Kyuss - Welcome to Sky Valley

A few months ago I decided I needed to make a more conscious effort to make my record collection and my "dream record collection" the same thing. One of the key aspects of that was having full back-catalogues of certain bands. I sat down and listed out the bands who I'd love to see all nicely lined up in 12" sleeves on my wall; adding Kyuss to that list was obvious.

I've lamented before not stocking up on Kyuss vinyl when I lived in Australia. It was so readily available and not particularly expensive. I figured they'd all been reissued and I'd have no trouble finding them back home. In the 9 years that have passed since then, I've still never seen any of the Kyuss LPs for sale in the UK. Maybe I'm looking in the wrong shops, but it seems like a strange thing.

A few months ago I found myself on a work trip to San Francisco (something I knew would happen eventually if I worked in a tech company for long enough). That gave me a chance to revisit some of the record stores I'd visited a few years beforehand. Amoeba was at the top of my list, but on the way there I stumbled across another vast record shop, Rasputin's. Much to my surprise, I ended up spending way more in there than I did in Amoeba. There were a few excellent things about Rasputin's but the highlights would be that they all of the Kyuss LPs and so many Electric Wizard LPs that they had their own section (again, something you don't see in the UK).

The thought crossed my mind of buying all of the Kyuss album and living the dream of seeing them all nicely lined up. However, there were a bunch of other albums I wanted to get too and I only had so much space in my luggage. On top of that, it just seemed too easy. I doubt that'll be my only work trip to SF, so I decided to just get one and treat myself on future visits. I had no doubts about which Kyuss album to get on vinyl first.

I once nearly got into a fight for saying that I thought Sky Valley was better than Blues For the Red Sun. I'm not the fighting type, but I do feel very strongly about Welcome to Sky Valley. The first Kyuss album I heard was Blues and something just didn't click. A couple of years later I bought a copy of Sky Valley on cd in an HMV sale and was immediately convinced that Kyuss were incredible. I often think that Sky Valley has some of the best Kyuss songs (which it does) but maybe it was also that this album was able to hit me where Blues didn't. I'm glad it did. I quickly bought the rest of their albums and rate them one of my favourite bands of all time.

I don't need to tell you what the highlights are here; there are so many great moments on this album. I think Movement I (Gardenia, Asteroid and Supa Scoopa) might be my favourite. It's lucky that the songs are grouped into movements because I don't think I could pick just one song. Right now, I'm struggling to write this because all I want to be doing is playing air-guitar to Odyssey. It feels like a shame that the album isn't spread across three sides on vinyl, one for each movement, but as far as I can tell, it's never been pressed like that. There's not much to say about the packaging, but the cd didn't have much inside either.

One thing I should mention about this particular pressing is how quiet it is. I'm not sure how they've managed it, but playing this record at my usual volume is way too quiet. And I don't mean too for Kyuss (which does sound better when played louder than normal) but too quiet for any album. I've had to crank my stereo to levels I'd never usually reach. That said, there is something satisfying about playing Kyuss with the volume turned far further round.

Format: 12"
Tracks: 10
Cost: £12 new
Bought: Rasputin's Music, San Francisco
When: 08/07/15
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Bruce Springsteen - American Beauty

Everyone eventually becomes a Bruce Springsteen fan. I didn't see it happening, but here I am writing about a Springsteen RSD 12". When I wrote about Born to Run on here a few years ago, I didn't see myself as the sort of guy who'd buy a record like this, but even throughout that one blog post I could see myself becoming more of a fan. I did buy a Best-Of and I have since bought more LPs too. I've been thinking for a while "wouldn't it be great to have all of his back-catalogue on vinyl". The Springsteen-fan ship has sailed, and it seems that I'm on it.

Record Store Day 2014 and I'd just moved to Oxford. My friend Hugh was visiting and we went to Truck together at an ungodly hour. I spent a lot, he spent a lot; I bought an incredible Songs:Ohia boxset, he bought a Cave In record he was very excited about and we both bought a copy of this EP. It was only a tenner, which is a bargain as far as RSD goes. I didn't need the record but kinda wanted it anyway. It didn't take much convincing.

The title track is pretty strong, as is Hurry Up Sundown. Mary Mary didn't do much for me but Hey Blue Eyes makes up for it (it feels like the song that Mary Mary should have been). It's not a record I've played very regularly over the last year, but it is nice.

Format: 12"
Tracks: 4
Cost: £10 new
Bought: Truck Store
When: 19/04/14
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Deer Leap & The World is a Beautiful Place and I Am No Longer Afraid to Die - Are Here to Help You

After I saw TWIABP at Fest in 2013 I decided to buy all the records I could from their merch stand. I'd been amazed by their debut full-length, Whenever, If Ever, for months by that point and it was never going to be quite so easy (or so cheap) so stock up on their music. One of those records was this split with Deer Leap.

I'd never heard of Deer Leap at this point, and I imagine they're in a lot of people's record collections because of this record. They're an interesting sounding band; there's that floaty Explosions in the Sky-style post-rock sound to their guitars but with some low-fi emo vocals going on too. It works, but I can't say it's blown me away; a year and a half later and I've not checked out anything else by them.

The TWIABP side is pretty much exactly what I expected and excellent for it. I Will Be Okay. Everything is a perfect example of a great TWIABP song - sing-alongs, crazy song structures with drops that come out of nowhere, shouty vocals layered on singing and a strange midi-solo. In fact, all four songs are pretty strong TWIABP songs; on other records they have a tendency at times to meander through some awesome moments without ever really forming "songs" in the usual sense, but here they all work as individual tracks as well as a whole. The ending to Wait... What? finishes the record in a suitably unexpected but excellent way.

Format: 12", insert
Tracks: 8
Cost: £6.30 new
Bought: gig
When: 31/10/13
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

The Computers - Live & Inconsolable

The Computers aren't very similar to the band they were when I started listening to them. The change felt quite gradual from live show to live show; Al became an increasingly charismatic front man and the rock 'n' roll vibe started seeping through. On record, however, there is a huge difference between how they sound on This Is The Computers and how they sound on the follow up, Love Triangles Hate Squares. Without the context of the live shows it would have been quite a shock.

This double live album was recorded in their home town of Exeter some months after their second album came out and it is The Computers in full-on rock 'n' roll mode. Captured is plenty of Al's on-stage (and often off-stage/in-the-crowd) rants and a lot of energy. Maybe it's because I've lost count of how many times I've seen The Computers, but I can picture this concert very easily. The setlist comprises almost every song on their second album, only Music is Dead from the first and nothing at from the EP that got me into them. I've come to terms with the fact that they'll probably never play those older songs live again - they fit less well with the rock 'n' roll version of the band. I enjoy the new songs too, so I'm not too annoyed.

Live & Inconsolable is a fun album and captures their strong live show well. I picked up my copy a few days after Record Store Day when passing through Banquet Records. Truck hadn't got any copies in but I knew Banquet would. At £24 it was quite pricey and, personally, I would have preferred a cover/sleeve to the transparent sleeve it came in. Sure, the records are both nice colours, but unless it's a picture disc I don't see the need for a clear sleeve. Judging by the pictures on the labels there clearly some great shots of the band that night. Each one is individually numbered and mine is 333 (Banquet had quite a few copies so I picked the best number available).

Format: Double 12", numbered (333/500)
Tracks: 14
Cost: £24 new
Bought: Banquet Records
When: 21/04/14
Colour: Light blue and burgundy
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Hark - Crystalline

I've mentioned a number of times that I started listening to Hark because I was a huge fan of the singer/guitarist's previous band Taint, so I'll try to avoid dwelling on that again. That said, every time I think of Taint I think of the first time I heard them play All Bees to Sea in Clwb Ifor Bach and driving through the snow to get to their final show in Swansea; I'm thinking these things now so I might as well write them.

I ordered Hark's debut album as soon as I heard it was coming out. I have memories of being sat in the drab, very corporate offices of my old job battling with a shitty wi-fi connection to get the record. I opted for the white with blue/brown splatter vinyl (/150) which looks lovely. It ended up being a fairly pricey purchase with the postage from France but definitely worth it. It should be no surprise that the artwork is excellent too.

As you'd hope, Crystalline is a pretty unrelenting album - the only time it really lets up is on the sludgier Black Hole South West, which is still pretty heavy. Other than that, you only really have the the moments between sides to catch your thoughts. Both of the songs from the Mythopoeia 7" reappear but are both incredible songs so no one is complaining; I still think the outro to Sins on Sleeves is huge. Other highlights are the opener, Palendromeda, Scarlet Extremities and Clear Light Of... (featuring Neil Fallon of Clutch).

It took a few listens to really get into Crystalline, but I think the nature of the music makes it pretty dense. I knew that it would be worth persevering because Jimbob's riff have never steered me wrong in the past.

Format: 12", gatefold sleeve, insert
Tracks: 10
Cost: £26 new
Bought: Season of Mist website
When: 13/04/14
Colour: White with blue/brown splatter
Etching: none
mp3s: no

EMA - The Future's Void

I bought EMA's first LP, Past Life Matyred Saints, just after The Future's Void came out. I'd seen the new one in record shops and remembered that I'd been meaning to check her solo stuff out after having greatly enjoyed Gowns. I really enjoyed Past Life Matryed Saints and decided to pick up The Future's Void when I was in Truck Records one day last summer. A year has now passed and I still don't feel that this album has clicked with me anywhere near as much as the first did.

On the whole, I'd say that The Future's Void is a poppier affair and draws more comparisons to alt-pop artists like PJ Harvey and Tori Amos than it does to industrial music. The opener, Satellites, is pretty strong but I was really hoping it would go somewhere like The Grey Ship did on the last LP. So Blonde is probably the most jarring moment on the album for me, which is ironic since it's also EMA at her poppiest - the acoustic guitar just sounds odd to me. All that said, Cthulu is an incredible song and justifies putting the album on alone; it's everything I want from an EMA song.

The Future's Void is by no means a bad album, just one I don't enjoy as much as I wanted to.

Format: 12", picture sleeve, 24x12" insert
Tracks: 10
Cost: £19 new
Bought: Truck Store, Oxford
When: 06/09/14
Colour: Blue
Etching: None
mp3s: Download

Above Them - Are We a Danger To Ourselves?

I had some trouble getting this album and, strictly speaking, this is the second copy of it I bought (although I never actually saw the first). I'm a big fan of Above Them and when I was living in South Wales we saw them play all the time. I try to go and see them play now whenever I can, but it's less often these days. I pre-ordered the LP as soon as it was announced from Yo-Yo records and waited eagerly. The album was released and people started getting their copies but mine was yet to arrive. I spoke to Jan at Yo-Yo who said some records got stuck at customs. The postman would often leave records on the doorstep, so there's the possibility it got stolen that way, or maybe the postman fancied it. Either way, I never received that record. 

I eventually gave up waiting and bought this copy from Banquet when they got it in. I passed comment on Twitter about my missing copy and the guys in the band said they'd sort me out with a copy (proving what excellent guys they are). I didn't take them up on the offer - I thought that of the four parties involved, Yo-Yo Records, Above Them, Banquet and me, it'd be better that I pay twice than an independent business/band take the hit (plus, two copies of this LP still costs less than most new records these days). Also, I was mostly just really keen to actually hear the record.

Are We a Danger To Ourselves? is as strong as Blueprint For a Better Time as far as I'm concerned; again are the huge hooks and great songs - there's nothing not to like. It starts off strong with A New Year and Concrete Forgiveness (two of my favourites), Feel Alive and Something to Keep You Positive are great too. In fact, the final trio are all really strong and "woah-ohs" are a brilliant note to finish on. I like it.

Format: 12", insert
Tracks: 12
Cost: £11 new
Bought: Banquet Records, Kingston
When: 09/07/12
Colour: Brown
Etching: Side A: "Rainbow, riches and cider", Side B: "Regenbogen, Reichtum und Apfelwein"
mp3s: no