Long Live Happy Birthday

Topshelf Records have been on a pretty good run this year. With a new record from The Saddest Landscape lurking just around the corner, I felt the need to pull out a recent gem from the Topshelf catalogue to talk about. 

The World Is A Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid To Die - Death To New Years - Topshelf Records - 1st Press - Black /200 

The cover art is supposedly a friends of the band's Dad, but don't quote me on that. This band seem to talk a lot, but to me this is some of the best and most accessibly material. It has a feel that reminds me of some of their older material, and definitely gets me that feeling that I got when I first heard the Deer Leap split. 

All TWIABP releases (including splits) have the same centre label, and I hope this is a theme that continues on. 

Back Cover // B-Side 

Track-listing and a snap shot of the cover art. 

Insert 

I really have no clue what relevance this holds to anything on this record. However, my guess is that it's some kind of inside joke or simply means nothing at all. 

Lyrics, credits and personnel. 

Apparently Greg has left the band, which is a little strange as he's been in this band for as long as I can remember being a fan. However, with a constantly rotating lineup and such a huge membership anyway; I'm sure somebody cool will be along to take the spot. 

Weirdly, this record hasn't sold out. I always thought this band were well hyped, but you can score this copy from the UK Topshelf Store now if you so wish... 

Olive Green La Lune

Screamo is an important genre for me. I remember when I first got heavy into record collecting - and I'm talking in the sense of variants/ nice DIY packaging/ following a label's output kind of stuff - bands like The Saddest Landscape, Orchid, Beau Navire and a few others really excited me. The Saddest Landscape// Pianos Become the Teeth 9'' was such a cool and alien concept for me. Old 90's Witching Hour or Ebullition comps taught me the value of a good DIY release etc. 

One of the bands I remember from that time fondly is Suis La Lune, and when I got Riala I became obsessed for a while. Then they disappeared. Long story short, this band remind me of a nice turning point and they came back with a new release and it's cool as you like so I'm going to talk about it. 

Suis La Lune - Distance / Closure - Topshelf Records - 1st Press - Olive Green /150

At first, I was a little weirded out by a 4 track EP and kind of longed for a full length. But these 4 songs clock in at around 30 minutes and are so packed that you'd never think of this as an EP. Quite possibly the darkest and most desperate this band have sounded, and was definitely worth the wait. 

I can't speak for the other variants, but this record looks great. It's a really smooth looking piece of wax, and the green works well alongside the art. I grabbed this from pre-order as soon as I saw it come up, and I'm really glad I did. I don't pre-order in the hopes of scoring a particular variant too much these days but I couldn't resist this one. And a UK store from Topshelf that actually allows an option of all available variants is definitely a fine example of a label doing it right. Well done dudes! 

Back Cover // B-Sides 

The Distance and Closure centre labels are a pretty neat thing. The content here is super dark and that comes through in the themes the title suggest. Within is an absolutely blistering closer, clocking somewhere close to 12 minutes. 

The front and back cover comes with a nice silver foil stamped sleeve. Kind of difficult to photograph but it looks truly beautiful. 

Thanks and dedications. The other side of the insert is blank and no lyrics are provided. 

Thank you for reading!

Topshelf Care Package

Remember a little while ago I did a post about the new Prawn LP?

http://23rotations.blogspot.co.uk/2014_10_01_archive.html

In an order to not retrace my steps too much, here is the back story. My Wife ordered me the new Empire! LP for my birthday, a Prawn LP I had already bought came instead. Didn't get anywhere with Silver Bullet, so Topshelf sorted it. That's the story. Imagine if all my posts were that concise? 

So the story goes that Topshelf packaged up 'something cool' for me. Anything after the LP you ordered in the 1st place is a bonus right (when you consider there was no word of returning the Prawn LP I had been sent by mistake)? Well after a couple of weeks, this is what turned up! Couple more bits in there than I was expecting, so we'll dive into that in a minute. 

With my order, Seth at Topshelf attached a post-it to one of the poly-sleeves. In my eyes, the dudes got nothing to apologise for as it was completely out of his hands. But it's a nice sentiment all the same. 

On to what I was expecting to arrive in the 1st place: 

Empire! Empire! (I Was a Lonely Estate) - You Will Eventually Be Forgotten - Count Your Lucky Stars // Topshelf Records - 1st Press - Black /250 (180 gram). 

A Side.

There is a bit too much going on in the artwork and stuff to photograph everything clearly, so we'll go through bit by bit. 

B-Side

The centre labels are fairly identical on this release, save for the 'A' and 'B' change up. 

On to the artwork.

The art was handled by Yelena Bryksenkova, who has a brilliant attitude towards making art. Her stuff sticks out a mile away, and most of it centres around the theme of home and the confort of day to day objects. But I guess you can kind of see that from the what's going on here. Funnily enough, the 'Ribbon' comic book that was on pre-order with this album is illustrated by Ben Sears (a great artist, but a very different style). It's all cool though; I wish I had bought that book, as I'm enjoying this album a bunch. It's still in print so we'll see what happens I guess?

On to the gate-fold. Both this LP and the Prawn LP came from Topshelf and had these super thick gate-folds. I like this a bunch, and all of this information on an insert wouldn't be too cool. 

I photographed the individual panels, but really it's just the lyrics. This is the only bit in the writing that you probably won't find anywhere else. It just goes through a little bit of the recording process; a big list of thanks and a little bit of a gush about Bob Nanna. That's cool by me. 

Back Cover. 

I would like to see this artwork without all of the text over the top. I'll look into that. Also, a Cat sneaked into the illustration. Who doesn't love that? 

Since the gate-fold opens up like this, it made sense to get a photo of the entire artwork right? 

On to the 1st extra added in with this package: 

Empire! Empire! (I Was a Lonely Estate) - You Will Eventually Be Forgotten - Count Your Lucky Stars // Topshelf Records - 2nd Press - Sea Blue /350 (Topshelf Exclusive). 

Same deal as before, no real change on the centre labels. 

This record is really impressive. I wasn't really bagging on an extra variant, but I'm thankful that this was included as it's such a weird colour to get your head around unless you see it in person. Even held up to the light it doesn't look right. I guess that's one of those things though right? 

The last thing to talk about is this: 

A Great Big Pile of Leaves // Diamond Youth // Prawn // Field Mouse - Split - Topshelf Records - Atoz Media - 1st Press - Coke Bottle Clear /?

B-Side // Back Cover. 

I honestly don't know too much about this record. I assume that as these bands toured together, that it was a tour exclusive 7''? I've had a quick look to see what I can find out, but not too much is coming up. So I don't know if there were any variants, pressing info or much else for that matter! It's not on the Topshelf webstore last time I checked; and it's a cool 7'' that I'm happy to have.

Once more, in the light this thing has a completely different look to it. I'm still assuming it's Coke Bottle, but I'll find out when I find out? 

It's been a little bit of a long one, but necessary. Proof that great dudes come through in the end. Also, that Empire LP is absolutely mental, way beyond my expectations.

It's the Floor I'm Reaching For

I've had this record a little while now, and it's a great one so I guess I should get writing. Also, a bit of a funny/ kind of annoying and not so funny story about this one too, but more of that a little bit later. 

Prawn - Kingfisher - Topshelf Records - 1st Press - Orange / Bronze ASide BSide /900. 

This was the most common colour for the 1st press and I bought this through a seller on Amazon. I purchased this with an Amazon voucher I got a couple months back for my birthday. I was a bit unsure of what to buy, and after hearing good things, liking the artwork and trusting the vast majority of what Topshelf works with I decided this could be a good shout. 

Back Cover / B-Side. 

I do like a variant where the A Side and B Side are different from one another in colour. This LP is already in to it's 2nd press now, and the one colour of that press has tackled a similar idea but with Electric Blue and Bone. However, this colour perfectly sums up this record for me. The artwork and overall sound is very autumnal. This LP really clicked for me a week or so back when I was biking through some woods a few miles from my house, and probably goes some way to explaining why I've been holding off on this. 

This copy came in one of those Japanese style sealing poly-sleeves that I always treat with caution as they have the potential to take a chunk of artwork in the adhesive seal. More to the point though, it came with a sticker from VICE / Noisey on the poly-sleeve. I don't get the problem people have with VICE Media; they come out with some utter balls and they occasionally get things pretty on point. Just like most journalist media? At least Noisey push some cool bands and do something interesting from time to time right? 

On to the inside of the gate-fold (oh yes, sorry it comes in a gate-fold sleeve with a real thick spine. The whole thing feels remarkably sturdy). All of the artwork for this record was handled by Charlie Wagers, who has done some great art for David Bazan and Mewithoutyou among many others. This art is no exception, it's wonderful. 

Close up of some of the inside art. Completely fluent and brilliant concept.

However, something that's kind of cool but also not so cool at the same time. I ended up with another copy on my birthday. Only problem was, I really wasn't supposed to end up with another copy of this. 

In short, Silver Bullet fucked up pretty big. 

So, I was supposed to end up with a copy of the new Empire! Empire! (I Was a Lonely Estate) LP from Silver Bullet, on Black vinyl courtesy of my wife for my birthday. Instead, this turned up after already being a couple of weeks late. They got the colour right at least I suppose? After a couple of emails back and forward to the Silver Bullet store and after hearing some other issues they had been having, I decided to email Topshelf directly and get an answer as to what was going on. Long story short, Seth over at Topshelf is a complete dude and is sorting out a problem that was completely out of his hands. I should be getting a copy of the new E!E! any day now and I'll keep you posted. 

Money shot. Well kind of. There's another couple of variants of this out there. I'll grab them if I stumble across them.

TSL/PBTT

This was a split I got quite a while back, and had the 7'' counterpart a while before that. But only recently (well the last couple of years) have I started really digging The Saddest Landscape, so I'll be dragging out a release or two by them and seeing what shakes loose in the next few weeks, probably.

This is the Pianos Become the Teeth/ The Saddest Landscape split. I had known of the Topshelf release and got the 7'' from there as I was/ am into Pianos Become the Teeth in a big way. But a few months later, this was offered to me from Darren over at Dog Knights. I had never heard of it, and was into the PBTT enough to warrant a second copy if it was a little different. I paid up, and this arrived. 

Considering this was a few years ago, I was really intrigued by the format of the release. It's a 9'' Single Sided record with an etched b-side (we'll get to that in a bit). The only 9'' records I had known of at the time was the stream of Nine Inch Nails singles that came out, so having this (kind of) obscure format was something new. 

I am always into the cover art for Pianos Become the Teeth releases, they seem to catch a particular mood depending on what it happening musically at the time. The 7'' opens up in the same manner, but the colour scheme is a little different. I might do a quick post on the 7'' variant just for a comparison. 

The inside cover folds out with lyrics, thank you's and other bits. I like that both bands thank each other. I love split releases, but when the bands are into each other's music too I guess it makes it a far better process. I sometimes forget that The Saddest Landscape are somewhat veterans of the whole screamo thing having been around for over a decade (well aside from the little hiatus in the middle but let's not get into that). 

On to the B-Side. It's etched. Again, a few years I had very few etched/ screened B-Sides so this was very cool. Still probably one of the most impressive etchings for me, as it made such an impact to me back in the day. Also, I have a lot to thank for this release being etched as it's what got me into The Saddest Landscape esentially. The tracks are both on side A, and play back to back with TSL being first. I ended up spinning that TSL track ('Death Becomes Us') so much to get to New Normal by Pianos, that I fell in love with it. It took a little of getting past the vocals, but it's now a great listen and opened me up to a band i'm now really fond of. I think if I had stuck with the 7'' I would have disregarded the A Side completely after a couple of casual listens. Loser. 

Lastly this weird insert was in the sleeve when it arrived. I'm not sure if it has anything to do with anything regarding this release. I don't know if the label (Just Say No records) put it in, or Darren did at the time of packing and I never bothered to ask. I guess it's probably a hassle to find dust covers for 9'' records, and as it was in a poly sleeve anyway this could have been put in to protect the etching? I don't know. It's still in there either way. 

I look back at this release with really fond memories. I had always bought records, but this came along at a time when I was finally starting to open my eyes to the whole collecting world. It's not the rarest record out there, it's not rare at all. If I had that /100 Glow in the Dark variant with the poster/ pin set it might be a different story. But i'm happy with this one right here.