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GOLDEN LION SOUNDS

For a project that has taken thirty years it would be totally inadequate to call the formation of Hypocritical Beatdown a lockdown-project. There’s a deep history and psychology in these records by Violators Of The English Language and their spin-off groups Magnets (Rap Group) and ProVerbs, that combines stage-fright, loss, pride, creative-schizophrenia, racial inequality, surrealism, personal politics, brotherhood, artistic-constipation, better judgment, love, anti-love, soul searching and much more.

The one remaining untapped energy source here is perhaps FEAR, refreshing when used correctly, but never imposter syndrome. As maligned and mutated as this British Hip-Hop might appear to be, it could not be more pure. Each member of all of the Hypocritical Beatdown crew were committed to this cause as soon as the doors opened. They rapped on stages before they had even tasted beer or lost their virginity and the curse had already taken hold in the years when these youngsters still had to be back home before dark and it has never left their bloodstreams.

That’s why this record NEEDED to be made. Completed, recorded, exorcised, committed to vinyl, rotated and liberated. Not unlike the VHS tape in a well known Japanese horror film, every listened copy, complete with its broken beats, old-school sensibilities and Marmite Mancunian accents, adds to the mystic circle… breaks the dream… some people might even like it. If you were given a chance to go back and meet your teenage self, wouldn’t you?

For you early adopters, both these albums are the first full length vinyl excursions from The Hypocritical Beatdown stable who have previously just released Rap Tapes (on cassette, obviously). They both look pretty similar, but one is on yellow ten inch vinyl released in collaboration with the amazing people at Britain's coolest pub, Golden Lion in Todmorden. And the other one is a longer 12” album with a duel-layer, interactive screen printed sleeve (in various collectible colours) that literally violates the English language when you open it. There’s a lot of attention to detail here, in all fairness it didn’t happen over night, and despite all the watermarks of a communal mid-life crisis, they don’t intend to slow down at any point soon… - Andy Votel


STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Fascinating archival dig by Andy Votel, revisiting early incarnations of The Violators Of The English Language and later Hypocritical Beatdown crews. Really interesting to see how that first wave of American hip-hop would influence kids in northern satellite towns. We'd all be watching Transworld Sport and trying to skateboard too... happy, pre-internet times when finding subculture and identity was an all-encompassing but thoroughly rewarding pass time. There's a integrity and innocence in these recording which really add to their charm.

TRACK LISTING

A Side - Magnets:
1. Get Ready Go
2. Panic 
3. Double Dragon, Adverb Remix
4. Paps At The Lido 

B Side - Pro-Verbs:
1. One Two
2. Pure Hip Hop
3. Science And Diction 
4. Smear 

Plank

Future Of The Sea

    Golden Lion Sounds is an independent record label that runs out of the cultural, community and party hub The Golden Lion in Todmorden. It specialises in limited, collectable and exclusive vinyl releases that are largely sourced from local acts and those who have played at the venue. These include Working Men's Club, Jarvis Cocker, The Lounge Society, Gnod, The Lovely Eggs, David Holmes, Crazy P, Jane Weaver, The Orielles to name a few. Todmorden based Plank's 'Future Of the Sea' will be the first full length album released by the label.

    It seems fitting that a trilogy of albums celebrating nature should conclude some eight years after its second chapter. Manchester-via-Todmorden based instrumental trio Plank’s first two LPs – 2012’s kosmiche-inspired Animalism and 2014’s more expansive and structurally disruptive follow-up Hivemind – enjoyed relatively quick gestation periods. However, Plank are firm believers in letting nature run its course, and so it is that their third LP Future of the Sea arrives early in 2023. “I always knew I wanted to make three albums inspired by nature” says Plank main-man David Rowe (synths / guitar). “Future of the Sea is another exploration into odd time signatures and traditional rock instruments alongside synths and electronics.”

    “Future of the Sea is a celebration of the power and majesty of our oceans and how humankind has been destroying them through industrial scale fishing and global warming” says Rowe. “Rachel Carson put it more eloquently in her book The Sea Around Us: ‘It is a curious situation that the sea, from which life first arose should now be threatened by the activities of one form of that life. But the sea, though changed in a sinister way, will continue to exist; the threat is rather to life itself.’” A post apocalyptic underwater city scape adorns the cover in an illustration by Jake Blanchard, whose work you'll also see on Richard Dawson's latest album 'The Ruby Cord'.

    The synthetic nature of Plank’s sprawling rock odysseys feel at their most pronounced on Future of the Sea which leans to the band’s love of Pink Floyd era Meddle, Camel, film score composers like John Carpenter and Vangelis, 70s experimentalists Harmonia, 1980s King Crimson and 90s post-rock adjacent group Tortoise. In polyrhythmic dexterity if not heaviness, Plank also take some influence from Meshuggah, and it’s in their movement between the 16 minute final album track’s sections that it feels most prominent. They swerve from crunching stoner rock jams to more ambient spatial explorations, crescendoing progressive peaks, 80s synth pop and finally a crushing riff-laden finale.


    STAFF COMMENTS

    Barry says: I'm a big fan of Plank, so it's really exciting to see their latest hit the brilliant Golden Lion Sounds in Todmorden. Great band, great label and a KILLER record. Intricate, prog-tinged post-rock, part ASIWYFA part Dream Theater, part Anamanaguchi it's a brilliantly weighty and perfectly accomplished record. :fire emoji:

    TRACK LISTING

    1. Three Seascapes
    2. Dead Zone
    3. Red Tide
    4. Volta Do Mar
    5. Longshore Drift
    6. Breaking Waves Part 1
    7. Breaking Waves Part 2
    8. Breaking Waves Part 3
    9. Breaking Waves Part 4
    10. Breaking Wave Part 5
    11. Breaking Waves Part 6

    Lux Lyall & Andy Votel / Andrew Liles

    Six / Care In The Community

    It's our favourite mushroom quaffing quasi-spiritualist musical leaders Golden Lion Sounds, fresh with new aural delights for the changing of the seasons! Nothing quite excites me as much spotting Waka at the door clutching a new set of records from the now infamous Todmorden stable.

    Lux Lyall & Andy Votel kick off number eight in the series in superbly witchcrafty style; a paganish guitar riff supplementing Lux Lyall's cryptic deadpan, spoken word monologue. A truly spellbinding piece, the mysteries of which you'll be trying to unravel throughout the night.

    Over on side B, it's another Piccadilly favourite: Andrew Liles. This long-serving experimental stalwart contributes as suitable an out-there piece of electro-exotic, semi-soundtrack, semi-acoustic tomfoolery. Featuring a whole range of found sounds and sonic sorcery it sounds like a wizard got into your child's toybox and starting painting pictures.

    As usual - limited copies and stupendously high demand. Orders in QUICK.


    STAFF COMMENTS

    Matt says: Mushroom season is upon us, and who better to soundtrack our midnight moon rituals and post-forage freakouts than the crazy cats from Todmorden. Enlisting known sonic occultist Andy Votel and pagan synth wizard Andrew Liles for a spellbound missive.

    TRACK LISTING

    A: Lux Lyall & Andy Votel - Six (4:07)
    A: Andrew Liles - Care In The Community (3:03)

    Nick Manasseh / Earl Gateshead

    Lion's Paw / Dirty City

    One of three new 7"s out on Golden Lion Records and it's a UK reggae bonanza featuring two absolute legends from our home soils.

    Nick Manasseh owns The Yard, Ladbrook Grove; and has been pivotal in the London scene since the 1980s. Earl Gateshead originally gained momentum in Bradford's West Indian Centre before gaining a residency in Soho which he pilotted for 20 years before working at Plastic People and going on tour with Dr. Alimantado and Big Youth.

    Manesseh wields a the 'reggae flute' (or melodica as it's more commonly known) on "Lion's Paw"; a creeping slice of jungle dub somewhere between Pablo, Perry and Tubby with ancient percussion and plenty dub delay.

    On the flip, Earl Gateshead showcases some impressive lyrical direction on the track, "Dirty City"; which, as well as containing a supremely infectious chorus, includes some delightfully introspective and insightful lines as it moves through a steady roots groove populated with shimmering psychedelic elements. 

    Maximum vibes up inna Todmorden areee-ah! 

     

    STAFF COMMENTS

    Matt says: Proper reggae royalty on this GLS 7". Manesseh with his storied London soundsystem history and Gateshead with his celebrity tour DJ credentials. Both collide inna soundclash stylee on the highly collectable Golden Lion series.

    TRACK LISTING

    Nick Manasseh - Lion's Paw
    Earl Gateshead - Dirty City

    A coup to have The Lovely Eggs on GLS! Both band and label fiercely independent, staunchly creative and, of course, based right here in North West Great Britania! First outing for Hannibal Rex, which I hypothesize is one of the in-house Golden Lion loons on guest cameo. Either that or just a friend of band or label.

    Our Lancastrian mavericks contribute a rotating behemoth of spiraling krautpunk that Mark Smith himself would be envious of. Like a rockabilly spinning out of control listening to Can; this 7" rocket blast should have bar stools swinging and tables flailing by the end of its rotation.

    The mysterious Hannibal Rex gets totally Todmorden and mixed knackered drum machines, eastern ragas, western guitar and a cloudless state of mind conjuring up from the mighty a hills as technicoloured storm of conspiracy theories and chaos. An unguarded at one the senses that'll make compete sense after foraging around the fields of the record label's basecamp.

    An unmissable edition to the GLS catalogue and one that's certain to be feverishly collected by The Lovely Eggs' cult fanbase! Speed is off the essence heathens! 


    STAFF COMMENTS

    Matt says: Can't get enough of that Lovely Eggs track. I have indeed, got it on repeat! Proper Can / Fall-esque growling repetition that really gets inside your melon. Ace!

    TRACK LISTING

    The Lovely Eggs– Repeat It (Andy Votel Remix)
    Hannibal Rex– Cosmic Yolks

    Number six in the highly collectable Golden Lion Sounds series - featuring artists and friends of the iconic Todmorden based hub and released on limited edition vinyl. A true treasure and curio of Yorkshire musical and cultural history!

    Manchester's Henge take over side A with a jaunty, indie-psyche number. Guided by a waspy synth motif and marching drums, it's as reassuringly eccentric and grooving as we've come to expect from this bunch of noisy weirdos.

    Speaking of weird and wonderful, anyone who's witnessed Tirikilatops crazed live show will enjoy "Tomato", which captures all the quirky Korean-influenced madness over a kinda Eurodans / K-Pop hybrid which reflects the luminous colour palette of the 7"'s center label and somehow manages to align itself with International Teachers Of Pop and recent outings by Confidence Man all at once!

    The Lion roars strong once more!! Stupendously limited copies, will sell out pronto! 


    STAFF COMMENTS

    Matt says: Inspired, Korean influenced synth-pop madness here from Tirikilatops and the crazies at The Golden Lion. Meanwhile, local pranksters Henge embrace middle age, swapping the Quaaludes for valerian tea but remaining deliciously outrageous as ever.

    TRACK LISTING

    Henge - Valerian Tea
    Tirikilatops - Tomato 


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