Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra - Fuck Off Get Free We Pour Light On Everything

I'm pretty sure the order of events is as follows: my friend Aled leant me a copy of a Silver Mt. Zion album back when I lived in Cardiff - I think it was their first album, He Has Left Us Alone... - I wasn't that into it and found Efrim's voice a bit much. This was during a period where once a month we'd all lend each other a different album we thought the other person would like - it was interesting, although Aidan kept lending me 90's hip-hop and Hywel once tried to get me to listen to Johnny Marr. Aled, however, had a cracking cd collection and found some gems to introduce me to.

I pretty much didn't think about Silver Mt. Zion for the next four years, but in that time got into Godspeed properly. One afternoon whilst I was at my boring consultancy job I ended up trawling through the Constellation Record Soundcloud page and heard a bunch more Silver Mt. Zion songs (I can't remember how I ended up there, maybe from a Pitchfork article about another band on the label?). Anyway, that day I heard some songs I really liked (and still some where I found his voice really annoying).

Shortly afterwards two things happened: they announced they were releasing a new album and playing a London show. The show was in February and I decided it was worth going to check them out live; after all, I had heard some songs I really liked, plus I was (and am) a huge Godspeed fan so it felt like I should at least give Silver Mt. Zion a good chance. The album came out in January, but I didn't get it until March, and I'm pretty sure I'd heard nothing from the record ahead of the gig. I think I dragged Rich along, because Sarah had seen them before and wasn't a fan.

I was hugely impressed by the concert - it felt like a perfect cross between Godspeed-style post-rock and and a punk-rock show, in as much as the songs were only 10 minutes long, rather than half an hour a piece. It was in Koko in north London, a venue I'm not a great fan of - you have to get quite far forward to not feel like the roof of the balcony isn't right over your head. The advantage, then, was that I was very far forward and surrounded by the excellent noise they were making.

A particular highlight that night was a new song, and a large factor in me deciding to buy this record: What We Loved Was Not Enough. As you'd expect for a post-rock song, it builds in a wonderful way - the drums quickly indicate the beginning of things and the strings kick in, the melody is lovely and it just keeps coming at you. Eventually it gives way to "And the day has come when we no longer feel" on repeat countlessly whilst an almost-spoken-word verse plays out, itself building beautifully (and bleakly - "All our children going to die"). It's definitely the highlight of the record for me and a large part in me declaring Fuck Off Get Free We Pour Light on Everything as my album of the year in 2014 (it beat Shellac, Electric Wizard, Restorations and Run the Jewels, all incredible albums that I still love now - it was a strong year). I remember being wowed by that song live and on the record.

The rest of the record is great too. Side A comprises two songs - Fuck Off Get Free and Austerity Blues - totalling 25 minutes of music, the latter with the excellent outro of "Lord let my son live long enough to see that mountain torn down" and the discordant music that accompanies it. One of the most interesting things about the album is the way that the vocals add so, so much, particularly due to the fact that "everybody sang" (as is written in the liner notes), meaning you have these layered vocals (and reducing how cutting Efrim's voice can sometimes be). It makes you wonder what other post-rock nands might do with vocals in a non-traditional sense. The twin violins mean that the album is heavy on strings (a big plus) and they can experiment with one playing something nice whilst the other builds tension and discordance. The drumming is also excellent. The two short songs don't feel like filler, which is nice - they're complete songs, but of a different style so don't need 10-minutes-plus to do what they're doing.

I can't recommend this album to many people - there's a lot of things her that a lot of people would hate (and often all at the same time), but it just happens that all those things are things I love (especially at the same time) so it is a huge winner for me. I fully stand by my choice of calling it album of the year in 2014.

Format: 12", picture sleeve, insert, poster
Tracks: 6
Cost: £10 new
Bought: Banquet Records, Kingston
When: 22/03/14
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: download code

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

Casse Brique - Rebelote Contre Coinche

I know nearly nothing about this band, possibly even nothing at all. I think they share some members (all members? Or maybe none?) with a band called La Pince, who I also know very little about*. They're (both) Belgian (I think), and La Pince were playing with Silent Front in Urban Bar in London in 2012. We went along partly because Sarah is a huge fan of Silent Front (and I quite like them too) and partly because it's often fun to see foreign bands that you don't get many chances to see.

I listened to a few La Pince songs before going and enjoyed them. Their set was great and their singer was a very enthusiastic frontman, which made for a fun live show. I decided to buy their album, La Simple, and whichever band member was running the merch stall kindly gave me this copy of the Casse Brique album. Sarah also bought the La Pince album, but got given a free cd rather than an LP. I felt pretty smug that I'd got a free LP.

* Thinking about it, I wonder if I always just assumed they shared some member because I was given the record for free. For all I know it could just be on their record label and excess stock they wanted rid of. The La Pince record doesn't list the band members' names anywhere, so I can't check. I'm sure the internet would tell me, but I'm clearly too lazy to do that research. Apathy, eh.

As it turned out, I think I prefer this LP to the La Pince one, although neither set my world on fire. Casse Brique are a two-piece who play perfectly enjoyable awkward instrumental math rock. I have a few albums of broadly similar music, and there's not a great amount that sets these guys apart from, say, Sleeping People. But does there need to be? - on the rare occasion I want disjointed math rock, then this ticks all the boxes. I say "rare" because as much as I enjoy it, I find a lot of this type of math rock to be too jarring to listen to that much.

The album might be two EPs put together (again, I'm sure some digging on the internet would tell me) because one side is labelled "Rebelote" and the other "Coinche". The second side has a bit more going for it - Slip Mahiounaise has some very interesting things happening and Frontal Foot verges on being a punk song - but the last song on side A, Ghandiloquant, is very good too. The artwork on the back of the sleeve is strangely horrific but it comes with a cd of the songs, so that's a plus.

Format: 12", insert
Tracks: 8
Cost: £0 new
Bought: Gig, London
When: 06/10/12
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: cd included

Caves - Betterment

I've got a lot of time for Caves, which means it's unfortunate that they make such short records. Betterment was the second of the four LPs they put out and a brilliant follow up to Homeward Bound. From the off, the "woah"s and "oh"s are there and it keeps the momentum throughout. Work has possibly one of their best choruses, the combination of Lou and Minto vocals on Rubino makes it even more frantic. Betterment deserves a particular call-out for being an unexpected acoustic song that is wonderfully bare and strangely uplifting, despite the lyrical content; almost like a turning point. 

All in all, it's a great Caves record, but I enjoy all of them really - they were a remarkably consistent band - they did what they did and they did it well. If you quizzed me on which Caves song was on which album, I'd struggle for the most part, but I don't see that as a bad thing. Betterment represented a subtle improvement on Homeward Bound in a few ways, but I can't fault either. Like I said, consistent and consistently great.

I can't remember exactly when that year this album came out, but I got a copy for my birthday from my brother - he usually has a budget of a tenner, so I have to keep certain records in mind for ideas for him. I happened to be at my sister and brother-in-law's house when my brother gave it to me (in fact, my sister, my dad and I were running the Birmingham half-marathon the next morning - it's all coming back to me now). Turned out my brother-in-law is friends with Dave, the Caves drummer, which was unexpected. Nice milky/clear vinyl.

Format: 12", a4 insert

Tracks: 10

Cost: £0 new

Bought: Gift

When: 19/10/13

Colour: Clear

Etching: none

mp3s: Download code

Hot Snakes - Suicide Invoice

There are a handful of records that I started writing about months or even years ago but I just can't find anything interesting to say about (although some might say that hasn't stopped me before). A lot of them are perfectly good records by really great bands that I get a lot of enjoyment from. I think everyone would agree that Hot Snakes are an incredible band who have released four almost equally brilliant albums (three when I started writing this). I've seen them a bunch of times now and always have an excellent time. They're also all in a load of other really good bands and collectively release consistently great music. I've already run out of positive adjectives.

So what else is there to say? If I had to pick a favourite Hot Snakes album I'd probably have to say Audit in Progress, but that's because it was the first one I bought and it had two years extra listening over this one. Also I've never had mp3s of this album, so haven't really been able to give it the time it deserves. That said, if you were to quiz me on which album any given Hot Snake song belonged to (bar a couple of big hitters) I'd really struggle - that's because they've released remarkably consistently good albums; their sound hasn't changed dramatically, and that's a good thing.

There are a few of the aforementioned "big hitters" here - I Hate the Kids, XOX, LAX and the title-track have always been memorable and fun live. I bought this record for a bargain $12 in Arrow's Aim Records in Florida; it still has the sticker on the sleeve. There's not even an interesting reason for keeping it there.

There you have it. This record is much more enjoyable than I can make it sound and I apologise for the bad job I've done convincing you so.

Format: 12"
Tracks: 12
Cost: £8.40 new
Bought: Arrow's Aim, Gainesville
When: 04/11/13
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

The Smith Street Band - Don't Fuck With Our Dreams

The first time I saw The Smith Street Band was at Fest 12. I'd been introduced to them by the song Young Drunk on their second album, and listened to the first two albums a lot at my desk before seeing them that autumn in Gainesville. They'd just released this 10" EP, but I hadn't listened to it before the show. They were playing the huge Florida Theatre on the Sunday night and the place was busy; people were very excited about seeing them and I was about to find out why. They played brilliantly and the crowd loved them; like a few sets I've seen at Fest, it's almost ruined the band for me as their live shows in other places haven't been quite as well-received, which is almost a shame - I wish everybody at other shows would go as mad as they did that night.

That night, they played the title-track from this EP, Don't Fuck With Our Dreams. They introduced it with a story about how a friend used the phrase after being mindlessly beaten up - it was a strange but brilliant response to such a situation, and I liked that before the song even started. That single song represented a change in their song-writing to me. From the first listen, and on record, it is at least ten times more epic than anything they'd released beforehand. The song was longer, had more parts to it and did so much with its time. It starts off sounding a bit like another punk song about touring (and writing songs about touring - meta) but then builds into something huge. I have a lot of time for that song. The highs are huge and the build-up in-between is brilliantly fast-paced and frantic.

I then had high hopes for their third album, Throw Me in the River, but found few moments that even stood close to Don't Fuck With Our Dreams. Their most-recent album, More Scared of You Than You Are of Me was such a great listen because they found whatever it was that made Don't Fuck With Our Dreams so incredible and took that to even higher levels throughout the album. I'll write about in due course, but the first song on this EP was the clue that they had incredible, next-level song-writing in them and I'm so, so pleased for them that they made a record that reflected it.

Anyway, I didn't buy this EP that night because I wanted to get a copy of Sunshine and Technology and was running out of cash. Luckily, the following the spring they were touring the UK so I had a chance to see them again (and, even luckier, they were playing with Restorations, a band I'd fallen in love with at Fest and was very excited to see again). I saw that tour in the Fighting Cocks in Kingston - I'd just moved to Oxford but happily travelled back to London to see it. I bought the first Smith Street album that night, along with this copy of the EP, featuring the screen-printed, tour version of the cover. I think that was also the night I lost my wallet on the bus home.

The other four songs are strong too - any of them would have fit perfectly on either of the two albums that proceeded the EP. The transition into Ducks Fly Together is seamless and Bigger Than Us has a hint of epic about it. Overall it's a good EP, but Don't Fuck With Our Dreams is what makes it memorable and an essential addition.

Format: 10", screen-printed sleeve
Tracks: 5
Cost: £10 new
Bought: Gig
When: 22/04/14
Colour: Purple
Etching: none
mp3s: Download code

William Elliott Whitmore - Untitled

I recently completed my William Elliott Whitmore LP collection after finding a copy of Ashes to Dust on vinyl, an album I'd had on cd for years. This record, conversely, was the start of the collection.

During the Tuesday-Record-From-Spillers year, I found this six-song EP in their racks and quickly decided that was going to be my purchase that week. I'd been introduced to his music a year beforehand and his name kept coming up from people I knew in Cardiff; a year later he played a sold-out show in The Globe on easily the hottest day of the year and it was incredible. I think everyone I knew in Cardiff was there and he wowed us all.

At the start of the Tuesday-Record-From-Spillers I was diligently recording the records I bought onto cds (via a USB turntable) to play on the kitchen hifi. Despite never having proper mp3s of these songs, I knew them so well because that cd got a lot of play. It still lives on, in the spindle of cdrs in my car, and the short duration means that I often end up playing it a couple of times over. The version of Sometimes Our Dreams Float Like Anchors is billed as the "Winter Version", and I'd go to say that it's less warm than the album version, but that's all relative - even at the end when the banjo stops and we're just left with Will's incredible voice, it's hard to describe it as anything other than warm. I know this version much more than the original from all those plays in the kitchen.

The first two songs are from Song of the Blackbird, which I think was his newest at the time; Anchors is from the excellent Hymns For the Hopeless. The first song on the second side is Have Mercy, a song that wouldn't appear on any record until 2015's Radium Death. I was very confused when I got home to play the record (with the appropriate level of excitement for a new WEW record) and heard a song I knew very well. Buildin' Me a Home is a traditional song, but such a fine example of William's voice - it's like being wrapped in a thick blanket. The final song only appears on this record, as far as I can tell - it's one of his more upbeat southern-country style songs.

This record also introduced me to the concept of the Latitudes Sessions, a series I now have a few releases from - this was the fourth in series (indexed at 0) - I also have Dälek (#6), Gowns (#19) and A Storm of Light (#23), but looking through the list there are a few others I'd be keen to hear. The list of artists who have recorded a session is incredibly mixed and interesting. As I've mentioned in the other posts, I love the artwork used across the series. This is the red vinyl of the WEW record, which was the more numerous (800 copies, and 200 on green).

Format: 12", die-cut sleeve, insert
Tracks: 6
Cost: £10 new
Bought: Spillers Records, Cardiff
When: 26/02/08
Colour: Transparent red
Etching: none
mp3s: no