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LP
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RITE 037LP
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LP version. Pressed on 180-gram vinyl. Includes download code. We Are, We Were and We Will Have Been continues Bong's unregulated experiments in tonal prolonging. Solemn in its delivery and frightening in its implications, this album signifies a point of no return from the Pied Pipers of mesmeric drone; its two near-20-minute tracks will surely loop and envelop indefinitely, freeing the listener from this increasingly unfamiliar material world and mercifully trapping them in the weightlessness of Bong's sonic void. Microtonal adjustments and invading frequencies are pleated into a tapestry of gooey guitar and midnight-ritual percussion, melting at a glacial pace across "Time Regained" and "Find Your Own Gods." The first of the two tracks creaks under the weight of residual distortion and unfathomable density, while the second opens with the powerful command of the track title, evoking a deity-defying thought process that unravels through the duration of the song, providing the synth-mist and distant rumbles with an origin so ancient it predates comprehension. We Are, We Were and We Will Have Been is Bong's report from their explorations past the point where others fear. The album was captured and mixed in November 2014 by Mark Wood at the Soundroom in Gateshead, England, and the cover art is from "Thomson's Aeolian Harp," by famed pre-impressionist painter J. M. W. Turner, picturing an infant London in the background.
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CD
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RITE 036CD
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We Are, We Were and We Will Have Been continues Bong's unregulated experiments in tonal prolonging. Solemn in its delivery and frightening in its implications, this album signifies a point of no return from the Pied Pipers of mesmeric drone; its two near-20-minute tracks will surely loop and envelop indefinitely, freeing the listener from this increasingly unfamiliar material world and mercifully trapping them in the weightlessness of Bong's sonic void. Microtonal adjustments and invading frequencies are pleated into a tapestry of gooey guitar and midnight-ritual percussion, melting at a glacial pace across "Time Regained" and "Find Your Own Gods." The first of the two tracks creaks under the weight of residual distortion and unfathomable density, while the second opens with the powerful command of the track title, evoking a deity-defying thought process that unravels through the duration of the song, providing the synth-mist and distant rumbles with an origin so ancient it predates comprehension. We Are, We Were and We Will Have Been is Bong's report from their explorations past the point where others fear. The album was captured and mixed in November 2014 by Mark Wood at the Soundroom in Gateshead, England, and the cover art is from "Thomson's Aeolian Harp," by famed pre-impressionist painter J. M. W. Turner, picturing an infant London in the background.
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2LP
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RITE 027LP
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After a long wait, listeners will be delighted with the full, uncut version of Bong's 2011 release Beyond Ancient Space, which has been remixed and remastered specially for vinyl. Housed in a deluxe, gatefold, bronze foiled sleeve. LPs come in two colors: black and bronze, both 180 gram. As with all their music, be it live performance or studio recordings, Beyond Ancient Space follows the same ritualistic path, that is to say the songs are all mesmerizing meditative jams centered around an unfurling guitar riff and gelled by spaced-out drum beats, the occasional crashing cymbals and Dave Terry's distinctive vocal style. Once again, Bong shun all overdubs and keep the post-production to a minimum. The resulting sound is as deeply hypnotic as ever before and presents Bong at their most prolific, particularly on songs such as "Across the Time-Stream" and "Onward to Perdóndaris," which surpass even the highest of expectations.
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2LP
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RITE 024LP
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Gatefold double LP version. Ultimate drone-lords Bong have summoned the tones of the elder gods with their epic new genre-defining album, Stoner Rock, their fourth full-length release on Ritual Productions. Recorded at Blank Studio, Newcastle, the album "is a tongue-in-cheek dig at our usual classification as 'stoner rock' and what the term has come to represent. The idea is to create our own definition of 'stoner rock' by creating an album so utterly stoned and repetitive to be a million miles away from the usual definition. Those who know Bong already will get both the humor and the philosophical redefinition... those who don't know us will either get it when they listen or will never understand Bong at all." Inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft, sonically speaking, Stoner Rock ventures further into the abyss, gravitating toward an endless void, and with the magnitude of their ritualistic, mesmeric drones, we have no choice but to follow. Featuring artwork by Zdzislaw Beksinski.
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CD
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RITE 025CD
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Ultimate drone-lords Bong have summoned the tones of the elder gods with their epic new genre-defining album, Stoner Rock, their fourth full-length release on Ritual Productions. Recorded at Blank Studio, Newcastle, the album "is a tongue-in-cheek dig at our usual classification as 'stoner rock' and what the term has come to represent. The idea is to create our own definition of 'stoner rock' by creating an album so utterly stoned and repetitive to be a million miles away from the usual definition. Those who know Bong already will get both the humor and the philosophical redefinition... those who don't know us will either get it when they listen or will never understand Bong at all." Inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft, sonically speaking, Stoner Rock ventures further into the abyss, gravitating toward an endless void, and with the magnitude of their ritualistic, mesmeric drones, we have no choice but to follow. Featuring artwork by Zdzislaw Beksinski.
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LP
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RITE 020LP
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Blue vinyl repress. Ritual Productions proudly present the vinyl version of Bong's Mana-Yood-Sushai, remastered for vinyl by Greg Chandler (Esoteric). Pressed on 180 gram pure virgin vinyl with full-color printed vinyl labels with a black paper inner sleeve and a full-color premium 300 gram heavy card outer sleeve with 3mm spine and matte varnish. Following their 2011 masterpiece Beyond Ancient Space, Bong prove to be ever-prolific with Mana-Yood-Sushai. Recorded, mixed and mastered in just two days in December 2011, this marks the first time Bong have entered a professional studio and recorded with an engineer. At the helm was Greg Chandler of Esoteric who had this to say about the experience: "It was really great to record an album live in the studio with Bong, whose heavy, droning, psychedelic improvisations unfolded like a lucid, transcendental journey. Great vibe to the session with these guys, and a real pleasure to work with." That the music on this record is described by Greg as unfolding "like a lucid transcendental journey" is easy to imagine when you hear it. "Dreams of Mana-Yood-Sushai" seems to pick up where Beyond Ancient Space ended, with ritualistic vocal passages atop their meditative jams. "Trees, Grass and Stones" evolves at an unhurried pace, first emerging with simple chimes and drones before locking into a most seductive groove. This is Bong as we have never heard them before, and they sound all the better for it. Artwork is an image of a splendid painting by Nicolas Roerich entitled "Mount of Five Treasures." Overall, a great collectible and utterly entrancing.
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CD
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RITE 018CD
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Newcastle's stoner metal outfit Bong is mostly a live band, but the band's studio recordings all follow the same live path, jams around a central riff and a basic structure, shunning any overdubs and with minimal post-production. Influences most apparent are 1970s psychedelic rock groups (especially Parson Sound) and doom staples such as Come My Fanatics-era Electric Wizard and Sleep's Jerusalem. Slow, chanting vocals and spoken-word sections are drawn from the lands of fantasy writers like Lord Dunsany, Clark Ashton Smith and other dreamers' (/nerds') tales from the early 20th century, mirroring their stories of hashish-induced sojourns to outer worlds. Julian Cope has described Bong's music as sounding like "a hobbling Satori-period Flower Travellin' Band pulling the kind of moves that Faust did for Tony Conrad on Outside The Dream Syndicate or maybe the title track of Amon Düül (II)'s Yeti as performed by Tokyo's Far Out sitar 'n all."
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CD
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BRR 155CD
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"Amazing new live jams from Newcastle's Bong. Two long tracks of stoned slow motion drums, guitar, bass and sitar. This is a great follow up to their previous split LP we put out earlier in the year, edition of 1000 copies in bleak pro-printed card sleeve with cover artwork by Chris from Gnod and back artwork by the band."
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