{"product_id":"the-shadow-ring-hold-onto-i-d","title":"THE SHADOW RING - Hold Onto I.D.","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"Recorded from late 1996 through early 1997,\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eHold Onto I.D.\u003c\/em\u003e,\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.blankforms.org\/contributors\/the-shadow-ring\" data-entity-type=\"node\" data-entity-uuid=\"9d2bd5b9-f79e-4153-80aa-39cbe38e80c5\" data-entity-substitution=\"canonical\" title=\"The Shadow Ring\"\u003eThe Shadow Ring\u003c\/a\u003e’s fourth album, marks the apogee of the trio’s experimental rock epoch—their last record clinging to their factitious bandness before they let all song and structure go awash in sonic malaise for their final run of releases on Swill Radio. The surrealist dreams of\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.blankforms.org\/publications\/the-shadow-ring-city-lights\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eCity Lights\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eand\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.blankforms.org\/publications\/the-shadow-ring-put-the-music-in-its-coffin\"\u003e\u003cem\u003ePut the Music in Its Coffin\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003egive way to pseudo-expressionistic lyrics mired in the banality and bleakness of the everyday, set against the backdrop of the Coombe House (as pictured on the album’s cover). While\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eHold Onto I.D.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eis the group’s most overtly autobiographical release to date,\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.blankforms.org\/contributors\/graham-lambkin\" data-entity-type=\"node\" data-entity-uuid=\"d86ba9ff-3996-4dfc-b6e8-666d62be01d6\" data-entity-substitution=\"canonical\" title=\"Graham Lambkin\"\u003eGraham Lambkin\u003c\/a\u003e’s lyrics obfuscate his expressionist tendencies filtering them through the codes and languages of officialdom, linking the “inner self” with documents of the state—identification cards, National Insurance numbers, and British passport numbers.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eHaving moved out of their parents’ homes and into the top floor of the famed Coombe House, Lambkin and Darren Harris set out to rework material drafted over the previous year, aided by Tim Goss, still safely in residence at the “Valebrook Inn.” While the familiar sounds of Harris’s deadpan recitation and Lambkin’s electric guitar, amateurishly strummed, dominate the album, the emotive interludes of Goss’s keyboards populate the record along with of home-cooked tape experiments and dime-store concrète. Originally released on CD and supported by a US tour with friends Scott Foust and Karla Borecky’s Idea Fire Company,\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eHold Onto I.D\u003c\/em\u003e. is perhaps the band’s best-known and most accessible album. (The Shadow Ring’s sole representative on a streaming platform, it was once acknowledged by the Guardian as one of “the 101 strangest records on Spotify.”) Offered here for the first time on vinyl,\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eHold Onto I.D.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eis an essential album for both completists and the uninitiated alike.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThroughout their legendary, decade-long run, The Shadow Ring were an enigmatic force on the international musical sub-underground. Before their disbandment in 2002, this shambolic rock outfit, formed by a group of rowdy teenagers in southeast England, left behind a mighty run of eight LPs, a handful of 7\"s, and a spate of raucous live shows and cryptic zine appearances on both sides of the Atlantic, all which have bolstered their enduring word-of-mouth mystique. Beginning in 2023 with the first-ever vinyl pressing of the self-released pre–Shadow Ring tape\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.blankforms.org\/publications\/the-cat-bells-club\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eThe Cat \u0026amp; Bells Club\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e(1992), Blank Forms Editions has been conducting a systematic retrospective of the storied group.\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.blankforms.org\/publications\/the-shadow-ring-wax-work-echoes\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eWax-Work Echoes\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eand\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eHold Onto I.D.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e \u003c\/span\u003eare the latest releases in a multiyear reissue effort that includes several LPs, a comprehensive CD box set, and a nearly five-hundred-page book.\" - Blank Forms\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Blank Forms","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":47487250170075,"sku":null,"price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/2295\/2925\/files\/BF-042HoldOntoI.D.frontcoverdigital0305.jpg?v=1755929358","url":"https:\/\/www.fusetronsound.com\/products\/the-shadow-ring-hold-onto-i-d","provider":"fusetron","version":"1.0","type":"link"}