Now this can be considered a very odd thing to do... Porl King of Miserylab fame has created a side project called In Death It Ends

Clearly a vanity project to release some atmospheric and claustrophobic instrumentals, he chose a C60 cassette tape as the format on which to release the debut album !!

Though I missed out on the very limited cassette run there is a more conventional download available through the Miserylab website of the album Forgotten Knowledge.

The music is a pulsing, dark and menacing brew with occasional flashes of keyboard to alleviate the gloom..... Title are kept mainly to a single word - Covet, Evoke, Summon....

There are some sampled female vocals in the tracks Rite and Forgotten Knowledge which catch the ear and one track, We All Die, with vocals from Porl.

The sound doesn't differ too much from Miserylab (both are musical visions from the same individual so what do you expect ?) but there is enough interesting differences in both the rhythms and overall feel to make this a worthwhile purchase

Having finally got a turntable in place I can review my Record Day Store purchases from April....

First up is a double A side 7" from Nerina Pallot. You have to wonder what this lady has to do to get more airplay - Side A, All Bets Are Off, is a string laden piece of summery pop which Radio 2 and the commercial stations should have on heavy rotation. And to top it off you have Bernard Butler contributing a short but sweet guitar solo in the middle. Side AA, Butterfly is more forceful and features a guitar intro from Butler which curiously sounds a bit like it was lifted from a 80's track by The Cult. Throughout Pallots' world weary vocals are spot on and she should be such a bigger star.

Second up is remix 12" from Simple Minds. Curiously the tracks come from different albums but is in keeping with their current nostalgia for their early albums. Moby has remixed the instrumental, Theme For Great Cities from the Sisters Feeling Call album. The main difference seems to be to update the track as a shiny piece of dance music. Having re listened to the original I can't say the remix was at all needed. The flip side is John Leckie's remix of I Travel from the Empire And Dance album. If anything this mix is even less essential - I've sat and listened a couple and times and struggle to even work out if their is any difference to the original.... Great to have this 2 songs on vinyl but the remixes are a complete waste of time.

Finally a 9" EP from The Smoke Fairies to celebrate their forthcoming second album. The opening track, The Three Of Us, features some gorgeous swampy slide guitar and a full bass/drum compliment which makes this their heaviest rack to date. The second track, Radio Clicks On dials back the heaviness and has a bit of a west coast vibe.
Bells is the track that sounds most like an outtake from the debut album, all acoustic guitars and fabulous harmonies. The final track, The Wireless, carries on the mellow acoustic feel.
The opening track suggest a harder, heavier direction which could be really intriguing if it's carried forward onto the new album - Can't wait.

I do have one more purchase, a 7" from the Civil Wars featuring their cover of Michael Jackson's Billie Jean but the record is currently sat in Bristol waiting for me to collect it !

Had this album hanging around for a while but recently reminded to do a review by the band offering free downloads of all their albums last week..... Blueneck come from Bristol and manage to make it sound like the most desolate place on earth

Repetions is their 3rd album and is continues from where the magnificent last album, The Fallen Host, left off. It's in an exercise in melancholy and wanting yet you never quite understand what the yearning is for. The album contains huge swathes of piano and strings which ebb and swell to magnificent crescendoes of noise. Song titles such as Pneumothorax, Venger and Ellipis are meaningless but somehow more simple titles would make it feel less otherwordly.

Repetitions contains a lot more vocals than previous albums but they are not there to be listened to or deciphered to convey a mood. In a couple of songs the guitars come to the fore most noticeably in The Last Refuge but there is less of a that apocalytic thrashing heard on The Fallen Host album

A quite brilliant album and if you got for free then bargain of the year. Play with the lights out but never at the end of a bad day.

Based solely on a couple of reviews I bought Boys & Girls album by the Alabama Shakes only to find that everyone else knew they were the hot new thing !!

This is proper R&B rather than the Rap& Bling version.... A proper band with real soul and rythmn, all topped off with the most amazing voice. A version of Janis Joplin for those too young to remember
Beware though, there is nothing 'new' on here but they borrow well from history.

The first 3 songs include Hold On and Hang Loose which are prime examples of this bands potential. They groove with really purpose and highlight what the hype was about. The album is too long though and suffers badly towards the end were the enthusiam and ideads dry up before ending with the upbeat On Your Way and a flurry of cymbals

Brittany Howard's vocals are the real star quality on this album. She is no X Factor wannabe but someone singing from the heart even when the lyrics sound like they were the put together at the last minute from the Penguin book of song lyrics. The Chorus on Hold On really shows off her power

A fantastic vinyl album on side 1 but trailing off on side 2 - Interesting to see where they go next

Well it's only been 12 months since the official website advertised the latest offering from the Fields Of The Nephilim so in terms of previous delays it's almost on time.....

Ceremonies is not going to change anyone's view - You either already buy into the Nephilim mystique in which case you will adore it or this will still leave you feeling bewildered as to why anyone cares.

For all the packaging OTT latin subtitles - (Ad Mortem and Ad Vitam), DVD and double vinyl option, this is the soundtrack to two live shows from 2008 and should not be regarding as something 'new'

This is a second official live release and the attraction is the tracks from the Mourning Sun and Zoon albums that appear live for the first time. Songs such as Xiberia and Penetration have a distinct metallic feel and that can be felt through most of the album. Highlight from the new songs would be the epic 11 minute Mourning Sun which should have been the final song to end the album as a glorious celebration of whatever religious evocation Carl McCoy is trying for. Curiously the much slower and downbeat Celebrate ends the set.....

While this is still a great live document of where McCoy and his hired hands now stand, the original members and especially the bass playing of Tony Petitt are missed at times.

The rarely heard pair of tracks Wail Of Summer/ And There Your Heart Will Be Also from the album Elizium still show this to be a band that has to be experienced live but you should still firstly purchase the preposterously brilliant Earth Inferno for a demonstration of the Nephilim at the peak of their magnificent live power.

You know sometimes you buy an album on impulse..... Having read a couple of reviews and a recommendation, I downloaded an album by Terry Riley called A Rainbow in Curved Air. Recorded in the mid sixties it consists of two instrumentals lasting 18 and 21 mins.

It's definitely interesting but possibly not something you would listen to that often. It has the air of a man who on delivery of his new synthesiser decided he had to try every pedal, effect and button to see what it did.

The title track is more energetic and was obviously heard by Pete Townsend because he subsequently lifted the intro to Baba O'Reilly from about 4 minutes into the track ! The second track revels in the name of Poppy Nogood and the Phantom Band and is a more disconcerting 'song' as just as you settle into a section it shifts and drifts off in another direction

Not an easy listen but one for the devout muso in you only.

Waited a while but finally there is some new material from The Eden House. It's only a 5 track mini album but the Timeflows EP is worth seeking out.

The core musicians remain but as usual the vocals are taken on by a variety of female singers. The opening track Neversea is one of the rockier tracks they've done and feature guitar heroics from Simon Hinkler which could easily have come from the classic Mission album Children.

The pace then drops for Into the Red and The Only One which rely much more on gothic atmospheric and mesmerising vocals.

The album ends with the two part Timeflows track. Immediately the pulsing Nephilim like bass line pushes this into more epic territory. At over 12 minutes long this pushes deep into prog realms with part 2 of the song being an extended coda to the earlier exhilaration of part 1.

I've been lucky enough to purchase the album on as a 10" 180gsm vinyl and it sounds magnificent. Andy Jackson is the man Pink Floyd trust when is comes to remastering their back catalogue and even though his primary role in The Eden House is as a guitarist, the production is impeccable.

This is just meant to be a taster for a new album which already makes it my second most anticipate release of 2012 only beaten by the possible return of the mythical Carl McCoy.