Sunday 19 February 2012

Old Man Gloom Charity LP

Like the rest of the world, I went through this major Isis / Pelican / Hydrahead phase back in about 2004. It got to the point where if a song was shorter than 6 minutes and had any vocals in it, I wasn't interested. Short angry blasts of hardcore weren't doing it for me at that point in time, as it all seemed a bit stale. It was all about 'post metal', or whatever that genre is called these days. Kinda funny now, given that today the situation is the complete opposite and I don't really listen to anything remotely like Isis these days as that style now seems played out and dull.

One band that I pre-dated my 2004 post metal phase, however, was OLD MAN GLOOM. I'd been into what Hydrahead were doing since their early days, and always enjoyed label owner Aaron Turner's various music projects, so naturally I checked out Old Man Gloom. Old Man Gloom was an interesting band. I have no idea how to describe their sound. Metal, post metal, hardcore sludge... all of these. I don't know. It doesn't really matter too much. But they were obsessed with apes in some way. Song titles from their debut album 'Meditations in B' include:

- Simian Alien Technology Message Received
- Rotten Primate
- An Evening At The Gentleman’s Club For Apes
- Test Result Alien Ape Distress Signal

Anyway, this was originally released by Tortuga Recordings on CD and then Magic Bullet Records put out the vinyl two or three years later. The first press was over 1,000 copies, after which there was a second pressing of only 150 in a silk screened sleeve. This was known as the 'Charity Edition' as all proceeds benefited the Great Ape Survival Project (whatever that is). Of the 150 charity copies, 120 were on black vinyl, and only 24 were on grey vinyl... and I finally managed to track one down.

Now that I finally tracked down a grey copy, I could let my black vinyl copy go. Get in touch if you are interested.

1 comment:

jhulud said...

I'd be down for the black copy. Get in touch.