Latest release: 14 Nov 2025
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MOLLY NILSSON - 'AMATEUR'
Formats
LSSN105/DSA065 - LP
5061041821400LSSN105CD/DSA065CD - CD
5061041821417
Details
The word "amateur" originates from the Latin word "amator," meaning "lover" or "admirer". This Latin term is derived from "amare," which means "to love". The French adopted "amateur" from Latin, and the English then borrowed it from French, initially retaining the sense of someone who loves or is devoted to something. Over time, the English usage of "amateur" also developed a meaning related to a lack of professional skill or experience. How did a word derived from love become a slur? Is love really so defenseless? They say love conquers all, but in reality isn’t love quite ridiculous? It has no intention, no motive, no agenda. How could it possibly prevail? It can’t be bought or sold, or so they say. Its mere existence can't be proven or even measured. What an impossible thing. Trying and failing, time and time again, no wonder cynicism always seems to win. I see “amateurism” as a delighted, even foolish, protest. Protest against everything. Of what’s expected of someone, or expected of someone to desire or strive for. To be elite, to be expert, to be professional, to be a master, to excel and succeed. Where’s the joy in that? I just want to have fun. I want to want. I want to love. And keep doing it, forever. I want to have fun, even when it’s tiring and sometimes even heaven is boring as hell. I want to be bad. I want to do my own thing. “I want to be alone”. I want to be someone so dedicated to their passion that it starts to seem like there’s something wrong with them. All the way. We can take it all the way, and never get it back. - Molly Nilsson Amateur is the 12th studio album by Molly Nilsson. Deep in the teeth of a career that threatens to tip into something resembling a “legacy,” Molly Nilsson celebrates with an album recorded instinctively, quickly and bursting with so many moments of emotional brilliance and clarity it may be her greatest yet. Hers has been a career spent reaching out, perennially powerful in her earnestness, a warrior ridiculously defenceless and armed with a glittering sincerity. Shearing herself of the machinations of the music industry, recording at home, writing direct to the heart. Amateur is a jubilee for losers. A treatise in 13 songs, Amateur states clearly that we should live our life with eternal curiosity, offers us an open hand of comradeship out of the rat race. The songs on the album are both some of the most personal of Nilsson’s career and the most anthemic. First single How Much Is The World asks us to re-evaluate value in the face of a Neo-liberal system squeezing the life out of our loves. Pulsing opener Die Cry Lie satirises the commercialisation of emotion in the form of a shout-along diss-track. With a pounding rhythm track held down by gorgeous chord changes, heartbreaker Valhalla carries the torch for the main themes of the album: never growing up, making mistakes with kindness, moving on. When the drums crash in on the line “It’s going to get better now, you’ll see, going to be much better off without me” there is a world of feeling swirling about in the vocal delivery. One reading of the track might be that it’s a break up song but the subtext is classic Molly Nilsson: by living truthfully, making mistakes, we’re active agents against the myriad oppressions of the world. All The Way takes the theme for a run into the eternal sunset. It’s a manifesto for living fully. “Take it all the way, and never get it back” - it’s the process that’s the important point. The journey not the destination. Big Life, follows on like a part 2: An ode not only to Molly Nilsson’s career of endless gigs, endless connections with people, it’s a massive ode for following your dreams, doing it yourself. Closer The Bitter End is a powerful anthem for friendship, another definition of love infused in Nilsson’s work, A beautifully poignant ode to comradeship til the end, it seems to be the songwriter approaching aging, approaching life’s inevitability with the same vigour and earnestness, the same love of life she enjoyed at the onset of her career. There are moments on Amateur shrouded in reverb, slightly out of focus, forcing the listener to step deeper into the Mollyverse.. Nilsson’s open-armed beseeching to the world permeates every beat, every chord. These are songs exploding with life: the chunky, aggressive bassline on the punker Get A Life can’t hide its massive, catchy chorus. The sweeping Swedish Nightmare might be a tongue-in-cheek self-reference, but at its heart it’s a song about the duality of living life large, what is a dream, what is a nightmare? Molly Nilsson says you can’t have one without the other, and why would you want to? Here’s to making mistakes.
Tracks
Tracklist 1. Die Cry Lie 2. Valhalla 3. Swedish Nightmare 4. Classified 5. Long Time No See 6. Fatal Distraction 7. Get A Life 8. Joe Hill's Last Will 9. How Much Is The World 10. Creeping Beauty 11. Big Life 12. All The Way 13.The Bitter End
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Audio & Video
PARIS 1942 - 'PARIS 1942'
Formats
SV104 - 2xLPs
857661008513SV104CD - 2xCDs
857661008520
Details
“Difficult as it may be to imagine, there was a time when Sun City Girls did not exist. Prior to the Bishop brothers teaming up with drummer/shaman Charlie Gocher to form SCG’s classic trio lineup, there were various ad-hoc assemblages of local Phoenix-area freaks and weirdos—groups which existed only long enough to play a single gig, open mic or house party before disbanding without a trace. Hatched from this milieu was Paris 1942, a short-lived band formed by guitarist Jesse Srogoncik that included Alan Bishop, Richard Bishop and former Velvet Underground drummer Maureen Tucker. “Paris 1942 would play only four shows in as many months, but between April and August of 1982, the band would gather several times a week in Tucker’s living room, where the group feverishly wrote and rehearsed with a kind of quotidian discipline. While P42 didn’t release anything during their brief tenure, a 7” EP and LP (both self-titled) surreptitiously surfaced on the Majora label in the mid to late ’90s. Until now, those two titles—as well as an appearance on Placebo’s Amuck comp in late ’82—would be the only documented evidence that this improbable, serendipitous and magnificent band ever existed. “While those expecting P42’s music to sound like a tantalizing combination of Sun City Girls’ iconoclastic hoodoo havoc and the Velvets’ primal drug-chug certainly won’t be disappointed, Paris 1942 more often than not transcends even these nearly impossible expectations. Srogoncik’s songs, in particular, are a revelation, displaying as much in common with the exuberant raunch of The Gun Club and the chapbook punk of Peter Laughner as they do any of the more obvious touchstones. “The group’s foresight to document and capture this meeting of musical minds—a meeting as unlikely as it was short-lived—provides a missing link between the Velvets and the Voidoids, between the Dead Boys and the Dead C, between ESP-Disk’ and DNA. Far more than a historical curiosity, Paris 1942 provides a fresh perspective on an embryonic and sadly vanishing US underground. It is music that blinks at the past and anticipates a thousand possible futures.” — James Toth (excerpt from the liner notes)
Tracks
1. Paris 1942 2. Hex 3. Headhunter 4. Radar 5. Damon 6. Ancient Time Foretold 7. Animale 8. Move Out of Wichita 9. Catherine 10. Life Is A Killer 11. Conversation with My Girlfriend 12. Voodoo Blues 13. Pontius Pilate 14. Lions Paw 15. Boy From The North Country 16. Fossil in My Pants 17. What I Think I Mean 18. Lisa?s Whip 19. Southwind
Press
Archival release of lost Phoenix, AZ band from 1982
Featuring former Velvet Underground drummer Maureen Tucker and members of Sun City Girls
Audio & Video
ELDER - 'LIMINALITY / DREAM STATE RETURN'
Formats
PSYCHOBABBLE140 - LP (COLOURED)
4015698758801
Details
**LTD ONE-SIDED 180G TRANSLUCENT VINYL W/ ETCHING ON B SIDE** At the end of 2024, Elder looked back on an unusual period in their now near 20-year career. A few years ago, the band had released their most progressive record yet, 2022's highly acclaimed Innate Passage, followed by the usual heavy touring schedule, including a 24-show arena tour supporting Tool. The band then took a year-long sabbatical to recharge their creative batteries, which, instead of rest, culminated in the release of multiple albums by side projects. Convening in the winter of that year for a two-week songwriting session at Big Snuff Studio in Berlin, the band set a goal of knocking off the rust and putting together ideas for the next record. While combing through an archive of old sketches, they hit upon an outline of a song from somewhere between 2020's Omens and its successor Innate Passage, abandoned then for reasons now inscrutable. Picking up the pieces with fresh ears, Elder fleshed out a new version of the track, which is firmly rooted between those two albums but with an identity of its own. Building on the song's ending, a swirling tower of synthesizers, chugging guitars, and almost tribal drumming was constructed during lengthy in-studio jams. Liminality/Dream State Return can be seen as a bridge between eras in Elder's creative universe: one foot is planted in the highly melodic and sometimes alternative/grunge-tinged riffing of Omens, the other in Innate Passage's dreamy prog soundscapes, with its head in the clouds looking toward Elder's upcoming LP 7. Vinyl comes as a one-sided, 180 g translucent LP with etching on the B side, including a download.
Tracks
Tracklist: 1. Liminality / Dream State Return
Press
Audio & Video
VARIOUS - 'BROWN ACID: THE TWENTY FIRST TRIP'
Formats
EZRDR214 - LP
737879948682EZRDR214CD - CD
737879948699
Details
**ON RANDOM RE-GRIND COLOUR WAY** Here we are again in 2025, Brown Acid The Twenty-First Trip arriving right on time as the world at large degrades further into disorienting self-absorbed isolation and chaos. Ten powerful early hard rock brain benders, primal energy exploding sideways out of the ash heap of '60s idealism, rocking the darker side of human nature in style! Raw and unfiltered, no compromise, blasting gnarly sound perfectly sequenced to take you on one helluva ride! Territory populated with dicey characters, perilous women, predators, bad relationships… anti-social alienation delivered with smoking guitars, real people ripping it with no self-defeating namby-pamby finesse sabotaging their brutal energy. Every track sounds fresh today because Brown Acid is the real deal when it comes to what matters in music… communication! Life itself sonically sneering across time! Opus Est - “Maggie Johnsons” kicks it right out of the gate, taking only a minute and a half to do you in with brash proto punk attitude. Tight and savage riffing shifts gears with an ascending backup vocal hook right out of the twilight zone. The singer sounds disoriented, he can’t get away from Maggie quick enough! Power trio from Belgium in 1974 nail it to the wall and then the whole building collapses. Freedom North - “Losing You” seamlessly alternates gutsy female vocal ranting with trippy floating guitar passages. Singer Franki Hart sounded psychedelic dreamy on their debut 45 “Doctor Tom”, here she sounds like her throat is gonna fly right into your face. Gnarly lead, harsh dry metallic guitar sound, score one for the ladies here, the dude’s a loser and she dumps him. Canadian band from 1970 cranked out four singles and an LP that year… this is their killer. Accents - “Friendly Stranger” serves as an ominous warning for the girls. That seemingly charming guy you just met may be more Ted Bundy than Romeo… do not get in his car! Gushy organ, dark buried fuzz guitar, terrific post-psych catchy vocal arrangement. The band formed in Rhode Island in 1966 and cut this dark killer in 1969 in L.A. issued on the Gazzari label, associated with the legendary rock venue. Brother Love - “Rock N Roll Band” takes the popular theme of being on the road to a new prequel type zone, the guy is headed to New Orleans to start up a band. Great details about wieners and beans, limousines and Cajun Queens, terrific fuzz riff groove like a sideways blend of “Satisfaction” with “Jumping Jack Flash”… best move is the innovatively crude way the lead guitar works a Chuck Berry approach into new territory. Trio led by the Pettito brothers out of Cleveland circa 1970. Perfectly placed break from the darkness on the previous tracks. River Styx - “Bike Writer” out of Beverly, New Jersey in 1971 gets right back to woman trouble with lyrics as mysteriously inscrutable as the bizarre song title. Non-stop acidic fuzz guitar action all thru, weaving around but coming in for nasty little bites at just the right time. Vocalist rants with hallucinatory twisted Sky Saxon level intensity, searing distorted guitar burning it up on the extended fade-out. Maxx - “200 Years” was originally issued out of Lansing, Michigan on the local Signal label and picked up for national release as a promo-only by Mainstream Records. The theme is the original USA ideal of ‘land of the free’ becoming utterly doomed by greed and corruption. Menacing light-touch Stooges style rhythmic groove with watery wah-wah action on the intro into dirty bad trip sheets of psychedelic fuzz guitar, this dark beast functions as a bleak epitaph for civil society, as pertinent now as in 1969! Pump - “Kinda Like” is kinda like outrageous with it’s combination of askew vocal swagger over a churning groove veering into a ridiculously cool chorus about a young girl hanging out with an old man because he makes her feel safe like an old umbrella. Wait until his hand comes into the picture and try not to crack up! Fab primitive guitar lead rides you out and any song with the phrase ‘Nagasaki perfume’ in it is speaking my language! Left-field 1970 winner out of Newark, Delaware on the Dwikey label. 29.9 -“You Got Me Floating” takes the Hendrix song deep into the garage. Way loose vocal, serendipitously crude guitar add to the vibe in a way no virtuoso could top. Led by the Harrison brothers John and Doug out of Pittsburgh but recorded in late 1969 at a band communal party house in Wellesley Hills, Massachusetts. John later scored films for George Romero, and used 29.9 track in his own horror classic “Effects”. Wakefield - “Here I Am” is a mini-epic with rudimentary progressive rock moves Sioux Falls, South Dakota style from 1979. Opens with a slinky start and stop stalking groove, vocal has the singer up on the stage but feels like a cage, the crowd isn’t really getting where he’s coming from. Extended break goes into double time with flying guitar leads and shifts gears into to a dreamy vibe with synth mimicking airy mellotron skies saying “you’ll find an answer someday”. Fat chance, you’re in Brown Acid Land! Peacepipe - “Lazy River Blues” completes Trip 21 in deep psychedelic blues territory with lurking danger in the sinister chord changes, eerie effect dosed vocals, mournful acid guitar leads… makes you feel like you’re getting cornered by something scary you can’t see. Obscure heavy trio led by John Uzonyi from L.A. circa 1969, originally issued on the custom Accent label. The creepy vibe sticks with you like a phantasmic nightmare!
Tracks
1. Opus Est - Magie Johnsons 2. Freedom North - Losing You 3. Accents - Friendly Stranger 4. Brother Love - Rock N Roll Band 5. River Styx - Bike Writer 6. MAXX - 200 Years 7. Pump - Kinda Like 8. 29.9 - You Got Me Floatin 9. Wakefield - Here I am 10. Peacepipe - Lazy River Blue
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Audio & Video
BILL ORCUTT - 'ANOTHER PERFECT DAY'
Formats
PAL094 - LP
843563195758PAL094CD - CD
195269387594
Details
"Another Perfect Day is Bill Orcutt's first solo electric guitar record since 2017’s eponymous Bill Orcutt. While that eight-year gap might not seem like a ton of time on the cosmic scale, it nonetheless represents a busy half-decade plus for Orcutt projects: a raft of improv collaborations, an acclaimed run of chopped and looped albums on Fake Estates, and the collision of Orcutt's computer and guitar music on Music For Four Guitars and last year's How to Rescue Things, both on Palilalia. The undeniable alchemy of those latter mashups inspired not only a wider appreciation of Orcutt-as-composer, but also the resurrection of Orcutt-as-bandleader, as the Bill Orcutt Quartet hit the road in support of Four Guitars, Orcutt's first work with a proper score (courtesy of Shane Parrish). All of the above makes 2025 the perfect year to reacquaint ourselves with Orcutt-as-solo-performer, wielding his trademark four-string rather than a mouse, running the neck rather than shuffling waveforms, blasting through Cafe Oto's tattered Fender Twin (the cover model for the aforementioned How to Rescue Things) rather than a pair of ancient NS-10s. Indeed, this 2023 performance at Oto, East London's finest music establishment, boomerangs back into the slashing chords and frenzied double- picking of the Harry Pussy years, tossing the gentler melodic glow of the last few solo records into the dustbin. In other words, this may be Orcutt's most overtly punk-rockist record since Gerty Loves Pussy, his first solo electric LP from a decade ago. It's an affirmation that Orcutt is above all a lead player—angular runs scaling the heavens, ricocheting back to ground zero before climbing again. Orcutt builds tension with short phrases, repeated with slight variability until it seems like they’ll never stop, finally slamming into a fresh line like the dawning valley at the crest of the mountain pass. Another Perfect Day is, ultimately, something of a solo guitar Nouveau Roman, an exhilarating run through melodic reiteration, impossible crescendos (check out those ecstatic crowd hoots on "For the Drainers") breaking into—a moment rarely found on an Orcutt record—soft, whisper-quiet tracer notes at the end of "A Natural Death." Another Perfect Day returns Orcutt to the immediacy of his earliest records while maintaining the melodic complexity, phrasing, and flow of a player, who's been going, what—four-plus decades now? And when he taps his roots, it's a reminder of exactly what was so exciting about Orcutt's playing in the first place."—TOM CARTER
Tracks
1. Some Hidden Purpose / O Platitudes 2. The Life of Jesus 3. A Natural Death 4. The World Without Me 5. For The Drainers
Press
Bill Orcutt's first solo electric guitar record since 2017 and the only Orcutt album on Palilalia this year
Audio & Video
ROBERT POLLARD - 'EAT 21'
Formats
GBVIEAT21 - MAGAZINE
657628454120
Details
Volume 21 of Robert Pollard's masterful and recognizable collage work, reproduced in full color.
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Audio & Video
LAURA BAIRD - 'UNDER BLUE'
Formats
BING244CD - CD
600197024423
Details
Following up her 2017 release, I Wish I Were a Sparrow, multi-instrumentalist Laura Baird returns with Under Blue, an intimate depiction of grief tied to the mourning of her father. The album is anchored by folk guitar and banjo, as well as Baird’s strong lyricism and serene harmonies. Under Blue showcases Baird’s most authentic self as both a musician and creator, painting naturalistic images of her childhood and adult life to explore themes of change, relational depth, and finding peace. Under Blue is as much an ode to her father as it is to herself, while serving as an homage to nature, which fuels her creative process. Baird’s writing for this solo project began in 2012, during the recording of Sparrow, and continued after 2018 when she returned to her childhood home in southern New Jersey, near the Delaware River. “My father died and I went to help my mom out and keep her company. I was focused on her, but then the pandemic came and I started writing more again. I sat with these songs for a long time,” Baird said of the timeline of Under Blue and its early onset. Baird shares the value of sitting and processing ideas with her sister and trusted collaborator, Meg Baird, with whom she performs as The Baird Sisters. “Taking your time, letting things go, and letting something bloom before you go into the next thing is something I learned from Meg.” For the arrangement, Meg suggested that Laura add more instruments to the intro of her opening track, “Days of Blue” to set the tone of the LP. “I told her I would put my banjo sprinkles in there, I had fun with that.” During her mother’s first listen, Baird recounts that she swayed with a soft smile only a moment after she put headphones on. She added that Meg told her she’ll be listening to this whenever she is feeling homesick. Meg was one of a few trusted voices to hear Laura’s early recordings. “My sister always influences me. We influence each other. I don’t try to emulate the people I play with, like guitarist Glenn Jones, but they are in my corner,” Baird says of her most treasured influences. Despite the talent surrounding her, Baird relies on her own musical instincts, as well as the natural world that shaped her childhood and adulthood. Under Blue is not only a confessional of Baird’s exploration of family, environment, and selfhood. It presents a nuanced pairing of melancholy and joyful rediscovery.
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Audio & Video
BILDERS - 'NEVERLASTING'
Formats
GY15-2 - LP
Details
Bilders new album, Neverlasting is a mix of psychic adventures, hard psychedelia and commentary with a bite. Bilders have always sung outliers with a heap of empathy—exploitation of migrants, unmitigated killing and the state of our depleted planet. This album maintains an analog feel with technical finesse as it casts a cold eye on uses and abuses of power in the higher echelons. It is pure Bilders. Surprise collaborations bring in fresh tangents of colour and emotional edge. “We are the Neverlasting renter-squatters of Earth exhausted”. The band is once again the voice/guitar of Bill Direen, bass of Matt Swanson and near everything else by Alex McManus, with guesting by former Bilders. It’s the same lineup as last year’s acclaimed Dustbin of Empathy, released by Grapefruit and Sophomore Lounge, and the first ‘core’ Bilders lineup to remain constant for more than one album. The new compatibility shows. It’s an album that builds on current strengths. Notable guestings include Athens Georgia lights Claire Horne of 1980s BBQ Killers, and Curtiss Pernice, guitarist of heavy vanguard Porn Orchard, with a snook-in from experimental and electronic prince Todd Gerber. Two never-released tunes by vintage Bilders (Stu Page and Greig Bainbridge) sit perfectly with the new material. This is quite simply the strongest Bilders album ever.
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Audio & Video
GINGER BEEF - 'S/T'
Formats
BING255 - LP
600197025512
Details
Tijuana Taxi, Classical Gas, Soul Bossa Nova — they topped the charts over 50 years ago, but you could probably still hum these instrumental classics. With their ambitious self-titled full-length debut, Ginger Beef aims to singlehandedly breathe life back into this all-but-extinct instrumental pop genre. “If evoking emotion is the goal of music, then lyrics are cheating,” It’s a hot take from MSG (aka Warren Tse), producer and one half of Ginger Beef. His thesis for the album: “Classical and film music prove that you don’t need words to resonate with listeners and stir up feelings. Why can’t we do the same thing with pop?” In 2021, flutist Jiajia Li was asked to present a music video for the Camp Sled Island event in Calgary. She ended up collaborating with the veteran multi-instrumentalist/producer/Calgary Flames organist conveniently living under her roof (she’s married to MSG) to cook up “Flashback”, an energetic track seasoned with anachronistic synths, slap bass, and traditional Chinese elements — and no singing. Unintentionally, this one-off track whetted the crowd’s appetite, which gave Ginger Beef’s snowball a push downhill. Spurred by the warm response to their first and only song, the couple wrote new material, joined forces with heavy hitters from the local R&B and Gospel scene, and thrilled Calgary audiences with their explosive live performances. When their new fans all but demanded a recording, Li and MSG locked themselves in their basement studio and painstakingly crafted Ginger Beef’s first album. They ordered up a small run of CDs and released the album independently. To their surprise and delight, their home-cooked debut was immediately met with critical acclaim and was nominated for a Juno award. All this validation made it clear that the album deserved greater distribution and reach than they could ever manage with their own limited DIY resources. Now signed with Providence-based Ba Da Bing Records, Ginger Beef is poised to drop their celebrated album on unsuspecting music fans everywhere in a brand-new vinyl re-release!
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Audio & Video
DEMIAN - 'S/T'
Formats
EZRDR210LP - LP
737879948668
Details
"The Bad Seeds and Zakary Thaks were mid ‘60s Texas garage rock bands formed in the wake of the British Invasion, influenced by The Rolling Stones, Kinks, Yardbirds and others, becoming top local live attractions at a time when the 13th Floor Elevators and Moving Sidewalks were leading the way into psychedelia. In late 1966 Rod Prince on guitar and Roy Cox on bass from Bad Seeds joined up with David Fore from Zakary Thaks on drums to create a new band out of San Antonio featuring two lead guitarists. Todd Potter filled out the quartet on second guitar and they chose the name Bubble Puppy, taken from Aldous Huxley’s 1932 dystopian novel Brave New World. Huxley was an early advocate of LSD, appropriately. In 1969 Bubble Puppy scored a top 20 hit single with “Hot Smoke & Sasafrass” which led to their LP “A Gathering Of Promises”. International Artists, the legendary Texas label that previously had unleashed mind expanding classics by the Elevators, Red Crayola, Golden Dawn and others was a perfect fit. After the LP and additional 45s didn’t repeat the success of “Hot Smoke & Sasafrass” the band hooked up with Nick St. Nicholas of Steppenwolf as their new manager and moved to Los Angeles. A new band name was in order, Nick St. Nicholas chose Demian, title of the 1919 novel by Herman Hesse. His books were popular with the counterculture at the time and had provided Steppenwolf with their new name after they changed it from the Sparrow and hit it big. Demian recorded the LP live in the studio at the Record Plant in one midnight to six session. They had their arrangements fully realized, allowing them to combine live show energy and economy with to-the-point delivery suitable for repeated listening. No doubt they were aiming for pop hit success, using proto hard rock skills in a radio friendly way without compromising the heavy guitar moves. The vocals have echoes of the earlier Bubble Puppy style in spots but are more melodic with vibrant harmonies reminiscent of Moby Grape, Buffalo Springfield, James Gang… at times flashing on Steve Stills/Richie Furay westcoast without being too sweet about it. It works terrifically when the radio friendly voices top off killer hard guitar ensemble action. Early hard rock that is too bluesy flashy can get tiresome with repeat listening, especially if overdosing on guitar solos with the band relegated to the background… Demian keep it interesting with inventive song structures allowing all four players to integrate constantly into an ever changing but focused whole. This LP is a grower, despite the basic two guitars, bass and drums lineup and no frills production you reach a lot of different places during the ride. Demian is deadly hard rock, a perfectly organized vibe straddling live energy and crafted itinerary, amongst the first obscure major label killers that commanded premium $$ with collectors even way back in the late ‘70s. It gets you there every time, even half a century later!"
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GRANICUS - 'S/T'
Formats
EZRDR207LP - LP
737879948675
Details
GRANICUS transcends the genre of early ‘70s progressive hard rock, they will thrill somebody hungry for a killer in that department but are so creatively explosive anybody into any brand of hard rock from classic, metal, punk, prog up into the wild beyond will get caught up in the band’s whirlpool of manic energy. You get to relax here and there but most of the time they come at you so decisively you gotta hang on to your brain. For my money these guys delivered an LP on level with the best famous bands of the day, contemporaries like Led Zep, Rush, Deep Purple, Sabbath... based on the power and variety captured here it is clearly only a lack of promotion that kept Granicus off the charts. It has hard prog moves in spades but also over the top energy with outrageous vocal moves powerful enough to have scored a big bullseye in teenage wasteland America 1973. As the liner notes on the sleeve declare... “Granicus puts forward a musically cohesive, emotionally compelling vision of growing up wasted in America, searching desperately for and occasionally glimpsing spiritual truth, in a climate foreshadowing Armageddon”. Granicus is named after a battle in 334 BC where Alexander The Great defeated the Persian Empire. This album has more than enough ammo to defeat your head right now, they take you deep down into the sordid demonic underbelly of America 1973, ending the LP with an ultimate rock and roll exorcism. Appropriate to say fasten your seatbelts for this ride!
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THE BEAST OF ENGLAND - 'ASTRODOMINA'
Formats
UFO004 - LP
199284141674
Details
***In the catacombs beneath San Francisco, a vast, labyrinthine maze stretches out in every direction. Illuminated only by the light of 1,001 Lava Lamps, there lies a network of tunnels, tunnels that connect the city by the bay to myriad alternate dimensions. Heavy Rock lifers and Stoner Doom cosmonauts, The Beast of England, make their home in this cosmic underworld, and they’re only too happy to give you the grand tour. Sitting by the banks of the Sea of Infinite Riffage, they will sing songs and regale you with tales of adventurers driven mad by the ravages of space and time. Those tales are collected here, on their full length vinyl debut, “Astrodomina”. If they offer you anything to eat, drink or smoke, you may want to think twice but, hey, you only live once. Or do you?
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SELF-IMMOLATION MUSIC - 'STRANGE WORSHIP'
Formats
CFUL0353 - LP
Details
“Strange Worship is the sound of electricity dreaming itself into fire, a fuzz-drenched ritual where repetition becomes revelation.” Leeds is burning again, and the match is called Self Immolation Music. Their new LP, ‘Strange Worship’, isn’t a record so much as a rite—forty minutes of distortion, drone, and devotion from a band who don’t so much play songs as build temples out of amplifier hum. Recorded inside an old converted police station, the walls still humming with ghosts of interrogation and authority, a low frequency vibration has been rattling the cells - that’s Self Immolation Music, summoning their new LP ‘Strange Worship’ into existence like a feedback séance. Guitars roar like collapsing stars, basslines pulse like a migraine heartbeat, and drums hammer out the sort of trance you can’t fake. This is not a record you listen to—it’s a record you enter. Forty minutes of holy distortion and electric devotion, channelled straight from the lineage of Spacemen 3, Loop, and the endless cosmic engines of Hawkwind. Where their last transmission (Infinity Trip) was a relentless surge into the void, Strange Worship is a ritual circle drawn in fuzz. The riffs don’t just play—they throb, they loop, they dissolve you. Imagine repetition as religion, feedback as incense, a mantra made of distortion. That’s the sound of Strange Worship: heavy, hypnotic, and strangely beautiful in its ruin. Self Immolation Music don’t deal in nostalgia or polite psych revival. They deal in immersion and Strange Worship is music for surrender. This is the deep end, the psychic throb, the sonic flame you can’t look away from, a devotional noise meant to be felt in the gut and the teeth. Put it on loud and you’ll understand: the worship is strange, but the faith is absolute. Strange Worship is not a product—it’s a possession. Approach with open ears, a steady pulse, and the willingness to lose yourself in the noise. Strange times call for strange worship.