Newness imminent from Records on Ribs!

All The Empires of the World

Yes! After their critically acclaimed ‘Last Rites EP’, All The Empires of the World will (very) shortly be releasing their full length debut Blessings with us. It sees them moving in a slightly more progressive direction, but without toning down any of their trademark stargazing sludge. A second version- featuring contributions from members of Astrohenge, The Exploits of Elaine, …And Stars Collide and others will be out sometime in the new year too. Bonus!

Spiral Jacobs

Mr Dominic Fox has just published an excellent book. It is worth quoting the blurb in full:

To live well in the world one must be able to enjoy it: to love, Freud says, and work. Dejection is the state of being in which such enjoyment is no longer possible. There is an aesthetic dimension to dejection, in which the world appears in a new light. In this book, the dark serenity of dejection is examined through a study of the poetry of Hopkins and Coleridge, and the music of ‘depressive’ black metal artists such as Burzum and Xasthur. The author then develops a theory of ‘militant dysphoria’ via an analysis of the writings of the Red Army Fraction’s activist-theoretician, Ulrike Meinhof. The book argues that the ‘cold world’ of dejection is one in which new creative and political possibilities, as well as dangers, can arise. It is not enough to live well in the world: one must also be able to affirm that another world is possible.

And we will be releasing his excellent companion album, Prolegomenon. Eight dysphoric tracks of hopeful alienation: International Socialist Ambient Black Metal for a cold world and for a better world. Cover art from Toby Price.

EL Heath

Fresh from touring Europe with epic45, EL Heath is putting the finishing touches to an album about the long clsoed Snailbeach Lead Mines, which are near his Shropshire home. Tracks evoke the eerieness of desolation whilst purveying a sense of the clatter that once must have filled these mines. Three tracks can be heard on his myspace, including Heath’s first venture into ‘conventional’ songwriting with the heartbreaking ‘Tragedy at George’s Shaft’. We will be actively seeking donations for this release, with all proceeds going to the Shropshire Mines Trust. The new year will also see Heath release his mini-album Shropshire Hill Country via Wayside and Woodland.

Ga’an

We’re just a little bit excited about this one. Ga’an are a Chicago band who blend the aesthetics of prog, kraut, ambient, post-punk and black metal to create something compellingly otherworldly. They’ve self-released two tapes thus far and we’re mind-blowingly excited to be able to re-release them. Vultures of the Horn II: Living Tribunal is one of my absolute favourite pieces of music right now.

Earth Defence Force

Last but by no means least, purveyors of the finest hardcore/punk/metal Earth Defence Force will be gracing Records On Ribs with their debut album once we sort album artwork out. Recorded by production genius Ian Boult at the marvellous Stuck On A Name Recordings, Nottingham. Imminent riffs.

‘It’s About Time’ is now out and you are able to download it. Please do. It’s a really clever record, filled with inventive beats and smart rhymes and is certainly more than worth some of your, ahem, time.

Like all good websites, we already have an RSS feed for our news, the very news you see on this page. But wouldn’t it be good if you could have the same concentrated just on releases, so every time we get a new record out you are made aware of it, and can grab it as soon as possible?

Fortunately Ribcage, the shadowy software that runs this site, allows for it. We have have an RSS feed for releases you can subscribe to and an individual RSS feed for every artist (for example, here is Talk Less, Say More‘s). The format is simple you can even work it out manually – http://recordsonribs.com/artists/your_artist/feed. Just copy and paste the link and add it in your favourite feed reader.

If you are using Firefox (57% of the users to this site) click the RSS icon in the address bar on any page of the site and select “Records On Ribs Releases RSS feed”, or navigate to any of our artist pages or release pages and select (in this case) “EL Heath Releases RSS feed”. Its pretty self explanatory, but if you need a hand, help is here. Never miss a release again!

This all Greek to you? Wikipedia is your friend.

Hello!
The tumult of our launch may be subsiding, but we continue to paddle madly below the surface like the proverbial swan. And this effort is not without its rewards- for we find ourselves in the position of being able to announce to you both new records and new signings, as well as some exciting news about old releases.

We will deal with the latter first.

New Signings

It brings us enormous pleasure to inform you that Oxford’s quite remarkable Elapse-O will release their debut EP with us very shortly. They’re currently putting the finishing touches to it. We will have more details and a release date very shortly, but the impatient amongst you (and good on you- patience is no virtue) can head over to their myspace page, where they will be battered into submission by the offerings available there. Fans of Swans, Spacemen 3 and being punched so often it starts to feel good will find plenty to enjoy there. More eulogising as to their splendour can be found in this excellent drownedinsound article on southeast noise.

New Releases

For those whose thrills are of a more genteel nature we are proud to announce a new album length release from EL Heath, which will be released for free download on Thursday 21st Feb. Entitled ‘Winter Soundtrack’, it is exactly that – tunes recorded at Heath’s Shropshire home this winter with the aim of capturing the beauty arising from the marriage of countryside and winter. It’s as gorgeous as you’d expect from Heath – elements of folk weaving their way in and out of the lush ambience. A wintry companion to Virginia Astley’s ‘From Gardens Where We Feel Secure’, perhaps.

Exciting News About a Past Release

EL Heath has also garnered richly deserved praise for his ‘Dusk Dappled Fall’, which is compared to both a major televisual drama and ambient-drone legends Stars of the Lid in angryape’s review. Reviews will soon be incorporated into each album’s page on the ROR site.

In Other News

EL Heath’s mighty fine Reflecting EP is available as a joint release from the lovely folks at My Formica Table and Either/Or Records. Like ourselves, their music is free – and we can vouch for the quality of Reflecting. Its closing track- ‘epick’- must be heard to be believed, and even then skepticism will linger: how can a mortal being produce such wonder from a synthesizer or two and a loop pedal?

Rescuing us from an EL Heath news monopoly come Strap the Button, and the news that they’re on a 3CD compilation entitled Brave New Wales. It’s compiled by the superb Fourier Transform label, and they say this about it: “some of the best new music being made off the grid and under the radar by artists from and/or living in Wales. 4 hours of challenging music spread over 3 discs, with 32 page booklet, housed in a custom foil-embossed box. Limited edition of 1000.” Wow! You can pre-order copies from their website now. It looks absolutely stunning, we have to say.