Blog: the blackened air

first album. lp released by dry leaf discs in 1993. get.

...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 [...]

the debut album by nbts... lp released by candy-ass in 1995. get.

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 [...]

debut 7" from graham lambkin and co. as intriguing as the cover art. 7" released by dry leaf discs in 1993. get.

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(?). get.

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 [...]

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. get.

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 [...]

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. get.

mini album of swan songs. cd released by setanta in 1993. get.

cd released by setanta in 1992. get.

b-side "sleep" is one of those songs that hasn't left my head since 1991. cds released by ensign in 1991. get.

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 [...]

the second and equally hard to find album. again, rip courtesy of SirHenry67 - thank you! lp released by snape in 1992. get.

first album, second release, from victor n'dip and lurgin pin. rip courtesy of SirHenry67 - thank you! lp released by snape in 1990. get.

cracking. 7" released by elemental records in 1993. get.

... 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.

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. get.

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. get.