The first slab in a possible new split series titled 'In Search Of Highs'

Both the bands here are instrumental trio's, BLOWN OUT (UK) & COMACOZER (Australia) are interlinked by history and their shared love of sonic psych explorations and both are here for Phase 1 of this cosmic experience.

You will no doubt already know the two bands gracing this first slab of wax. They're from worlds apart, geographically that is, but musically are very much on the same plain.

Both bands have multiple releases behind them, and this one is sure to pick them up new fans aplenty.

Blown Out deliver three relatively short (for them) blasts, channelling their inner Stooges / Marble Sheep coming on like grand funk space lords. Three tracks of groove sonics and head changes.

Comacozer go the opposite route and slide in with another of their trademark epic trips, that sucks everything around it into it's own cosmic gloop.

FORMAT INFORMATION

Coloured LP Info: Limited 500 only coloured vinyl exploration into the void. 250 copies pressed on purple vinyl and 250 on green vinyl. Housed in 350gsm printed sleeve with black inner and download code.

ORCHESTRA OF CONSTANT DISTRESS Are:
Joachim Nordwall (The Skull Defekts, iDEAL Recordings)
Anders Bryngelsson (Brainbombs, No Balls)
Henrik Rylander (The Skull Defekts, Union Carbide Productions)
Henrik Andersson

In the field of music or any contemporary cultural terrain, concepts like development dynamics and progression are used as aesthetic judgement. To any musician or composer, the idea of musical build up comes with a crisis, any attempt towards formal pleasure calls for suspicion that this desire is never one’s own.

In the case of Orchestra of Constant Distress this deadlock manifests itself in an impulse of refusal directed against any evolution and the result is the extreme generic and the absolute distress of normative noise and improvisation. Members with such experiences from The Skull Defekts, Union Carbide Productions, Brainbombs and No Balls are joined in assemblage of catatonic sounds, obstinate riffs and rigid rhythms.

FORMAT INFORMATION

Ltd LP Info: Limited edition 300 only black vinyl LP housed in a 350gsm printed sleeve with download code.

RRR was Hey Colossus’s seventh album, originally released back in 2011 by Riot Season on CD and ridiculously limited LP. This reissue has the original LP plus it comes with a bonus LP containing different takes and versions and a cut that didn't make the first press. It is housed in a single 350gsm fat spined printed sleeve with insert and download code.

THE STORY: The band had a weekend booked in at The Dropout Studio, Camberwell, the winter of 2010. They were going to do 'some recording'. The Friday of the weekend the six piece played a show at The Windmill in Brixton, home to the roof dog. The show was a typical (of the time) debauched affair, in the post show glow the band asked Jon (Notorious Hi-Fi Killers) and Leon (Shit+Shine) to come down to the session the following day: BRING GUITARS, WHAT CAN GO WRONG?. By noon they hadn't shown up so they got called: WHERE ARE YOU? Neither believed the offer to be true, by 1pm they showed up with guitar + synth in tow. An hour later RRR was being recorded by the now 8 piece band, lights down, volume up. Over 48 hours it was done. Not a single idea was brought to the table but somehow it all fell into place, assuming you think 'falling into place' sums up RRR (it totally does).

Legendary reviewing man, Peter Kemp (RIP), had this to say: "The record starts off with slow guitars and screaming ghostly voices like from a horror film, this first track ends with some talking and then goes into the next song which sounds like they are swinging the guitars around their heads and banging them on the floor....there are dark voices screaming ARRRRRRRRGGGHHHHH ARRRRRRRRRGGGGHHH ....The next song does sound a bit more Spanish as it starts with a guitar which sounds like a Spanish church bell and a deep voice which sounds like somebody praying and another voice which sounds like somebody dying....The closing song is faster and has talking in it and what sounds like a priest in the background and then lots of loud guitars come in - it is a good way to finish the record. Overall I think this was very good record by a brilliant band and I would give it ten out of ten."

The original vinyl sleeves were all handvpainted in Somerset by an artist called Chav, they took three months to do with each one being totally unique. The gatefold sleeves, all the inners were incredible works of art. The front and back were stencilled. The paint was blagged from a car spray paint firm, they sent three pallets to get the job done. A begging letter was sent to them and it fell onto some welcoming ears. Christ knows how it all came together. These copies are almost impossible to come by, rarely appearing anywhere. They sold out instantly.

This Riot Season re-releasing is limited to 500 copies. It won't get repressed again so for those who bought the original keep it safe and buy this one for the bonus record. For those new to the band following the record triple LP drop over the last couple of years on Rocket Recordings tuck in, but be prepared.

FORMAT INFORMATION

2xLtd LP includes MP3 Download Code.

In Their Own Words … ‘Happy Birthday’ was Hey Colossus’s 4th album, and it was originally released by Riot Season back in 2008 on CD only. The album marked the beginning of chapter two for the band, it was the first for Riot Season, the first where the wings were spread and the band took flight. Total noise rock, 100% out there sounds. The band was a 5 piece at the time and had just completed a tour of Spain that was riddled with ups and downs but mainly full of future talk.

Having done three albums on their own label the main topic was what next? 'You gotta keep moving' is the bands mantra, still is to this day - check the three recent records on Rocket Recordings and compare them to the first records. It was time to move away from conventional song writing and screw with the heads. ‘Happy Birthday’ was recorded in Dropout, South London. The only label they sent it too was Riot Season as Mainliner, Shit And Shine and Circle were doing stuff with them at that time.

Riot Season said YES so the CD was released. It was the beginning of the NOISE ROCK TRILOGY (HA-HA!) all on Riot Season, ‘Happy Birthday’, ‘Eurogrumble Vol 1’ and ‘RRR’. Now, nine years later it’s finally time for the vinyl version. No tweaks. No new mastering bullshit. Nothing different. Same songs, on a slab of classic black vinyl.

FORMAT INFORMATION

Ltd LP Info: Limited edition black vinyl LP in full colour spined outer sleeve with black inner. 400 retail copies for the world.

Ltd LP includes MP3 Download Code.

Scotland's favourite space-psych-rock-gods return with a new album 'Psych Is Dead' before heading out on a lengthy UK/European tour including appearances at all the key genre festivals such as Safe As Milk, Wrong Fest, DesertFest, Raw Power Festival and Karma Fest.

Formed in 2010, The Cosmic Dead are a quartet from Glasgow, Scotland who share their music through good vibes and better vibrations. Known for their improv, chaos strewn, Buckfast smashed against the wall take on space music, they have roamed from Roadburn to Las Vegas, Dundee to Bangalore with each album offering a meditative window into a certain time and space.

'Psych Is Dead' is the sixth full length album from the band, the glowing embers of a a few days spent recording in a sweaty Sardinian kitchen overlooking the Mediterranean Sea. Soon to be available on LP and CD via Riot Season Records, 'Psych Is Dead' is an aural exploration of their tumultuous universe.

STAFF COMMENTS

Barry says: Cosmic Dead have once again opened our minds with an expansive and hazy vision of reality. Chugging guitars and swirling synths mix with thunderous drums and all-round heavy vibes. It's a wonder their hearing is still ok with riffs like this going down.

Krause is the late unwanted child that sprung from the loins of the Athenian underground. As any child of such fate, at the end of 2015 they amassed their collective contempt for this world and gave it back to it with their debut LP “2AM THOUGHTS”, that is to be released as a collaboration between Riot Season (for EU & the world) and 3 Shades of Black (for Greece) in late January ’17. “2AM THOUGHTS” will also be presented in its entirety soon after its release in a very weird night with equally esteemed guests.

Even though the band are veterans of various scenes and genres, with active and past members of VULNUS, Cut off, Rita Mosss, Casual Nun, Progress of Inhumanity, Dusteroid and Straighthate, Krause was formed with the intention of playing 90s-inspired aggressive and dirty noise rock in the vein of AmRep bands like Unsane, Helmet, Today is the Day, Cherubs and more, something that none of them had done before but have long been huge fans of.

As members of other bands, they have shared the stage with bands like Cursed, Burst, Knut, Stamping Ground, Bong, Drunk in Hell, Consumer Electronics, Luminous Bodies and more.

FORMAT INFORMATION

Ltd LP Info: Limited edition 250 only black vinyl LP housed in 350gsm printed sleeve.

Knocking around the UK underground toilet scene for the past 4 or 5 years, Reading’s WORKIN’ MAN NOISE UNIT have been busy playing countless gigs, releasing limited run tapes/singles and making a nuisance of themselves on postage stamp sized stages around the country. Along the way they’ve picked up some fans, including the likes of Julian Cope who dragged them to London to perform at one of his book launches, and have shared stages with plenty of the current UK underground Mafioso including Hey Colossus, The Unit Ama, Good Throb, Carlton Melton, Terminal Cheesecake, the Wharves, Sly & the Family Drone, Grey Hairs, Gum Takes Tooth, Art of Burning Water, Henry Blacker, Perspex Flesh, Wolf People etc

SOME OF THE THINGS THIS RECORD IS ABOUT
Most of the songs on this record are pretty self-evident. Creepin’ Round is about feeling like an outsider. Smoke Like Hell is about choosing immediacy, choosing the ‘right now’. Jammer is sorta the same except it’s got a beady eye on what you might call ‘basic shamanism’, you know… Cruisin’ the IDR is about Reading’s Inner Distribution Road, which is a concrete blanket that snakes around the centre of the town, holding Reading in a sort of permanent stranglehold. It’s been there since the late 60s and it’s ugly to look at. Part of the IDR has big concrete walls and all you can see whilst driving through these sections is tarmac, concrete and, if you look up, sky. We drive around it a lot. Cruisin’ the IDR is the closest thing we will ever get to a ‘hometown’ song. Yeah, I was Hypnotised is about fascination with the atomic bomb, particularly the ubiquitous ‘mushroom cloud’ image but also the small matter of the human race making this thing in order to destroy itself en masse. Hate It is about apathy and feeling powerless to change owt going on. It’s also about recognising that apathy and trying to get yourself going, find a way through it. And about lying to yourself.

Julian Cope reviewing the bands ‘DRINKIN’ STELLA TO MAKE MUSIC TO DRINK STELLA’ cassette

“Okay, now deffo the best way to commence this month’s Reviews Section is to pop on to my nearest ‘90s ghetto blaster this manky chromate yellow cassette emblazoned with the simple words ‘play loud’. Brilliantly named DRINKIN’ STELLA TO MAKE MUSIC TO DRINK STELLA TO and magnificently performed by four English nuttas by the name of Workin’ Man Noise Unit, there’s enough cunted Mithraic fire within these two brief sides of monumental midrange and Tinnitus-inducing plateaux to summon up a whole new music scene around these geezers, nay, these Pyramids of Giza. What’s it sound like? Fuck knoweth, brothers’n’sisters. How about the bastard offspring of Final Solution-period Pere Ubu plays Tight Bros From Way Back When, or even the Electric Eels performing Monoshock’s ‘Model Citizen’ into a single compressor microphone. Sweeeeeett! A classic debut, kiddies; let’s just hope nobody with a studio comes to fuck’em up.”

Summed up nicely. PLAY LOUD.

FORMAT INFORMATION

Ltd LP Info: Limited edition 400 only black vinyl LP with download code and insert.

Early Mammal are a 3-piece based in the home of South London Sludge, Dropout Studios. Formed in 2012

Early Mammal are: Rob Herian - guitar, drone box & vocals, Ben Davis - drums & Ben Tat - bass & baritone guitars

The band released two albums in 2013 and received strong reviews. Debut album 'Horror at Pleasure' was released in April of that year on Devouter. Denis Belindir provided cosmos expanding synth on this brooding dark invitation through the woods of the mind. The album, as with all to date was recorded live at Drop out over the course of 3 days. The LP streams continuously combining raw power and claustrophobic psyche blues, coaxing and sometimes dragging the listener through its journey. Influences of Captain Beefheart, Aphrodite's Child, White Hills, Hawkwind and Uncle Acid and The Deadbeats can be heard:

Less than half a year later the band released 'My Fire' on Convoy records. This album found Dan Davies (Wolf people) joining to record a more experimental late night driving experience through psych-rock, Denis Belindir's distinctive Turkish tinged synth really taking the trip to different levels.

‘I have been blown away by this promo twice today! Think Pink Floyd soundtrack work circa 1970 and Irmin Schmidt's incredible 3 album run of 'filmmusik' + 'Toy Planet' 1980-81. Yes THAT good! Eurorock pulses; a bit of SanFranjam; driving around mainland Europe in the early 70's in a lorry left over from the war, worried about the last generation's involvement...easily the best recording I've yet heard from them but, once again, nothing like their tremendous live show, Valve amps wall of cabs- everyone dies overdrive...but the grooves are still tight’ TOBY MEARING RADIO SHOW

Two well received albums on Devouter and Convoy lead to the band supporting Bong, and Baba Yaga’s Hut gigs around London, including the Raw Power Festival 2014

Third album, 'Take a Lover' is proudly released September 2015 through Riot Season records. After the sudden departure of Denis Belindir on synth, the band regrouped with a reinvigorated sound. Taking the experimentation of My Fire, the narcotic muscularity of Horror at Pleasure, this album represents a new chapter out of the woods and showing greater depth. With the arrival of Ben Tat on bass and baritone guitars, the band shares two common ancestors now: Elks and 85bears. The upcoming release reflects the sound of a lineup finding order through the entropy of extended jams and developing their sound. Recorded at Dropout studios by the band. Take a Lover is live and captures a stream of single takes from two days of winter, December 2014. It has become the catalyst to yet again prolific recording and sets the tone for where Early Mammal are going next.

FORMAT INFORMATION

LP includes MP3 Download Code.

THIS IS A RECORD STORE DAY 2015 EXCLUSIVE, LIMITED TO ONE PER PERSON.

LIMITED EDITION RECORD STORE DAY EXCLUSIVE 400 ONLY VINYL LP, PRESSED ON NEON BLUE VINYL WITH DOWNLOAD CODE. FEATURING MEMBER OF HEY COLOSSUS & REIGNS

HENRY BLACKER have been up and down the country and into Europe relentlessly for the past 18 months, three times playing twice in a day, slamming heads in doors, raging left and right. Touring their debut, 'Hungry Dogs Will Eat Dirty Puddings' (Riot Season, 2014 Cat# REPOSELP039), and road testing the new tunes that have made up LP TWO: 'Summer Tombs'. Recorded in one brutal day, one voice-box shredding day. Westminster Brown (Part Chimp) at the desk, South London, back in September 2014.

Tunes are more complex, more speed, more frustrated, with the same vocal mangle and rhythmic splat. Seven tracks, 29 minutes, SET TO CRUISE CONTROL AND RIDE. In May they head out on tour with Torche in the UK, and other dates around it. ONWARDS.

Recorded in a snake pit, in a quarry, on top of a mountain, in the desert, at night, during a thunderstorm, BAD GUYNAECOLOGY is the second album from Hackney’s BAD GUYS. Not only that, they will be playing an album launch show on FRIDAY 13th MARCH – yes, you heard that right, unlucky for some but not for BAD GUYS – at London’s infamous Lexington venue ahead of a full run of UK dates.

Full of heavy riffs, pounding drums and wild vocals laid down on seven foot wide steel tape, then smelted into WAVs by an irritable dwarf in an ancient forge, in space - BAD GUYNAECOLOGY truly is the soundtrack to your generation. Whoever you are.

Bad Guys are a southerner, a midlander, a Canadian and a Hungarian.

Production duties on this album fell to esteemed metal producer Jaime Gomez Arellano (Ghost, Cathedral, Angel Witch).

Bad Guys have played at several ATP festivals without ever being asked, razed a chalet to the ground on one occasion and got heavily fined, then next time played directly outside the security guards’ accommodation and got shut down. Learning from experience they opted to play inside the main building next time and were shut down due to being a fire hazard.

They’ve played on the fourth plinth in Trafalger Square as part of Anthony Gormley’s ‘One and Other’ art installation, they were told to shut down then as well even though you were supposed to be able to do whatever you like.

They’ve played in a theatre, as part of a poorly judged bit of experimentalism by a director. They weren’t shut down but it was clear everyone wanted them to leave. Then they played in the life drawing room in the Royal Academy (the oldest life drawing room in the country), where they performed naked and people drew them, with varying degrees of success. They weren’t shut down and lot’s of intellectuals said it was interesting.

As well as all this stuff they’ve played in countless pubs and clubs and parties up and down the country and around Europe and have been generally very well received. Apart from in Glasgow where the promoter didn’t bother turning up, the DJ played techno to warm up and one drunk woman kept shouting at them to shut up.

FORMAT INFORMATION

CD Info: CD limited to 500 copies in digipack sleeve.

The renowned Japanese Cosmic freak-out heavyweights return with a brand new studio album and tour, marking ten years since their mothership first descended on the UK ....

Now a steady four piece led by Kawabata Makoto (guitar) and including Tsuyama Atsushi (bass/vocals), Higashi Hiroshi (synthesizer/guitar) and Shimura Koji (drums). The collective recorded the album in the aftermath of the Japan disaster at their mountaintop retreat where the collective still reside.

With the exception of the album's opener 'Chinese Flying Saucer' and it's unashamedly obvious musical references to Led Zeppelin II (hello 1969!) the rest of the album locks into a much more laid-back groove than on recent AMT releases. This dynamic shift is best displayed on the 22 minute jam, 'Shine On You Crazy Dynamite' and also the album's closer 'Electric Death Mantra'. The band opt for less frantic explosions of electric guitar overload and fuzz, replacing those elements with a more epic, blissed-out and at times brooding Japanese psychedelia, with more emphasis on acoustic guitars, sitar, organ, synthesiser and at times, really trippy vocals (most prevalent on 'Back Door Man Of Ghost Rails Inn'), recalling the twisted psychedelics of early Pink Floyd. Yet still, their sound remains so expansive that it is easy to become totally immersed in this album.

Epic in proportions, cloaked in a cosmic haze and shimmering in a synth utopia. The Ripper At Heaven's Gates Of Dark maintains AMT's status as masters of out-of-this-world music and reveals their darker side of the moon.

FORMAT INFORMATION

CD Info: CD is limited to 1500 copies, and is packaged in a special first edition 350gsm card gatefold sleeve. Repress will be in standard sleeve.

Introducing Dead Elephant who are: Enrico Tauraso (electric guitar, voice, power electronics, samples), Fulvio Grosso (electric bass, voice) and Omar Tomaino (drums).

'Thanatology' aims to investigate the process of acceptance of loss, a concept particularly timely in these transitional times in which we live. In order to understand precisely where the band are coming from with this concept, here is a deeper explanation: 

“In this order of things life can sometimes be cruel. Sometimes we feel caught in a strange trap. The events appear to us as a dark spiral and our destiny is lost in it. Within this dark spiral, it is very difficult understand what is right and what is wrong. There, something must burn and you must accept to lose it. From the consciousness that some things must die in order to for change to be born.”

Dead Elephant's powerful sonic assault has a wide range of influences from the heaviness of bands like Cherubs, Jesus Lizard, Colossamite, Melvins, Black Sabbath, Celtic Frost to the psychedelic attitudes of Ash Ra Tempel, Cluster, Neurosis and Badalamenti soundtracks, all prevalent throughout this latest record.

On 'Thanatology', Dead Elephant attack the listener with their claustrophobic and visceral sonic forces and fuse these brutally heavy sounds with moments of genuine haunting beauty, which are actual samples of the funeral marches of Southern Italy. The effects of these galvanizing forces are that of ultimate catharsis that not only challenge the listener, but also force one to question preconceptions of heavy music.

FORMAT INFORMATION

Ltd CD Info: Limited edition 500 only CD with 8 page booklet.