Indierock | Alternative Vinyl 504 Items

180 gram audiophile vinyl
Feature the hits "Someday, Someway" and "Cynical Girl" a.o.
Ranked by Rolling Stone as one of the top 100 albums of the 1980s
Limited edition of 750 individually numbered copies on turquoise coloured vinyl

The Cosmic Dropouts was formed in 1988 by Arne Thelin (vocals) and Morten Henriksen (guitar), and was together with The Willy B Review in the forefront of Norwegian garage rock. In addition to Arne and Morten, the band consisted of Pål Andreassen on organ, Carsten Johansen on bass (later replaced by Lars Albrecht and Stig Jøraholmen) and Elvin Sjursen on drums (later replaced by Rune Johnsen). This line-up recorded the band’s first release that year, a four-track vinyl 7“ EP titled Crashed Cadillac and Broken Hearts. It got good reviews in Norway and landed the band their first gigs. Their next release, an 8-track mini-album titled Groovy Things released in 1989, got raving reviews in Norway and abroad, and paved way for gigs at bigger venues and landed them their first and only gigs outside Norway with this line-up. They played at the New Music Seminar in New York that year in addition to a gig at The Khyber Pass pub in Philadelphia. Previous remotely started discussions with Skyclad Records continued in New York and resulted in this album’s original release. The mini-album and the EP together with their first single Let’s Go To The Beach (also released in 1989), plus a handful of songs recorded separately, were released as a full length album with the title Groovy Things by Skyclad Records in the US in 1990. By that time Arne had left the band (September 1989) and started The Lust-O-Rama, but the band continued with a new singer (Morten Karlsen) and released another two albums after that - Hoolabaloo on That’s Entertainment Records (1991) and Sonic Circus on Kicksville Records (1993). This re-issue was remastered December 2021.

1000 pressed. Ltd Orange Vinyl, DL card. The seminal album from Half Japanese featuring updated artwork and liner notes from Jad Fair and producer Kramer. This is the Zen of Half Japanese, of prolific songwriter Jad Fair; wide-eyed crooner, humorous raconteur and spontaneous storyteller. A genre-bending romp through the mind of the man, originally released in 1989 in a purple patch for the group, preceded by 'Music To Strip By' and 'Charmed Life'. "Half Japanese were a song machine," attested Pitchfork, while AllMusic saw this album as a collection of "humorous lo-fi rock 'n' roll hit singles." Previously released on black vinyl a decade ago.

Formed in Sheffield in 1978 and originally known as just "The", Artery is a band that saw several changes in the line-up throughout the '80s. Supported by John Peel and often compared to Joy Division their music incorporates various fundamental elements of the British post-punk aesthetic. Originally released in 1982 on Red Flame records, "Oceans" was Artery's debut mini-LP including some absolute gems such as "into the Garden" and "Afterwards" infectious anthemic tracks of the post-punk era.

Peace, Love & Murder was the second album by Cleveland’s My Dad Is Dead, originally released in 1987 by Boston’s Birth Records. Like the debut, ...And He’s Not Gonna Take It Anymore, Mark Edwards wrote and performed all the music on his own. While not a significant departure from that album, Peace, Love & Murder does differ from its predecessor and has some qualities that make it unique in the voluminous Mdid discography. While combining live drums with drum machine is a hallmark of the Mdid style, on this album Edwards introduced the Roland Tr-505 into the mix, and in a bold move recorded the live drums first, which had the effect of making the rhythm tracks feel a bit more organic despite the presence, and occasionally the prominence, of the Tr-505. Modal guitar tunings remain de rigeur here, but Edwards’ abilities as a guitarist display a marked increase in proficiency and imagination. While the debut album sprawls a bit, PLM is a tight and focused ten song set, buoyed by a more impactful production job by Chris Burgess. Just as the debut album had a few lighter (or at least slightly less grim) songs, so does this album, but here they shine with a bit more pop sparkle. “Babe In The Woods” and “Hill O’ Beans” would go on to be fan favorites for many years, as would the utterly harrowing unstoppable bulldozer that is “Like A Vise.” All these years on, the album’s closer “Fireball” has become oddly relevant and chilling. Sung from the POV of a mass shooter to a droning riff that evokes Middle Eastern modes, the narrator intones, “I’m gonna go out in a blaze of glory / today’s the day I’m gonna make it to the headlines.” The whole album has remarkable cohesion and pacing, as well as variety, and, not to mention ,what a god-tier track “Breakdown” is. So grab a black overcoat and “Open Wide.”

Ltd re-issue on white vinyl ! C'est disco is the first studio album by the Italian band Rats. It was released in 1981 by Italian Records and is a record strongly inspired by the wave and dark scene of that period. In 2014 the record was reissued in a vinyl version with the addition of a bonus CD featuring the complete album plus the song Tattoo, initially discarded from the album's tracklist and included in a compilation. The band's line-up featured vocalist Claudia Lloyd on vocals, and on guitar the only member present in the more famous version active in the late '80s and '90s, Wilko Zanni, who in the next album would take Claudia Lloyd's place on vocals.

Long overdue re-issue of this cracked pop classic and Flying Nun rarity, "Derry Legend" was one of Kurt Cobain's top NZ platters and a staple of his mix-tapes.

Licensed and produced in full co-operation with the band, 100% analog remaster from the original tapes.

Originally released on Bruce Gilbert and Graham Lewis Dome Records in 1981, Desmond Simmons’s Alone on Penguin Island stands in splendid isolation. Rereleased on Rafftt records with the permission of Desmond’s estate it has been re-mastered from the original tapes by Denis Blackham, the artwork has been re- imagined by the original designer Slim Smith with extensive liner notes on gatefold vinyl rounding out the project.

The year before the Wire pair had initiated Dome: a project where the duo privileged process over the end product. They would often commence recording with little or no material, using the studio itself to create raw instrumentation. After the release of their first Dome album, they then invited Simmons to record an album for the Dome label. Simmons had played bass on Colin Newman’s recently released debut solo album A-Z and he and the Wire frontman were lifelong friends.

His original demos suggested a kinship with the psychedelic guitar pop he’d played on Newman’s A-Z. However, the versions on Alone on Penguin Island enter a very different realm. With Gilbert and Lewis as producers, Simmons’s compositions are abstracted, inverted and warped. It was a bold move on their part to suggest such an approach, yet a far bolder one for Simmons to accept this experimental mindset. Even if the recording sessions were often far from harmonious. Intriguing arrangements, sprightly verses and mournful melodies the album is one that spans many moods, Lewis referring to it as “fragile, mysterious, melancholic” From shimmering electronics and jittery synths to wistful guitar driven post punk. On the unforgettable ‘By Air Or By Sea’ the breathless Simmons vocal was not some incidental effect: the producers instructed the singer to run around the block, then dart back into the studio and record the vocal, before he had a chance to get his breath back. Another of the albums highlights the deeply psychedelic ‘Pathenon’ and the churning rhythms of ‘Man The Lifeboats’ is another of the album’s strongest tracks.

For all Simmons’s Wire connections, Alone on Penguin Island shouldn’t be considered a Wire side project. It’s a fully formed work in its own right, with Simmons’s strangely slanted song writing at its heart. It was produced just at the time a number of post punk’s brightest stars were about to dive into the mainstream. Simmons however, was headed in the opposite direction: creating an album that sounds as unique and challenging as the day it was first released. It is a bleached out coda: chilly and curious. It sounds less like a composition, more like its ghostly remains. Consequently, as the album concludes, the listener is left in an icy, lopsided lacuna.

Limited to 500 units, includes a bifold insert with archival images and detailed liner notes.

Rainbow Generator are Australia’s first true experimental electronic music group. Consisting of David Labuschagne AKA Mojo, and Rob Greaves AKA Ras. Starting in the mid-70’s, the pair took it upon themselves to begin exploring the possibilities of the sonic dimension and with an ‘open mind’ began investigating the interface between psyche and sound.

In 1976 David established the ‘Lectric Loo’ studio in Woolloomooloo, Sydney. Known to the ‘heads’ as simply the “Loo”, the 3-story building was owned by the Department of Main Roads, and slated for demolition. So, it was that the entire block became a haven for squatters, and while Mojo had the main 3-story building to himself, the rest of the buildings were taken by a hotch-potch of people that included Anarchists, a Clown School and a collection of other random squatters. Recording in the ‘Lectric Loo’ provided them the ability to record freely. In 1975 they began to experiment, putting Mojo’s Fender Strat through effects pedals, playing with sounds while manipulating shortwave radio stations and also challenging convention by playing the insides of instruments. By 1976 they had built a kit synthesizer and shortly after purchased a full Roland 100 Synthesiser set-up and were on their way.

In 1978, with little resources, or any form of distribution they released their sole LP ‘Dance of the Spheres’. As Mojo puts it, “we were intent on making music with whatever we could beg, borrow, buy, and liberate. Albeit with scant regard for the rules or conventions or niceties of the game. Ultimately, it was all an act of love, of joy. Not just an adventure; it was a musical odyssey”.

This odyssey continued their exploration of the interface between psyche and sound. Fusing genres and boundaries, Dance of the Spheres incorporates elements of 70’s psych and folk with spoken-word and of course the emerging sounds of the synthesizer and drum machines. Furthermore, the addition of traditional instruments such as the didgeridoo and the classical Indian instrumentation technique of a Raga add a timeless layer, all seamlessly complementing the other elements and launching the album to another dimension.

First Time ON Vinyl ! Originally released on cassette in the spring of 1985, together with the 8th issue of Komakino fanzine - included here in its original format. Relatively well- known names coexist with bands that lasted only a season. “Still Life” was and remains a half hour of pure abstraction. An intense and precious post-punk overdose!

Transparent Orange Vinyl, limited to 500 copies. The Tygers of Pan Tang were one of the foremost New Wave of British Heavy Metal Bands and they hit the album charts running when their 1980 debut album Wildcat reached #18 in the UK charts. After three further albums with MCA, they recorded this album for Zebra Records in 1987. Burning in the Shade is the most melodic of their releases and features the line-up of Jon Deverill (vocals), Steve Lamb (guitar), Brian Dick (drums) with guests Steve Thompson and Phil Caffrey.

In the summer of 1981, The Fall embarked on their second American tour, criss-crossing the States over a two-month period. Featuring the dual guitar of Marc Riley and Craig Scanlon and rhythm section of Stephen Hanley and Karl Burns, A Part Of America Therein, 1981 would document this fabled journey with crucial performances that show the band evolve from noisemaking lout cultists into true post-punk legends. "From the riot-torn streets of Manchester, England to the scenic sewers of Chicago ..." as the album opens unforgettably with a nameless promoter introducing The Fall, who proceed to tear into a hypnotic take on "The N.W.R.A." stretched into a near stare-down that is wholly different than the studio version on Grotesque. The LP highlights Mark E. Smith's incomparable bite, heard most notably on the adlibbed vitriol of "Totally Wired," where not even the costumed punks were safe from a proper dressing down. A Part Of America Therein, 1981 proves once again that The Fall's constant rally against complacency was a top-down directive and intrinsic to their wonderful and frightening sound. Superior Viaduct's edition is the first time that this album has been available on vinyl domestically since its initial release in 1982. Liner notes by Brian Turner.

Part of The Optic Sevens 3.0 Reissue Series . Limited to 800 copies worldwide. Pressed on Red Vinyl Printed inner sleeve. Includes postcard and poster. Glasgow based The Clouds only single was originally released in 1988 on Subway and became an indie top 20 hit. This version is pressed on Red vinyl with inner sleeve. Includes all 3 tracks from the 12”.

Includes postcard and poster. Impossibly rare 1984 UK 7” vinyl single, written by a pre- Bachelor Pad’s Martin Cotter. One of only three releases by the short-lived Glasgow based indie label Bogaten, although redolant of early Orange Juice in the sound of the A-side, also looks forward to Shoegaze, with a reverb-drenched cover of The Velvet Underground’s Waiting For My Man on the B-side

Released in 1984 and the second release on Creation Records. Flowers In The Sky Is a perfect piece of 80’s psychedelic pop.

Originally released in 1989 on The House Of Teeth label, this indie classic which made John Peels Festive fty of that year, gets a 30th anniversary reissue as part of our Optic Sevens 2.0 reissue series. It is backed with the Previously unreleased ‘Coquette’, which was recorded in 1992 , remixed in 2017 and only available on this release of the 7 inch.

Packaged in an old school, tip-on sleeve. Includes hi-res digital download.

Legendary debut album by Junko Tange (mystery woman who showed up on the NWW list), originally issued by Osaka’s Vanity Records in 1979. Dadaesque recitations and sparse guitar, piano and electronic meanderings combine for a beguiling, hypnotic dreamworld. Officially licensed from the custodians of Yuzuru Agi's Vanity Records archives, this edition has been fully remastered from new transfers of the original analog tapes by Stephan Mathieu.

Self-Inflicted Aerial Nostalgia was Guided By Voices’ third album, self-released by the band in 1988 in a pressing of 500. While both of the band’s earlier albums exhibit strong songwriting and plenty of vision, it is here that the GBV sound really begins to coalesce. While Devil Between My Toes is rife with contrasts, variety, and dark psychedelia, and its follow up Sandbox is a cohesive ’60s-influenced affair, Self-Inflicted Aerial Nostalgia marries the two approaches to outstanding effect. Unsurprisingly, recording began before Sandbox was even done pressing. These sessions would yield an aborted LP titled Learning To Hunt, but after personnel changes and second thoughts, Robert Pollard shelved most of the tracks, dismissing them as too similar to those on Sandbox. Fair enough, as many of Pollard’s more recent songs were simply on another level than previously. Here are the first of the classic Pollard slow-burners, often built on a simple melodic or rhythmic figure that circles itself ever outward, accumulating heft, variation, and inevitability as the song evolves into something unexpected yet inevitable. It’s the aural equivalent to watching a butterfly grow out of its cocoon. A few things are unique to this particular LP. Original powerhouse drummer Peyton Eric returns for nearly half the tracks, while engineer and lead guitarist Steve Wilbur shines at his brightest, resulting in some of the most thoroughly rocking GBV songs to ever be cut to lacquer, such as “Earful o’ Wax,” which simply explodes out of the speakers when the solo section begins. On the other end of the spectrum, you get Pollard recording perfect pop gems at home with just voice and guitar, which would become a calling card on later GBV albums. There’s simply a tremendous variety of material, all strung together in such a way that the album is all of one piece, a mosaic.