This post is about the power of friends and their influence on each other and my life.
This year Ralf got really into the band Karate. I hadn't listened to this band since about 2006 or so. My journey with the band was basically that I got the first LP when it came out in 1995, the second LP when it came out in 1997, and then I saw them live around this time and recorded the show with my video camera (and still have it on a tape somewhere). After this I gave up on them, although I eventually got around to giving their 3rd LP ('The Bed Is In The Ocean') a go years after it came out, in 2006 I think, and got really into it and cursed myself for ignoring it when it came out. I also bought a 12" of covers called 'In The Fishtank' which I only played about twice. But for some reason I went no further. Well, this year I dusted off those old records following posts from Ralf (here, here, here and here. And then it seemed that Ralf also caught Mike's attention too, and he got sucked into buying and posting a couple of Karate records (here and here. And then I noticed an announcement that there was a new album coming out this year, which was going to be the first in twenty years. Suddenly it felt like Karate was everywhere, so I did what I often do in such situations.. I jumped on the bandwagon and bought the new album.
It was nice to see that there were only two different colours of vinyl available for this record, in a world where every new record seems to get pressed on ten different splatter variations, each available from different a different retailer. I wasn't sure which colour to choose, but decided to go for the 'blonde' vinyl as it looked like it would be a good match to the cover... which it absolutely is. I don't know the pressing info, but this is definitely the more limited of the two colours.
'Make It Fit' was officially released a little under a month ago, on 18 October 2024. I think it landed on my doorstep on the day of release, and I think I have listened to it once a day since. It's a really great record and I am really thankful to my friends for reminding me how great this band was, and still is. This id definitely one of the highlights of 2024 so far.
Hey, wait... where did Geoff go?