birds", some punkier songs as far as the band go; side three has the three "collapse" songs, which are the more slow, reflective songs on the album (although the third has a huge riff). 'Piphany Rambler is probably the highlight of the lot, another grand affair sprawling over quarter of an hour, the strings carrying the mid-section beautifully and building to a huge, messy, perfect post-rock ending.

It's going to take me years to get through all the band's albums at this rate - expect more posts far in the future.

Format: Double 10", book, two posters, insert, cd
Tracks: 7
Cost: £15.74 new
Bought: Norman Records
When: 29/03/16
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: cd

Various Artists - Fat Music for Fest People

Fat Wreck Chords compilation cds were a stable of my youth, although I never owned any myself. A bunch of my friends had a few, shared them around and that was how we got into most of the punk bands we knew. Years later I got a copy of Short Music For Short People on vinyl, mostly because the idea of it still amused me and squeezing 101 songs onto one 12" record was equally ridiculous. That compilation was the only one I remember borrowing from a friend when we were at school, but it was my first taster of a lot of bands who would go on to mean a lot to us.

Fast-forward 12-or-so years and I went to Fest for the first time. Fat Wreck Chords had a 10" in countless different colours for sale made for the festival, called Fat Music For Fest People. After picking up our wristbands, Sarah and I both bought a copy from the stall in the registration flea market. In all honestly, I'm not really sure why. I suppose at the start of the weekend, $10 for a record seemed like a bargain, but almost without exception every single album I bought that weekend cost $10. I guess I also wanted to buy it mark my first Fest, wondering if it might become a regular purchase at future Fests; I went once again, but didn't even look to see if there was another issue.

The truth is that I just don't like the bands on Fat Wreck Chords that much, and far too many of them sound identical. I'm now on the fifth song, and if you'd told me that all five of the songs so far had been from the same band I would have believed you. I'd seen Dead to Me and Teenage Bottlerocket that spring supporting The Descendants (at the famously bad Shepherd's Bush show where Milo lost his voice) and been thoroughly bored by them both. Hugh tweeted something along the lines of "if a bomb went off in Shepherd's Bush right now, all of the UK punk scene would be wiped out. But at least Dead to Me would stop playing", which I remember finding amusing.

The second side has a bit more to it - None More Black have a gruff edge and the background "Whoa-ohs" in this song were always going to be a hit for me. Paint it Black bring a bit of hardcore, which is nice. A lot of people I know love that band, but I've never really got into them. I'm sure I'd enjoy them live. I'd seen The Flatliners a few months earlier in Kingston and been underwhelmed by them then. Apparently I saw Old Man Markley and Dillinger Four at Fest that year, but I think both were because I was already in the venue they were playing and wanted to stay there for the band afterwards (Dikembe and Lemuria, respectively). I certainly don't remember much about either.

As samplers go, this hasn't done a great job of making me want to go see the Fat Wreck bands playing Fest that year, but I didn't have a record player with me, so there was no scenario where I'd actually hear this record before the bands played anyway. I don't feel like I missed out on anything, that's for sure.

Format: 10"
Tracks: 10
Cost: £6.20 new
Bought: Fest
When: 28/10/11
Colour: Pink
Etching: none
mp3s: none

The Smith Street Band - Don't Fuck With Our Dreams

The first time I saw The Smith Street Band was at Fest 12. I'd been introduced to them by the song Young Drunk on their second album, and listened to the first two albums a lot at my desk before seeing them that autumn in Gainesville. They'd just released this 10" EP, but I hadn't listened to it before the show. They were playing the huge Florida Theatre on the Sunday night and the place was busy; people were very excited about seeing them and I was about to find out why. They played brilliantly and the crowd loved them; like a few sets I've seen at Fest, it's almost ruined the band for me as their live shows in other places haven't been quite as well-received, which is almost a shame - I wish everybody at other shows would go as mad as they did that night.

That night, they played the title-track from this EP, Don't Fuck With Our Dreams. They introduced it with a story about how a friend used the phrase after being mindlessly beaten up - it was a strange but brilliant response to such a situation, and I liked that before the song even started. That single song represented a change in their song-writing to me. From the first listen, and on record, it is at least ten times more epic than anything they'd released beforehand. The song was longer, had more parts to it and did so much with its time. It starts off sounding a bit like another punk song about touring (and writing songs about touring - meta) but then builds into something huge. I have a lot of time for that song. The highs are huge and the build-up in-between is brilliantly fast-paced and frantic.

I then had high hopes for their third album, Throw Me in the River, but found few moments that even stood close to Don't Fuck With Our Dreams. Their most-recent album, More Scared of You Than You Are of Me was such a great listen because they found whatever it was that made Don't Fuck With Our Dreams so incredible and took that to even higher levels throughout the album. I'll write about in due course, but the first song on this EP was the clue that they had incredible, next-level song-writing in them and I'm so, so pleased for them that they made a record that reflected it.

Anyway, I didn't buy this EP that night because I wanted to get a copy of Sunshine and Technology and was running out of cash. Luckily, the following the spring they were touring the UK so I had a chance to see them again (and, even luckier, they were playing with Restorations, a band I'd fallen in love with at Fest and was very excited to see again). I saw that tour in the Fighting Cocks in Kingston - I'd just moved to Oxford but happily travelled back to London to see it. I bought the first Smith Street album that night, along with this copy of the EP, featuring the screen-printed, tour version of the cover. I think that was also the night I lost my wallet on the bus home.

The other four songs are strong too - any of them would have fit perfectly on either of the two albums that proceeded the EP. The transition into Ducks Fly Together is seamless and Bigger Than Us has a hint of epic about it. Overall it's a good EP, but Don't Fuck With Our Dreams is what makes it memorable and an essential addition.

Format: 10", screen-printed sleeve
Tracks: 5
Cost: £10 new
Bought: Gig
When: 22/04/14
Colour: Purple
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code

The Hives - We Rule the World (The H.I.V.E.S.)

The Hives played a part in my life at two very distinct points in time. At the end of 2001 they made a splash on MTV with the single Hate to Say I Told You So and the brilliantly named compilation album Your New Favourite Band. They played the Wedgewood Rooms in Portsmouth the following January and a bunch of us went and had a great time. Then I kinda forgot about them almost as quickly as I'd got into them. I can't put my finger on why; I think I was just getting into other genres and their slightly over-the-top rock 'n' roll wasn't my thing. In fact, I've always had a fairly short tolerance for bands who dabble in rock 'n' roll - it's fun for a bit, but there's no longevity in it for me.

In 2007 I was Budapest the same time as the annual Sziget Festival and, moreover, was there the day that Nine Inch Nails were playing. At that point I'd only seen them once and was incredibly excited to see them again (it wouldn't be the only time I'd see them at a foreign festival, as I went to Southside in Germany mainly to see them on what was billed as their last-ever tour). Earlier in the day, The Hives played on the main stage and I figured I'd watch them again. To my surprise, I really, really enjoyed them, much more than I remembered doing so six years before and much more than I was expecting. They did a bit that I'm sure they do at every gig, where they pause in the middle of a song and hold their positions for far longer than is actually funny (and then even longer still). It was fun.

The following spring I found this 10" single in my local HMV whilst in town with my housemate. It was only £3 and I was still impressed by how much I enjoyed them the previous summer. At the time I knew it was a fairly unnecessary purchase - I wasn't ever going to be a collector of their music and three of the songs were remixes - but I went with it anyway. The single itself is fine, but has far more in common with New York electro-punk than The Hives ever did (think !!! or Q And Not U). It's not what I listened to The Hives to hear, but has some good moments and that slight arrogance that had appealed to me back in the day. The Pharrell Williams production credit should have been a warning sign that it wasn't going to be entirely my bag, but I didn't see that in the shop. My opinion of the remixes, as regular readers will have come to expect, are low. The two remixes of We Rule the World are similar to the point of being basically indistinguishable. The remix of Tick Tick Boom has a bit more going for it, but I suspect it was a better song to start off with - the vocals are more familiar, and the singers voice was always one of the highlights of the band.

After buying this record, The Hives fell off my radar again. If I saw they were playing a festival again, I'd definitely go along and watch, but I doubt it'd reignite my enjoyment of them as much as it did at Sziget.

Format: 10"
Tracks: 4
Cost: £3 new
Bought: Virgin Records, Cardiff
When: 09/03/08
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Manic Street Preachers - The Masses Against the Classes

The Masses Against the Classes was a beautiful anomaly. I got into the band properly when they released their fifth album, This is My Truth Tell Me Yours, an objectively good album. The singles from it were excellent songs and, as with the four albums before it, sufficiently different from everything before it. However, it wasn't a heavy album. After hearing it I got Generation Terrorists, Everything Must Go, Gold Against the Soul and The Holy Bible (in that order, although I'd had a taped copy of The Holy Bible for a while, somehow with a few songs missing). I knew the band could be heavy; I wanted them to be again.

Then, at the start of January on the turn of the century, they released The Masses Against the Classes, the heaviest song they'd written in years and, it would turn out, the heaviest they'd be for a while. I loved it then and I love it now. The gradual build-up at the start, the arrogant spit of James' vocals and that huge chorus that stands ten times taller than the verses; what a combination. It's probably not always considered one of the best Manics songs, but I'd rate it very highly. They don't always play it live, but I get such a kick when they do. That said, it was a number 1 single in the UK charts, so maybe it's more loved than I realise. Of course, this was at the height of their national fame, so that probably helped. Close My Eyes is a suitably fuzzy b-side and also a pretty great song. Neither would have worked on any album they've ever released, but I'd love to hear an album they would work on (Know Your Enemy had some moments that came close, but these both would have stuck out). Loud and fuzzy works well for the band, it seems. Rock and Roll Music is a fine cover to round the single off, but struggles next to the songs that precede it.

Fearing it's status as "limited edition", I rushed out to buy a copy the day it came out. MVC didn't stock vinyl at the time, so I got the cd (for £3) rather than this 10". Over the following years I saw the 10" on eBay a bit but didn't by a copy until I found this one in Reading one day. At £7 it'd risen in price in two years, but seemed like a good price, especially given the near-mint condition. It's number 6272 out of, I assume, at least 10,000 - not a short run by any stretch, but they were very big at the time. (I had a jukebox 7" of the song that I'd found on eBay at some point in between the two purchases, which probably quenched my thirst for the song on vinyl for a bit too.)

17 years later, this is still an excellent single.

Format: 10", numbered (#6272)
Tracks: 3
Cost: £7 second hand
Bought: Reading
When: 27/12/02
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

One Minute Silence - Revolution

In 2003 One Minute Silence released their follow-up to 2000's Buy Now... Saved Later, an album that was hugely popular amongst my friends and me. Quite a few months before the album coming out, they released the first single from it, Revolution, on a one-sided 10" with laser-etched b-side. I only had a couple of 10" records at the time and none of my records had any etching beyond text in the run-out groove. I really had no idea what to expect, but was pleasantly surprised to see the OMS logo on the reverse. I ordered this copy into my local HMV and remember asking so often whether it had arrived that they told me to stop asking and they'd phone when it finally arrived.

Revolution is one of the highlights of One Lie Fits All and has aged surprisingly well. I've listened to that album a few times in the last 10 years or so, and still get some enjoyment from it. The production was slick and the songs sounded great, which helped a lot - their particular segment of nu-metal could have easily sounded shit in 2017, but actually still kinda works. Or maybe it's just so steeped in nostalgia that I can't separate the two. I always really liked Revolution so it's hard to say if it's objectionably a good song, but I like it so that's all that really matters. I think people were put off by the slick sound of the album at the time, and you can kinda see why. But it's still a heavy song, and if you crank it up loud enough you can hear the bass line well enough to hear that.

After that we get We Bounce, a song that would eventually be an album track and another single, much closer to the album launch. It always did less for, but gets going after a slightly uneven opening. Finally there's a live recording of Holy Man one of the singles and highlights from the second album. Listening to it now brings back so many memories of going absolutely fucking mental in the pit at their shows, something we did almost routinely in our teen years. That breakdown in the middle makes me feel tired now thinking about how I used to throw myself around to it. My body definitely could not handle that anymore.

Format: One-sided 10", laser-etched b-side
Tracks: 3
Cost: £3.60 new
Bought: HMV Winchester
When: 03/02/03
Colour: Black
Etching: Band logo etched on b-side
mp3s: no

Manic Street Preachers - Revol

I get the bus to work, which is basically dead time. One morning I decided to use my time more efficiently and try to fill in some holes in my record collection by getting back into eBay. I downloaded the app, browsed a bunch of records, put in a few small bids on some Manics records I didn't have, then pretty much forgot all about that plan. A few days later, I got a series of emails saying I'd won a few items, which was a pleasant surprise. I don't really remember making most of the bids, but I was happy with the prices and glad to add them to the collection.

One such purchase was this 10" single of Revol (#710). I have the Part 1 of the cd, which I paid £15 for in a record shop in Reading in 2002. The band released a bunch of two-part cd singles back in the 90's with these funny double cd-cases (or rather, Part 1 had the funny case to store Part 2), which was part of the appeal. The 10" has the exact same four songs as the cd I have.

Revol is a classic from The Holy Bible. For whatever reason (perhaps because the record is 20 years old), it sounds terrible; I was worried my needle had broken, it's so bad. Too Cold Here sounds clearer and is a nice b-side from the era - it reminds me a bit of Bored Out of My Mind, the b-side to Motorcycle Emptiness in that it's a quiet little song and unlike many that made it onto any album. I guess they share that they're curious additions to the band's back-catalogue that show a different side. I have a few copies of the Heavenly version of You Love Us and here is yet another. Finally we get a live recording of Life Becoming a Landslide from Bangkok in Thailand. It's nice to hear the songs from Gold Against the Soul live, because I love that album and they rarely play anything from it, sadly.

Format: 10", gatefold sleeve
Tracks: 4
Cost: £13.80 second hand
Bought: eBay
When: 13/04/17
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Radiohead - The King of Limbs

My relationships with Radiohead albums vary a lot - some have been instant favourites, others slow-burn and some I've just never really got on board with. I became a Radiohead fan around the release of Kid A so they'd already begun their journey away from indie-guitar-music. Amnesiac I've always struggled with and Hail to the Thief required me to realise how great each of the individual songs were before I started to enjoy it (it was the first success of my old mp3 player, as a result of having my entire collection on shuffle). In Rainbows was hugely popular with myself and my friends - I have very fond memories of hearing nearly everyday on a holiday we went on in France, an instant hit.

The King of Limbs is up there with Amnesiac as an album I really struggle with. For me there are few really notable moments and when I look at the tracklisting I never think "that's a good/memorable song". Generally speaking, it's much more heavy on the electronica than I really care for, although I feel that as Radiohead fan you're not really allowed to complain about electronica. It's certainly the star of the album, more-so than Thom or any of the other band members - all the songs feature pops and clicks very prominently. Perhaps my lack of knowledge (or care) for the genre means I can't appreciate the songs as much; I'm sure I'm not the only Radiohead fan suffering from that.

Morning Mr Magpie has Thom nearly spitting the verses with anger but a surprisingly dull chorus - the highlight (for me) is when the electronica actually drops away for a few moments. Little by Little is quite good but Feral that follows it just feels half-formed and like filler - something you can't really afford to do on an 8-song album. Lotus Flower was the closest thing to a hit from the album if I remember correctly - I can certainly recall people raving about it. There's a more traditional Radiohead feel to it and it has a great chorus, but it's also very typical of the rest of the album. Codex is a bit of a surprise in that The King of Limbs could have easily been an album without a slow, reflective number; it's nice to have it though.

This copy is the deluxe edition that was available for pre-order. It was pricey but I was still on a In Rainbows-kick so was very excited for a new Radiohead album. The package is, as we've come to expect, lovely. It's hard to know where to begin - the records are on crystal-clear 10" vinyl, the newspaper is vast and detailed, there's a square thing of tiny art and the whole album on cd too. It's a very nice release indeed.

I don't listen to The King of Limbs often. As is often the case, I now feel I should do - it's still a good album, just not the sort of Radiohead album I often want to hear. However, if I'm not necessarily in the mood for Radiohead but want a good album, then it is definitely an interesting option.

Format: Double 10", cd, picture sleeves, newspaper, art, bag
Tracks: 8
Cost: £30 new
Bought: Website
When: 13/05/11
Colour: Clear
Etching: Side A: "Endless branches" Side B: "Uncountrollable" Side C: "A never ending mesh" Side D: "Intertwined in to everything"
mp3s: cd