Third in a series of demo/lo-fi EPs from (The Death Of) Six By Seven. Presented utterly stylishly in a grooved vinyl CD format, the proceeds of sales of the EPs are set to be put back into recording the project's second full length album.
Six By Seven, after numerous breakups/reformations are now creating new releases and gigging with a core of Chris Olley and James Flower from the original band line-up of the mid nineties, plus Pete Stevenson and Martin Cooper. Having put out a superbly moody album earlier this year (review), the project moves on with this somewhat leftfield approach to funding a second release. Chris Olley explains:
"With these Vinyl CD's I want to try and capture the spirit of demo / Lo Fi recordings and won't be using any computers and record only to tape or portastudio. I love the sound of these type of recordings, they always capture something spontaneous that gets lost when the songs are 'properly' recorded."
This the third EP, came out last week and even as a comparatively recent convert to all this Six By Seven I think I can say that the tracks on this one are something special - Granted, if droney, few-chord, Spacemen 3-ish, VU's Heroin-esque tunes are not your thing then best quit reading now - If not however, listen especially to Sympathy, a wickedly beautiful track that shows just how well the maxim 'Keep It Simple, Stupid' is so often spot on. Absolutely my favourite thing of 2012.
What makes these releases so novel is the vinyl CD format, which totally dovetails thematically with the lo-fi mood of the sounds. Rendered is High Quality manufactured CD Vinyl, the CDs have a solid black ridged spiral running around the outside of the disc on the printed side, looking exactly like grooves in a record. The data side of the disc is also an unusual gloss black rather than silver. So grooved side up remember ... The first 50 to go are numbered limited editions, and all come with a digital download also. Bandcamp, and what it allows, just can't fault it.
And a final word from Olley:
"By buying this you are helping me to record my next album with my band in the studio and you are able to have a part in choosing the albums tracklisting when it is re recorded with the band and you will also receive a credit on the album!"
(Post image sourced from adrian4 blog.)