Upset the Rhythm

NORMIL HAWAIIANS - Return of The Ranters

"Normil Hawaiians have always operated as a collective of musicians rather than a band per se, and for this third album, the group comprised Guy Smith, Simon Marchant, Alun Wilf" Williams, Noel Blanden, and Jimmy Miller. Recorded at Dave Andersons Foel Studio in Wales (sonic home of Amon Düül II and Hawkwind) in the winter of 1985 and 86, a time and a place triangulated from political, social, and geographical aspects, Return of the Ranters extended their free experiments in compelling arrhythmia and seemingly organized sound, taking a loose trajectory from their previous albums and earlier, more confrontational approach. The release of this album marks the first step in Upset the Rhythms plans to produce expanded reissues of the bands other two epic albums, More Wealth Than Money (1982) and Whats Going On? (1984). It was during the austere years of the post-punk permafrost that Normil Hawaiians third album, Return of the Ranters, was written, recorded, and shelved. The album opens amid vast clouds of atmosphere before the tape-looped violin of "Sianne Dont Work in a Factory" starts to drag the song out of itself and into a sparse yet tender love song, full of hope, exalted synths, and mechanized drum patterns. Acoustic guitars and walls of keyboard drone provide a fitting acre of space for the raw polemics of "Slums Still Stand," while "The Search for Um Gris" follows in full head-down, motorik mode with a miraculously hypnotic drum beat and whirling mood. "The Battle of Stonehenge" is a powerful and emotive recording detailing the bands personal experience of the police ransack of the Peace Convoy on June 1, 1985, and as a result provides the rallying point of album. Beginning bravely as a solitary spun-out voice, the song eventually becomes awash with choruses of guitar and reverberating synth, joined finally by adornments of violin and an entrancingly agile beat. "Mouldwarps Journey" concludes the album with ten minutes of epic improv, drawing on field recordings, murmured vocals, slowly phasing tonal clusters, a miasma of percussion, and wordless rapture. Lucid, candid, politically engaged, rarely metronomic but always humane, tired but still fighting, Normil Hawaiians third album has waited patiently for 30 years." - Upset the Rhythm.

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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.
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