SALEM'S POT - 'PRONOUNCE THIS!'

Formats

• EZRDR066 - LP

  603111700410

• EZRDR066X - LP (COLOURED)

  603111700410

• EZRDR066CD - CD

  603111700427

Details

“Don't try to fight it,” the band’s motto implores, “Salem's Pot has come to destroy your mind.” It’s the same kind of winking tease employed by low budget horror films of the 70s-80s that essentially dared audiences to experience what they knew they wanted, but couldn’t possibly expect. Likewise, the new album by mysterious Swedish quintet Salem’s Pot delivers truly gritty and captivating heavy rock in high contrast technicolor: a sonic equivalent of The Last House On The Left, El Topo and Blood Feast. Similar to the way such films made up for their lack of flashy, expensive effects with dim lighting and implied violence, a hallucinogenic sense of true evil lurks in the dark corners of Salem’s Pot’s sound. Lest we forget, the band’s name itself is a pun on Stephen King’s stark, modernized vampire masterpiece. Where previous Salem’s Pot releases honed doom riffs to perfection, Pronounce This! sees the band expanding its horizons to the far corners of imagination. It’s a hazy fever dream of dark, thrilling excess. It’s equal parts of The Cramps’ Psychedelic Jungle, Pentagram’s Relentless, Roky Erickson’s The Evil One and The Stooges Raw Power, as much heirs to Deep Purple as Dead Moon… metal, garage punk, acid rock and a belladonna trip gone wrong. It’s not heavy metal, this is a mutant monster that cannot be tamed. And, perhaps as a continuation of the band’s fascination with sinful lore, Salem’s Pot never identifies its band members individually — they’re all completely anonymous without so much as a stagename. One of the biggest upgrades since the band’s 2014 RidingEasy album …Lurar ut dig pa prarien is the addition of second guitar, with the previous drummer giving up the throne for the strap and a new unnamed mystery man pounding the kit. Now, the band is freed to expand beyond the riff and get truly freaky. And with each new release, the vocals are way more snarling punk than the doom histrionics of their peers. Album opener “Tranny Takes a Trip” kicks off with a humming modular synth drone and twin guitar throb lulling beneath a cascading haze of gurgling keyboard-through-delay-loop sounds before settling in to a stomping anthem replete with NWOBHM harmonized guitar leads. The album’s tone clearly set for the shadiest recesses of our minds, “Just For Kicks” swaggers in on a phaser-drenched single note guitar line that sets up a demented blues as the tuneful, yelping vocals expound on a penchant for chemical excess with direct honesty. A shortened edit of “The Vampire Strikes Back” was released as a single in late 2015, shorn down to the hook-laden rocker at the seven-and-a-half minute song’s core. But here you get the track’s full, sprawling glory as it staggers through a hazy, murderous leitmotif with noir-ish deliberation. “Coal Mind” is the album centerpiece at nearly 13 minutes of Hawkwind on a bad trip, drifting from space rock with an exemplary “bit of finger” to throbbing, hypnotic pulse that eventually ruptures with monolithic drop-tuned wall of guitar. “So Gone, So Dead” is a moment of respite giving nod to Gram Parsons’ lysergic western swing with funereal weight. “Desire” closes the album with epic grandeur reminiscent of Roky Erickson’s bleak murder ballad “Burn The Flames” supercharged with squealing and writhing guitars and thunderous drums. "They used to wake up on your couch, not wanting to wake up,” the band’s brief manifesto explains. “Desperately clinging to sin, degradation, murder and substance abuse. With nothing left inside they made an attempt to tell someone about it, and the dead chuckled merrily: ‘You're not alone.’”

Tracks

1. Tranny Takes A Trip
2. Just for Kicks
3. The Vampire Strikes Back
4. Coal Mind
5. So Gone, So Dead
6. Desire

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Audio & Video

BEN CHATWIN - 'HEAT & ENTROPY'

Formats

• BING115 - LP

  600197011515

• BING115CD - CD

  600197011522

Details

Ben Chatwin begins his new album with an instrument you’d least expect—a dulcitone. Created in the late 19th century, the keyboard hits tuning forks with felt hammers, sounding like an ornate music box. It serves as the perfect lead in to Heat & Entropy, whose title refers to how introducing heat (energy) and entropy (chaos) into any given system can create life, exploring the blurring lines between man and machine. The first Chatwin album to be recorded domestically, Heat & Entropy starts a new chapter for the Queensferry, Scotland-based musician. Under the name Talvihorros, Chatwin is known for his innovative combination of electronic experimentation and modern classical composition. However, last year’s The Sleeper Awakes took a left turn and exchanged vanguard minimalism for enhanced melodics. Heat & Entropy delves further into this world. The result is an ornate exploration into future possibilities. On Heat & Entropy, Chatwin originally intended to use only strings, forcing him to explore lesser-known instruments. For “Standing Waves,” he attached pieces of metal, rubber and tape to the piano strings. “The Kraken” uses Terry Riley’s repetition as a starting point, but leads to distorted vocals and an intense, hammered dulcimer climax. “Euclidean Plane” incorporates a bowed mandolin and a three-stringed didley-bow, along with acoustic guitar and metallophone by Ben’s brother, Jordan Chatwin, who has had no formal training and learned guitar by ear, playing with unconventional tunings and chords. Despite the unique sounds and textures Chatwin found among the strings, the lure of electronics proved too great. “The album then became about the tensions between the acoustic, or natural world, and the electronic world” he explains. “For me this is where the excitement lies…. It creates a unique world of contrasts and conflicting relationships.” Chatwin calls Heat & Entropy “an album of contrast, conflict and chaos, but also of complex relationships.” Melody rises above the maelstrom in these compositions. It’s an album of experimentation, of delicately contrasting the organic with the artificial, and ultimately of great beauty and sophistication. Heat & Entropy marks the emergence of an incredibly exciting and visionary Scots composer.

Tracks

1. Inflexion
2. Gravitational Bodie
3. Standing Waves
4. Phantom Lights
5. Oscillations
6. The Kraken
7. Surface Tension
8. Euclidean Plane
9. Corpseways

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Audio & Video

PYLON - 'LIVE'

Formats

• CHKLP020LP - 2xLPs

  789397832110

Details

2xLP VINYL VERSION comes w/download. Back in 1983, Athens, GA legends PYLON had just released "Chomp", their 2nd album & toured the country extensively, & played several opening slots for then up-&-comers, U2. Without a hint of explanation, they suddenly quit. This is their final show at the Mad Hatter in Athens, full of a frenzy of minimal disco thud, post-punk guitar scree & deliriously inspired howl. There's little arguing that the Athens powerhouse trifecta of R.E.M., the B-52's, & Pylon is peerless. While all 3 bands have achieved great critical acclaim, only the 1st two had the commercial acclaim they deserved. "Pylon Live" intends to correct that. "Randy Bewley & Michael Lachowski's simple lines display untoward rhythm & melody, respectively. Curtis Crowe bangs away so obdurately it's hard to understand why he didn't become rich. Vanessa Briscoe Hay barks & brays whatever incantatory phrases seem called for. Timeless. Cool." - ROBERT CHRISTGAU

Tracks

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Audio & Video

HEAVE BLOOD AND DIE - 'HEAVE BLOOD AND DIE'

Formats

• BFTRS006CD - CD

  7041889503285

• BFTRS006LP - LP

  4046661455014

Details

Northern Norwegian stoner/doom band Heave Blood & Die are about to release their debut “Heave Blood and Die” on April 29th 2016. Behind the snowy mountains of Northern Norway, under the light of a sinking sun, there is a town called Tromsø, where you will find a stoner/doom band called Heave Blood & Die. A gang of 20 year old boys who’ve created a dark, winterized and raw-sounding album, ready to show it about. A new sound is created with deep and mossy guitars, growls of a troll and screams from a wolf. On their debut album you will find a wide specter of songs. Inspired by groovy 70s rock, super heavy soul rotating riffs and hardcore – they create their own sound of dark, doomy and dirty tunes. The result is far from being a possible radio-hit, but on the other hand it is one of the heaviest and coolest albums released by a band from above the polar circle. The band gets their juice from other classic bands like: Neurosis, Sleep, Kyuss and Red Fang. The self-titled debut album was recorded and mixed by Jonas Sivertsen (Kysten Studio Tromsø), mastered by Njål Lie (NFL Produksjoner) and produced by Rolf Ole Rydeng Jenssen (Reptile Master).

Tracks

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