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2LP
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FTR 642LP
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$29.00
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 10/8/2021
Cardinal Fuzz and Feeding Tube Records bring to you for your listening pleasure Nudity Is God's Creation. A retrospective release of recordings dating from 2005 to 2010 of orgasmic interstellar mayhem. Reissued and for the first time available domestically in the USA In 2004, a commune named Nudity, formed by four travelers from the astral plane, appeared in Olympia, Washington. The founding members were Dave Harvey (guitar) and Jon Quitty Quittner (bass, though Josh Haynes of the mighty guitar fuzz scorchers Feral Ohms plays bass on the majority of the tracks featured here), both of whom were former guitarists of Tight Bros From Way Back When and Eryn Ross (drums) from Growling. A couple of self-distributed CDrs and a 12" on Discourage were a visual akin to colored liquid sloshing around on a transparency machine and were a pure drip feed for psych/kraut and Jap rock fiends around the world as Julian Cope and Terrascope raved about them. Alas for whatever reason no full-length LP arrived from the original line-up -- something that at last has been rectified as now all these tracks have been brought together (along with some unreleased gems and a couple of live bonus download tracks). The sonic ear candy contained within the four sides of vinyl presented here go from Detroit fuzz blazing face melters to acid trippin' head swirling raga's via The Flower Travelin' Band and Hawkwind. Nudity were the masters and for those that missed out the first time this double album was released -- don't make the same mistake a second time. Terrascope gushed about Nudity: "This is seriously fucking good; one of those quite literally extra-ordinary LPs that come along every once in a while which you just know instinctively are going to be dug out and played, sniffed and caressed for years."
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LP
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FTR 614LP
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"Great second LP (there was also a cassette) by this Portland, OR trio. I became aware of Mouth Painter by following the pedal steel work of Barry Walker Jr., who is akin to the new BJ Cole in terms of being thee underground eminence on his instrument. The rest of the trio features flautist/vocalist Valerie Osterberg (who also contributes songs) and bassist Jason Willmon. Together they comprise a band whose sound is exceedingly hard to pin down. There are rootsy elements to the vocals, but these are offset by floating guitar clouds straight out of Mike Cooper's recent work. Valerie's flute inventions add a slight French prog flavor as well, while Jason's bass highlights the sheer rockiness of the music's brunt. There also many, small but flipped-out instrumental details. The album moves through genres with elegant grace, touching bases with country rock, psychedelia, new age cloud surfing, and even the kind of exotica the late Patrick Lundberg always claimed as one of the real roots of 'higher key' music. Tropicale Moon is all that! The lyrics mix geology, poetry, gambling and much else into a suite that gently sprawls across the sonic map like a previously undiscovered continent. The overall blend generates a vague psychedelic haze everywhere you look, but apart from a few spots, the psych is not overt. It lingers in dark corners more than at the forefront. A shadow peeking out from a lot of places you wouldn't expect. This subtlety is probably Tropicale Moon's secret weapon. Slipping in the needle when we don't expect it, then letting the hallucinations flow like easy water across the parched earth. Nice stuff!" --Byron Coley, 2021
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LP
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FTR 585LP
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Cardinal Fuzz and Feeding Tube Records announce The Myrrors' Invocaciones: Singles and Strays (2014-2016) -- a dip into the archives with these shaman from Tucson, Arizona. Invocaciones is a compilation of tracks previously available via the mediums of splits/lathes/cassettes and digital download, now all gathered together on this release with the added bonus of an extra three minutes added to a now extended "Eyes Of Copper" and "Semillas Sembrades" no longer split over two sides of a 7". Over five tracks presented on Invocaciones, The Myrrors lose themselves in transcendental improvisation, from the opening track "Eyes Of Copper" to "Invocación Por Un Verdadero Plan De Lucha Organizado Desde Abajo" where The Myrrors are in free flowing circular raga mode. It's a state of playing that takes take the listener into a deeply shamanistic ecstatic state that is both spellbinding and enrapturing, were you are treated to the music that rivals the free flowing communal progg freakdom of late '60s/early '70s Germany/Scandinavia but transported to the Arabian desert. Here a cacophony of flute and whistles, viola, tape loops, alto saxophone, bulbul tarang and guitars churn and cavort through ebbing cosmic shimmer and ecstatic pulsing ritualistic Eastern drones. Try imagining The Velvet Underground, The Taj Mahal Travellers and Parson Sound transported to the Arabian desert. It is ecstatic and otherworldly as you open up your mind and let everything come through -- The Myrrors have found the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Presented in a laminated silver mirri board outer sleeve that best reflects the artwork of Claira Safi.
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LP
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FTR 595LP
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"While they have released a decent number of cassettes & CDs, Jurad is only the fourth vinyl album released by this long-running DC-to-Philly-based space-juggernaut. Recorded by a quartet iteration of the always mutating ensemble, the music on this one veers between the kind of psych-prog wallow for which Kohoutek is most often celebrated, and the less formally rockoid improvisational proclivities they sometimes display. The session for Jurad went down at Philadelphia's Sex Dungeon studio in 2012 and resulted in three long tracks. The shortest one, 'Cosmic Grease,' opens the B side in classic Kohoutek style. John Stanton's guitar balances on the cusp of scum and space, spewing fat raw gobs of string-urk across a thick steady surge of circular bass/drum/synth hunch. A pretty nice way to fire it up. 'Double Star' follows with electro-squigglage sluiced amidst much more delicate guitar filigree, a lighter rhythm section pulse and drones of presumed synthetic origin. It has a bit of Germanic feel, along the lines of UA-era Popol Vuh or something. Like taking a deep breath of night air during an electrical storm. The first side is comprised of 'Tidal Disruption,' a rather different kettle of sonic chub. From the first notes of synth buck and string buzz, this one slides sideways with reckless abandon, before diving into a pool of tranquil long tone improvisation, with what sounds like small tractors demolishing a farm house in the distance. As the piece progresses, this far-off destruction resolves itself into a slow drum pulse, fluid bass lines and a wash of synth abstraction. The pace slowly increases and then slows again as 'Tidal Disruption' slowly fades into dream time, wrapping up like a beautiful trip, well taken. Very sweet smoke, we're sure you'll agree." --Byron Coley, 2021
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FTR 591LP
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The singer and songwriter Greg Ashley has made a name for himself both as a member of notable underground bands The Gris Gris, The Mirrors, and Strate Coats, as well as a solo artist. As a fixture in the underground music scene, his musical abilities span a range of genres including garage punk, psychedelia, and folk. In addition to his own music, he works as a producer and sound engineer, previously running his own Oakland-based studio, Creamery Studio and now rebuilding his home studio in Texas. After high school, Greg Ashley took to perusing the work of the original '60s artists, immersing himself in the Rolling Stones' bluesy early material, the Beatles' midperiod psychedelia, the crazed noise of the 13th Floor Elevators, and the fuzzy surf of the Ventures. Assimilating these influences, Ashley formed a quintet called the Mirrors and released two scruffy, all-over-the-map albums. The Mirrors were Greg Ashley's post-Strate Coats (7" also available on Hook or Crook) and pre Gris-Gris outfit. In 2001 they self-released the A Green Dream LP in an edition of 500. Though hard to imagine in retrospect, in 2001 it was unlike anything else being created at the time, fusing well played, well written freaky psychedelia with groovy ballads, tinny xylophone, feng shui recitations and occasionally a confusion that approaches the Sun City Girls. Pervading it all is an acid-drenched folky psychedelia that would make fellow Texan Roky Erickson proud. This Lost 3rd Album is the missing bridge between The Mirrors and what was to come in The Gris Gris. Includes full size double-sided insert; edition of 300. "There have been hundreds of bands since 2001 that have attempted to sound this good at being high. None have." "You know that old 'This is your brain on drugs' egg-frying commercial? Well, these discs are 10-egg omelets."
"Nobody gave a sh*t about my garage band in Houston, People liked my music out here. I got to meet one of heroes, Russell Quan of the Mummies, and he was a fan of my band." --Greg Ashley
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LP
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FTR 528LP
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"Hot on the heels of last year's drone masterpiece, The Free Territory, comes this hot bowl of noodles from Manchester's most elegantly wasted quintet. And while there might be apt comparisons to be made to some of the best current psych purveyors, the central thrill provided by these sounds makes me think of naught but prime Bay Area ballroom scene acid spew. The guitar lines unspool like electrical cables filled with acid punch, and remain crackling in the air for moments longer than you imagine they can remain afloat. The keys have a bit of a German overtone, but it's the same sort of one that led to the flash of Popol Vuh's United Artist albums (which are themselves, at heart, paeans to the Bay.) The sound here is the sort of thing true believers recall as the highest moments of Man in live concert flight. Raging, raving guitars to soak your soul once and for all. Don't fear the downpour. Revel in it." --Byron Coley, 2020
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FTR 587LP
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Cardinal Fuzz and Feeding Tube Records present a long-awaited reissue of Dead Sea Apes & Black Tempest's The Sun Behind The Sun. This reissue is presented in a reflective Mirri Board reflective outer sleeve. Manchester's Dead Sea Apes and Godalming's Black Tempest engage in a mind meld of galactic proportions on this; both band's first outing on vinyl. Both entities weave together seamlessly as "Grey Alphabets" recalls Goblin's giallo soundtracks, whilst "Wilder Penfield" pulses with post-punk metal-loid Harmonia kraut vibes. Side two is given over to the 25+minute "Heliopause" -- a dubby astral meditation, where Oneida meet Tangerine Dream in an elongated komische drift. For fans of: Harmonia, Oneida, Goblin, Mogwai, Tangerine Dream.
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FTR 590LP
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Dataland is a collaboration with Black Tempest and Adam Stone, achieved mainly through internet data transfer during the Covid lockdown of 2020. Insistent, evolving electronic sounds encounter a variety of guitars and percussion, from the clockwork kosmische of "Lost Hours" to the stumbling noise dub of "Shop Soiled", while Adam Stone's words meditate on life in the post-industrial west, our increasingly atomized and data-driven society and its logical conclusion in a corporatized dystopia. Dataland is a meditation upon the average existence of a "developed-world" human in the early 21st century. Whilst not struggling with the harsh physical demands of industrial labor as we did in the recent past, our plight continues to embody the melancholia and confusion of alienation. Under the bewildering complexity of rationalized social and economic systems, we may indeed have become unwitting prisoners within, what the sociologist Max Weber termed, "the iron cage of bureaucracy" -- tripping the minutes away in a daily pantomime of data-driven surrealism. This six-song collection is a fusion of electronica, monologue, "real drums", and guitar, and was recorded at various locations in sad old England over the last two years or so. An almost psychedelic sense of puzzlement, nausea, and fatigue accompanies being lost in the omnipresent number-generating machines and anti-human modelling systems that now run our world. This is the realization that defines the essence of the album -- that your life is now only as real as what is displayed on the screen of your constant technological companion.
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FTR 576LP
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All you need to know is Anthroprophh release records on Rocket Recordings and every so often they release one and with German Oak, you are getting a release that is both unique and very special. Side one is a 17-minute freak out/meltdown/brain buzz of a mother fucker -- Imagine a star collapsing in upon itself and you'd have the sound of "German Oak". Side two is four tracks all melded together -- two tracks of hypnotic minimal electronic bliss melded into a Tacoma-like finger picking hoedown before the final two track brings in the spirit of Skip/Syd/Roky for a hauntingly mesmeric end.
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FTR 567LP
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"At last, a new studio LP from superb London duo, The Left Outsides, to follow up on 2018's amazing All That Remains. The basic building blocks remain the same -- half of the sound is Alison Cotton and her viola and keys, the other half is Mark Nicholas with a stunning array of guitars -- but the structures they create this time are darker and more forbidding than their antecedents. This album feels very much a piece of the season in which it is being released, as the leaves strip themselves from trees and the sky grows colder, greyer by the hour. More than once while Are You Sure I Was There spun I was put in mind of the classic Rainy Day LP, masterminded by Kendra Smith back in 1984. The Left Outsides possess the same sure grasp of that place where sorrow, ecstasy and psychedelics meet in a shower of dying stars. The tunes here are wonderful. Most are new, although a few have been heard before in different forms (if you knew where to listen.) 'The Wind No Longer Stirs the Trees' (with its glorious blend of backwards and forward motion) was on a 7" lathe, backed with 'As Night Falls' (a beautiful ode to the promise of winter.) The track 'Séance' was first recorded as part of a celebration of Help the Witch, the debut novel by former music critic Tom Cox. And 'My Reflection Once Was Me' (which recalls The Trees' epic tunes by combining massive blocks of raging guitar with Alison's steady vocals) was featured on the live A Place to Hide LP (FTR 552LP). The other compositions are all-new and utterly great. The tunes that Mark sings tend to evoke a certain '60s whisp. Whether it's the Floydian lilt of 'Only Time Will Tell,' the freakbeat pop of 'November on My Mind,' or 'Pictures of You,' which stacks a dreamy '60s overlay upon contempo pop structuring. Alison's vocals often display a more folky essence. 'The Stone Barn' has a vibe very similar to some of Sandy Denny's later solo work, grounded by stately piano chords. 'Things Can Never Be the Same' centers on a gorgeous mid-paced vocal performance, encased in spinning webs of very elegant guitar. And the conjoined vocals on 'A Face in the Crowd,' sit atop a huge fuzz riff, sounding like the perfect anthem for the new Slow Music Movement. They won't back down! And you shouldn't either..." --Byron Coley, 2020
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2LP
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FTR 559LP
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Limited 2021 repress . Just what you need in these end times -- Cardinal Fuzz (Europe) and Feeding Tube Records (N. America) -- a vinyl issue of the killer CD comp that SS Records released way back in 2004 with a couple of added treats. Brace yourself for some stellar hair-singeing, full-throttle wipe outs across four slabs of heavy black vinyl. Monoshock was one of the best bands of the '90s and if they were from Seattle and not Illa Vista and Oakland, California you would already know that. During their six years they released a handful of 7"s, served as a backing band for Von Lmo, and created one of the classic psych albums of all time, Walk to the Fire (1996). In the last few years, they received praise from around the globe, raved up by Julian Cope as one of the great unknown bands of the '90s and cited as an influence by current heavy favs, Comets on Fire, as well as a whole slew of Japanese psych bands. Monoshock is fuzz-fuel, wah-wah damaged, riff-crazed punk rock which draws in Hawkwind, the Stooges, Simply Saucer, and other psych-punk gods. This double-LP collects all their 7"s and comp tracks together with seven previously unreleased tunes and two songs from their ultra-rare 1989 demo tape and two added digi bonus live tracks from their reunion shows. Fans will be overjoyed. Virgins will become fans. The band's stellar Walk to the Fire has been acknowledged as one of the classic psych albums of all time. Comes with a folded A3 double sided insert.
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FTR 564LP
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"Here is the second solo LP by the wonderful London-based singer/multi-instrumentalist Alison Cotton. Originally issued on cassette by the mighty Bloxham Tapes, just about everyone who heard Only Darkness Now suggested it might make for an excellent LP. And hey -- they were right. Alison's debut LP All Is Quiet at the Ancient Theatre (FTR 424LP) received wide ranging critical acclaim from placing in the Guardians Writers 'Album Of The Year' to placing in the Quietus 'Albums of the Year'. Ms. Cotton has a storied past performing with Saloon and The Eighteenth Day of May, and she still may be found doing likewise with The Left Outsides . . . Only Darkness Now begins with a sidelong instrumental track, 'Behind the Spiderweb Gate,' during which Cotton displays her immense drone chops, organizing rich, thick layers of viola, Omnichord, and voice into the soundtrack for a totally immersive trip. The effect is such that seconds become minutes and as time stretches till eventually, in the peak, time ceases to have any meaning whatsoever -- a beautiful state to be transported too as everything slows down. You could spend a whole year listening to this one. The second side starts with 'In Solitude I Will Fade Away,' a collage of Alison's voice, twinned and then some. It's short and sweet with just a little drumming to move things along. 'How My Heart Bled in Bleeding Heart Yard' brims with as much longing as it title suggests. It opens with a long instrumental passage, emphasizing the human pace of a harmonium's breath patterns, soon joined by a viola, also offering tones of a very human quality. All of this swells into a chorale of immense and mournful depth before being joined by Nico-like vocals that raise a wordless alarm. 'The Hill Was Hollow' is a short mystery for percussion and violin. Unravel at your own peril. Finally there is 'Shirt of Lace.' This is a studio recording of one of Alison's regular live covers. The song is by the late Dorothy Carter (a visionary American musician whose work bridged experimental and medieval musics) and Cotton's version is a sheer blast -- her vocals curling and twisting high above a supple bed of key drones, string plucks and sliding arco passageways . . . one of the very few albums I can name that matches the cold fire of Nico's Marble Index and it does so without taking a single step that isn't purely Alison's own..." --Byron Coley, 2020 Edition of 300.
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FTR 575LP
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Dateline unknown -- emanations from a planet in meltdown. The universal cosmic event tracker estimates between 22 to 52 points of possible physical contact with The Band Whose Name Is A Symbol but it has lost count. This Canadian improv unit have over the last few years started to get the gushing love and attention they have always deserved. Like all the best artists, they do not fit snugly into any genre -- as from one moment to the next their ability to create cosmically juiced up and fucked up music which in many cases when played and recorded was the first time and last time said tracks will ever be played. This has proven to be the case time after time across too many releases to mention (no wonder Damo Suzuki always calls on TBWNIS to back him up). If you said Berserkir Volume II could be the pinnacle, you would yet again be getting caught up in the moment of magic they spin on you. Berserkir II contains four long tracks of hypnotic and freaked out cosmic haze (all recorded in the same four-hour session that yielded Berserkir Volume I). There are zero overdubs whatsoever and no studio gimmickry. The pieces are framed by supercharged, blistering, psychedelic dual guitars, pummeling rhythm, mutated; Miles-inspired flights of free form trumpet and flowing synth drones touching side excursions into the depths of alien prog. One may well be compelled to crank this up loud and leave speakers and mind, shattered and melded together in a smoldering heap on the floor! End of transmission...
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FTR 543LP
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Cardinal Fuzz and Feeding Tube Records bring to you the much-anticipated vinyl pressing of Dark Country Magic from this wonderful Maine trio (Quinnisa making her first intentional effort with "Moo Hoo" on this release). Caleb Mukerin and Colleen Kinsella have been key personages of the Portland sonic underground as members of the cosmically-shifting Cerberus Shoals and the folkily psychedelic Fire on Fire before forming the more personal and hermetic Big Blood back in 2006. The band's multi-phasic discography has thus far reminded people of everything from the Comus to Portishead to Julee Cruise at different moments, yet none of these thumbnails comes close to capturing the intimacy and directness of their recordings where they take things to a higher plane of personal expression. In Dark Country Magic, haunting effects and experimental sounds combine with wailing fuzzed-up garage folk anthems and twisted poetic freak-folk as lyrical layers peel away endlessly, tiny amps weep in pain, crude percussion booms thunderous, and ragged, beautiful hooks unfurl straight out of the void. On "Coming Home Pt.III" Kinsella's quivering bewitching vocals ask you to succumb to the hauntingly melancholic drift while acoustics strum quietly up front before Dark Country Magic's playful closer "Moo-Hoo" where Quinnisa performs a children's story. The combination is head spinning and gloriously original, but will be immediately identifiable as Big Blood by anyone who knows the band's music.
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FTR 552LP
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"Much needed vinylization of an amazing live set, previously issued as a CDR in an edition of 100 by the fine Borley Rectory label. Finally, for the good of all mankind, the music from this great night, opening for Robyn Hitchcock at London's Betsey Trotwood in October 2018, is turntable ready. A Place to Hide begins with the album's one new original tune 'My Reflection Once Was Me.' The song brims with harmonium-iced vocals that cannot fail to bring a certain German-born chanteuse to mind. Built over a lovely droning base, and slow, martial pulsing, the song answers a rarely asked question -- what might it have sounded like if Tim Buckley had written a tune for Nico to do on Chelsea Girl? I think you'll be damn happy with this reply. About half the album is made up of songs from their then-newly-released masterpiece, All That Remains. But the way they attack those tunes here has an additional shroud of moodiness drawn over it, adding a whole 'nother layer of dark richness. This is not always the tone the band shoots for in a live setting, but it's a truly otherworldly treat when they do. Because they really nail it, with a feel that makes me recall early work by the legendary Opal. The same is true on the two cover tunes. The traditional 'Young Girl Cut Down in Her Prime' (done so memorably by Shirley & Dolly Collins on Love Death & the Lady) is a tune the duo previously recorded for the Ptolemaic Terrascope's great 2016 comp LP, Paper Leaves. But precious few copies of that one managed to get into the right hands. And this version is perfect -- stark, haunting, electric. The other cover is a revelatory take on 'Splash 1,' from The Psychedelic Sounds of the 13th Floor Elevators. The Left Outsides gently lift up one of the most beautiful songs the Elevators ever did, turning it into something even more charmed and wistful than the original. And that's it. A truly beautiful album from start to finish. And a great place to start exploring the band's sound if you've not done so yet. Don't be afraid to play catch up. There's plenty more to come." --Byron Coley, 2020
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FTR 531LP
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Cardinal Fuzz and Feeding Tube Records bring forth Munehiro Narita's cranium busting Live P.S.F (Psychedelic San Francisco). Recorded live at the Hemlock Tavern (by PSF worshiper Ethan Miller). Munehiro Narita, the original "psychedelic speed freak", is for many people the undisputed king of the motorcycle fuzz guitar. Active since the late '70s, Narita is a Japanese psychedelic underground legend. After playing in cult bands like Kyoaku no Intention, he founded the brutal heavy-psych power trio High Rise in the '80s and more recently Green Flames with his furious guitar playing, which involves lethal doses of fuzz-wah at ear-splitting volume. Narita was lucky to be in the right place in Tokyo to see many performances by one of the most out of control guitar players ever to handle six strings in Takashi Mizutani (Les Rallizes Denudes) as well as taking in wild performances from Keiji Haino, Gaseneta, and their take no prisoner maelstrom is a style that Munehiro holds dear too. When Munehiro Narita needed a band for playing four west coast dates in 2017, Steve Krakow knew that LA acid punk David Jasso (OGOD) would be the perfect musician/foil for Narita (it should be noted that David released Green Flames on his Assommer label). David in turn knew drummer TJ. Six tracks were quickly nailed in rehearsals -- a selection of High Rise (four) and Green Flames (two) tunes were then played over the four dates. The shows left audience stunned (listen to the reaction from this show) and by the time of the San Francisco show they were on fire. Luckily, Ethan Miller was there to press record and document this feral in the red paint peeler of a gig as Munehiro Narita peels off wah soaked fireballs on top of the primal throb and groove that David Jasso and TJ lay down. Another of the hopefully famed Cardinal Fuzz bootleg style releases, Narita's guitar playing out front in the mix distorting and warping time and space The whirlwind take on closing number "Pop Sicle" perfectly captures the wild fury of all three musicians creating an energy that is impossible to sedate. Ethan Miller somehow managed to capture and record some of the most brutal playing in prime tape saturated / in the red glory for you know to relive. The positivity of these shows eventually led to all three members forming P.S.F. and their debut LP was released on Black Editions in 2019 (BE 1003LP). Full size/color insert; includes download code; edition of 500.
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FTR 517LP
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Cardinal Fuzz and Feeding Tube Records present the napalm blast that is the forthcoming new Banshee record, Livin' In The Jungle. Hailing from Boston and blazing red hot cinders through your eyes Banshee channel widescreen, kick out the jams motherfuckers psyche-rock-a-rama with a singer doing his best to channel both Alice and Iggy. Yes, they rock like crazy and play with the fired-up fury of The Stooges, MC5, and The Alice Cooper Group as they let their freak flag fly. On Livin' In The Jungle, Banshee detonate over 11 tracks of pure diamond arrangements that will lay you out flat and have your head swirling from the wallop of the sleazy voodoo racket that Banshee have created. Informed in equal parts by the intensity of '60s Detroit and The Alice Cooper Group and with a rhythmic underbelly the calls on in parts the funk explosion of War. From the opening Intro of "Genesis" amid a barrage of bells, chimes jungle sounds, and a group feeling the funk they lay straight into "The Law" where without missing a beat and over a blast of guitar riffs, dive bombing bass lines, thunderous drums and a voice that spits out and caterwails with a vengeance you find Banshee freewheelin' into what will become your favorite rock'n'roll LP for the year 2020. The engine has started and the whole record is executed at a breakneck pace that is a furious rollercoaster ride to sweet oblivion. On the final epic sprawl that is "Caged Birds" which starts out with a garage like "Sister Ray" bump'n'grind chug before descending into a glorious meltdown of fuzzed-up wah-wah guitars and glockenspiels before everything finally fades back into the jungle. Livin' In The Jungle is one rabid rock'n'roll animal of a record.
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2LP
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FTR 515LP
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The Eighteenth Day of May were a six-piece, London based group. Originally formed as an acoustic trio consisting of American Alison Brice (vocals, flute), Swede Richard Olson (acoustic guitar, harmonica, sitar), and Ben Phillipson (guitar, mandolin), they combined elements of traditional and contemporary folk with a psychedelic jangle. They spent the summer and autumn of 2003 bonding over Fairport Convention, The Incredible String Band, Steeleye Span, Sandy Denny, and Trees all blending in with the psychedelic music they already loved which was feeding into their home demo recordings. In early 2004 they went electric adding the rhythm section of Mark Nicholas (bass), and Karl Sabino (drums, autoharp) and then lastly ex-Saloon player Alison Cotton (viola). It was after appearing on a cover mount disc for the much missed It Comes With A Smile Magazine that Andy Childs (Head of Hannibal Records/RYKO) fell in love with the band and continued the path of fellow legendary Hannibal head Joe Boyd's policy of signing eclectic artists. Back in 2004 it felt like no one was making music like this -- old weird folk songs, Americana, original psych folk, minimalist drones via great melodies, and eclectic instrumentation. The result was a joyous, unfettered, fluid sound that in one moment could conjure up flashes of The Byrds or Fotheringay and then minutes later the spirit of The Velvet Underground would drift though the music. Live they would even cover artist from Spacemen 3 and The Brian Jonestown Massacre to Buffy Saint Marie to traditional folk songs and would not be afraid to stamp their own identity on them. When it comes to recording their first (and only) LP, they were teaming with ideas and enthusiasm, buoyant from the attention of artists like Robyn Hitchcock and Peter Buck with whom they toured. The LP some 15 years later has not dated one bit, as with all good music its qualities and resonance have matured and endured, its subtleties have become more apparent and beguiling. maybe 2005 just wasn't ready for a band playing contemporary English folk music. Added onto to this retrospective release are several excellent extra tracks, some of which were recorded for a second album that they were never able to complete. Hard to imagine it would have been even better than the first but listen to the tracks recorded and you can only feel sadness that it never happened.
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LP
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FTR 498LP
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"Massively ripped sophomore LP by this Portland OR psych sextet. Half of the line-up has shifted in the two years since their great debut album, but the same berserk stack of musical elements remains on the table. A lot of bands who fly the psych banner these days have a minimalist view of the music, and choose a sort of post-shoegaze lassitude to present their 'vision.' This can be astoundingly great, of course, but it also fails to address the central gobble-crazed nature of true psychedelia. Many of history's greatest psych outfits were hewn from bizarre hybrids of disparate parts. Frankenstein monsters in search of sacred ecstasy. One gets the same vibe off of Abronia. Totally unexpected bits pop up amidst their rhapsodic jamming, conjuring shards of memory as disparate as Relf-era Renaissance, Joseph Byrd's United States of America, and even (at least in spots) real early Siouxsee. These are just a few examples of how wide Abronia cast their net. Their instrumental brunt moves from neo-prog to folk rock to thunderheads cast in the same mold as the Sensational Alex Harvey Band's (I shit you not!). Taken together, these freakishly disparate elements mange to create a gorgeous and simmering whole. If you aren't tripping to Abronia now, I suggest a change of lifestyle." --Byron Coley, 2019
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LP
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FTR 496LP
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"A new reissue of this masterpiece by the Left Outsides, originally issued on cassette in 2015, then first put to vinyl in 2017, as the long-format follow-up to the classic The Shape of Things to Come LP. The current edition is demarcated by a glossy cover and metallic gold printing. Its music remains as timeless a gust of dark autumnal wind as any you'll ever hear. Some of the music here was written as part of the soundtrack to Gus Alavrez's 2009 noir-pastoral short, Stand and Deliver, but the songs evoke their own host of images. The band, consisting of Alison Cotton and Mark Nicholas (once of the beautifully Fairport-tinged, 18th Day of May) blend vocals and stringed instruments in a way that recalls more traditional UK folk artists as much as it does their more acidic contemporaries. Their songs feature gorgeously plain melodies that emerge as though they have always existed, before disappearing in a swirl of primeval mist. The surprise cover they do, "Civil War Lament" (originally by Go-Betweens side project, Jack Frost), is of a piece with these originals. And the layered guitars of the last track, "The Creeping Fog," take the record out on waves of drone and feedback stretching from dusk until near dawn, at which point, Alison intones a poem of shadows. There Is a Place is a gentle monster of a record, and will well reward your careful attention." --Byron Coley, 2019 45rpm; Edition of 300.
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2LP
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FTR 420LP
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Feeding Tube Records and Cardinal Fuzz announce, at last, the long-awaited Sunflare album, ON. After three previous releases of brain-frying, high volume, pedal-to-the-metal freak-outs, Sunflare are at last back to bring some serious brain-buzzing, primitive punk scorch to a prevailing M.O.R. psych scene in need of some serious face melting. Hailing from Lisboa, Portugal, Sunflare are a scorchin' power trio specializing in high-energy Psychedelic Speed Freak wipe-outs. ON is here to fry minds with a driving rhythm section that brings new meaning to the word relentless and a guitar player that is perpetually freeform feedback soloing over every second committed to wax via the gnarliest of fuzz and wah-wah pedal abuse. Over two sides of vinyl there is never any let up as Sunflare deliver a blazing eruption of ear-piercing sound. With ON also comes a second LP of the long out-of-print "C30 - Red Tape" release (only ever available as a cassette back in 2010). As soon as you put this on, you will see why both Feeding Tube and Cardinal Fuzz were so desperate to include this as part of the ON package and commit it to vinyl at long last. If you like High Rise, Comets On Fire, and drinking petrol, then this is the band and record for you. ON is presented in a 320gsm wide spine card sleeve; comes with a download code.
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FTR 426LP
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"Back in the early Oughts, there was a great UK folk rock combo called The Eighteenth of May. They did one album and cut out. Trimdon Grange Explosion is that band, minus two members, and their debut LP kicks up one of the finest blends of UK folk and West Coast psych since the glory days of Fairport. Alison Cotton and Mark Nicholas (also of Left Outsides) comprise half the band, alongside guitarist Ben Phillipson and drummer Karl Sabino. And their vibe is akin to a classic Witchseason production. Ringing layers of psychedelic guitars, backed by throbbing rhythms, and stacks of small sonic events, topped with gorgeously folk-flecked vocals. There are flashes of everything from the Velvets to the Byrds woven amongst the sounds, but the bulk of it will make you feel like you're playing an album that might have been ZigZag's Record of the Year back in 1971. The band's name refers to a coal mining disaster in a town up near Newcastle in the 1880s. Martin Carthy and the Mekons both did good covers of the tune Tommy Armstrong wrote about it. But none of them did anything approaching the grandeur of this band's album (originally issued as a CDR last year by Borley Rectory). Take up the nearest stethoscope and walk. Now!" --Byron Coley, 2018
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FTR 424LP
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"Vinylization of the second cassette released by UK string player Alison Cotton. We first ran into Alison's work in its more overtly folky guise, as a member of Left Outsides. Then we caught the scent of an amazing tape she did with Michael Tanner (aka Plinth) that displayed her more avant garde leanings. All Is Quiet followed the same lines, albeit in solo fashion, blending long dark viola and harmonium lines with vocals drawn straight from the clouds. The effect resembles Tony Conrad in places and John Cale's work with Nico in others, while remaining trademark Alison Cotton throughout. And as nice as the tape was, it's even nicer to has this music on an LP, since it's an archival format and will outlive all of us if properly cared for. Just as the music of Alison Cotton feels as though it was designed to last through the ages. Beautiful stuff." --Byron Coley, 2018
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