Banquet and Composure

I forget that this record is a few years old now, I still spin it at least once every week or two. This record has some significance in a sentimental sense as it was bought for me by my wife (then friend), and was the first record she bought for me if memory serves. Sidelines aside, on to the record! 

Separation by Balance and Composure. This sticks out for so many reasons. Notably, this was bought from Banquet Records, and came along at a time when Banquet and other small UK retailers would get all available colours of a record. I remember it clearly as I was thinking to myself 'What the balls is Sunfire' and apparently this is it. Not long after this LP came out, the whole vinyl resurgence thing came along and stores for the most part were only getting the common / distro colour. It's a shame. The first press of this LP was on three colour ways (Black // White // Blue/Sunfire) all out of 500 each. No Sleep Records released the album. 

Back Cover // B-Side. The sun and moon labels are pretty interesting and match the variant better than the other colours available at the time. The back cover is a little sparse, but you get what you need. Also, that No Sleep Records is all kinds of impossible to see. It just seems a little weird that everything on the back cover is so small when there is no other use of the space. 

Inside gatefold. Instead of an insert, the inside of the sleeve is fully printed. More Jon Turner illustrations one side, lyrics and thank-you's the other side. All of the artwork on this LP is incredible, and fits together well. Secondly, the album is recorded, engineered and produced by Brian McTernan and it sounds absolutely massive. Around the time of getting this LP was when when I started paying attention to audio quality and production technique so this really stuck out. I still don't know how the drums sound so big yet so tight, or how the guitars are that loud yet still manage to retain clarity. Either way, it's a big reason why I'm so into this album. 

Extras with the LP. This came from Banquet, and they had a few copies that came with signed inlay cards. A nice extra, and there is some bonus art in the CD booklet that didn't surface until the 'Live Acoustic' 7''. Then there is the printed Download Code, which is way nicer than the boring bandcamp code stuff you get now. No Sleep always had a thing of making proper cards for their downloads, the Touche Amore demo had a cool one. I haven't posted about that 7'' yet; I should probably do that. Then a Good Friends sticker; no idea why but it came with it so I included it here. 

It's so weird to think that this has seen 6 pressings now. I'm glad it has, as it's an incredible record that deserves as much attention as it can get. There's been a couple of times that I have nearly bought extra copies, but collecting B&C would be a wormhole I would never find my way out of.