Songs: Ohia - Songs: Ohia

As much as I love Jason Molina's music, I never really feel like I've cracked his early lo-fi days. There's a lot of hints of what Songs: Ohia would become, but it's not easy to hear it as the music of the same musician who wrote the albums towards the end of the Songs: Ohia monicker.

I picked up the debut Songs: Ohia record at the same time I got the Soujourner boxset. At that point, all I knew was Josephine and What Comes After the Blues - it wasn't the usual order of albums to hear (it'd be another year before I heard The Magnolia Electric Co record). I can't remember which I played first, but given the four discs of Soujouner, I suspect I played at least one of those first. I wasn't really expecting these songs to be quite so different to Magnolia, but I'd been brought in towards the end of his varied career and wasn't remotely familiar with the subtle twists and turns his vast recorded output went through. Part of me wishes I could have heard it all in a more sensible order, but most days I'm just glad I was introduced to his music by seeing him play live, and that I got to see him play live at all.

On Cabwaylingo Jason's voice is more nasal and high than it ever sounded again, which throws the listener off from the start (or, at least, this listener). It's not as warm as the version recorded as Vanquisher that appeared on the Journey On boxset; Crab Orchard afterwards sounds much more like the Molina I've spent many hours listening to. There are songs with a lot more bite to them though - Our Republic builds to something far bigger than most of the songs that preceded it, and Cotton Hill and Dogwood Gap are great examples of him dabbling in reaching beyond lo-fi. Tenskwatawa is a highlight, as is Little Beaver, although it shows just how little that I feel I've gotten into this album - if you'd mentioned those two song titles to me, I'm not sure I'd have known they were Molina song titles, let alone some of the songs on this album I like the most.

I bought this from the Secretly Canadian stall at the Independent Label Market in London. That was the first time I went when it was amazing; the second time was thoroughly disappointing in comparison and I've not been since. The Secretly Canadian stall had a bunch of Molina records and I regretted for a while not buying all of them (although it was wise to buy the Soujouner boxset then, because it sells for at least double what I paid for it now). I've probably since bought all the other ones they had, but I don't recall exactly which ones were there. This is the triple gatefold version of the reissue, unlike the single LP sleeve it's often found in now. The etching on the record says "edition of 500", but scrawled out, so I assume that was referring to an earlier pressing. It wasn't until a good number of months (possibly years) after I bought it that I found the download code inside.

Format: 12", triple gatefold
Tracks: 14
Cost: £15 new
Bought: Independent Label Market, London
When: 13/07/13
Colour: Black
Etching: Side A: "Edition of 500" (crossed out)
mp3s: Download code

Biffy Clyro - Blackened Sky

Towards the end of school and at the start of college, I was friends with a guy called Ben. He played guitar in a bunch of bands with other mutual friends and was naturally very good at it. I remember walking away from college one day towards the bus and him telling me about this great band he'd gotten into called Biffy Clyro. He said if I gave him a blank MiniDisc he'd give me a copy of their debut album, so I gave him one the next time I saw him (it was strange, usually people just lent you the cd, but this was the first (and only) time Ben and I exchanged music, so I guess that was just the way he rolled). He also included some songs by this local band I'd recently seen him play with called Fidget. Somewhere in my collection of old MiniDiscs, I still have that. It's funny, Ben wasn't a huge part of my life, but did introduce me to a band who would go on to become huge.

I enjoyed Blackened Sky from the off - Joy.Discovery.Invention was instantly enjoyable - the vocals perfectly smooth (but not annoying) and the music matched it so well. The drum beat throughout the verses of 27 carries the song and falls away just in time for the chorus to break. Justboy and The Go-Slow have these choruses that absolutely soar. Throughout there's a mix of influences that kept you on your toes - sometime indie, sometime punk-rock. It's quite a stunning debut album.

For me, the real star of Blackened Sky was always (and always will be) 57. Many years ago I went on a month long road-trip through central Australia with ten friends. I couldn't drive at the time so helped in the only way I could; I made mix cds for the drive. Some went down well, others not so well, but one in particular stood out - on one cd I included 57 by Biffy and everyone fell in love with it. It started with my friend Christian humming it one day as we set up the tents and trying to sing the words that he'd badly misunderstood (he's Austrian, so there's a language barrier). From there, we kept listening to it and it became a staple of the trip. Afterwards a bunch of people asked for a copy of it. In the UK Biffy were becoming a bigger name, but in the Australian outback I was introducing them to a new audience. The song is incredible - it takes that idea of falling away just before the chorus break from 27, but does it a billion times better - the "do-do-do-do-do" whisper in the break is perfect and the chorus, like so many on the album, is huge.

Strangely, despite loving the album, I pretty much ignored Biffy for the best part of ten years that follwed. I remember hearing a single from their second album and thinking it was terrible. I've not even listened to the albums they've released since, which is pretty bad of me. I just assumed they'd gone shit and I was too busy getting to a string of other genres. At some point they became the biggest band in the UK and I felt pleased for them. Then in 2011 I saw them play Milton Keynes Bowl with the biggest band in the world, the Foo Fighters. It was a great show and I understood why they'd gotten so big.

At some point they announced they were reissuing their albums with bonus discs and I thought it'd be nice to have Blackened Sky on vinyl. It wasn't by any means an essential purchase, so I didn't do anything about for a long time, until I found this at the Independent Label Market in London. There had been far fewer bargains and exciting purchases than the last time I went, so it seemed like a good time to pick this up. It's a nice double purple vinyl and it's cool having all the extra songs. Not being a mega-fan, they don't add a huge amount for me. They're nice, and there are some interesting moments (Hope For An Angel, Instructio4, Being Gabriel - the latter being such classic early-2000's UK alt-rock). Annoyingly, no download card, so they don't get played as much as they might otherwise.

I imagine I'm in the minority of people who have this record on their shelves without the rest of the Biffy back-catalogue next to it. Maybe I should make more of an effort. Or maybe I'll just listen to 57 on repeat instead.

Format: Double 12", gatefold sleeve
Tracks: 21
Cost: £20 new
Bought: Independent Label Market
When: 12/07/14
Colour: Purple
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Mr Len - Pity the Fool [Promo]

This record cost £1. You can't argue with prices like that. Mr Len was in Company Flow with El-P but that's really all I know about him. The Matador Records stall at the Independent Label Market the first year I went was excellent (as I've mentioned a few times before) and in their bargain bin I found this promo 12" for the debut Mr Len solo album (a mere 12 years after the album came out). I enjoy a bit of hip-hop and the fact that Mr Len was in Co-Flow was enough to make me think it would be rude to not buy it.

The beats are pretty nice and the guest rappers each bring something different to the tracks. The b-side comprises instrumentals of three of the four songs on the a-side along with an untitled bonus track. Some of the instrumentals aren't quite so interesting without the vocals but are still pretty nice (albeit in a different way). The highlight of both sides for me is definitely Dummy Smacks, which works equally well with Chubb Rock and Mr Live as it does without them.

Format: 12"
Tracks: 8
Cost: £1 new
Bought: Independent Label Market
When: 13/07/13
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - The Letting Go

I think it was around the release of The Letting Go that I first heard Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - the first Will Oldham record I bought was a 7" single of Cold & Wet from this album - but it would be years before I heard the rest of the LP. I have vague memories of the album getting a lot of praise around that time and I can see why; of the albums of his I know it's one of the stronger ones.

I've got a scattering of Will Oldham records from various points in his career and some of them have a tendency to underwhelm. The Letting Go however has great songs throughout - Love Comes to Me, Wai, Cursed Sleep, Lay and Love, and The Seedling are all great. Of those songs, The Seedling and Cursed Sleep are both the biggest highlights of the album and between them show both Oldham's dark and light sides. I knew a few of the songs here from the Is It the Sea? live album, which is another of his stronger releases and probably the best introduction to his music.

I paid £12 for this LP at the Independent Label Market, which is bargain as far as vinyl goes these days. It didn't come with a download code which means I haven't listened to it quite as much as I otherwise would have. However, that's quite a nice thing, because I do forget quite how much I like it between listens.

Format: 12", picture sleeve, insert
Tracks: 12
Cost: £12 new
Bought: Independent Label Market
When: 13/07/13
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

65daysofstatic - We Were Exploding Anyway

I don't think I'd consciously heard 65daysofstatic when I bought this album; I'd heard the name mentioned often, seen them on bills full of other bands I like and good friends were into them. In a lot of ways, I have no idea why I hadn't checked them out sooner. Last summer I was strolling around the Independent Label Market (finding surprisingly little I was into) and found the Monotreme Records stall. The year before I'd picked up This Will Destroy You's Tunnel Blanket LP and a free sampler of some interesting math/post-rock bands. They always seem to be one of the few stalls there with anything heavy.

Anyway, for an amazingly-cheap £8 they had We Were Exploding Anyway on 180 gram white vinyl and I figured at that price it'd be rude to not finally check 65dos out. I knew they skirted closer to electronic music than a lot of math/post-rock bands do and there's certainly a large element of that on the record (take Go Complex for example), but it's definitely a rock album and hits pretty hard when it chooses to. Weak4 is a perfect example - the electronic blips and beeps are there, but the song ramps up and explodes in true post-rock style. It's pretty awesome.

On very first listen I wasn't entirely convinced, but a bunch of plays later and it's definitely converted me into a fan. Other highlights include Come to Me with it's unexpected use of vocals and the sprawling Tiger Girl. I've been meaning to check their other albums out since (although I've not done a great job of actually seeking them out; something I should work on).

Also included in the package was the full album on cd (in a printed sleeve, unlike the plastic wallet you usually find) and a download code for the Heavy Sky EP which I must admit I haven't listened to nearly enough. I have vague memories of it being even heavier on the electronica side, but I could be mistaken. The problem with it being a download is that it isn't real, so it's easy to forget about. A nice inclusion though.

Format: 12", picture sleeve, poster, cd
Tracks: 9
Cost: £8 new
Bought: Independent Label Market, London
When: 12/07/14
Colour: White
Etching: None
mp3s: cd

EMA - Past Life Martyred Saints

I've kinda written about this record before, but in the context of another record. The short version is that I heard The Grey Ship and California played over the hifi in a record shop, thought they were cool, Googled the lyrics and read up about EMA and her old band Gowns. I stumbled across a Gowns record in the next shop I went into and figured it was too much of a coincidence to not buy it. For a couple of years afterwards I kept thinking that I should pick up the EMA record and last year I finally did. I bought this copy at the Independent Label Market in Spitalfields after a fairly sweaty and unexciting trip - in 2013 I bought so many great records there, but I was underwhelmed by the 2014 event. Of my few purchases, Past Life Martyred Saints was quite the highlight.

The Grey Ship is one of those excellent album openers that stands out and sets the listener up for what's about to happen; it's slow and brooding but explodes into one of the highlights. In length and power it could easily dwarf the rest of the album but there are plenty of other songs that meet its standards. California, one of the albums most well-known tracks, follows on in great style and grabs your attention from the get-go. My other favourite is Marked, a song that also made it onto Gowns' Latitudes session EP. The live version has a certain rawness that is missing here but both versions are excellent and almost tell different stories in their styles - Erika's voice is so smooth here that it sounds like a love song even though it most definitely is not. Butterfly Knife and Red Star are great too, although close the album too soon for my liking - I never feel like I've been listening to it for long enough before it's over.

It's hard to describe EMA's music (so I'll try not to), but there are so many influences from starkly different musical styles that all come together so well. You wouldn't think that an album that can draw comparisons to folk, noise and industrial could sound so great. Maybe it's because I quite enjoy all those genres that I enjoy this album so much. It ended up in pretty heavy rotation in the second half of 2014 and I suspect that'll continue into 2015.

Format: 12", gatefold sleeve
Tracks: 9
Cost: £12 new
Bought: Independent Label Market
When: 12/07/14
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code

Jesu - Duchess / Veiled

The third 7" I bought in my three-for-a-tenner offer at the Matador Records stall of the Independent Label Market last year is this Jesu record. I've been a casual fan of Jesu for a few years now, picking up his records whenever I find them (which isn't all that often). I've largely not enjoyed them quite as much as I did his Lifeline EP, but I think I just started on a highlight. They have their moments, but I find that 70 minutes is more bleak showgaze than I can usually handle. I like it, just in smaller doses.

This 7" fits that bill quite nicely, and Veiled is an awesome song. It feels like more of a traditional rock song and it works. Duchess is a cover of The Stranglers, a song which I can't say I've heard the original of. Jesu's take feels more the b-side to Veiled's a-side, but that's just my take on it.

The Matador Singles Club looks like it's produced some pretty awesome records over the years, and they've done a pretty nice job on making them consistent - the cover is whatever the cover would be, but the reverse is always the Singles Club logo. The record itself is a very shocking-pink and has the witty phrase "Singles going home alone" written on the b-side (which works on many levels).

Format: 7"
Tracks: 2
Cost: £3.33 new
Bought: Independent Label Market
When: 13/07/13
Colour: Pink
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Fucked Up - Year of the Pig

At the Independent Label Market in London last year I got some gems on vinyl. Some of the highlights came from the Matador Records 7" box, which was three records for a tenner. There was a good handful of records I could have happily bought, but in the end I opted for this Japanese release of Fucked Up's Year of the Pig, a Modest Mouse test press and a Jesu record from the Matador Singles Club. Three records by bands I like that I certainly wouldn't have sought out unless they were in front of my eyes like that. I'm very glad I bought them.

Fucked Up have released more 7" records than I care to count and I've not made much of an effort to buy any of them, despite becoming a big fan over the last few years (David Comes to Life was my album of 2011 and the albums either side of it were excellent too). This hasn't become the beginning of a collection (yet) but it is very pleasing. I think I've always been fascinated by Japanese versions of records since I got a few Japanese Manics cds back in the day. If I ever go I know I'll spend a small fortune on music. It will be excellent.

Year of the Pig is a pretty interesting song - it spends most of the time with some gentle vocals before briefly becoming a song more similar to Fucked Up's other material. It's much shorter than some of the later Year of the... songs but hints at where that series was going. By contrast, The Black Hats sounds very simple and almost reminiscent of 70's punk. The artwork is different to the UK/US release and included is a mini-poster with Japanese lyrics, which is a nice touch. All in all, a pretty lovely find for £3.33.

Format: 7", a4 poster
Tracks: 2
Cost: £3.33 new
Bought: Independent Label Market
When: 13/07/13
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Dirty Projectors - Swing Lo Magellan

I started listening to Dirty Projectors in a very round-about way. I was reading about something on Wikipedia and ended up drifting through endless pages, clicking on links I thought might be interesting. Somehow I ended up reading about the Dirty Projectors album Rise Above, in which Dave Longstreth recorded a bunch of covers of songs from Black Flag's Damaged. He claimed that Damaged was one of his favourite records as a teen and recorded the album entirely from memory despite not having listened to Damaged for 15 years (I doubt I've gone more than six months at a time without hearing someone cover Black Flag at some point, but maybe Dave moves in different circles to me!). Either way, I was quite intrigued by the project, and thought it would be worth checking out. A short while later, I was on holiday in America and bought the cd of Rise Above in Albums on the Hill in Boulder (along with a copy of Young Machetes by The Blood Brothers - the guy at the counter commented that the two albums made for an odd pairing).

Anyway, I enjoyed Rise Above and figured I should check Dirty Projectors out further. A year later my friend Aled and I saw the band play the upstairs room of Clwb Ifor Bach in Cardiff; it wasn't anywhere near sold out and they didn't even headline (I think they a long journey to the next venue so wanted to leave early) but they were excellent. I'd not heard any other songs of theirs but in that set there were some incredible tunes. They finished on a medley of Black Flag covers and I was pretty pleased with my accidental discovery. I bought another album (The Glad Fact, not my favourite) and then their new album at the time, Bitte Orca, when it came out a few months later. When I played the album, I was amazed; even though I'd only heard one proper album, it felt like this band had been on verge of getting everything right and on Bitte Orca it finally struck and they'd made an incredible record. All the best songs they'd played live were there and it was great to hear them again. I was pleased both for them as a band, but also for me as a listener. It seemed the internet agreed because their name started to appear everywhere.

I was so excited when the first song of Swing Lo Magellan appeared on the internet because I had that exact same feeling again. Gun Has No Trigger blew me away; it sounded like all of the bands best moments squeezed into a song that almost sounds like it belongs on the opening credits of a Bond movie. It was great to hear them write a song so brilliant. I picked up the album on cd after it came out and it's excellent too. Gun Has No Trigger is hands-down the highlight, but the opener, Offspring Are Blank, is another of their best. The whole album works well, but I'd be torn if you told be I had to choose a favourite between Bitte Orca and Swing Lo Magellan. It even made it to #7 in my top-ten albums of 2012.

This summer I went to the Independent Label Market in London and splashed out on a whole load of records (I'd just finally got a job after finishing my PhD and was keen to make up for lost record-buying time). I think the Domino records stall did the best out of me (although the Secretly Canadian stall also took a lot of my cash) as I picked up this copy of Swing Lo Magellan along with two Bonnie 'Prince' Billy LPs. I decided that it was enough of a classic to require a vinyl copy as well as the cd, and the fact that it was a limited run of 3000 copies probably also helped (mine is #2469). It's a pretty lovely package: the sleeve is embossed and included is lyric sheet with all the lyrics embossed (kinda like braille, but words). You can just about see it in the pictures below.

I've been thoroughly recommending Dirty Projectors to everyone since the last two records came out. When I saw them, I knew Aled would be into but had my doubts anyone else would. Even Hugh has a copy of Bitte Orca now, and they sold out The Roundhouse last time they played London. It's nice to see them doing well.

Format: 12", gatefold sleeve, 11"x22" lyric sheet, insert, numbered
Tracks: 12
Cost: £20 new
Bought: Independent Label Market, London
When: 13/07/13
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: Download card

Bonnie 'Prince' Billy - I See a Darkness

I See a Darkness is one of the darkest albums I own, if not the darkest. And I mean that in a good way - it's also one of my all-time favourites. It says a lot about an album that even when Johnny Cash covered the title-track on his death-bed, he couldn't even come near how dark the original is.

One of the things I love most about I See a Darkness is that it was by complete chance that it became the first Bonnie 'Prince' Billy album I heard/bought. I'd heard one of his songs, thought it was nice and picked up the Cold and Wet 7" in my local HMV. Five days later I was in Brighton and wandered into Resident Records on the Lanes (I had to check why I was there, but it was because I was going to see Peeping Tom in London that weekend and decided to visit my friends at uni in Brighton - after you've travelled from Lancaster, Brighton isn't that much further than London). I'd played my 7" at most a few times but decided then would be a good time to buy a Bonnie 'Prince' Billy album; they had a bunch to choose from and they were all between £7 and £10 (on cd).

This is where the brilliant chance happened, because I knew nothing about any of his albums (this was, of course, prior to the days of checking reviews on one's smartphone in the shop) and ended up choosing what is generally considered to be his finest work (a thought reinforced by the huge cheer that went up when he started to play I See a Darkness in Shepherd's Bush Empire a few years back). I've since bought a lot of his other albums under the various names William Oldham has worked, and none of them have been anywhere near as good. I'm missing a few still, but I wonder how things would have panned out had I bought the dubious Sings Palace's Greatest Hits first? I See a Darkness wasn't even the cheapest, but something about it drew me. The artwork and titles certainly give you a clue that it's not going to be an uplifting affair, and maybe I thought, having heard only three songs, that Will was the man to make an album with such a title live up to it's potential.

And does it! It's a wonderfully bleak album. The songs are perfectly minimal, but full when they need to be. My favourite, Nomadic Revery (All Around), builds up to be this huge song. Similarly, Madaleine Mary, comes in with a kick that you weren't expecting. Then, of course, there's the title track, Death to Everyone, and Black. There's not a bad moment in the 11 songs. I swear the cd is intentionally a few decibels quieter then most albums too - perhaps to make you turn the amp up higher than you ever normally would, and to make you listen in closer and more intently (although does rule its songs out when making mixtapes, sadly). I bought this LP only the other week (at the Independent Record Label Market), but it's been an album I've wanted on vinyl for years.

Format: 12", insert
Tracks: 11
Cost: £10 new
Bought: Independent Label Market
When: 13/07/13
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Modest Mouse - Heart Cooks Brain / Shit Luck

On Saturday I went to the Independent Label Market in Spitalfields and ended the longest period of not buying records since I started buying records - a whole two months. My job search was taking way longer than I expected and, sadly, record shopping wasn't a priority. For a while I still picked up the occasional record here and there, but that eventually dried up. However, I now have a job, so I can begin buying vinyl in earnest to make up for the past six months. I plan to head to Banquet very soon to stock up on all of 2013's new releases.

So, on Saturday, to celebrate finally being able to blow money on music again, I went out and blew a lot of money on new music. I'd not been to the Independent Label Market before and only really heard of it from last year when I distinctly remember wanting to go, but not being bothered in the end; East London often seems so very far away. The short summary is that a lot of independent record labels set up stalls in Old Spitalfields Market, and it turns out it's very nice to meet the people who run the labels. It's like going to the individual label's websites and doing an online shop, but instead of crazy-expensive postage, you get to have a nice chat. I like it. I also ended up with a stack of free promo cds and pin-badges of bands I've never heard of. The other LPs and singles I'll write about on here in the coming weeks and months (or years, at the pace I've been going lately).

Finally getting round to this record, one of the first stalls I properly looked at was the Matador stall. They had a box of 7"s at £4 each or three for a tenner and I found a couple I liked in there. At the very back was this Modest Mouse test pressing, only identifiable by the post-it note stuck to the front. I'm a fan of Modest Mouse and, like most, consider The Lonesome Crowded West to be one of their finest albums. I bought the cd years ago and Heart Cooks Brain was certainly one of the better songs. I always adored Shit Luck too for how heavy and different it was to all their other songs. It was like a punk Black Sabbath song, and that appealed to me. So, to have those two songs on a 7" seemed like a winner. If I had the album on vinyl, I might not have bothered, but I don't (yet).

Of course, the most notable thing about this record is that it's a test pressing. I've never really been one to dabble in buying test pressings - it's like the next level of record collecting and there are still LPs I want to hear and bands I want to get into before I can start putting all that time and effort into finding test pressings. Also, I always thought it would be impossible to complete a collection if you include test pressings, since they can be pretty hard to come by. However, since I've started this blog I've spent a lot of time reading other people's similar blogs and I'm very impressed by some of the test pressings some people have in their collections. I'm not such a big Modest Mouse fan that I'll seek out all their other test pressings, but I do enjoy having this one. Maybe this will be the first of many posts on here that I tag with "test pressing"...

Format: 7"
Tracks: 2
Cost: £3.33 new
Bought: Independent Label Market
When: 13/07/13
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no