the shadow ring | city lights

first album.

lp released by dry leaf discs in 1993.

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50holehead | climax tailings

...and suddenly 2 months have gone by... anyway, hopefully you've downloaded the may queen in july comp and enjoyed one of the standout tracks by 50holehead - in which case, here's a whole album of the same quality.

tim whalen was an american living in tokyo. possibly he still is. i have no idea. at the time he had his own label (didn't everyone?), semi-roar, releasing his own stuff alongside the likes of italy's onq, argentina's reynols and nottingham's warser gate. he would also send me little clear plastic bags that i used to package later releases in. handy.

this was my 50th release.

tape released by kylie productions in 1999.

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new bad things | freewheel!

the debut album by nbts...

lp released by candy-ass in 1995.

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various | the may queen in july

this is the best tape compilation i did, and i never bloody released it. i spent 2 years compiling it, was very excited about it, but then its completion coincided with the collapse of my tiny empire in 2000. oof.

anyway, at 2 x c60 it's a monster - 42 tracks in all - and it's basically dedicated to four-track pop, so expect lots of hiss along with the tunes.

and there really are plenty of tunes to be had here, from:

::: charlie mcalister
::: father
::: southern charm pageant
::: remora
::: crayola summer
::: inca eyeball
::: girlboy girl
::: mad planets
::: courtis
::: werewolves on hashish
::: in tundra
::: tegan fraid (age 3)
::: hood
::: caleb fraid
::: 50holehead
::: jalopy
::: michelle glaw
::: fink
::: plundershop
::: warser gate
::: smirkworthy
::: elk
::: catkins of jazz
::: food
::: november 1959
::: frank peck
::: will simmons
::: drekka
::: i hail taxis
::: cocker spaniels
::: ring
::: mandorris
::: crosseyed
::: my place in space
::: shy rights movement
::: swingset
::: wagstaff
::: princeton reverbs colonnial
::: george willard
::: fernando

2 x c60 nearly released by kylie productions in 2000.

part 1.
part 2.

the shadow ring | the music of the shadow ring

debut 7" from graham lambkin and co. as intriguing as the cover art.

7" released by dry leaf discs in 1993.

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father | night classes

as promised, here's a third father tape, and the last one i have, and indeed the last one i know about. anyone know if there were others?

the eagle-eared will spot a few duplicate tracks on this one to the other two, though slightly different versions.

quality.

at some point i'll rip the 555 7", though i suspect someone else has beaten me to it.

tape released by cakehole in 1996(?).

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father | dancing major

only just getting round to posting this one because for a long time i couldn't figure out the tracklisting, but finally i've realised where i was going wrong and now it's all sorted. give this a listen and you may understand my confusion.

anyway, i released this one, and very proud of that i am too. father were brilliant. if you've got the 555 7" of the same title then you should know what to expect: brilliant pop songs poking through a thick layer of hiss and warped time signatures.

sadly i did this rip a long time ago and it's only at 128k, but then somehow that seems appropriate anyway.

i've got some more father stuff, including the night classes tape and one or two tracks destined for a compilation that never made it. on their way.

tape released by kylie productions in 1995.

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inca eyeball | he has a brain the size of a fifty pence piece

this record blew me away at the time just by its very existence - an actual 12" lp by inca eyeball?! they're an acquired taste i guess, one that i acquired on my very first listen.

"for best results, pretend that you like this record."

it has 117 songs.

lp released by fusetron/carburetor in 1995.

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various | neon signs in a dralon sky

the first release from fisheye, the label from paul wild, who ran the distro of the same name. for a while there fisheye was the best source of decent underground tapes, records and zines in the uk. and the label released some quality stuff too.

unsurprising then that this cassette represents a pretty decent snapshot of that scene, with sounds both noisy and tuneful from the uk, us and down under.

it features: children at play, paste, tea culture, prick decay, brown tower, omit, the shadow ring, hood, scaredy cat, calvin party, goosewind, wizard ho ho, moist, refrigerator, polyp, 70 gwen party, derv, lichtenstein girl, superfluous, bucknalls, jack geek, my deviant daughter, earl + osram, the golden mile and w.o.r.m.

for a full tracklisting view the discogs page.

tape released by fisheye in 1994.

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into paradise | churchtown

probably their best album. "yesterday's men" has what i believe is normally termed a "killer hook" - and yet manages to remain delightfully miserable.

like many great records, i picked this up from the bargain bin of rival records in bath back in the day. good times.

cd released by ensign in 1991.

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into paradise | for no one

mini album of swan songs.

cd released by setanta in 1993.

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into paradise | down all the days

cd released by setanta in 1992.

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into paradise | angel

b-side "sleep" is one of those songs that hasn't left my head since 1991.

cds released by ensign in 1991.

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various | current affairs

this is a digital version of a compilation i put together for my own enjoyment in november 1991 of some of my favourite tunes at the time.

this of course was in the days before itunes and therefore the days before the shuffle button and the playlist, when you'd either have to listen to an entire album straight through or waste a lot of battery time fast forwarding on your walkman to your favourites. or you just made your own playlist on a trusty c90 instead.

mostly contemporary and basically fairly predictable for a dedicated nme-reading 17-year-old, listening to it now - almost exactly 20 years later - makes me glow like the ready brek kid. and i still listen to many of these bands and these very records today.

the above image is a scan of the cover i made for the original. i often wonder what happened to the kids in the photo.

::: my bloody valentine - lose my breath
::: simon & garfunkel - homeward bound
::: the wedding present - mothers
::: chapterhouse - then we'll rise
::: neil young & crazy horse - cinnamon girl (live)
::: ride - unfamiliar
::: daisy chainsaw - get real pleasure
::: thousand yard stare - 0-0 a.e.t.
::: tubeway army - are 'friends' electric?
::: ned's atomic dustbin - selfish
::: lush - sweetness and light
::: kingmaker - when lucy's down
::: power of dreams - does it matter
::: ratcat - getting away (from this world)
::: hole - garbadge man
::: bleach - decadance
::: the cure - pictures of you
::: ride - chelsea girl
::: neil young & crazy horse - cortez the killer (live)
::: babes in toyland - the quiet room

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70 gwen party | the optical glass empire

the second and equally hard to find album.

again, rip courtesy of SirHenry67 - thank you!

lp released by snape in 1992.

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70 gwen party | devil wrapped & ginsung buried

first album, second release, from victor n'dip and lurgin pin.

rip courtesy of SirHenry67 - thank you!

lp released by snape in 1990.

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animals that swim | madame yevonde

cracking.

7" released by elemental records in 1993.

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back from the dead...

... sort of.

posts will be pretty sporadic, and may stop again after a brief flurry. but i'd like to get this going again. we'll see if that's physically possible, what with having zero free time and all that.

pure morning | two inch helium buddah

before there was clinic there was pure morning. slightly less twang.

i seem to remember hearing that john peel played this entire album on his show...

cd released by radar in 1996.

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kill laura | the glossy ep

more excellent indie from the largely forgotten kill laura. this is more chirpy than the previous klee 12"s.

cds released by manchester records in 1995.

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kill laura | unloverlike

2nd ep from kill laura, another belter.

12" released by klee in 1994?

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reid | rebreg extract

second single from frog records, and i remember really rating this at the time, but now i'm struggling to get past the singer's voice. still, some nice elevate/slint style instrumentation. the drummer's next band was the wonderful ganger.

7" released by frog in 1994.

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shiva affect | rest is easy

first and only 7" by shiva affect, featuring an alternative version of the title track to the one that appeared on the album.

if you've never heard this band, then hopefully the info that the record was produced by graham sutton of bark psychosis should tell you all you need to know.

7" released by frog in 1994.

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various | make a wish

first post in a month and first mixtape in a while too. these are all relatively recent chillwave-ish songs. chillwave is obviously a horrific term, but there is a certain reverby thread that runs through these.

lie back and think of the jesus & mary chain.

::: wild nothing - cloudbusting
::: twin sister - lady daydream
::: washed out - belong
::: crystal stilts - shake the shackles
::: still corners - don't fall in love
::: la sera - devils hearts grow gold
::: beach house - i do not care for the winter sun
::: boy friend - d'arrest
::: mean wind - kingdom come
::: sleep∞over - la-rose
::: school of seven bells - bye bye bye

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pitman | it takes tea

brilliant third (?) single from nottinghamshire "miner" mc pitman...

7" released by son records in 2003.

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culver/total | untitled

limited to just 50 copies, this is an early collaboration between lee stokoe and matthew bowers, 3 pieces of superb atmospheric noise. i remember lee telling me at the time that he liked to lie down and let the noise wash over you, revealing itself in layers, and i can totally see what he means from this.

i subsequently offered to release a 7" by the duo, but sadly the kylie empire collapsed before this happened. i still have the master though so perhaps i should post it up here.

tape released by matching head in 1996?

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various | huggy nation/kisser boy kisser girl

i've posted a couple of tracks from this before (in 2006!), but never ripped the whole thing, so here it is in all its glory. this is still one of the best compilations i've ever heard, partly because it contains some fine songs, but mainly for the spirit and energy it conveys. i bought it from a then rare visit to rough trade in covent garden and was immediately inspired to do it myself. the whole concept is so rough & ready, it was hard to listen to it and not want to have a go.

anyway, for the uninitiated, this comp encapsulates the emerging brighton riot grrrl scene, with huggy bear at its epicentre, featuring:

huggy bear
blood sausage ("fuck you & your underground" is probably still my favourite song from that scene)
ascension
the legend!
furbelows
mambo taxi
limpstud
mambo taxi
gabby lionheart
noosong
derv

the tape is full of snippets of film dialogue and uncredited music, some of which is identifiable and some not. as such sometimes it's hard to say when a track finishes and another begins so i just stuck with the official tracklisting. anyway...

tape released by soul static sound in 1992.

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various | deliberately lo-fi

this is the first thing i ever released, and in time-honoured tradition it's a mixed bag, with some bands you probably know (hood, boyracer, 70 gwen party) and tons that (perhaps rightfully) you don't.

listening back now for the first time in a long time, on balance i'd say it's not bad for a first effort. not great, but not terrible either. a bit like the label as a whole.

this was ripped from the master tape, but still very much lives up to its title.

tape released by kylie productions in 1995.

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in heaven | aquanova

i was sent this tape to review in '93 (i think), and i liked it straight away. i don't know anything about the band except they're from devizes in wiltshire (uk), and as far as i can tell this tape comprises all the songs they released. meller welle produkte released a 7" with 3 of the songs, plus i included the title track in my first ever release, "deliberately lo-fi" (which i'll get round to ripping eventually).

anyway, they have a very early 90s sound - think early bark psychosis, slowdive, butterfly child with added haze and distortion - and while it may have dated a little, regular visitors should realise this is right up my street.

tape self-released in 1993.

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casette boy | di + dodi do die

excellent first offering from cassette boy, a cheeky cut & paste job lampooning the melodrama surrounding the death of england's rose.

7" released by barry's bootlegs in 2000.

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