"At last, a new studio LP from superb London duo, The Left Outsides, to follow up on 2018's amazing All That Remains. The basic building blocks remain the same -- half of the sound is Alison Cotton and her viola and keys, the other half is Mark Nicholas with a stunning array of guitars -- but the structures they create this time are darker and more forbidding than their antecedents. This album feels very much a piece of the season in which it is being released, as the leaves strip themselves from trees and the sky grows colder, greyer by the hour. More than once while Are You Sure I Was There spun I was put in mind of the classic Rainy Day LP, masterminded by Kendra Smith back in 1984. The Left Outsides possess the same sure grasp of that place where sorrow, ecstasy and psychedelics meet in a shower of dying stars. The tunes here are wonderful. Most are new, although a few have been heard before in different forms (if you knew where to listen.) 'The Wind No Longer Stirs the Trees' (with its glorious blend of backwards and forward motion) was on a 7" lathe, backed with 'As Night Falls' (a beautiful ode to the promise of winter.) The track 'Séance' was first recorded as part of a celebration of Help the Witch, the debut novel by former music critic Tom Cox. And 'My Reflection Once Was Me' (which recalls The Trees' epic tunes by combining massive blocks of raging guitar with Alison's steady vocals) was featured on the live A Place to Hide LP (FTR 552LP). The other compositions are all-new and utterly great. The tunes that Mark sings tend to evoke a certain '60s whisp. Whether it's the Floydian lilt of 'Only Time Will Tell,' the freakbeat pop of 'November on My Mind,' or 'Pictures of You,' which stacks a dreamy '60s overlay upon contempo pop structuring. Alison's vocals often display a more folky essence. 'The Stone Barn' has a vibe very similar to some of Sandy Denny's later solo work, grounded by stately piano chords. 'Things Can Never Be the Same' centers on a gorgeous mid-paced vocal performance, encased in spinning webs of very elegant guitar. And the conjoined vocals on 'A Face in the Crowd,' sit atop a huge fuzz riff, sounding like the perfect anthem for the new Slow Music Movement. They won't back down! And you shouldn't either..." - Byron Coley, 2020.
After nearly a decade of false starts, multiple game plans veering off the rails, and a handful of shattered hopes and/or dreams, the odyssey is finally complete—the new Fusetron site is here.
This is the first phase of a multipart rollout that will span the next few months: the currently browsable stock includes miscellaneous new releases from the past 8+ months (we have a lot of catching up to do), plus approximately a third of our backstock. Note that we’ve reduced/slashed prices on many titles and will continue to do so in order to make room for new stock. We’ll also be expanding / tweaking / improving / debugging the site itself (for example, we still have work to do on the automated international postage system, not to mention the inevitable inventory discrepancies that come with transferring an ancient and massive database to a new system).
Over the next few months, as we take inventory, clean house, and delve into our storage, we will be uploading thousands of additional items, gradually, on a near-daily basis. This will include the majority of the LPs, as well as many titles, in all formats, once thought long-gone. Many currently “sold out” items are likely to resurface.
Finally, once our general backstock is up (probably in the next two or three months) we’ll begin making our extensive stockpile of rarities available online for the first time: tons of random out-of-print titles, "deadstock," warehouse finds, secondhand collectibles, etc., accumulated over the past few decades.
Frequent/returning customers will be getting early access to these items. Details to follow on how this will work (a priority mailing list? a 'frequent flyer'-like program?), but it will not be based on dollars spent. We want to reward those who consistently support us, especially in the discogs marketplace era (to those who show up trying to poach five copies of a one-off rarity, and nothing else, ever… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ).
So—we suggest you take some time to dig through the site—even we’ve been surprised by what’s been turning up, and there’s much more to come.
