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2LP
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SR 514LP
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$31.50
PREORDER
RELEASE DATE: 6/12/2026
Following Murder Ballads [Drift] (2021, SR 506LP) and Murder Ballads [Passages], (2022, SR 510LP) here is the last chapter of the trilogy: Murder Ballads [Incest Songs]. First time on LP vinyl. Textured sleeve with marbled vinyl. Incest Songs is the final chapter of the Murder Ballads trilogy, and its most fully realized expression. Where Drift and Passages explored the post-isolationist frame through voice and single instrument, this third volume dispenses with that approach entirely, opening instead onto a more labyrinthine sonic architecture -- one built from overlapping, saturating, blurring voices, all of them Martyn Bates'. The decision feels both inevitable and quietly inspired. Bates' vocalizations unfold as layered calls and responses, muted and distant echoes, sung whispers and counter-melodies, ultimately resolving into a mesmeric conversation of musical inferences and correspondences. There is a mellifluous, dream-like quality to the whole -- infused with that characteristic stillness that slow, hypnotic unfolding of gossamer subtlety -- yet never quite losing a certain drugged, disquieting beauty beneath its surface. Incest Songs pushes the post-isolationist form further out than either of its predecessors, innovating and extemporizing with a dazzling assurance. And yet, remarkably, this remains a territory still almost entirely unexplored by other artists -- the sole province, it seems, of M.J. Harris and Martyn Bates. As Bates himself reflects: "I feel, in personal terms -- listening to it, I think it's easy to detect that the whole thing has been a truly exhilarating experience for the both of us, realizing and developing this strange, sublime creature of ours -- and now I guess it's up to others to take up the challenge, to build on what we've done -- and I think that there are still SO MANY fantastic possibilities." Re-emerging thirty years after its initial inception -- somewhat surprisingly, Murder Ballads [Incest Songs] still remains/exists in an area overlooked by other artists, an area that truly still remains the sole province of M.J. Harris/Martyn Bates.
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2LP
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SR 510LP
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Following Murder Ballads [Drift] (SR 506LP), here is, for the first time on vinyl, Murder Ballads [Passages]. Post-isolationist, deep ambiance, and folksong re-emerge in this first vinyl outing of the classic Murder Ballads [Drift] by Mick Harris and Martyn Bates. Rarely do two types of music meet on a level where they threaten to cancel each other out -- let alone create something even more meaningful in their mutual vanishing. But the music created within the seminal Murder Ballads [Drift] by Martyn Bates (Eyeless in Gaza, and solo) and Mick Harris (Napalm Death, Lull, Painkiller, Scorn) creates just such a world. Murder Ballads [Drift] evolves Martyn Bates vocalizations/storytelling song-voices, by turns expressed as labyrinthine layers, calls and responses, muted and distant echoes, sung whispers and counter-melodies, ultimately resulting in a mesmeric conversation of musical inferences and correspondences. Murder Ballads [Drift] created the post-isolationist frame of reference, innovating and extemporizing into a truly original dazzlingly unique form. Mick Harris traffics in the isolationist ambience of Lull, while Martyn Bates is the emotive voice of literate cult-pop duo Eyeless in Gaza. The unlikely pair -- one given to terminally frigid drone, the other to impassioned, bittersweet voicings -- finds common ground in folk music's most macabre tradition, the murder ballad. These ghoulish parables are awash in blood and tears, the strands of love, hate, birth, death, sin, and salvation entwined within like the roots of an ancient tree. Mothers callously kill their children; suitors slay their maidens without remorse; and fate exacts its cruel price from all. The archaic murder ballads that leak from Bates' vocal cords are intensely sad and carnal. They tend to leap off cliffs of hollow effects or drone darkly, offering neither a robust delivery nor an element of irony to take the edge off. The archetypal characters that live and die in them give life's full tragedy back to Harris' electronically numbed "post-isolationist" dreaming. Passages (originally released in 1997) plays out an unbreakable and timeless cycle of bloody folklore (people) and hypnotic soundscapes (the god who watches). The effect is chilling yet engrossing. Where most ambient music has barely enough courage to ring the doorbell and run, Murder Ballads slips through the cracks of the unconscious and does its work with remarkable ease. All the more reason to listen thoughtfully. In 2022 -- re-emerging 25 years after its initial inception -- somewhat surprisingly, Murder Ballads [Passages] still remains/exists in an area overlooked by other artists. Textured sleeve; marbled vinyl.
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2LP
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SR 506LP
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Restocked. For the first time on vinyl, the post-isolationist, deep ambiance and folksong classic Murder Ballads [Drift] by Mick Harris/Martyn Bates , originally released in 1994. Rarely do two types of music meet on a level where they threaten to cancel each other out -- let alone create something even more meaningful in their mutual vanishing. But the music created within the seminal Murder Ballads [Drift] by Martyn Bates (Eyeless in Gaza) and Mick Harris (Napalm Death, Lull, Painkiller, Scorn) creates just such a world. Murder Ballads [Drift] evolves Martyn Bates vocalizations/storytelling song-voices, by turns expressed as labyrinthine layers, calls and responses, muted and distant echoes, sung whispers and counter-melodies, ultimately resulting in a mesmeric conversation of musical inferences and correspondences. Murder Ballads [Drift] created the post-isolationist frame of reference, innovating and extemporizing into a truly original dazzlingly unique form. Mick Harris traffics in the isolationist ambience of Lull, while Martyn Bates is the emotive voice of literate cult-pop duo Eyeless in Gaza. The unlikely pair -- one given to terminally frigid drone, the other to impassioned, bittersweet voicings -- finds common ground in folk music's most macabre tradition, the murder ballad. These ghoulish parables are awash in blood and tears, the strands of love, hate, birth, death, sin, and salvation entwined within like the roots of an ancient tree. Mothers callously kill their children; suitors slay their maidens without remorse; and fate exacts its cruel price from all. The archaic murder ballads that leak from Bates' vocal cords are intensely sad and carnal. They tend to leap off cliffs of hollow effects or drone darkly, offering neither a robust delivery nor an element of irony to take the edge off. The archetypal characters that live and die in them give life's full tragedy back to Harris' electronically numbed "post-isolationist" dreaming. Drift plays out an unbreakable and timeless cycle of bloody folklore (people) and hypnotic soundscapes (the god who watches). Textured sleeve; Marbled vinyl.
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