>
<

Feeding Tube/Cardinal Fuzz

COTTON, ALISON - Only Darkness Now

Edition of 300. "Here is the second solo LP by the wonderful London-based singer/multi-instrumentalist Alison Cotton. Originally issued on cassette by the mighty Bloxham Tapes, just about everyone who heard Only Darkness Now suggested it might make for an excellent LP. And hey -- they were right. Alison's debut LP All Is Quiet at the Ancient Theatre (FTR 424LP) received wide ranging critical acclaim from placing in the Guardians Writers 'Album Of The Year' to placing in the Quietus 'Albums of the Year'. Ms. Cotton has a storied past performing with Saloon and The Eighteenth Day of May, and she still may be found doing likewise with The Left Outsides . . . Only Darkness Now begins with a sidelong instrumental track, 'Behind the Spiderweb Gate,' during which Cotton displays her immense drone chops, organizing rich, thick layers of viola, Omnichord, and voice into the soundtrack for a totally immersive trip. The effect is such that seconds become minutes and as time stretches till eventually, in the peak, time ceases to have any meaning whatsoever -- a beautiful state to be transported too as everything slows down. You could spend a whole year listening to this one. The second side starts with 'In Solitude I Will Fade Away,' a collage of Alison's voice, twinned and then some. It's short and sweet with just a little drumming to move things along. 'How My Heart Bled in Bleeding Heart Yard' brims with as much longing as it title suggests. It opens with a long instrumental passage, emphasizing the human pace of a harmonium's breath patterns, soon joined by a viola, also offering tones of a very human quality. All of this swells into a chorale of immense and mournful depth before being joined by Nico-like vocals that raise a wordless alarm. 'The Hill Was Hollow' is a short mystery for percussion and violin. Unravel at your own peril. Finally there is 'Shirt of Lace.' This is a studio recording of one of Alison's regular live covers. The song is by the late Dorothy Carter (a visionary American musician whose work bridged experimental and medieval musics) and Cotton's version is a sheer blast -- her vocals curling and twisting high above a supple bed of key drones, string plucks and sliding arco passageways . . . one of the very few albums I can name that matches the cold fire of Nico's Marble Index and it does so without taking a single step that isn't purely Alison's own..." - Byron Coley, 2020.

  • Sale
  • Regular price $24.00


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.
I understand these terms

Sale

Unavailable

Sold Out