RIOT SEASON : News & Updates

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Todd hit the big opple this week on their way to SXSW in Texas. You can catch em twice at the following venues :

Friday 12th March
@ DEATH BY AUDIO, Brooklyn (here + here)
with Vaz & Pygmy Shrews

Sunday 14t March
@ CAKE SHOP, Manhattan (here)
with Drunkdriver & Sewerkraut

They then head off to Austin for more shows including some with SHIT AND SHINE!. Click flyer above for full list of gigs

The delayed (but worth it) vinyl only debut self titled album from Sloath, is now up for pre-order via the release page (here)

artist: SLOATH
title: Sloath
catalogue # REPOSELP023
format: Limited Edition Vinyl Only LP (500 Only)
label: Riot Season
release date: April 2010

Sloath are a sickly, unwholesome, long & short-haired five piece from the south coast of England, brought together by a mutual desire to play the slowest, loudest and heaviest music possible using guitars, bass, drums and chant-like vocalisations.

Although formed in the summer of 2007, two years later, the original line-up of Luke and Leon (guitars), Kai (vocals), Dave (drums) and Tom (bass) finally recorded this album of loud, slow and heavy music at Brighton Electric Studios, which is to become their debut release on the Riot Season label.

The band has spent the last year touring up and down the UK & Europe, sharing stages with the likes of Acid Mothers Temple, Burial Hex, Om and White Mice, either delighting or tormenting unwary audiences with their obnoxious yet soothing psychadelic performances that has rightly earned them a fearsome reputation as a live entity.

Sloath are quite clearly enjoying themselves…

LP Tracklisting :

A1. Black Hole (11:01)
A2. Cane Trader (10:59)
B1. Please Maintain (21:59)

ALL CUSTOMERS PRE-ORDERING THE VINYL WILL RECEIVE A DOWNLOAD CODE TO GRAB A DIGITAL COPY OF THE ALBUM TOO (TO BE ISSUED NEARER RELEASE DATE)

HEY COLOSSUS & THE VAN HALEN TIME CAPSULE 'Eurogrumble Vol.1' SHIPPING NOW!

Thats right folks. The new Colossus vinyl has landed, as have the limited t-shirts to go with it. I've spent the day organising boxes etc and will now get down to sending out the pre-orders over the course of the next few days. So if you've ordered, sit tight its on the way!

artist: HEY COLOSSUS AND THE VAN HALEN TIME CAPSULE
title: 'Eurogrumble Vol 1'
catalogue # REPOSELP025
format: Limited Edition 500 Only LP
release date: March 1st 2010

Fifth album and a new six man line up. 12" black vinyl only, the way it should be. Almost seven years of flying under the radar doesn't seem to of bothered these stubborn souls. Back they roll with their second album on Riot Season. 'Happy Birthday', released August last year, plundered a top 30 spot in the Rock-a-rolla end of year charts, in fact it caused quite a stench wherever it was heard. "Channelling the no frills riffage of Black Flag and Melvins before drowning it under a sea of distorted feedback" said the heavy metal magazine Kerrang. "'Intense' is an overused description, but Hey Colossus deserve it. Utterly." wittered the doomed indie mag Plan B.

So be it.

Now with the addition of the Van Halen Time Capsule they've set their sites on the lights. The majick and jam of Germany in the 70's, and all things dingy, claustrophobic and killer from Whitehouse to The Heads. Recorded in their South London home, Dropout, the sludge and stink of previous efforts still prevails. Ooze ridden basement tapes created under a fug of the most suspicious odour, add in some swamp doom and it begins to fall into place. This fella is a melting pot of libellous ideas and ludicrous intentions.

The Question bubbles away for 3-4 minutes, 4 guitars weaving, 3 banjo's jizzing, 2 voices crumbling and a band trying to work it all out. Eventually his master's voice comes in. Like a failed preacher he passes over the information. It all falls into place. The album, this time piece, continues in the same vein over both sides. When it crushes it does so with no protest. When it rocks, it does it with Kraut stylings. When it's metal it is with no doubt. The more you listen the more you hear. Incantations from the other side keep drifting at you. It's more than it is. The last song, Wait Your Turn, spends a while ploughing a one killer riff furrow, before falling off the cliff into a clangathon that will peel the sclera from your eyes.

Be alone. Turn the lights out. Blaze one up. Crank it.

Wrapped in a sleeve depicting Masonic images taken during the recordings, liner notes from Loess Cos Yuh, the Spanish leading light on all things dark, this 12" is what it's all about.

HEY COLOSSUS GRUMBLE TEE : THIS LIMITED RUN IS NOW ALMOST ALL GONE. PLEASE SEE ORDER PAGE (HERE) FOR UPDATES

As with the recent Todd Big Ripper release, we've decided to do it again. Please stand and be welcoming for the spanking HEY COLOSSUS Grumble tee!

As always, its professionally printed job on a washed effect black shirt with a worn looking (slightly off white) print. Its obviously GORGEOUS but there's no harm in saying it again is there ?.

Please make sure you pick your size carefully, these are not vintage style shirts like the recent Riot ones - so they shouldn't be too tight :-)

The wonderful folks at Clan Destine Records have just released a cassette only HEY COLOSSUS album, and i'm lucky enough to have snagged a few for you lovely people. To order please click 'the other shop' link above

PLEASE NOTE : I only have limited quantities, if you order but are too late I will email you a full refund of course.

Todd 'Big Ripper' from Wire magazine. Upcoming Hey Colossus & Sloath albums from latest Rock A Rolla. Also, check out latest issue of ROCK A ROLLA for an interview with Dethscalator.

The delayed Big Ripper vinyl edition is now in stock and shipping to mailorder customers. It will hit the shops in January. The Ripper t-shirt is nearly all gone and will not be reprinted.

To buy the shirt on its own go here (sizes small & medium are now sold out and i'm down to the last few of L/XL/XXL now too)

artist: TODD
title: 'Big Ripper'
catalogue #: REPOSECD024/REPOSELP024
format: CD & Vinyl LP (500 Copies Only)
label: Riot Season

Release Info :

TODD are back!

Two years after the release of 'Comes To Your House' (Southern Records) and countless shows of hysteric noise and chaos worldwide they now deem the world to be ready for the next chapter. and their finest moment yet!

A slight line-up change, enough songs written for a triple album (and then disgarded as not being good enough!), a new studio and a new label (Riot Season) have all led to the band now becoming a tighter deal altogether. After a kiss and a hug from Southern, TODD felt the time had come to go it alone. They retreated to their island studio and began to strip everything back yet always keeping in mind what playing music meant to them. Slowly the songs began to come. Bursts of noise played over and over again until they began to take shape. Recorded 'in the red' in two days, mixed in a week then realised fully back at the mysterious TODDranch, "Big Ripper" was ready. It needed a home and only one home came to mind. Through a gentleman's agreement the deal with Riot Season was done.

The rest will be history...

Their balance of riffs, noise and magic is now even more astonishing while keeping the same intensity and beauty as they've always had. "Big Ripper" is an absolute killer on all levels. From the machine gun fire of 'Arista Disco' to the wall shaking 'Happy Easter Florida' via the super heavy 'The Rub' and the drugged despair of 'French and in France', TODD have mastered their art, blown it apart and started again.

"Big Ripper" is the one. The one they have always threatened to do. It is the sound of TODD inside your house. You don't get bands like this anymore and this third full length set is sure to leave many a jaw nailed to the floor. It's menacing, beautiful and above all the most intense thing you are likely to hear for a long, long time.

LP Tracklisting :

A1. Track Side Fire
A2. Happy Easter Florida
A3. Black Gold
A4. Between Them Two Roundabouts
A5. Julie B
A6. Country And Western Super Posters!
A7. Best Laid Plans
A8. Arista Disco
A9. The (R)Wub

B1. Walnut And Leather
B2. French And In France
B3. Hard Life
B4. French And Out Of France

CD Tracklisting :

1. Track Side Fire
2. Happy Easter Florida
3. Black Gold
4. Between Them Two Roundabouts
5. Julie B
6. Country And Western Super Posters!
7. Best Laid Plans
8. Arista Disco
9. The (R)Wub
10. Walnut And Leather
11. French And In France
12. Hard Life
13. French And Out Of France

"Like the stout-chested lumberjack who graces the sleeve art, the Anglo-American noise outfit Todd's new album strides purposefully into view to unleash one of the most histrionic and overloaded rock albums of recent memory. Not since the halcyon days of Mainliner and High Rise, when Asahito Nanjo was in his Ray-Banned pomp has there been an album so comprehensively lathered in seething distortion and hyper-speed mayhem. Its first half features the lecherous likes of "Happy Easter Florida" and "Black Gold", blasted fragments which writhe and undulate to the strains of glutinous riffs and abrupt, head-spinning low end. The warm molasses guitar sound of "Best Laid Plans" is the only respite from the frenzied rock 'n' roll dismemberment erupting all around it, as Lawrence's psychotic vocal screeds a truly demented aspect without caution or care that has always served the band well. The latter half's descent into ghoulish experiment concludes an album that is an embarrassment of filth-ridden sonic riches, and is surely one of the most exhilarating and truculent albums of the year." ROCK-A-ROLLA

HEY COLOSSUS Vs DETHSCALATOR SPLIT LP (ON RIOT OFFSHOOT BLACK LABS) OUT NOW

Just a reminder for those already not enjoying its warped delights. The first release on Riot Season's new sister label Black Labs is in the shops as of today. And if its good enough for Uhura, it really should be good enough for all ...

BUY IT DIRECT : http://www.riotseason.com/UHURA1.htm

Or visit your local independent store of course. A thing we should all do more often.

Blurb :

So here it is, the first release on Black Labs, sister label to UK label Riot Season. A limited edition 500 only split vinyl LP featuring two of the toughest cocks on the block. Black Labs unites two of Britain's creamiest, shadiest, hell mongers Hey Colossus and Dethscalator, for a split album and you're going to cop it massively in the face till you fall in. Three new long tracks from Hey Colossus and five from new boys on the chopping block Dethscalator. Clocking in at around 40 minutes and wrapped in a gorgeous sleeve.

Hey Colossus and Dethscalator are two truly unhinged faces of the same rotting, mid air spinning bad apple, storming down their steaming rays of utter pitilessness, the bastards. Locking you in it's in highbeam and telling you everything you don't think you want to know, but secretly do, axes raised high, trapped voices dragging you down into the dim well. Both know the path to unbridled feedbacking euphoria and putrid atmospheric depth and are allowing the lucky few to climb inside the gungey joey pocket of fate and soar and crash over and over. Flaying victims regularly home and abroad you will do well to serve yourself a hot steaming portion immediately.

LP Tracklisting :

HEY COLOSSUS :

A. Eyes For An Eye / Unlive Wire / Ain't No Love In The Mallet (21:08)

DETHSCALATOR :

B1. Festival Of Sticks (4:15)
B2. Canadians (4:32)
B3. You Know Nothing About Cars Or Martial Arts (4:20)
B4. Smooth No Holes (2:22)
B5. Kicking The Horns Off A Bull (3:18)

-------------------------------------------------

As you'd expect, its been getting some great feedback from the mailorder customers here and abroad already (see review from San Francisco's amazing Aquarius Records below). I only got 300 copies of this LP (and it is an album, not an EP), and now distro copies have been sent out I have less than 100 for mailorder folks. You can also buy direct from either band of course at gigs etc i'm sure.

"Latest eruption of doom-sludge-drone heaviness from UK kill team Hey Colossus, here teamed up with the awesomely named Dethscalator, but more on them in a second.

Hey Colossus continue to expand their epic dirge space rock, with three sprawling slow-jams, that oozes from slow burning drones, to lurching stumbling blackened crush, to metallic krautrock and back again, rumbling drones erupt into looped sounding riff heavy sludge workouts, the vocals a hellish bellow, feedback swirling all over the place, the band a beast, a lumbering sonic juggernaut, downtuned and crushing, but spaced out and psychedelic too. Folks into Shit And Shine might want to give these guys a try, the same sort of noise drenched fucked up mantra like mesmerizing heaviness. Amidst all that heaviness, the band do unwind into hypnotic post/space rock jams, simple and rhythmic, under a haze of murky buzz and jagged skree, but seem to eventually explode into either a squall of melting lysergic effects drenched freakout, or pounding black murk slow motion metal crush. We dig it either way!

Which brings us to Dethscalator, who we liked already, cuz, well, they're called Dethscalator, we're like that. Thankfully the sound lives up to the name, a gnarled blend of Gore like repetitive heaviness, and lo-slung Jesus Lizard like noise rock, the vocals especially, a dead ringer for David Yow, all scowly and sort of sung / spoken, and super distorted, with the band swinging all downtuned and seasick, until they lock into bursts of cyclical riffage, that sound almost looped, occasionally lifting off into some serious space rock territory, before falling back into another stretch of woozy metallic noise rock, culminating in the weird brooding noise rock slowjam that ends the record, murky and washed out and gloomy, weirdly melodic and super dark and creepy. Rad rad rad. Definitely need more Dethscalator in our lives, and heck more Hey Colossus while we're at it!

Features some awesomely fucked up and garish (and badly photoshopped) cover art, one eyed creep and headless biker anyone??"

Check out some samples on either the Riot myspace site or Black Labs very own myspace site here : www.myspace.com/blacklabsinc

To keep yourselves occupied check these myspace sites out :

SLOATH : www.myspace.com/sloathrock
HEY COLOSSUS : www.myspace.com/heycolossus
DRUNK DRIVER : www.myspace.com/drunkdriverusa
BLACK BONED ANGEL : www.myspace.com/blackbonedangelnz
SHIT AND SHINE : www.myspace.com/shitandshine
MEN OF UNITUS : www.myspace.com/menofunitus