TWO STAR AND THE DREAM POLICE

 Now, this isn’t really an exciting post visually. Because the record isn’t anything super fancy variant or packaging wise - but also because I’m done a rough job photography wise. But keep with me because it’s a great record. 

Mk.gee - Two Star And The Dream Police - R&R Digital - 1st pressing - Black /? 

Back cover 

I had to take these photos with the sleeve in this weird outer poly bag. The seller shipped it this way, with the record in a Mofi anti static sleeve. It looks like to get it out I might have to physically cut the sleeve out. It photographs pretty terribly but it looked nice in person all sealed up this way so I might just keep it for now! 

Credits and lyrics on the printed inner sleeve. Aesthetically I love how this record is put together, I’ve really done a terrible job here! 

Had to go in for the weird angle for the back side of the inner sleeve, it’s one of those glossy type textures that picks up every shred of light and dust and reflection that happens to cross it’s path. 

Here we have some classic black vinyl, nothing fancy. I took this photo straight away as I took it out the mailer but I should’ve maybe give it a quick clean first. 

Now for a little context I guess. This record quickly became an obsession for me a month or so ago when I went to visit my pal Greg. He showed me a couple of tracks off this album and I was immediately hooked. I took the drive back from Newcastle to Lincolnshire with this album on pretty much constant repeat. I quickly hunted out a copy and found out that this was a) long sold out and b) about £200+ on the Discogs / eBay market. I bought a copy off a guy on Reddit, and whilst it certainly wasn’t retail price, I did pretty okay price wise. There’s also been a Big Love exclusive obi edition /200 that I’d definitely shell out a decent chunk of a mortgage payment on if anyone wants to sell. 

Weirdly enough this record had an air of familiarity to it, and it turns out Mk.gee plays guitar on the Dijon LP ‘absolutely’ (Greg also turned me on to that). I might do a post on that later on too. 

Autumn Lost in Silence - Outbreak Edition

 One of my favourite bands in the last year or so is Killing Me Softly, based out of Leeds here in the UK. Part of the great new wave of Metalcore reminiscent of the golden era of Good Life Recordings. Their debut record ‘Autumn Lost in Silence’ was one of my favourite records of 2023; and I’ve been eager to catch them live since. Fast forward to June of this year and Outbreak rolls around. No damn way I was missing this band. A few days before the fest, I also caught word that a limited repressing of the LP with new cover art exclusive to Outbreak was going to be available. It was my first job on Sunday to grab this, and it sold out long before the band even hit the stage later that day. So without too much more talk, here we have it. 

Killing Me Softly - Autumn Lost in Silence - The Coming Strife Records - 2nd Press - Band Exclusive - Clear W/ Red Splatter /50

Back Cover 

These were hand screened by VinoSangre in the UK who handled a bunch of merch for Outbreak. This was part of a four colour way 2nd pressing of the LP, with only the most common variant still available via The Coming Strife webstore. That label has been on a crazy productive streak over the last year or so. It’s worth noting both the sleeve and the colourway are limited to 50, which is a rare thing. You either get a show exclusive sleeve or colourway normally. 

This is the record - I haven’t done the best job of showing just how impressive this thing is in person. A truly beautiful variant. 

As opposed to an insert, this record comes with a full booklet with lyrics and a bunch of cool live photos. The artwork is very reminiscent of early 00’s Metalcore artwork - super Derek Hess influenced at a guess? I’m not 100% sure who handled the artwork but it rips - from what I can see after a quick look, the art isn’t credited on the record or directly attributed to anyone in the thanks list. It’s also worth noting that the whole booklet is different from the first press also. The sleeve, the layout and the booklet are all new for this version. A real amount of detail and care in here. 

Also included was a CD featuring two unreleased tracks. This wasn’t advertised at the time of sale, just a cool additional thing. I assume this is also exclusive to this version and not across the entire 2nd pressing. 

Finally a quick photo taken on film from their Outbreak set. This set captured a weird kind of violence and catharsis that I haven’t truly felt in many years at a hardcore show. I’m fully sold on this band. I’m doing my best to beg a shift off work in September to see them opening for Seeyouspacecowboy. 

Back from the dead // Coming Up For Air

I’m not going to waste too much time here, it’s been a while. Life got a little low for a minute, I lost some family members and keeping up with this kind of stuff took a bit of a back seat. However I have been diving back into some old entries of blogs I read when I was first discovering a love for record collecting and thought it was about time. I hope you’re all well, sincerely. 

There’s a new Praise record in the world, and after their 2022 LP ‘All In A Dream’ I have been eagerly awaiting some new material and these songs absolutely rip. I dig the hype sticker on the sleeve, detailing that this is the Record Store Exclusive (Clear With Green Smoke/ 300). There was also a Rev webstore exclusive colour /200 and a black /500 for this pressing. I believe the Rev exclusive is long gone and I assume this variant won’t be too far behind it. 

Clear W/ Green Smoke works great alongside the artwork here, and fits right into that Revolution Summer revival kind of thing this band are pretty damn perfect at. 

These new songs are incredible, introspective and thought provoking. I don’t tend to buy too many 7”s nowadays but this arrived today and as I’m typing this I am putting this on my turntable for the third time. Good Grief has some real Embrace energy to it to my ears. 

Lyrics and thanks. I want to say All In A Dream was also recorded at The Magpie Cage but I’m not 100% off the top of my head. I know that Matt who engineered this 7” also worked on AIAD so it all makes sense, it sounds like a perfect sonic continuation. 

The back of the insert lists 7 members of Praise, which leads me to guess that there is a little bit of a revolving door nature to the lineup - which would make perfect sense with Dan Fang from Turnstile being in the band. Blake Hall played drums on this 7” but Dan is still listed as playing additional percussion. I saw Praise live in Boston last year supporting Fiddlehead and Dan was on tour with Turnstile then; so it kind of tracks that to keep this band active there would have to be a wider net of members to keep things constantly open. 

Here’s a photo from that show. I took this on my trusty Ricoh 35mm camera. This photo could be straight out of 1994 really; between the vintage Insted shirt and the X’d up hands it really feels like a moment in time. Fun fact; I X’d up for this show for maybe the first time in a decade - despite being Straight Edge for nearly 20 years at this point. 

I hope this has been an interesting read. I don’t plan on leaving is so long until I post again. Please check out this record if you haven’t and stay safe 🖤