Explosions in the Sky - How Strange, Innocence

Explosions' first album - How Strange, Innocence - was the last one I bought of the four they'd released at the time. In the two years since I'd bought All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone I'd gotten pretty heavily into them and seen them play at the All Tomorrow's Parties they'd curated (although it was The Paper Chase that led me to know about that festival). One afternoon in Fopp in Bristol I found a copy of this album on cd for £10 (the 2005 reissue, not original, of course) which was a lot by Fopp-standards, but I very keenly added it to the pile of cds I was buying, probably putting some others back to make space (and not blow all my money) because of it. I can't remember why I was in Bristol, but it might have been to meet potential PhD supervisors - that would have been around that time for sure.

My main memory of this album, however, is from that summer. It's crucial to remember this was 2009, so basically before smartphones and certainly before streaming platforms; going on holiday or even a road trip meant needing to be prepared when it came to playing music other than the radio - if you packed cds, a cassette-to-headphone-jack adapter, a headphone-to-RCA adapter and an mp3 player, you might be able to play some music you want to hear. So I always took all those things. That summer we went to Devon, and by plugging my shitty little USB stick mp3 player into the back of the TV (via an audio cable) in our rental place, we were able to listen to music and, crucially, only really my music. The mp3 player had a capacity of something comical, like 2GB, so I was frequently having to change the albums on there.

For the holiday I'd thrown on How Strange, Innocence, and pressed play on it one rainy afternoon when we were all hanging around. After a song or two, Hugh asked me who it was and said something along the lines of "why is it so out of tune/time?" - I can't remember which, but he was pretty scathing about their musicianship at this point. Without the context of the cd sleeve explaining that the band were also pretty embarrassed by it, it wasn't maybe the strongest of their albums to play, but these were the problems of limited 2009-era technology. Of course, having no musical ability whatsoever, whatever criticism Hugh had of their playing, I hadn't noticed it (so much so I can't remember if he complained about their timing or tuning). I was enjoying the album - I guess I appreciated it had a certain roughness, but just felt that added to it's charm.

Despite the band's (and Hugh's) opinion of it, there are some great songs here. Magic Hours is probably the highlight, with the incredibly fuzzed out guitars that creep in on-and-off before taking over in the inevitable post-rock explosion. Glittering Blackness is another great one, although I will concede that those huge drums need to be way louder. Remember Me as a Time of Day might be the most Explosions-in-the-Sky title ever written.

As soon as I read the back-story of this album, I knew that getting a vinyl copy was out of the question - if the original cd sells for an obscene price, the only word for the 2004 vinyl is "terrifying". Luckily, Temporary Residence realised the same and have reissued the album on vinyl so we can all have complete Explosion back-catalogues on our shelves, which makes me very happy. As is always the case, the package is lovely - two colours of vinyl, neither of which words quite do justice, a triple gatefold sleeve, and the story of the history of the album from the 2005 cd reissue etched onto the fourth side of vinyl. I would have been happy with double black vinyl stuffed into a single sleeve, so this extra effort was very much appreciated.

Format: Double 12", triple gatefold, insert
Tracks: 7
Cost: £30.97 new
Bought: Temporary Residence Records website
When: 19/08/19
Colour: Light blue splatter / dark blue splatter
Etching: Recording notes etched into side D
mp3s: Download code

United Nations - The Next Four Years

I wrote about how I got into United Nations a few years ago when I wrote about their Never Mind the Bombings Here's Your Six Figures 7". A year after seeing them (and being blown away by them) and buying that 7", I bought this LP when I was putting in an order with Temporary Residence for the new Mono (double) album. I always found the idea of United Nations being on Temporary Residence very strange, although I guess they also release Envy's albums so maybe this band isn't a million miles from what they usually put out. Plus, Envy did that split with Thursday, so there's a connection there too.

The album is a compilation of four 7" records and uses that to adapt Black Flag's much-borrowed title for the name; the significance of the "next four years" and the length American political terms is not lost. The strongest songs are probably the first two, from the Serious Business 7" - the title track is perfect and Meanwhile on Main Street uses a vocal effect I remember Thursday using a bit, before cutting straight back into the death metal vocals; the juxtaposition is what makes it so good. The songs from Revolutions at Varying Speeds feel thrashier and rougher the edges. False Flags in particular is pure thrash with no relief. On the songs from United Nations Vs. United Nations they're experimenting more and I like the results - the layered vocals on Stole the Past are excellent and the title track has a moment to breathe, something that doesn't happen often. The closer, Music For Changing Parties, is another highlight.

United Nations are definitely heavier than a lot of music I normally listen to, but when I need something like this (and this is the sort of music you sometimes need) it hits the spot firmly and squarely. It's good to have albums like this.

Format: 12", insert
Tracks: 11
Cost: £20 new
Bought: Temporary Residence website
When: 29/10/14
Colour: Half white, half black
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code

Mono - The Last Dawn & Rays of Darkness

I've been a fan of Mono for a while now; like a lot of bands, I was introduced to them by the late and mostly-great All Tomorrow's Parties. I remember seeing them shredding away at their guitars at the Explosions in the Sky ATP and being impressed. I checked out a couple of their albums and have seen them live a bunch of times since. There's something more classically-influenced about their style of post-rock than a lot of instrumental post-rock bands. Or perhaps I've just been trained to think that way because the first album of theirs that I got was the live album they did with an orchestra.

At some point in 2014 the pre-order for their new double album The Last Dawn / Rays of Darkness came up and the package looked too incredible to miss. I had a couple of Mono albums on vinyl, which was easily going to turn into a collection so I figured I'd help it along the way. The main draw was that the pre-order was for both albums together, whereas they were otherwise to be sold separately (and I've only seen them separately since). Temporary Residence Records has released some great stuff over the years but I've always held off ordering from them because the shipping was brutally expensive. I ordered this one and the United Nations album at the same time, although I don't think it saved a great deal in shipping; both were still pretty pricey overall.

As you can see in the pictures, this is the US pressing where The Last Dawn is on clear vinyl with white smoke streaks and Rays of Darkness is on clear vinyl with black smoke streaks. Both look excellent and suit the themes of the albums brilliantly. The sleeve is also die-cut so you can see the picture sleeves inside. Each one is numbered (albeit on the sticker on the cellophane) and mine is 644/1000. The sleeve took a slight dent in the post, but looks mostly fine. The gatefold opens length-ways to show the full artwork, which looks great.

I've been listening to these two albums a lot since I got them - I go through phases of preferring one to the other though. The Last Dawn is lovely and ticks a lot of the same boxes as the live album. It's thematically the lighter of the two and when it does get going, it does so in a much calmer way - The Land Between Tides / Glory, Cyclone and Where We Begin all get pretty intense but in a fairly soothing way. It's pretty much impossible to talk about The Last Dawn without comparing it to Explosions in the Sky and Mono have never sounded so much like them as they do here. That's not a criticism mind you, I very much enjoy this version of Mono.

Whilst The Last Dawn tends to be my favourite when I'm in a very specific mood, Rays of Darkness is the one I cam go to more often and really enjoy. It's a much more instant and easily rewarding affair - perhaps in it's role as the darker, heavier album it ticks more of my boxes. At four songs, it's a bit of a stretch to call it an album, but that also works in it's favour; it's brevity makes it easier to get into. Recoil, Ignite is a huge song and sits somewhere between where Mono usually sit and early Mogwai - there are two points in that song where it just explodes in the way post-rock is supposed and its glorious. It's nearly double the length of the other songs but never feels like it. Surrender has a little less going for it but The Hand That Holds the Truth makes up for it very quickly - it's a great song and then catches me off-guard (every time) with vocals from the old singer from Envy. God knows what he's singing but it works perfectly. I'm a fan of Envy anyway, so to have the singer appear here is even better. The song keeps building while he growls over it and it's a very exciting thing to listen to.

Mono have not long announced their next album, which I've also pre-ordered. I'm looking forward to it greatly.

Format: Double 12", die-cut gatefold sleeve, picture sleeves, numbered (#644/1000)
Tracks: 10
Cost: £29 new
Bought: Temporary Residence Records
When: 29/10/14
Colour: Clear with white smoke and Clear with black smoke
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code