Constant Elevation

So I thought I'd sneak in one last post for the year. There are a couple of 2020 releases I haven't covered yet, and a whole stack of other records on my floor too, the year to cover them all. But one release I wanted to cover was the 2nd 7" by Constant Elevation... partly because I also realised that I never got around to putting up the first 7", which came out in 2019. So I figured at this point that the best thing would be to get it out of the way and cover off of both at the same time.

Anyway, by means of an introduction if you need one, Constant Elevation is another 'supergroup', being comprised of Sammy Siegler (from every NYC SXE band in the late 80s) and Vinny Caruana (vocalist of The Movielife). The debut 7" came out last year and I scooped the most limited version from Coretex pretty much immediately, but then I was waiting for the other two copies to show up before I took photos and wrote something. And it took me over a year to get around to it.

So first up, the 1st 7". The first copy I picked up was the green vinyl, which was exclusive to Coretex Records in Berlin, Germany. As usual for a Coretext exclusive, this is hand numbered on a sticker which they have slapped straight onto the back cover.

According to Rev, there were 165 on green, although these are numbered out of 150, so I assume there were 15 that were not numbered. I think this came out somewhere around September 2019. It then took me about another 6 months to get around to ordering the other two colours from Rev, and after that it took 9 months for them to get to me. Both of the other colours were sold by Revelation. There was a red vinyl (out of 300) and also a yellow vinyl (out of 700).

So I was quite into the first 7". I thought it was a nice little 7" with some melody, and the first sone expecially really did remind me of The Movielife. Good stuff. I listened to it quite a lot, and always felt that it would be good to have a few more songs to listen to.

So then at some point this year, a second 7" was released, titled 'Freedom Beach'. As with the first 7", there were 3 colours of vinyl made, although one of the colours (white) was evenly split between Coretex Records and Generation Records in New York, with each store numbering their copies out of 100. So 3 vinyl colours, but technically 4 versions. And it doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to figure out how many copies I was going to buy.

First is the white vinyl Generation Records version. This one is out of 100 copies and is numbered on the paper dust sleeve:

Second, the white vinyl Coretex Records version. This one is also out of 100 copies, and is (as usual) numbered on the back cover via a Coretex sticker:

Fun fact - some of the Coretex version come in a misprinted sleeve version, with the opening being at the left side rather than at the top. I'm not sure how many were made like this, but apparently some were sent out before the mistake was spotted, and when they realised they then corrected the issue. So some have the misprint sleeve, others have the correct sleeve. I got one of the defective ones.

The third version is the Lilac and grey vinyl. I think there were 400 of this colour made and sold by Revelation. The colour goes quite nicely with the artwork.

And finally, the lilac and white vinyl. This is the most common colour, out of 800 copies. It's one colour on one side and another on the reverse.

I'm still unsure as to what I think of this record. The first song starts out real noisy, reminding me slightly of Septic Death for a few seconds. But that doesn't really last. Overall it's like the first 7" but without as much of the Movielife influence. I enjoy it when I listen to it, but I think the issue I have is that it isn't overly memorable. Will be interesting to see if this grows on me as time passes.