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 🖤

Fever Dream

High Vis are one of the best bands in the UK right now, to my ears at least. I was lucky enough to catch them at this years Outbreak Fest, and it really cemented my love for the band after missing a couple of chances at seeing them over the last year. 

However excited I was to catch them live - there was a secondary motive to be excited for attending Outbreak. There was a new 12” put out by Farewell (who released the first two High Vis 7”s) that sold out online in a matter of minutes, with the majority being held back for live shows. I say majority like there was a bunch of them - this pressing is /200 total which seems unreal for a band with as much hype around them at the minute. I assume these were gone before most fans even knew about it. 

The inner sleeve is stamped and numbered by Graham, the singer of High Vis. The back of the outer sleeve is also numbered, I assume they were done by him too. 

This 12” compromises a compilation of sorts - Society Exists was a digital only single released during the pandemic without the full lineup being present on the recording. The Station house Demos were two songs initially to be released as a 7”, but it was kept back to make room for Blending to be written. Fever Dream made its way on to Blending, but The Loss finally sees the light of day thanks to this release. As a whole, these recordings pair up nicely together, and bridge the gap sonically between No Sense No Feeling and Blending. Plus it’s cool to hear Fever Dream in a more rough and ready capacity, it’s one of my favourite tracks from Blending. 

I love the design of this thing, super minimal and stark, one colour one pressing type things are always fun - especially for a band that definitely don’t have to make /200 releases anymore.

This wasn’t the only record I bought from Outbreak, and I walked away with a cool amount of stuff (although I really wish I’d bought the High Vis Outbreak exclusive shirt) but more on that later.

Mindforce on tape

Unless you’ve been under a rock for the last 5 or so years I guess you’ll be at least vaguely familiar with Mindforce. A few years back they released a comp tape of Excalibur and Swingin’ Swords and I picked it up as soon as it came up in the UK. 

Mindforce - Excalibur / Swingin’ Swords, Choppin’ Lords - First Run /200 White - Triple B / Streets Of Hate 

The cover art for this is a rip of the Warzone comp that Another Planet released in the mid 90’s and that’s the kind of shit we live for. 

Mindforce - New Lords - ? Pressing - /? - Clear Shell - Triple B // Streets of Hate

With already having Mindforce stuff on cassette I was reluctant to buy this on vinyl, so I waited like a patient boy and this finally came up for sale in the UK. However, this one is a bit of a mystery for me. I’ve only seen a clear red shell of this cassette, and Streets of Hate have no pressing info regarding a clear shell (neither does Discogs). If anyone knows, pass on that info or add it to Discogs because the thought of trying that makes me want to break edge. 

 The Excalibur cassette also has a printed shell where as this one is blank - New Lords is also a little rough sounding which was a surprise because the actual recording rips. 

It’s Mother’s Day tomorrow and the reason I’m delving into the cassettes is because I’m making my Mother a mixtape for her car (it still has a tape deck). It’s a little tradition/ running bit that one of her gifts is a carefully curated compilation of some hits she’d be in to, with a few mosh parts sprinkled in there for fun. 

NO PRESSURE PT. 2

 The No Pressure LP definitely ended up on my top 10 AOTY list for 2022, but before all of that this band had only a couple of promo releases and a debut EP that was pressed on cassette and 7” (and even on CD in Japan if memory serves. This release also came out through a bunch of labels, including being self released, Triple B, Life. Lair. Regret in Australia and Ratel Recs in Poland. 

No Pressure - No Pressure - Ratel Records - 1st Press - Solid Light Pink /300

This record comes printed in a fold over sleeve with all the lyrics and thanks printed on the inside. I’m a fan of the stark black and white inside compared to the full colour artwork on the cover. Sadly I didn’t grab this from the label, but bought it from a guy on Instagram who I’ve been following for years. It went super smooth and arrived in great condition. 

The record comes with a few extras - I didn’t hold my breath on them all being in there when I was buying it, but the seller assured me they were and here they are. On the left is an insert/ thank you not and to the right is a postcard and a sticker of the art. Of course the note encourages the postcard to be used, but come the fuck on? 

This record rips, and it has some of the best that No Pressure have to offer. The one time they hit the UK I missed them and that was no good for anyone but hopefully I’ll catch them in 2023 at Outbreak. 

Blue Train

 Kicking into the end of the year and I’m trying to get some posts in before things get too crazy over the Christmas period. 

John Coltrane - Blue Train • The Complete Masters - Blue Note 

A damn ass JAZZ record. And one of the best really. I’m still dipping my toe in to the whole jazz thing but I enjoy everything I hear from Coltrane. This record came out a couple months back and I cracked pretty early on adding it to the collection. 

Hype sticker on the sleeve - basically tells you what you’re getting. An incredible sounding record with some new to vinyl stuff, a nice essay on the record and some unseen photographs that capture the recording process. 

The records are house in a thick gatefold sleeve with the liner notes in a centre book. This is one of the highest quality records I’ve bought in years. From the jacket, to the liner notes to the quality of the pressing itself - this thing is so impressive to look at and listen to. If you’re even remotely curious about jazz, I’m sure any of the Tone Poet series will help you fall in love with the genre. 

The back cover is the standard layout of many Blue Note releases of the era. I love seeing this busy format and it definitely brings out a fun nostalgia of those early years of digging. 

I’m sure we’ll be back to regular stuff soon. Or maybe you’ll get a Charli XCX record next. Who knows?