Mick Turner - Don't Tell the Driver

This was very much an impulse buy. I don't regret it as such, but I can think of countless records that I've not bought for £17 that would be better. Mick Turner is one third of the Dirty Three, a band I have a huge amount of time for. I'd consider myself a "big fan" of the band, despite not yet having all their albums - I've been working through their back-catalogue slowly, making sure I give each album the time it deserves. A lot of them are slow-burners, and I'm enjoying taking it at a slow pace.

On 18th May 2014 I was in Manchester to see Neutral Milk Hotel and spent the day record shopping. I don't often get to splurge money in different cities anymore, so made the most of it and spent a lot. A good percentage of that went in Piccadilly Records on a variety of things, including this record. I'd not seen it before, but figured if it was as enjoyable as a Dirty Three album it'd be worth it, and added it to my pile.

In short, it's not as good as a Dirty Three album, but maybe I shouldn't have expected it to be - I'm sure Mick enjoyed making this music outside of the expectations of the band, so I should try to enjoy it as such. Don't Tell the Driver is a perfectly warm and pleasant album, but not remotely memorable. Over the course of an hour and eleven songs, the music alternates between nice moments and moments so scrappy that you wonder if there's another album playing somewhere - the title-track is a prime example of the latter. The Navigator is a great example of a song where the instruments all build together (rather than at odds with each other) and it sounds great - it's the highlight of the album. Long Way Home is good too, with some nice horns. There are a lot of ideas within songs, some are given room to grow, others cut short. I feel like Dirty Three are a band known for letting those ideas go to beyond their natural conclusion, and I guess that's what I like about them.

I don't play this album often and the vast majority of times I think I could be in the mood to play it, I decide to listen to the Dirty Three instead. I should have known it was always going to fall into that category. Still, it's nice to look at that lovely artwork.

Format: Double 12", insert
Tracks: 11
Cost: £17 new
Bought: Piccadilly Records, Manchester
When: 18/05/14
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: none

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

Talk Talk - Natural History - The Very Best Of Talk Talk

I started writing about this record at least two years ago, but couldn't find what I wanted to say about it. I now realise that the problem was that I was hoping that, at some point in the future, I'd get Talk Talk. Some time has passed, and I still don't. This might not be a cool thing to say, and maybe one day it'll all make sense. I promise to update you should that day ever happen.

Back in 2014 I was at the start of my "Slint are incredible" phase of post-rock-listening (and I'm clearly still there as I'm still constantly amazed by Spiderland) and I was reading a bunch of articles about them, and post-rock in general. One thing that came up was that they were heavily influenced by Talk Talk. I was a bit surprised that there was a band apparently so central to a genre that I loved that I wasn't aware of. A short while later I was in Manchester and found this Best Of so figured it would be a worthwhile purchase.

When the needle hit the record I wondered if the articles were all having a laugh; the first half of this record is quintessentially 80's pop. The closest thing to it in the rest of my record collection is the soundtrack to The Lost Boys (which a friend gave to me after finding in a charity shop. More on that another time). I certainly couldn't hear how it influenced post-rock.

I've since learnt that the album Spirit of Eden was the turning point and the catalyst of all the post-rock influence, and that album only features at the end of this compilation. I've since bought a copy of Spirit of Eden in the hope that would shine more light, but I remain none the wiser about how this band were an influence on post-rock. It's a fine album, but I, as a non-expert (musically) cannot see the connection (here the clue is that the five songs on side B are mostly 6-minutes-plus, compared to the seven pop-length songs on the first side).

I'm putting this down to what I'm calling the "Blade Runner effect". I saw Blade Runner in my mid-20's having already seen many, many other sci-fi films. As a result, I was confused by its "classic" status - controversial opinion moment - it's a fine film, but not the greatest sci-fi film ever made. However, it was one of the first, and that's why it's a classic - it paved the way for all those other films. So many of the ideas in Blade Runner were novel at the time, but now seem like sci-fi tropes, or so basic they're not even a thing. But, if you saw it when it came out, I can totally understand how it would have blown your mind. Same goes for Talk Talk and the subtle change from the first half of side B to the second half I think.

That's a very long way of saying that "I think you had to be there" to really appreciate the impact of Spirit of Eden. I wasn't there, and I've heard a lot of music that has, in theory, taken what they were doing and ran with it. That makes it pretty hard to as overwhelmed by Talk Talk as I hoped to be (maybe my high expectations were part of the problem).

That said, there is plenty to take some enjoyment from here - Such a Shame has a pretty huge chorus and I'm constantly reminded of my utter confusion when It's My Life hit - for some reason knowing this song really well but not knowing why (the No Doubt cover was, of course, the reason); it is a fine pop song, as both versions demonstrate. I'm not a fan of the freaky childrens' choir on Happiness is Easy. The final two songs (from Spirit of Eden) are a bit of a departure from the rest - slower and more considered, but somehow less happens. Not sure if that's the post-rock influence or not. Desire has that quiet-to-very-loud thing that I guess is pretty typical, so that's something.

Format: 12", picture sleeve
Tracks: 12
Cost: £8 second-hand
Bought: Vinyl Exchange, Manchester
When: 18/05/14
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Pitch Shifter - Submit

There was a while (a long time ago) when I thought I might try to get a complete collection of Pitch Shifter records, but I never really put that much effort in and the idea kinda fell away. Shortly after starting university, I found this 12" in a second hand record shop in Manchester for a bargain £4. I'd recently bought Desensitized on vinyl on eBay, so it was almost a sign to begin a collection (of course, their later albums never got pressed on vinyl, so it would have been annoyingly incomplete).

I'd not heard Submit before, but was familiar with their heavier earlier sound from Industrial. It wasn't the Pitch Shifter I'd become a fan of, but I enjoyed it for seeing their roots. Now I'm much older, Desensitized might actually be the sweet spot - I've come round to Industrial in recent years, but it's still hard work. Songs like Triad and Diable are the right mix of accessible and heavy. Interestingly, Deconstruction here feels like the missing step between those first two albums - the first hint of vocals that weren't strictly growled. It's nice to hear (versions of) Bastardiser and New Flesh P.S.I. from the Death Industrial 7" - back in the day I remember that 7" used to sell for a lot more than it seems to now.

The etching in the run-out groove tells the listener to "buy the cd for Silo", a hidden song that appears after Tendrill. 14 years after buying the 12", I haven't bought the cd so still haven't heard Silo. Maybe someday I'll spend a few £ and get a copy. It's not at the top of my priorities mind you.

Format: 12", picture sleeve
Tracks: 6
Cost: £4 second hand
Bought: Manchester
When: 15/11/03
Colour: Black
Etching: Side A: "A fat wallet production" Side B: "Buy the cd for 'Silo'"
mp3s: no

William Basinski - Melancholia

Like a lot of people, or so I assume, I first heard of William Basinski from hearing about The Disintegration Loops. The things I read about it made it sound really interesting and I was just beginning to get into new genres (for me) by the way of Max Richter's Infra, so I thought it might appeal to me. I've listened to sections of the 4-hours+ of music on those albums and enjoyed it. The cost of purchasing a (vinyl) copy has long been the thing putting me off getting any further into it.

A few years later I was in Manchester to see Neutral Milk Hotel and spent the afternoon record shopping. I found a few records I fancied in Piccadilly Records and this was one of them. At £20 it was a pricier purchase, but I figured I'd enjoy it. Plus, it was on Temporary Residence, which is a comforting sign of a good album. It's rare I chance £20 on such an unknown album, but I guess I was feeling adventurous.

I like Melancholia. It's gentle but somehow ponderous. I get a similar calming effect from it as I do Max Richter's recent Sleep album - the second it starts I begin to feel myself unwinding and relaxing, but it also keeps me alert. The piano builds some suspense, but not horror-suspense but just the feeling that you should aware that there is more going on. That feeling ebbs and flows throughout the 14 movements (each named with Roman numerals). I couldn't call out any highlights because I couldn't imagine not listening to the album as a whole.

My only complaint with the whole record is an annoyingly minor one - the labels on the records aren't stuck perfectly centrally, which means the needle hits them at the very end. It makes an amazingly unpleasant noise, which is not at all what you want after 20 minutes of very calming music. It's such a minor thing but does take away from the enjoyment of the record - either I remember and have to dart over to the turntable to lift the needle or I forget and get rudely awoken by the noise.

I really should check out more of William Basinski's work. The cds of The Disintegration Loops aren't hard to find and would probably get more play than the many LPs that work is spread over (although it is a very nice looking boxset). I imagine my collection will grow, but it's unlikely to be on vinyl, so you might not read much more about it on here.

Format: 12", gatefold sleeve
Tracks: 14
Cost: £20 new
Bought: Piccadilly Records, Manchester
When: 18/05/14
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code

Shit & Shine - You're Lucky to Have Friends Like Us

I think I liked the idea of Shit & Shine despite having never actually heard them. I remember seeing that they'd done a Latitudes session, which was probably when I first heard their name. A while later I saw that they were playing London and the rough description including the words "noise" and "two drummers" appealed to me. In the end, I didn't go see them (because I'm lazy) but didn't forget about them.

Some years later I was record shopping in Manchester and found this second-hand copy of their first album for £10 in a second-hand record shop. I'm not sure I'd ever seen any of their music in a shop before, let alone a limited edition copy on vinyl (only 500 pressed). Some retrospective browsing of Discogs shows that it's not that hard to come by, but it was a pleasant find. Still having never heard them, I bought it and excitedly played it when I got home.

The sad news in this tale is that album is barely listenable, which is something I imagine they're quite proud of. I thought I'd get more out of it than I have, but there's really not much enjoyment to be had. I like noise but I have my limits. Shit & Shine exist wholly in a world beyond those limits (or perhaps I like a certain, soft-core version and noise and have no interest in this part of the genre). I've not played the record very much and I should probably feel guilty for that, but I really doubt I'll ever get anything out of this album. There is little across the 18 tracks that you could call a song, and the result isn't remotely pleasant on the ears. On the rare occasion you can hear an actual instrument, it's played in a fairly painful, horrible way. It's a shame, but a reminder that there are advantages to be in had in listening to bands before buying any of their music. The highlight for me is the brief sample of the Countdown clock, which says a lot about the album.

Format: 12", clear sleeve, a4 insert
Tracks: 18
Cost: £10 second-hand
Bought: Vinyl Exchange Manchester
When: 18/05/14
Colour: White
Etching: None
mp3s: No

Dälek - Untitled

I got in Dälek through a method that has steered me pretty well on a number of occasions - I heard the name of a band playing All Tomorrow's Parties, stumbled across an album of theirs in a record shop and bought it without hearing it. I forget which ATP Dalek were due to play, but around the same time I found a second-hand copy of Abandoned Language for £5 in Kelly's Records (I think it was £7 per cd, or three for £15, so I also got Distillers and Múm cds. Another great bargain that day was the fact they'd mistaken Shellac's Terraform as being a single, so it was a mere £3).

Anyway, I quite enjoyed Abandoned Language. Dälek's take on hip-hop is very different to anything else I've heard; musically there's elements of industrial, drone, showgaze and minimal, and vocally it's rarely possible to hear a single word that MC Dälek is saying, but it all works so well together. It makes for a very hypnotic sound.

Independently, I'd also discovered how awesome Southern Records' Latitudes Sessions were having been introduced through an excellent William Elliott Whitmore EP and later getting sessions by Gowns and A Storm of Light. I'd seen on the internet that Dälek had done a session and was intrigued by the fact it was a single 40-minute long song. Whilst record shopping in Manchester last year I found a copy in Picadilly Records and quickly added it to the stack of records I was buying. I was rather pleased to discover when I got home that it was the limited purple vinyl (/300) rather than the standard black (/700).

The session is exactly what I hoped it would be - similar to the music I'd heard on Abandoned Language but with the extra flexibility/strangeness that comes from not having to think about individual songs. The music definitely flows through movements but in the slow, hypnotic way you'd want. It's more instrumental then not (or maybe that's just how I remember it, given MC Dälek's style of rapping). There's a few minutes on the second side where everything jumps up in intensity and serves to bring you back to consciousness a little. The piece was recorded in a few days around the London bombings in 2005 (the day I moved to Australia) and you can't help but wonder how that is reflected in the music and how it might have sounded otherwise. The insert recommends listening to it with headphones in a darkened room, which isn't something I've tried yet, but I can see it working.

Format: 12", die-cut sleeve, insert
Tracks: 1
Cost: £9.50 new
Bought: Picadilly Records, Manchester
When: 18/05/14
Colour: Transparent purple
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Dirty Projectors - About To Die

Sometime I find I buy records just because I'm spending money; on the day I found this I'd picked up a couple of other records I fancied and just added this one to the pile. It's by no means an essential purchase and £7 for a four-song EP isn't exactly a bargain. That said, Dirty Projectors have been on a roll recently and their last two (proper) albums, Bitte Orca and Swing Lo Magellan, were both incredible. 

About to Die is a single from the second of those albums, sandwiched between the two highlights - Offspring Are Blank and Gun Has No Trigger. On the album then, About to Die never really caught my attention due to the strength of its neighbours, but it's a pretty good song. While You're Here isn't the most interesting song, but is apparently written about the death of the bassist from TV on the Radio. The two songs on the b-side both have more going for them, but show a simpler side of the band; the arrangements are more basic and it leaves room for the song to do the work.

Anyway, it's a nice enough EP but certainly isn't the sort of record that will change anyone's life. Despite it being second-hand the download card worked fine, much to my surprise. 

Format: 12", insert
Tracks: 4
Cost: £7 second hand
Bought: Vinyl Exchange, Manchester
When: 18/05/14
Colour: Black
Etching: None
mp3s: Download

Iron & Wine - Around the Well

Back in January I wrote about The Woman King by Iron & Wine. It was the first Iron & Wine album I ever heard and remains to be my favourite. The second Iron & Wine album I heard was the b-sides and rarities compilation Around the Well, which remains to be my second favourite Iron & Wine album (the fact that neither of these are "proper" albums is probably of note).

About six months after I bought The Woman King I'd just moved to London and spent a Saturday afternoon browsing the record shops of Soho for bargain cds. In one of the second hand stores I found a copy of Around the Well on cd for £7 and, having enjoyed The Woman King so much, figured it was worth a shot. I also noticed that it contained the cover of Such Great Heights (a song I've already sung the praises of twice - in the post about The Woman king above, and in this post about Give Up by The Postal Service) so I knew it would contain at least one excellent song.

In amongst those 23 songs there were some other gems that stood out at various points over the years - The Postal Service-esque Sacred Vision, Hickory, The Flaming Lips' Waitin' for a Superman, Belated Promise Ring and Arms of a Theif. However, the highlight of the collection by far is the final, nearly 10-minute long song, The Trapeze Swinger. I've not listened to every Iron & Wine album, but The Trapeze Swinger must surely be one of his absolute finest. As the song rolls on the story unfolds and it never gets boring. The drums and gentle backing-vocals fill the track in a beautiful way and act as a bed for the guitar, floating lyrics and organ. If you have 10 minutes to check out a new song today, I can't recommend enough that it should be The Trapeze Swinger.

A couple of weeks ago I was record shopping in Manchester and found this second-hand, triple-LP version of Around the Well in very good condition for £12. The shop it was in wasn't the cheapest so I was quite surprised to find an album I wanted quite so reasonably. I've had the cd for nearly five years but £12 was a price I was willing to pay for The Trapeze Swinger alone. When I got home I was pleasantly surprised again to find that the F-side of the vinyl was etched (see below). A lot of record labels would have considered cutting a song to make it fit on two discs, so you've got to love Sub Pop for doing the opposite and dedicating a whole 12" to that incredible last song. 

Format: Triple 12", insert, etched F-side

Tracks: 23

Cost: £12 second hand

Bought: Vinyl Exchange, Manchester

When: 18/05/14

Colour: Black

Etching: Etched F-side

mp3s: Download code

Tool - 10,000 Days

This record is a bit of an oddity in my collection, in that it's a shameless bootleg of an album that was never pressed on vinyl. I largely avoid buying bootlegs for all the usual reasons (quality, ripping off the band, they just feel wrong, etc) but I still bought this one despite knowing full-well that it was a bootleg; I'm not entirely sure why. 

The weekend before last I was in Manchester visiting my friend Aled and going to see Neutral Milk Hotel. Sunday turned into a pretty-much perfect day - I went record shopping in the morning, spent the afternoon in some nice pubs drinking beer in the sun, ate "Manchester's best burger" and saw Neutral Milk Hotel for the first time (in a very lovely venue). The midnight bus ride back to Oxford followed by a full day at work took away from the enjoyment a little, but it was all good. My record shopping saw me visit three shops: Piccadilly Records, Vinyl Exchange and Vinyl Revival. The last of the three, Vinyl Revival, I knew as soon as I walked in wasn't going to be great. This happens a lot - I walk into a record shop and instantly know there isn't going to be much for me. There are usually over-full boxes of knackered 1960's LPs and a "metal" section that contains nothing released later than 1989. Vinyl Revival had that vibe, but did have one box of fairly recent albums that weren't in horrendously shitty condition. I felt guilty not buying anything (which is becoming a problem) and, in the box of not-shit records, was this bootleg copy of 10,000 Days. Interestingly, he also had a bootleg of Lateralus and a small handful of other tempting, mostly-bootleg albums. At £20 I should probably have left it behind, but unless it ever gets a proper vinyl release (which it might do given how strong the reissue market is these days) I figured I'd never get another copy. Plus the shit-record-store guilt. So I bought it.

Addressing the bootleg issue first, the quality here isn't too shitty at all. Maybe a more trained ear could pick any flaws out, but it sounds fine to me. The only times you really notice that it's a bootleg are on the run-off groove (which makes quite a racket) and on the rough edges to the vinyl when you turn it over. The sleeve looks pretty decent, albeit quite minimal - the cd of 10,000 Days had quite the fancy packaging. The back of the record says "For promotional use only", but I've been around too long to fall for that.

10,000 Days is Tool's most recent release, which is ridiculous when you recall that it came out 8 years ago. I was living in Australia at the time and that feels like a lifetime ago already. I remember going into town the week it came out to buy the cd and having a very excited conversation with some guy I half-knew about how good it was. A few weeks later I left Australia and saw Tool play Roskilde Festival, a memory that's surprisingly fresh in my mind. It's a lot heavier than the two albums that came before it and, at times, almost sounds more like The Melvins than it does Tool. A lot of the quirks that featured on Lateralus (songs designed to be played at the same time, Fibonacci rhythms) are missing and replaced with huge riffs. I kind of miss those little oddities, but sometime it's nice to appreciate a band for the talented musicians they are. Highlights for me are Vicarious, The Pot and Rosetta Stoned but Tool really cut out the filler here and squeezed in a lot of strong songs. Makes me hope they come out of their slumber soon.

Format: Double 12"

Tracks: 11

Cost: £20 new

Bought: Vinyl Revival, Manchester

When: 18/05/14

Colour: Transparent red

Etching: none

mp3s: no

Fugazi - Fugazi

Man, that bass line at the start of Waiting Room never fails to please me. The whole song is perfect. I once saw a band cover it and it made me want to learn an instrument so that I could have as much fun as they were having playing it. I'm struggling to write this because all I want to do is drum along on my laptop.

My records are currently (lamentably) spread across two locations because I move too often to drag them all around. The ones I have here are generally the ones that I've bought in the last two years and the ones at my parents' house are the older ones that I mostly have mp3s of (not that mp3s are any sort of consolation). Anyway, this is one that was at my parents' but I brought back with me because it's just too good not to play all the time. I think I'd been having cravings for it so picked it up the next time I went back. It's probably the oldest one I have with me at the moment so it's going to be a good test of my memory to see if I can remember the details of when I bought it!

I bought it in a record shop in Manchester, although I have no idea if I could find that store again. I'd been at uni a few months and my friend Hugh had come up to visit. I'd given him the task of bringing up my record player that I thought I wouldn't miss whilst at uni. I was wrong, but he forgot so I went the entire first term without a turntable. Needless to say that didn't stop me buying vinyl. On the Saturday afternoon we decided we should explore the record shops of Manchester, only an hour away by train (no time by northern standards). After the Friday night out, we made a fairly late start to our record shopping, but found a street with a few places on. I reckon if I was in Manchester again I could find that road, but looking at it from above on Google, I have no idea. I think it was a second hand place, but my copy is mint (I say that based on the other record I bought that day, and the fact this one only cost me £4.50, less than the usual Dischord asking price). And what a classic sleeve it is. I do enjoy an excited live shot on a record sleeve.

I'd been wanting to get some Fugazi for a while. I'd known Minor Threat for a while; I think you absorb a lot of music knowledge without realising and there are some bands who I feel like I've always known about somehow - there was no point when I suddenly learnt about them. Minor Threat, and to a lesser extent, Fugazi were bands like that. I had a cover of "Minor Threat" by Silverchair and eventually bought a cd of the First Demo Tape. I knew what to expect from Fugazi a little because of this, but knew there was more going on musically. By the time I actually got round to listening to the record, I'm not sure what I was expecting. It was a grower, which amazes me given how immediately exciting it is as a record now. Maybe I just wasn't quite ready for it. I still struggle with some of the later Fugazi records. I guess it doesn't really matter that I didn't get it at first. This one and Repeater are among my all-time favourite records and I think that's what matters.

Musically there's little I can say that hasn't been said before. Fugazi is a stunning record. Short and to the point. How about this: in the time it's taken me to write this the record has finished and I want to listen to it all over again. That doesn't often happen. Once again "Waiting Room" has put a grin on my face.

Format: 12", picture inner sleeve
Tracks: 7
Cost: £4.50 second hand
Bought: Manchester
When: 15/11/03
Colour: black
Etching: none
mp3s: no