The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die - Formlessness

I think I've made it fairly plain over the history of this blog that Big Scary Monsters is my favourite record label by some way. In terms of a consistently strong output and making nice things that I actually want to buy, Kev has got it pretty much nailed. However, as of late Topshelf Records have been quietly worming their way into my heart through a combination of some excellent releases and a strong commitment to coloured vinyl. To top it off, they also decided to open a European webstore (found here) to make getting those coloured records a whole lot easier. Needless to say, within a day of finding out it had opened, I'd already bought three records. Oops. Here's the first of a trio then.

Hmm. Not sure about this cover really. There's a bit too much going on for my liking and my brain finds it tough to work out what's happening. Is that someone kissing someone else on the cheek, or whispering sweet nothings to them? It's a nice thing to do either way, but it's a bit of a difference in gesture. There's an alternate cover to this that was used for at least a cassette version which I much prefer. Oh well, no big deal.

Right. There's a reason why I'm posting a picture of the back cover without the record. The sleeve is just one large folded piece of card, and I needed the weight of the record to hold down the fold so the inside was properly visible. The back cover is fairly plain, again a little too busy for my liking but no bother.

So here we have it. Yet another coloured record, this time the shade most frequently referred to as "coke bottle green". This is a colour I like a lot. It is, for pressing nerds, from the 6th pressing and out of an oddly specific 1032 copies. There are a full 10 different colour variants that have been released before this one. I don't think I'll be tracking any of them down any time soon, which can only be a good thing for my bank balance. The inside of the sleeve contains lyrics (always welcomed) but also the statement that:

The track "Walnut Street is Dead (Long Live Walnut Street)" was left off this record due to time constraints.

Big shame! I can totally understand it but it's a great song and a sad omission.

This was the first TWIABP EP, the first release other than a demo CD from the band. My word, what a way to start. Through the exquisite build and crash of Victim Kin Seek Suit, the stop-start impatience of Gordon Paul and the sky-gazing one-two of Walnut Street Is Dead (Long Live Walnut Street) and Eyjafjallajokull Dance (try saying that when you're drunk. Or sober) this EP brings more to the table in under 15 minutes than a lot of albums do. Did I mention that there's a free download link to it on their own bandcamp? Because there totally is. After that, there's not much more for me to say. Go. Download it. Feel your heart swell.

Tall Ships - EP/There Is Nothing But Chemistry Here

Ah, weekday pre-orders. Every time something I like goes up for sale while I'm at work, I inevitably forget before descending into a minor panic halfway through the afternoon and abandoning all pretence of being a good employee to throw myself at my phone. Any guesses as to what happened here? Whoops.

Aw yis. Hand screen-printed sleeves, yes please. I like that mine is a little bit imperfect with that splash of orange down the right hand side. The white of the border and logo look super-crisp as well. Excellent work.

I told you fans of orange wouldn't have to wait long! This is a rather bright orange (limited to a small 100 copies), fairly similar to the orange of the cover (which is something I like A LOT) with some fairly plain labels to fit with the minimalist feel of the artwork. You might notice there's a slight hint of black in the top left of this record. I am all about the minor imperfections here. It's a nice to see the track listing on the back cover also has the same orange-to-blue gradient as the front. I think it may have been screen-printed too and it's a really good job if it has been. All-round, this release is very aesthetically pleasant.

This 12", then, combines the two EPs Tall Ships released before their debut album, each of which is on vinyl for the first time here. These two EPs were my introduction to Tall Ships and the reason I grew to love the band. Neither is flawless but both are spectacular. How only two of these songs made it onto their debut album is a mystery to me. Those two songs are Books and Ode To Ancestors - long-time readers may recall that in my post about that album I was fairly critical of the re-recorded versions of the two songs, and listening to the originals just reaffirms those thoughts. Books sounds a little bit cheesy but that's part of the appeal for me. It's over-the-top and a touch silly but that's why it makes me smile, and why it has the habit of sticking in my head for days. Ode To Ancestors, on the other hand, I think is much simpler here and that suits the song a lot more. I'd go as far as saying this version of the song is probably my favourite Tall Ships song outright. Other highlights here are the compulsively danceable Words Are Pegs Upon Which We Hang Ideas, perennial live singalong Vessels and the absolute angular joy of Plate Tectonics. I love these EPs, and revisiting them makes the wait for some new material a little more bearable.

Crash of Rhinos - Knots

I swear I'm cursed when it comes to bands. In the past I've been pretty successful when it comes to getting into bands long after they've split up (see: Million Dead, Reuben, Blakfish) and seeing bands I have loved for a good while subsequently split up (Tubelord, Dananananaykroyd) but this is a new one for me. I bought this record having listened to it a few times, and within 48 hours the band split up. Did I cause the split? Probably not, in all truth, but maybe...

How bloody high up is that house? I can't even see the ground. I know it's on stilts and everything but that can't be safe. All joking aside though, there's a lovely level of detail to this cover. The whole "distressed" look isn't usually my cup of tea but here I can deal with it. It's not too invasive, though personally I'd prefer a cleaner picture of the house. Personal preference, though.

Inside the gatefold, we have printed lyrics. I always love printed lyrics, especially when they're for songs I want to sing along to. Nothing else to comment on here really (save for the awful quality of my photo, my bad).

Ooh yes. a lovely translucent green. This is from the second pressing of the album, limited to 100 each of transparent green and transparent orange. I think I chose well (though fans of orange records have nothing to worry about, there is some orange coming up very soon), but one of the first pressing colour variants was white with black splatter which would have pleased me endlessly via matching the artwork. Oh well. Just to say as well, the label design is top-notch too. Here's a picture to better show that shade of green (also, unintentionally, my great penguin poster):

Tasty.

I've seen Crash Of Rhinos referred to as emo recently, and I'm not sure how well that fits. There are hints of emo for sure, but with big swathes of math-rock and a dash of punk thrown in for good measure. I'm not going to try and fit it neatly into one genre, but what I will say is that it's bloody good. For a final album, this is one heck of a way to go out. The majority of the songs stretch out to almost 6 minutes, with occasional shorter interludes, and yet nothing ever feels overly long. The two highlights of this album for me are the songs that bookend the album. Opening track Luck Has A Name more or less works in two phases - building from a glorious intro for the first 3 and a half minutes, before slowing the pace and doing the whole thing over again for the following three. It works perfectly. Final Track Speeds Of Ocean Greyhounds, on the other hand, has the kind of chorus that is absolutely insistent and knows full-well that it'll stick in your head for days. The album is available for whatever amount of money you choose to pay here - and it's so worth getting. One of the best albums released last year, for sure.

Cider Smiles Volume 6

2000 Trees has long been my favourite festival, and generally a highlight of the year. Every year the organisers put together a compilation of bands playing at the festival called Cider Smiles, which I pick up each year. Seeing as the festival line-up is usually pretty great, there's often a band or two I haven't listened to on the compilation who are worth checking out - indeed, my first real exposure to Tubelord came from the presence of Propeller on the first volume of Cider Smiles. I think for that alone, I owe it to them to buy a copy every year.

Anyway, last year was a little different. For one, 2000 Trees was no longer the only festival to care about - the team behind it decided to also put on a math-rock festival called ArcTanGent (because maths) which I obviously had to go to as well. This also meant that they released Cider Smiles as a compilation of bands playing at either festival, which was a nice touch. More importantly for this blog, it was released on vinyl for the first time!

Mmm, that's a nice cover. I'm a big fan of the use of symmetry here, and the triangles because I love a nice triangle me.

Sound the clear vinyl klaxon. Lovely as ever, and a free CD of the compilation is pretty helpful. Of course I appreciate the consistency of the artwork between the record sleeve, labels and CD - that pretty much goes without saying by now. This release was limited to 250, and if you view the image in large you will see that I have number 78. Not that it matters, but this is a mathematically boring number. Boo-urns.

We've got five tracks from each festival here, a slightly shorter total running length than the previous Cider Smiles compilations but I can forgive them for that. On the Trees side my favourite is undoubtedly Drinking In LA by The Xcerts, not just because they're the token Scottish band but because they're pretty great. On the ATG side, it's difficult to see beyond the majestic T=0 by Tall Ships (which I inexplicably omitted in my post about the album it comes from), though Talons are pretty great as well. It's a decent compilation, all told, and a nice addition to the series.

As of today, I have booked my tickets for my fifth 2000 Trees and second ArcTanGent and I'm already excited. Consistently great line-ups and an atmosphere far superior to more "mainstream" festivals make them my automatic choices for festival season. You should come. I'll sing to you, I promise. If the seventh Cider Smiles is on vinyl, you'll no doubt see it here (a significant number of months after I buy it, no doubt).

Mogwai - Rave Tapes box set

Mogwai have been a noticeable omission from my record collection for a long time. I own a lot of their albums, but have never managed to get round to buying any vinyl. I still can't fully explain this (and since I am currently eyeing up a copy of Rock Action, the picture could change even more quite soon) but this has now been rectified. And how.

When the band's new album was announced, there were some details of a box set. I gave it a quick check, wasn't excessively excited about it. Then Avalanche put it up in the webstore for £56 and I thought it was a little expensive. Then I bought it anyway. Sometimes I don't get how my brain works either.

Before I start I'd like to say that I definitely don't regret doing this, in fact on balance it was a pretty good call. Long-time unintentional contributor to (and, incredibly, some-time reader of) this blog DLT has absolutely smashed it out of the park yet again. I'll probably repeat this at the end, but this is a thing of beauty. Also as fair warning: there are a lot of (slightly bad) photos. A lot.

The box itself then, and I'm already happy. A lovely geometric design so we're onto a winner. Expect to see that font a lot throughout the rest of the post.

This is what greets us upon opening it. A hot pink interior, as all boxes should really have as a minimum requirement, and a big pile of stuff. On top is a download code for everything, so that of course makes me love Rock Action a little bit. Let's also just take a quick moment to notice how consistent the colour scheme of this box is and celebrate that there are people out there who are as appreciative of consistency as I am.

The font from the outside of the box? Tick. Lovely geometric pattern? Tick. Adam silhouette in the reflection of the shiny, shiny sleeve? Big tick. This is the first bit of vinyl in the box, a one-sided 7" featuring a non-album track called Tell Everybody That I Love Them. Aw Mogwai, I love you too. It's a lovely song as well, slow-paced but pleasantly upbeat. Why is it one-sided though, I hear you ask? Well.

Our boy is at it again, another absolutely beautiful etched B-side. This is more like the album art itself (which we will see a lot more of later on) but not quite. I do love an etched B-side.

More nice geometric artwork, more Adam silhouette, more vinyl. Dunno why this photo is absolutely abysmal. My bad. Seeing as there's absolutely nothing to scale it against, it may surprise you to hear that this is actually a 12", featuring two more non-album tracks. Both of these (Bad Magician 3 and Die 1 Dislike!) are pretty good, but have slipped under my radar a little bit until now. Whoops!

Of course it's pink. Of course the labels match the artwork. Of course. It's like they're going out of their way to make me happy.

Next up? Three lovely art prints. Colours, geometry etc. I'd love to get some nice frames for these but that is very much a long-term goal.

There's a lot in this box, you know? This is a 12 inch photobook, with a snazzy embossed cover. It's not very exciting for me in all honesty, but it's nicely put together and was pleasant enough to leaf through so I can't complain.

Here's an example photograph from in the book. I have chosen this specifically, because reading closely you notice there was a song that was (or used to be) called "Shaun Ryder Prison". I'd quite like to know which song that is so it can become my favourite track ever on title alone.

After all this time, here's our first glimpse at the actual album art! Sorry it's taken so long. It's unsurprisingly brilliant. It fits the album title absolutely perfectly - which, as it happens, fits the music pretty well too. More on that later. This is the CD version, not that you can tell from the photo.

What is actually very cool about this is the front of the gatefold is die-cut, and there are a couple of different patterned sheets inside so you can choose your own weird eye. Slightly interactive artwork? I'm down with that.

We couldn't have an album called Rave Tapes without a cassette version now could we? Much as I am opposed to cassettes as a thing in 2014, this one gets a bye.

It happens to look great as well. More pink. More nice detailing. The attention to detail in this box is really quite impressive.

Finally, we have a third copy of the album - this one actually on vinyl! Hooray. The artwork looks even nicer in a larger format.

Another nice touch here - the inner sleeve for the record again pokes through the die-cut outer and gives you a choice of freaky central eye pattern.

Plain black vinyl - but I think we'll let them get away with it this time. Again the labels match everything else in their design and colour because by this point that kind of goes without saying.

Right, after all those photos let's actually talk about the album. There was a bit of internet fuss shortly after this came out due to the relatively heavy use of electronics on this album. This should only serve to show you that the internet is dumb sometimes. This album is brilliant, I mean it's Mogwai after all. The album hums and throbs deliciously through ten tracks - the pick of which for me is the distorted Simon Ferocious, though The Lord Is Out Of Control rounds off the album beautifully. It's the kind of album you can lose yourself in. The kind of album to sit down and listen to with a cup of tea and no distractions, which I'm sure you'll agree is a pretty good thing.

So to conclude? I take bad photos, this box set is amazing, this album is wonderful. Job done!

Tubelord - Pop Songs For Rock Kids

Seems it's been a lot longer than I thought since I last posted about Tubelord. I figured there had been at least something last year, but it seems there wasn't. Nothing, apparently, since the Azerrad 7" about 18 months ago. Nothing, then, since the band split up. The band's final gig on New Year's Eve at the end of 2012 was one of the most emotionally confusing days of my life - the crowd and setlist were absolutely sublime but the thought of it being the last ever Tubelord gig just hurt. The final two songs, safe to say, were seen through pretty damp eyes.

So, skip onwards a year to this past December and (a month or so after a subtle hint via twitter made me way too excited), everyone's favourite label Big Scary Monsters announced a vinyl-only pressing of the band's first two singles on one lovely 12". I must say, I'd thought it was going to be a repressing of Our First American Friends so this was very pleasant. At the same time, some old t-shirt designs were reprinted so the long-standing omission of Tubelord in my wardrobe (via being the most generic size ever, gents medium) is NO MORE. Thanks again Kev. Now, for the record itself.

Pretty subdued cover all told but UGH, THOSE SETLISTS. Such great songs. I suppose this cover, with its plain font and large expanse of white space, feels a little like a funeral booklet (do they have a specific name?) and I kind of like that, especially if it's deliberate. Also, that title. As well as being very appropriate for Tubelord, it makes me think of thekidswhopoptodaywillrocktomorrow. We're already onto a winner.

Nice little insert about the release. The bit at the bottom about them forming "a bond for life" with a support band is particularly nice, and I think is about Tall Ships. I'm guessing this since they are probably the only band I know of that are from Falmouth and the two bands are certainly friends - James who was in Tubelord has since joined the band, and they played a covers set at the final Tubelord gig (with Toby Hayes, formerly of Meet Me In St. Louis. Seriously). After that set, they joined the crowd which resulted in the rather surreal moment of lead singer Ric leaning on my shoulder to scream along to the end of Your Bed Is Kind Of Frightening. Have I mentioned this gig enough yet? Probably not.

The inner sleeve is so nice it deserves two photos. It's a lovely collage of band photos, gig photos and artwork. Lots of feelings.

So here's the record itself. In this photo (especially if you're seeing it on a small screen), it looks plain black. Maybe even a little dusty. Let's take a closer look though...

YES. Silver glittery vinyl for a silver glittery band. BSM knocking it out of the park when it comes to coloured records yet again. Limited to 300, how it hasn't sold out yet is beyond me.

We've got 8 tracks on here. Half ended up on Our First American Friends, half stayed as B-sides only. All are amazing. It's a testament to the strength of Tubelord's back catalogue that only one of these eight didn't make it into that final setlist (which, for the record, was Synthesize and was sorely missed by me), and picking a favourite would be difficult were it not for the presence of Night Of The Pencils. Even though it's a rougher version of the song, it only takes the opening riff for a rainbow of emotions to erupt from my heart - as anyone who saw me either weeping through the entire of it at that final gig or screaming it at the best person for me to sing Tubelord to apart from the band themselves when Tall Ships (who else?) played it at the silent disco at ArcTanGent back in August. It's 4 minutes of absolute perfection, the most incredible song from a band who excelled in making incredible songs. I still miss you, Tubelord, and I don't see that stopping any time soon.

Nai Harvest - Whatever

The Adam emo revival continues. This one isn't entirely of my doing, though. I was preparing to buy this when my pal Laura told me she had a spare, of the first pressing no less, and insisted I took it. She is both good and lovely, consider this post a dedication to a good human.

There's a lot going on here, isn't there? I quite enjoy the cat logo - at least I assume it's a cat. Cats are the best. Not massively keen on the whole tie dye-y feel of it though.

Insert, yeah! This side is pretty plain but you know I always love anything with lyrics on it - and the handwriting on this is pretty nice. Yas.

More fancy colours on the back of the sleeve, and a very fancily-coloured record. I am a fan of a nice splatter, and a splatter on clear just makes it extra-nice. This, pressing info fans, was limited to 350 (with the other variant of the first pressing being a tasty pink and yellow swirl). The other side of the insert makes it pretty obvious that there are but two members of this band, following in the footsteps of Algiers and... I dunno, now I've thought of Algiers I can't think of any other bands with only two members. Maybe it's a Sheffield thing.

For just two chaps, Nai Harvest make a glorious racket. I didn't even realise there weren't more of them before I got this, which is pretty impressive. There are RIFFS galore and some pleasantly raspy vocals, which are always a plus. On the whole, the album stays on the less whiny side of emo and at times even feels almost joyful. In short, it's really good. My personal favourite track is probably the first (and title-) track Whatever, though Sitcom Fade-In  gives it a run for its money (the math-rock widdliness of the last minute in particular). More, please.



p.s. shout-out to my buddy Conor, who runs one of the labels that co-released this. Good work, Conor.

Sky Larkin - Motto

Sometimes it can feel like an eternity passes between a band's albums, even if it's not that long. Case in point, Sky Larkin's last album Kaleide was released in 2010 (when it became the 6th post ever on this blog, complete with awful photographs and fairly rubbish writing) and it's taken until last month for a new one to surface. That's a rather long time when you're slowly falling in love with a band.

More lovely artwork from a band who pretty much excel at it. I'm a big fan of the red band along the top, just keeping the words away from the picture.

As with Kaleide, it's a gatefold with what I assume are the panels of the CD booklet printed on the inside, with lyrics and everything. I appreciate this, it's a pretty good use of the space really.

Oh man, clear vinyl is so nice. I was already planning on buying this on vinyl then I heard it was clear and basically threw my debit card at Wichita's website. Lovely. Nice red dust sleeve to match the hints of red elsewhere too. You know I'm always happy with a free CD, that it matches the record labels is just an extra dose of nice.

Sky Larkin as a band, I think, are at their best when writing songs for you to stomp your feet to. In that regard, this album is an absolute success. The title track, Loom and, in particular, Newsworthy are perfect examples of this. Since Kaleide, the band have upped their number to four (despite losing Douglas Adams in the process) and sound that little bit bigger as a result. Everything that I loved about Kaleide and The Golden Spike is still here, quite frankly it's just a pleasure to have them back. I'm not huge on Overgrown, but every other track is A-OK with me. Give it a couple of months, I'll doubtless be completely obsessed with this.