Snapcase - Lookinglasself

This year, for the first time in eight years, I didn't go to a record shop on Record Store Day. Around that time every year, there's a lot of chat about RSD - some positive, some negative - and I won't be drawn to one side or the other; I can see the arguments on both sides.

I had planned to go to Truck Store at an ungodly hour on the Saturday morning. I'd even bought breakfast supplies on my lunch break. But as the Friday went on, I found myself increasingly not looking forward to sitting outside my local record shop for four hours, cold and bored. I'd described it to a friend earlier that day as a "self-inflicted torture", and the more I thought about it, the more I realised that it wasn't/isn't a pleasant experience and that I really didn't want to do it. So I decided not to; I slept in and it was lovely.

There are a few reasons why I decided against going: Firstly, I always feel like the odd-one-out in that queue - everyone else has a huge list of records they're excited about buying, whereas I had three records I wanted. Furthermore, the records I'm after are rarely the ones that sell out straight away. Very few of the ones I've bought in the past have been difficult to find in the coming weeks (and sometime end up reduced later in the year). Everybody else in the queue would be excited about Bowie and Prince and The Smiths and I'd be that guy who got up early to buy The Dirty Three and Snapcase. The more I thought about it, the more I realised I'm not who this event is aimed at and that's ok.

JT from Banquet had been on the news a few days beforehand talking about the importance of RSD, saying how it's great that it gets people in who wouldn't normally visit a record shop, and that is really great. I spend a lot of time and money in record shops and I'm in favour of anything that means they stay open. But as a result of that, RSD isn't tailored around people like me. The list of releases this year (and last year, to an extent) had very little for me on. There are always a few "that could be interesting" releases, but RSD isn't a day to buy a record by a band you don't know well - it's too expensive for that. This year there were three releases I really wanted in my record collection and, in the case of this record, I was pretty sure I'd be the only person who'd be interested in buying it (and right I was - on the Monday it was still sat there in the racks).

I'm a huge fan of Snapcase and Lookinglasself was the first album of theirs I owned (although I was introduced to them through the much more accessible, and excellent, End Transmission). I found the cd 14 years ago in a second-hand record shop in Bristol that definitely no longer exists - it was underneath a roundabout junction and I only found it because they were blasting out metal from some speakers. I was in town for a university open day and was going to buy more in there, but it was the day before I got paid and I hit the bottom of my bank account (they had a Cave In record I picked up for my friend Hugh, but did mean I couldn't buy the Nine Inch Nails 12" singles they had - I'm a good friend). However, I did get that first Snapcase album.

Lookinglasself is a much harder listen than End Transmission, but so are their other two proper albums. It's a great album though - short but has no messing around and surprisingly long songs for a short hardcore album. It was a shock on first listen, but I was glad to push through with it. Of the first three, I consider Lookinglasself to be my favourite, but then End Transmission sits far above it. When I saw that it was being reissued on vinyl for RSD, I wanted a copy more for nostalgia than anything else. If I want to listen to Snapcase, I almost always go for End Transmission, and I suspect I always will do. But it's nice to have an album I'm very fond of on vinyl too. Plus, I feel if no one buys the heavy and obscure records on RSD then it will eventually tend entirely towards mainstream music.

I'm not anti-RSD. In fact, I thoroughly support the idea, but I support it it as a person who shops in independent record shops more than as a person who collects records (which of course I am, but there is a distinction there). I have many records I've bought on previous RSDs - some of them are my most prized-possessions (and others are ones I regretted almost straight away) - and most crucially, I will definitely queue up any year where there are records I feel it is worth losing sleep over. This year, however, was not one of those years.

It's hard to break traditions - me going to a record shop on RSD predates RSD even being a thing in the UK - but it's important to do so, otherwise they become even harder to break. I've broken the spell RSD had over me, which is great because now I can dip in as casually as I like.

Format: 12", insert
Tracks: 9
Cost: £29 new
Bought: Truck Store, Oxford
When: 24/04/17
Colour: Blue
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code

Snapcase - Designs For Automotion

For me, there are two distinct periods of Snapcase - everything before End Transmission and End Transmission itself (which I guess includes Bright Flashes). I've written before about how much I love that album at length, so I'll not gush too much now. I'm a fan of the first three albums too, but they're different and share far more in common with each other than they do with End Transmission. Sure, there are huge similarities, but the ways in which End Transmission differs is what makes it so excellent.

On Designs For Automotion, and the first two albums, Snapcase are a much more straight-forward hardcore band and they do it well. Designs is a great record - it's full of energy and the vocals, one of the things that I always felt separated them from most hardcore bands, are perfect. Songs like Are You Tuned In? and Twentieth Nervous Breakdown are brilliant examples of their sound and style. The album barely pauses for a moment, which is great but I guess also is what separates it from End Transmission; those moments on the last record where the wall of sound breaks down to just one or two instruments is one of the things I enjoy about it the most.

I fund this copy of Designs For Automotion in Borderline Records in Brighton, which I'm not sure still exists. I was back from Australia for Christmas, visiting some friends and squeezed in a little record shopping. The fact that this record cost me a mere £4 still amazes me. I think it was new and had, presumably, been sitting on their shelves for six years. I also picked up Adore by the Pumpkins and R.I.P. by the Murder City Devils for very little each, so it was a good haul.

I knew the album well by this point as a year beforehand I'd bought all of Snapcase's albums on cd for tenner on eBay. My cd copy of Designs came with a bonus disc featuring an extra song (Less Than Convenient), two live songs from Progression Through Unlearning (Caboose and Zombie Prescription) and three of the worst remixes I have ever heard in my life. There's not much to Snapcase's music that lends itself to late-90's remixes so I really have no idea what the fuck they were thinking. One of them is so (intentionally) glitchy that it's basically impossible to listen to. I rant about my dislike of remixies of rock songs regularly, but I think those three might be the very reason I have such strong feelings. I've gone off-tangent, but my memories of this album are entwined with my memories of those terrible remixes.

So that rant aside, a great album and an excellent find.

Format: 12", 24x12" insert
Tracks: 11
Cost: £4 new
Bought: Borderline, Brighton
When: 11/01/06
Colour: Transparent yellow
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Snapcase - End Transmission

About two thirds of my vinyl is currently stored at my parents house, which is a far from ideal situation, but until I find somewhere I want to live for more than 6 months, it's easier to keep it there. Everytime I go back I flick through the records and look at ones I'd forgotten I had. I was popping by yesterday and decided to bring a handful of record back with me, mostly ones that had been neglected. I also picked up this one, an album I have on cd and is definitely not neglected. (For the record, its actually kinda nice to have some LPs there - its like record shopping through albums you know you'll like and they're free!)

So yes, I love End Transmission. I think it's an incredible record. When I was at college Hugh bought it on cd and I borrowed it and enjoyed it. A few months later I picked up a second hand copy of Lookinglasself on cd but didn't get round to any further Snapcase-back-catalogue shopping for a while. I'd heard of Interpunk and was also really getting into The Paper Chase a year or so later. Interpunk was stocking some cool Paper Chase records and I'd just got my student loan, so I did a huge shop on there (I always get carried away when the postage goes down the more things you buy) and bought a copy of End Transmission. Luckily, my memories of how good it was hadn't lied to me and I still think its great now.

I'm a sucker for a concept album, and I like the theme here. I was particularly amused by the fact the songs weren't in the order the story suggested on the insert and that there were songs not on the album. I later bought Bright Flashes on cd which nearly fills in all the gaps. I've never sat down and played the songs in story-order. One day I will, probably. The singer's voice is incredible, and on songs like First Word he just keeps going when most people would be out of breath. New Kata is an incredible song too, but there's not a bad song on there. Musically its perfect too - the drum intro on First Word always puts a smile on my face. Other highlights include The Beat, and the last two songs.

It's also a nice example of a lovely package overall. Deadformat reckons that they only pressed 300 copies of this colour (a colour that a friend once described as "condom-coloured") and I pretty much never manage to find the rarest print runs. I've looked for a bunch of my records on there and I nearly always have the most common pressing (worth noting that that website was the main inspiration behind this blog, that and the new John Peel archive and a few other websites of people doing similar things). It also comes with the last two songs on a bonus 7", a lovely way to include the songs that wouldn't fit (also, they're both incredible so it would be a crime to leave them off). I like the Victory records that have the folded sleeve like this (I have a couple of others). From looking at pictures on Deadformat, it seems all of the inserts have the limited edition number crossed out, although they also reckon there were 3006 pressed.

In a fantastic bit of eBaying I picked up the first four Snapcase albums on cd for a tenner from some guy in America (I gave my second copy of Lookinglasself to Hugh). I also eventually got Bright Flashes second hand in Melbourne. This album is undoubtedly my favourite of the lot. It's quite a different sound to the other albums, less harsh but still as ballsy. Writing this made we check their Wikipedia page and it turns out they've reformed and are playing some shows. I hope so much they come to the UK, I never saw them and would love to have the chance. I bet they're incredible to watch.

Format: 12", 7", a4 insert
Tracks: 13
Cost: £7.92 new
Bought: Interpunk.com
When: 06/11/04
Colour: Clear pink, black
Etching: none
mp3s: no