Wednesday 11 January 2023

Writhe In Pain

Back at the end of the 90s I was into a Californian band called Impel. Within the space of a couple of years they put out four 7"s (two of which were splits) and a full length. They also toured Europe, and I saw them play in room upstairs in a pub one night, and before the show I went skating with the drummer for a little bit. He was a nice guy, a great skater and he gave me a demo (which is one of only about 10 cassettes that I own). I don't often listen to them anymore, but back then I really loved the band a lot. So when I saw a test press of one of their 7"s being offered for sale, it took me right back to 1997 and I felt pretty excited about it. A few minutes later and I had secured it, and for what I thought was a very fair price.

This was released on Ammunition Records in 1996. It was the band's first release. I got this from the guy who used to run the label, and it came in a normal sleeve.

Back when this came out, I was in the process of putting together a zine, and I ended up reviewing this 7" in that. I thought it would be interesting to retype what I wrote back in 1996 for this post. Here it is:

The one thing I noticed from the insert is that the singer is the guy from Kill Holiday. Surprising as it may seem, Impel also sound quite a lot like that band, but way better. They have a nice groove to them. Clean sounding rocky music from California, nothing too special, but obviously these guys have talent. Another summer record for me to pop in my walkman on a sunny day.

4 comments:

Mike said...

I don't know why, but I love the thought of you doing a zine back in the 90's. Also, never heard Impel, so I'm going to have to fix that.

geoff said...

i havent listened to that record in the longest time, i will now correct that. that record is another great example of a sleeve matching the color vinyl (which is an incredible vinyl color with great swirls). was it just luck matching them up?

mcs said...

I'm pretty sure that with the color matching, it is the artwork that is done first and then the vinyl colour is requested to match it. But I would also guess that it is probably quite rare for the label to specifically request that the vinyl matches the artwork. I would guess that more likely a label would ask for (say) 'blue vinyl' and just get back standard blue, rather than say 'blue vinyl that matches the cover art'. But I am guessing.

Tomas Andersson said...

Still have the Impel demo. Must have bought it from someone in Kill Holiday when they played here in Umeå in 1997.