Always the same – you wait oodles of years and two Headcoat/Headcoatee albums come along at once. In fairness, it makes a wallet-relieving change from them releasing an album every other week. Thee Headcoatees – ‘Man-Trap’ – Damaged Goods Longest out of action, by a long chalk, are Thee Headcoatees, but the full headcoat count […]
Nerthus – ‘Love Songs via Echlon’ – Eighth Tower Records Echelon was the codename for a global surveillance network developed during the Cold War by the Five Eyes alliance – the likely suspects of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK, and the US. Originally designed to monitor Soviet military and diplomatic communications, it evolved into […]
Various Artists – ‘Codex of Pleasure and Pain – A Sonic Tribute to Clive Barker’s Hellraiser’ – Eighth Tower Records Given the somewhat torturous history of the actual Hellraiser score, offering another perspective seems entirely reasonable. As much as Cenobites remix flesh, these 11 artists from across Europe dig their hooks into their chosen chunk […]
VA – You’re No Big Deal – Grunge, The U.S. Underground and Beyond 1984-1994 – Cherry Red Records. Well, let’s get the griping out of the way – the word ‘grunge’ may be used. It’s in the title; it’s used by people ‘on purpose’; I have very little control over history, despite my best efforts, […]
Capricorni Pneumatici – ‘Ix Tab’, Eighth Tower Records I don’t often start reviews like this, but I think the accompanying text with this release speaks (in tongues) for itself: Ix Tab is an album dedicated to the mysterious Mayan deity, goddess of ropes and snares, and patroness of those who hang themselves. Originally released on […]
Various – Joe Meek – A Curious Mind Outer Space! Horror! Death Discs! The Wild West! Demos!. Cherry Red Joe Meek, astronaut extraordinaire (in his Holloway flat), was the launchpad for some of British pop’s most eccentric experiments. But while the stars get most of the spotlight, A Curious Mind – a new 3CD box […]
8 Discs. 82 Tracks. 1 Inverted Cross. There’s something oddly comforting about the endurance of Deicide. A strange cultural relic from a more chaotic age, where even Twisted Sister could be viewed not just with suspicion, but with a real sense that they might corrupt the future of our world. Glen Benton and his band […]
VA – The Eraserhead – Music Inspired by the Film of David Lynch – Unexplained Sounds Group In the cult cosmos of David Lynch’s ‘Eraserhead’, silence drips like oil, and the industrial groan of existence becomes its own character. The original soundtrack – the brainchild of Lynch and Alan Splet – wasn’t just music. It […]
Music’s strangest séance gets its final incantation – tea brewed, minds blown. Three albums into their collaborative endeavours, we can safely remove any semblance of novelty from this album. Now able to record together in Peter Buck‘s basement, with Scott McCaughey, one of music’s safest pair of hands on bass, and Linda Pitmon on drums, […]
The Residents’ ‘American Composer’s Series‘ – Cherry Red There are bad years for music. Then there’s 1983. It was the year everything got airbrushed. Bowie traded Berlin’s paranoia for peroxide and pastel suits. Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ was less an album than a an attempt to allocate him his own GDP. UB40. Just…UB40. MTV had turned […]
