Friday 31 August 2012

Systems Overload 2012 #127/320

So yeah, I was going to henceforth blog about the un-blogged in the order that they are leaning against the wall. But then this arrived a couple days ago which was so exciting that it's jumped the line because it made me want to stop what I was doing and take pictures of vinyl like I've got nowt better to do. So, we have the Organized Crime Records re-issue of Integrity's 1995 masterwork Systems Overload. Carrying on in the style that OCR are re-issuing Integ's early work, this has more attention to detail that I can deal with. First things first, custom record mailer.

Just to whet your appetite.

I went for the version with the extra cover art, on a clear/grey smoke pressing. These are limited to 320, with numbered sleeves.

Similar to the extra sleeve for TWFT.

That's the back, fans.

Anyway, pull that back and the regular cover is underneath, with vastly expanded artwork from the original.

Track listing is revealed on the back when shown the light.

It's curtains for Dwid.

Again, the credits inside the gatefold are revealed when exposed.

The vinyl itself looks incredible.

Inside one of the sleeves, a lyric sheet and on the flip of that, great anecdotes from A. Melnick.

And if that wasn't enough, a print of J. Melnick's Armenian Persecution painting



And there is more. Inside the mailer, there was also a large brown envelope, sealed with a little clasp. On the envelope was written 'Pre-Order Package Series #3 Limited Edition Of 100'

And in there, a ton of flyers from back in the 90's. Awesome.

I mean. Wow. The amount of effort that Clint at OCR, Dwid, various Melnicks and anyone else involved has put in is simply staggering.

Doesn't hurt that the songs will still kick your teeth in too.

 

Saturday 25 August 2012

Dawn Of A New Apocalypse

Right, been a while! Last time I did a post I was thinking all like "Ok, I'm gonna post a shit load all at once and get caught up and vinyl blogging life will be good". And then I didn't. Truth is, this other thing is taking up any spare time I have for writing. This thing:

 

You may or may not remember but for a while I had a second .blogspot blog where I wrote about music that buzzed me, without the vinyl part. Well that really took off. Labels were sending me lots of music to review, same for bands who had just put out a demo and wanted some exposure. It gained enough speed so that I dropped the .blogspot bit, bought a domain and had the site built by a guy who knows his HTML. And Tight To The Nail was officially born. There's usually a new review up there almost every day, so if you want to check out what labels like A389, Southern Lord, Deathwish, Feast Of Tentacles, Carry The Weight, Tiny Engines etc are putting out, then stop by. There's also a lot of coverage of new bands or bands self releasing their music, and links to their stuff which is usually free to download. So there's a decent spread between bands you'll know, and bands you won't.

Anyway, that's why I'm slack. But I'm going to keep this thing here going as much as I can. So here's one from the pile that Rich from Ignite Records in Birmingham sent me. He sold out of the stock he had in for RSD2012, but had a few more come in from Organized Crime and sent me one in the post. Rich is a good guy. This is the Euro pressing, on grey out of 325, and a repress essentially, as this was available before in various incarnations. I'm no great fan of live albums, and the sound quality ain't the best, but it suits the anarchic energy of the show and this is actually a good listen, capturing an early time for the band where they give a raucous and provocative performance. Something that the cool little recounting of events by A-Double try to capture in the new linear notes.