New Rotation — August 28
A quiet week, which is the best week to find something. Six records, one of which nobody on the desk had heard of on Monday.
It arrived in an envelope with no press sheet in it, which is either confidence or an oversight, and we have stopped being able to tell the difference.
Two of us have played it eleven times between us since Monday. That is not a verdict. It is the closest thing this desk produces before Friday.
Out this week
| Record | Label | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
| **Kestrel Lamb** — *Low Country* | self-released | The find. Buy it before somebody explains it to you |
| **Notch & Co.** — *Assembly Vol. 3* (compilation) | Notch & Co. | Four good tracks, six that are there to make it a compilation |
| **Osric Vane** — *Halfway Measures* (repress) | Notch & Co. | Still forty minutes of a band agreeing with itself |
| **Perennial Static** — *Kiln Piece* (single) | Pale Interval | The best four minutes they have put out, and it is a year old |
| **The Long Wednesdays** — *Ordell St* | self-released | Two of these songs are the best they have written and three are filler |
| **Marguerite Tide** — *Two Songs* (repress) | self-released | Twelve minutes, and worth your attention now rather than later |
Record of the week — Low Country
Kestrel Lamb have released one record, on their own, with no announcement, and it is the most complete thing anyone here has heard this month. Thirty-one minutes, eight songs, one voice and a room. Nobody on this desk had heard of them on Monday.
Read Deep CutsA first record that sounds like a fourth, which is either a decade of unreleased work behind it or the most annoying kind of natural talent.
One year ago this week we ran a piece arguing that self-released records had stopped being a compromise and started being a preference. Four of the six records above are self-released, which either proves the point or means we picked the week to suit it.
