New Arrivals

A massive order from All That Is Heavy arrived on Wednesday (with a nice hole in the shipping box thanks to the post office). Mostly new releases from Eagle Twin, Ararat, Yawning Sons, Brant Bjork, YOB, Causa Sui, Circle, and Fu Manchu. ATH included a couple of freebies, self-titled albums by Elder and Sardonis.

January Roundup

I forgot to chronicle my music purchases for January so I'll fix that in February. From Robotic Empire's distro arrived the last full length album from Raccoo-oo-oon. Sad news for me as they've become one of my favorite bands in the past year. Also arriving was Nachmystium's vinly-only release Eulogy IV. It's not as good as they album they released in 2008 but it's still some of the better black metal I've heard.

From All That's Heavy were some fantastic albums. Luckily for me Burning Saviour's debut album has been reissued after missing out on it and then not being able to find a copy elsewhere. I finally was able to pick up Ogre's new album which is an epic 35+ minute track of classic rock inspired traditional doom metal. Some new material from Los Natas has made it's way to a 10" split with side project Solodolor in a nicely done vinyl package. Elektrohasch has reissued Los Natas' epic second album on vinyl as well, 'Cuidad de Brahman'. It's one of my favorite albums of the genre so I had to have it on wax. For a freebie I picked up Abdullah's self-titled album after hearing that they were calling it quits.

On the 7" club front I received the last from Volcom Entertainments 2008 vinyl series, a split between Valient Thorr and HR. Sub Pop's latest in their 3.0 series were two new tracks from Finland's Circle.

20 Buck Spin Sale

20 Buck Spin has a sale going on and I just had to take advantage of it. Since I have a good chunk of the label releases, I bought only distro items that I probably couldn't get cheaper anywhere else. I picked a couple of Acid Mothers Temple ('Wild Gals A Go-Go' reissue and 'Minstrel In The Galaxy') and Circle ('Panic' and 'Arkades') releases. Apparently the 'Arkades' jewel was broken, so Dave threw in a disc from Ryokuchi as a freebie. I have no idea who that is so it should be an interesting first listen.

Also coming in the mail from Robotic Empire was the first full length LP from Behold... The Arctopus. The LP comes with a pressed CD of the album which is something I hope more labels will be doing in the future. And since it took so long to ship, they threw in the disc of the Torche self-titled album. I already have that album, but it was a nice gesture.

Turkey Week Roundup

Back from a nice Thanksgiving in the mountains, there were some packages waiting for me.

From Crucial Blast were a pair of reissues, that of Grey Daturas' 2004 album 'Dead In The Woods' and a remaster of Skullflower's IIIrd Gatekeeper.

Public Guilt have released the debut full length album from French occult psych rock band Aluk Todolo so I picked that up along with one of the latest albums from Finland's Circle. They also threw in the sampler disc featuring bands on Public Guilt and Implied Sound.

An order from the fantastic label/distro Eclipse Records came a couple of new CDs from Drag City - Sir Richard Bishop's second release of the year 'Polytheistic Fragments' and another new album from Six Organs Of Admittance titled 'Shelter From The Ash' (an appropriate title for where I'm at after 1/3 of the county burned down in October). On vinyl came the latest from Bardo Pond side project Alasehir, a new 45 from Wooden Shjips, and a split 7" from Jack Rose and Silvester Afang.

LVD

A couple of new albums from Last Visible Dog arrived today. First up is a self-titled album from Transitional Phase who are a collective of musicians in the San Francisco bay area who got together and recorded some psychedelic jams. Also arriving is the latest from the self proclaimed NWOFHM (New Wave Of Finnish Heavy Metal), Circle. This album is a collaboration with a dude who goes by Verde and now has a logo stating N.W.O. NWOFHM. As usual with Circle, I'm expecting the unexpected regarding the music on this disc. I was going to also order the Tivol album on LVD but I forget. I'll have to get that with my next order from them.

Latitudes

While I do see the Southern Record's Latitudes series at Lou's, it's always hit and miss with what they had. So I put in an (expensive) order across the pond to Southern to secure Circle's 'Tyrant' full-length and the fabulous EP 'Interpretations Of Three Psychedelic Rock Songs From Around The World' by Grails. They did throw in a comp titled 'Southern Records Presents: We Got Actions Too' which has some songs I already have but for the most part contains artists I'm not familiar with.