Siltbreeze

VERTICAL SLIT - Under The Blood Red Lava Lamp

Connecting all the dots to get the complete Vertical Slit picture has been a grail-like task for hundreds of record collectors since the band and its leader Jim Shepard were outed in Forced Exposure # 13 in the late 80s. Whether James Johnson counts himself among the minuscule number of V/Slit completists is moot; the impeti for initial digging around and eventual article-publishing were the basement roar and defiant outsider vibe of the Smudge seven-inch (New Age, 1981) and Under the Blood Red Lava Lamp cassette (Old Age, 1986). Apocryphal? Perhaps. Baloney? Perhaps not. Still, the end result remains the same: the word was out and here we all are. Save some room, theres pie. \r\nThis CD collects all the tracks from both the Smudge EP and the Lava Lamp cassette, both of which were recorded live in the latter part of 1980. Vertical Slit-at any time-were an anomaly whose live sound was unlike any other band preening around the south campus of Ohio State. They most assuredly did not nod in the direction of either NME or NY Rocker. Instead they pinned back ears Creem-style; three meth-baked, beer-soaked shamen who concocted a unique midwestern prog/metal slobber somewhere between In the Court of the Crimson King and Sabbath Bloody Sabbath. Even though no onell read about em in The Wire, no less of an authority than Chuck Eddy immortalized V/Slit when he ranked Lava Lamp number 455 in his seminal" book Stairway to Hell: The 500 Top Heavy Metal Albums of All Time, beating out not only the two aforementioned influences (at 460 and 488 respectively) but also Confusion Is Sex (number 459). Says Chuckles, "[Lava Lamp] adds up to a moss of pedal-mass not unlike Hearthan-era Pere Ubu." Get the picture? And for those of you who can only be moved by Joy Division covers (hello!), V/Slits version of "I Remember Nothing," done as a tribute to Ian Curtis (who had died in May of 80), absolutely (to be enunciated Eddy-like) gets atomized! So surrender your shekels and climb aboard. In the eternal words of Jim Shepard, "Its here/Its now/Eat it up/Youll enjoy." Contains original Lava Lamp liner notes as well as a remembrance from Old Age/New Age honcho (and Anyway recording artist) Mike Rep." - Siltbreeze.

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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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