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2LP
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OPT4 048LP
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Deluxe reissue of their 1989 sophomore album. Completely remastered. In 1989, while the musical world was fêting serial-killer worshipping noise bands, white boys with dreadlocks and the first glimmers of techno, one band -- The Wolfhounds -- was describing the times and the country exactly as they were. Or at least as they saw it. Well, not exactly. Formed as a frantic noisy fusion of sixties garage and independent post-punk in Romford in 1984, by 1986 it was the band's misfortunate to be corralled with the jangly and quirky bands of the era-defining C86 tape, given away free with the NME that year. The frustration of being lumped with the lumpen was already spilling over into a heightened creativity that would see the band release three LPs in 18 months, the first and perhaps most fully realized of which was Bright & Guilty. The band's sense of melody saw three singles taken off it, and all received plentiful radio play that resulted in enthusiastic audience responses when the band toured with My Bloody Valentine and the House of Love shortly after the LP came out. This renewed attention also saw them being threatened with legal action by the food company satirically targeted by one of the singles -- "Happy Shopper". The band's magpie listening habits also saw the first glimmers of an interest in sampling with the track "Cottonmouth", hip-hop in the drum rhythms of "Invisible People" and "Son of Nothing", discordant post-hardcore in non-specific song and even percussive hints of Tom Waits's Rain Dogs in Charterhouse. The album's lyrical themes have sustained the relevance of these 30-something year-old songs. The dictatorship of the class system over the economy is touched on in "Charterhouse", the unfairness of housing policy in "Rent Act" and "Red Tape Red Light", the desperation of not having enough money to even seek employment in "Useless Second Cousin". But there is contemplation and mystery, too: "Ropeswing"'s nostalgia for pre-teen childhood, "Invisible People"'s detailing of intangible weaknesses. Of all their peers, The Wolfhounds post-C86 output stands up straight and proud, and you'll find echoes of their sound in Fontaines DC, Idles, and many others -- but not performed with the brashness, vigor and uniqueness of the originals. Original LP with bonus disc with all the A and B sides, some compilation tracks and an outtake. Gatefold sleeve; pale blue vinyl; includes 12-page booklet containing previously unpublished lyrics and tons of contemporary reviews and photos.
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LP
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TURN 076C-LP
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Yellow vinyl version. Electric Music is The Wolfhounds' follow-up to the Untied Kingdom on Optic Nerve (OPT4 032CD, 2016) and The Complete John Peel Sessions (2018). Having now been recording and gigging for longer than their original 1980s incarnation, The Wolfhounds continue to hone the blade of their sound to outclass their whippersnapper competitors on Electric Music. From the desperate narrator of the opening anthem "Can't See The Light", unable to see an end to his descent into darkness to the sad urban reminiscences of the rural immigrant in "Song Of The Afghan Shopkeeper" and the unwilling draftee in "Pointless Killing", to the powerlessness of people tossed around on the waves of history and progress in "Like Driftwood" -- Wolfhounds ask where our emotional and actual lives are heading, as the world seemingly freefalls into barbarism. With the dreaded feeling that "Lightning's Going To Strike Again", you lack even the appealing soundtrack to the catastrophe of the past described in "... and Electric Music", and the band ask will "The Roaches" once more rule the world (if they ever stopped)? Is the solution to "Stand Apart" from the chaotic crowd or admit, cynically, that "We Don't Believe Anything" and roll with the movements of the masses? Featuring the glowing sleeve notes of comedian Stewart Lee, and a new expanded line-up including electric violin and bassoon from Scritti Politti's Rhodri Marsden, and peppered with the barbed lyrics and stinging guitar of David Lance Callahan and the home-made hybrid stringed instruments of guitarist Andy Golding, the Wolfhounds have never sounded more alive, energetic, and contemporary.
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CD
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TURN 076CD
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Electric Music is The Wolfhounds' follow-up to the Untied Kingdom on Optic Nerve (OPT4 032CD, 2016) and The Complete John Peel Sessions (2018). Having now been recording and gigging for longer than their original 1980s incarnation, The Wolfhounds continue to hone the blade of their sound to outclass their whippersnapper competitors on Electric Music. From the desperate narrator of the opening anthem "Can't See The Light", unable to see an end to his descent into darkness to the sad urban reminiscences of the rural immigrant in "Song Of The Afghan Shopkeeper" and the unwilling draftee in "Pointless Killing", to the powerlessness of people tossed around on the waves of history and progress in "Like Driftwood" -- Wolfhounds ask where our emotional and actual lives are heading, as the world seemingly freefalls into barbarism. With the dreaded feeling that "Lightning's Going To Strike Again", you lack even the appealing soundtrack to the catastrophe of the past described in "... and Electric Music", and the band ask will "The Roaches" once more rule the world (if they ever stopped)? Is the solution to "Stand Apart" from the chaotic crowd or admit, cynically, that "We Don't Believe Anything" and roll with the movements of the masses? Featuring the glowing sleeve notes of comedian Stewart Lee, and a new expanded line-up including electric violin and bassoon from Scritti Politti's Rhodri Marsden, and peppered with the barbed lyrics and stinging guitar of David Lance Callahan and the home-made hybrid stringed instruments of guitarist Andy Golding, the Wolfhounds have never sounded more alive, energetic, and contemporary.
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CD
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OPT4 032CD
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A CD issue of The Wolfhounds' modern underground classic, Untied Kingdom (... Or How To Come To Terms With Your Culture), originally released on vinyl in 2016. This consolidates a few years of intense activity which has included the singles compilation CD Middle-Aged Freaks in 2015 and the almost simultaneous reissue of their 1986 debut Unseen Ripples From A Pebble. Untied Kingdom is the band's first standalone album since Attitude (1990). It is The Wolfhounds' most far-reaching release yet, from the opening acapella iPhone-manipulated folk resurrection of "Apparition", to the apocalyptic repetition of the electric violin and detuned guitar-driven "Across The River Of Death". Incorporating sample-mangled dub, freakbeat protest punk, and late-night unplugged lo-fi along its 50-minute plus wayward journey, Untied Kingdom goes musically and lyrically everywhere other bands can't or won't go. The album summons dystopic dysfunctional hallucinations of desperate working life and insecurity, while at the same time being as raw and hardcore celebratory as danceable blues. It's as modern as any young band could hope to be, but as wise and disturbed as any alert adult has to be. It conjures up demons of the fiercest rock along with the unfettered experimentation of singer Callahan's previous band, Moonshake, plus massive riffs and neat pop hooks, to form an expansive whole with surprises around every spin of the turntable. Originally formed as teenagers in 1984, the band appeared on the legendary and influential C86 cassette (1986), and released four critically acclaimed LPs and many singles, while touring extensively before breaking up in 1990. The band reformed in 2006 to celebrate 20 years since the release of C86, and inflicted a severe guitar noise-fest on an unsuspecting indie pop crowd at London's ICA. The last LP Middle Aged Freaks and reissued debut Unseen Ripples From A Pebble both received further critical plaudits and numerous plays on BBC 6Music, and even more for the initial release of Untied Kingdom. Despite being past their 30th anniversary, Untied Kingdom now shows they can blow any act half their age offstage, while outclassing them creatively in every way. The Wolfhounds are back and better than ever. Guests include: Terry Edwards (Gallon Drunk, PJ Harvey) - saxophone, trumpet; Rhodri Marsden (Scritti Politti) - keyboards; Katherine Mountain Whitaker (Evans The Death) - vocals; Astrud Steehouder (Paper Dollhouse) - vocals; Elin Grimstad (Je Suis Animal) - vocals.
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