SORCERY - 'STUNT ROCK SOUNDTRACK'

Formats

• EZRDR145CD - CD

  603111755120

• EZRDR145LPR - LP (COLOURED)

  603111755113

• EZRDR145 - LP

  603111755113

Details

**RED AND BLACK VINYL NOW SHIPPING** In the 1970s era of rock’s theatrical excesses, Sorcery delivered next level performances in which a battle ensued on stage between illusionists portraying Merlin versus Satan. While Alice Cooper and KISS brought costumes, gore and flashpots to the mainstream, these Los Angeles hard rockers integrated live magic, theatrical drama and fourth wall breaking performance for new heights in musical storytelling. While Sorcery consists of professional musicians — the core group being guitarist Richard (Smokey) Taylor, vocalist Greg Magie and bassist Richie King — two magicians also perform on stage when they play live. The band’s nearly immediate local popularity from their debut in 1975 also made them in demand for film and TV. Enter: Stunt Rock. Way before Jackass, before Crocodile Dundee, contemporaneous with Kiss Meets The Phantom of The Park and as timeless as classic Heavy Metal, there was Stunt Rock. The 1978 low budget, high concept B-movie integrated hard rock, magic, dangerous stunts and an early form of mockumentary filmmaking into an epic feature film about an Australian stunt man reunited with his American cousin (and Sorcery member) in L.A., and all Hell breaks loose. Sorcery composed the soundtrack — which also served as the band’s debut album — and were shown performing songs throughout the film. The Stunt Rock soundtrack highlights the sweet spot between the playful, campy occult imagery of the 70s before Satanic Panic and the religious right’s kayfabe outrage pushed bands to tone things down in favor of glam pomp. What you get here is pure, knobby occult heavy metal that sounds something like Sin After Sin era Judas Priest with Robert Plant on vocals, crossed with the melodrama of Alice Cooper and The Who’s rock operas. The songs are taut, quickly shifting from part to part, motif to overture. The tunes are infinitely catchy and laden with attention grabbing titles like “Talking To The Devil”, “Mark of The Beast”, “Stuntrocker” and “Burned Alive.” On the surface, the film Stunt Rock seems campy and crazy enough to be embraced even if the music weren’t all that exciting, but Sorcery proves that their work deserves to be seriously appreciated in the canon of classic rock. Sorcery was founded in 1975, and recently reformed after inking the contract in 2021 with RidingEasy Records for the album reissue. So, rest assured, fans will have the opportunity to hear these songs live, potentially accompanied by magicians as well for the full effect. While they were overlooked in their heyday, Sorcery’s Stunt Rock album stands the test of time. Official Soundtrack: Stunt Rock will be released digitally and on CD June 17, 2022 and on vinyl as an authentic reproduction of the original gatefold album cover on February 28th, 2023 via RidingEasy Records.

Tracks

01. Sacrifice
02. Wizard?s Council
03. Talking To The Devil
04. Burned Alive
05. Book Of Magic
06. Stuntrocker
07. Mark Of The Beast
08. The Bird Song
09. Wicked City
10. Woman
11. Power Mad

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Audio & Video

HELL FIRE - 'RECKONING'

Formats

• EZRDR137LP - LP

  603111754710

• EZRDR137CD - CD

  603111754727

• EZRDR137LPY - LP (COLOURED)

  603111754710

Details

**CD DELAYED** Sometimes a band grows so exponentially from one record to the next, it’s almost jarring. Hell Fire has already established themselves as the preeminent masters of a new hybrid breed of Bay Area thrash and NWOBHM in just a few short years, but their fourth album Reckoning is the type of ascendance that truly sets a band apart. Reckoning is their Master of Puppets, their Number of The Beast, their Defenders Of The Faith. From the very first notes of the album opening title track, you can feel a vital new energy and inspiration to their music. To say Hell Fire used the recent global downtime to dig within and fully refine their sound would be an understatement. It truly is a reckoning. “This album is every aspect of our band amplified to its maximum potential,” says singer/guitarist Jake Nunn. “This is the record we've always wanted to make, and it feels like we're just getting started,” guitarist Tony Campos adds. “We wanted to push ourselves musically and capture some of our frustrations, anger, loneliness, and rage over being locked inside and dealing with life during a global pandemic in the days when no one really knew how to navigate,” says drummer Mike Smith. With no touring on the horizon in 2020, the band hunkered down and recorded nearly a full album in preproduction home demos. “I set up a little studio in my garage to record guitar, bass, and vocal tracks,” Campos says. “While Mike bought an electronic drum set and we demoed every song so we were more prepared going into the studio.” Each of them found themselves practicing more on their own and ironing out every last detail and nuance before finally being able to once again play in a room together. The band’s heightened professionalism also brings in guest bassist Matt Freeman (of Rancid and Operation Ivy fame) on the album after original bassist Herman Bandala departed the band amicably during the initial writing process. New bassist Kai Sun joined Hell Fire in Fall 2021. Reckoning was recorded and mixed at Atomic Studios in Oakland, CA with Chris Dugan. The title track kicks things off with a slight nod to the layered melodies of acoustic and harmonized guitars of Metallica’s “Battery” before the band rips into its signature galloping guitar picks, soaring harmonies and blistering rhythms. It’s an anthem and a gauntlet thrown down with Nunn’s shimmering screams and guttural howls while dueling guitar solos and Smith’s relentless double bass drum shuffle bring home the point that Hell Fire is born anew. “Medieval Cowboys” hearkens to the epic attack of Iron Maiden’s Powerslave with glistening melodies and complexly interwoven musical shifts that showcase exactly how tight and precise the band has become. “Addicted To Violence” is blistering thrash and “Thrill Of The Chase” soars with rich harmonies while both songs lyrically reflect hard truths the band faced in isolation. The lush acoustic based ballad “A Dying Moon” shows the band effortlessly stretching out in new directions. “It Ends Tonight” is an epic anthem served as a mission statement to the band’s return wherein arpeggiated riffs, squealing pinch harmonics, group chant vocals and Smith’s octopus-armed beats will have legions raising their fists in the air in salute. “It’s somehow the heaviest and most melodic work we’ve done, and I’m proud of the discipline it took,” Nunn says. “It’s a wild thing.”

Tracks

01. Reckoning
02. Medieval Cowboys
03. It Ends Tonight
04. Thrill of The Chase
05. Addicted To Violence
06. Tortuga Nights
07. Eye For An Eye
08. Many Worlds
09. Nowhere Fast
10. A Dying Moon
11. The Executioner

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Audio & Video

WHITE LIGHTNING - 'THUNDERBOLTS OF FUZZ'

Formats

• EZRDR115 - LP

  603111754611

• EZRDR115CD - CD

  603111754628

• EZRDR115Y - LP (COLOURED)

  603111754611

Details

**CD DELAYED** Standout favorites of RidingEasy Records’ Brown Acid compilation series, White Lightning’s stellar discography of rare and under-appreciated heavy psych, proto-metal rock gets a vital revival for new generations to learn how swinging, swaggering and often blazingly fast rock’n’roll is done.White Lightning was formed in Minneapolis, MN in 1968 by guitarist Tom “Zippy” Caplan and bassist Woody Woodrich after leaving garage psych band The Litter (themselves popular standouts from the Nuggets and Pebbles series of garage rock rarities.) Originally a power trio, the band later expanded to a 5-piece in 1969 while shortening its name to Lightning. The quintet’s brilliant and rare 1970 self-titled album on Pickwick International’s P.I.P. imprint provides 6 of the 10 tracks on Thunderbolts of Fuzz.The original White Lightning trio only released one 45-rpm single “Of Paupers and Poets” during their existence (on local Hexagon label in 1968, later reissued by major label ATCO Records in 1969.) A long out-of-print posthumous album released in 1995 gathered unreleased recordings, 3 of which are found here. This rounds out this collection of recorded highlights from the band’s rocky history. Taking their name from a particularly potent type of LSD, White Lightning laid out from the start that it was not cute and cuddly 70s rock. In fact, the band’s aggressive tempos are like punk rock way before punk. However, their dirty blues groove and musical prowess shows the band was more than unrefined ne’er-do-wells, they had true versatility. Drummer/lead vocalist Mick Stanhope later relinquished his drum throne to take center stage as lead singer of the expanded lineup. Throughout its initial 1968-1974 run, the band had 10 different lineups, with Caplan, Woodrich and Stanhope the most consistent members — though the band points out that no one member has played in all 11 incarnations of the group. For more facts and information visit thelitter-lightning.com. Album opener “Prelude to Opus IV” is a wailing rocker with blazing double-kick drum, sizzling melodic riffs and Jim Dandy howls jam packed into an epic 4 minutes that serves enough testament to the band’s greatness, nothing more need be heard or said. However, the would-be hits keep coming as the Led Zeppelin meets Black Oak Arkansas thwack of “Hideaway” and “Born Too Rich” come screaming out of the speakers. “When A Man Could Be Free” shows the band could also reign in the fury, at least a little bit, for a warm Southern rock style ballad. “Borrowed and Blue” echoes the stately poetry of Electric Ladyland-era Hendrix with a dash of The Who’s rollicking psychedelia. “1930” is, quite simply, insane. Searing twin guitars with incredible fuzz-drenched tone, a warm and buzzing bass line bounce atop drummer Bernie Pershey’s unrelenting bass drum triplets while Stanhope ravages his lungs with soulful abandon. The album closes with the aptly titled “Before My Time” a barnstorming boogie rock instrumental the proves the band vanished long before receiving their due.

Tracks

Side A
01. Prelude to Opus IV
02. Hideaway
03. Born Too Rich
04. When A Man Could Be Free
05. 1930
Side B
06. Borrowed and Blue
07. They?ve Got The Time
08. Riders In The Sky
09. Fantasy Days
10. Before My Time

Press

Audio & Video

OLD MILLION EYE - 'THE AIR'S CHRYSALIS CHIME'

Formats

• CFUL0238 - LP

Details

The Air’s Chrysalis Chime is the second LP from Old Million Eye, primarily a solo project of Brian Lucas (Dire Wolves). This beautifully transcendent and deeply explorational album sees Lucas widening his spectral and woozy palette to include musical contributions from Gayle Brogan (Pefkin/Burd Ellen), Steven R. Smith, Sheila Bosco (Dire Wolves), and Jeff Jefferson (3 Moons/The Lodestones). The album’s darker more drifting songs, “Ruby River ” and “Tales from Copperopolis” feature the vibrational voice of Georgia Carbone, erstwhile vocalist of Dire Wolves. Lucas and Carbone’s eerie vocal duet on the lengthy “Ruby River” is stunningly haunting and unexpected. This mysteriously anomalous album utilizes such elements as tape collage, improv jazz type drumming, clarinet, Brogan’s melodica, intertwining basses, piano, treated violin, and Lucas’s Scenes from the South Island-like plaintive skeletal guitar playing that is sure to Artist: OLD MILLION EYE Title: THE AIR’S CHRYSALIS CHIME Labels: Cardinal Fuzz (Europe), Feeding Tube Records (USA), Release Date: 26th August 22 tickle the ear into quiet hysterics, if not downright rearranging the ear to accommodate a new form of hearing! The listener should expect the usually oddly crafted and layered sound combinations as evidenced on previous OME releases. These sonic elements are a vehicle for Lucas’s softly placid tenor, but with added dimensions his purely solo work only alludes to. This album isn’t “psychedelic” in the sense of spacey, wah-wah riffs: it’s far more subtle, detailed, and delicate in terms of its transcendent properties, but the invitation is there to climb into the chrysalis and be transformed. Byron Coley - 2022

Tracks

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