LULU'S SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2024 NEWSLETTER

Here is the SEPTEMBER 2024 Newsletter and Calendar, emailed at the start of the month to our mailing list and physically available free in store.

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LULU'S NEWSLETTER SEPTEMBER / OCTOBER 2024

Psycho bumper issue to make up for missing September! What did you miss? Our in house label LSD Club released the new G2g album The Gherkin! We have only a couple spots left in our Subscription Disc Club Membership! Don't miss out! Mom Gallery has a brand new show in partnership with the gallery that launched our sister store Prop Records in Sydney! Check out Prop Gallery.

See you next month!

Lulu's xxx

MOM NEWS

Month of all months!

CUTTING ROOM – “BABY’S ON A BATTERY” LP (Megabreakz)
Experience Pure Energy and Pure Light. Tranced bass, broken up beats, nitrous oxide reverberations, calls from the heart to the ether – it’s underground club music from a new generation aimed at regeneration through intensity. Pure Energy and Pure Light becomes a mission statement. If this is new age musik it’s certainly of the heavier density; rather than a soft ray of sunshine and a butterfly gently landing on a lilypad. it’s a butterfly in tempest flying towards a black hole – riding the violent undulations to achieve ego death as was foretold. Free your mind through heavy club enlightenment. MDMA optional. 

POISON RUIN – “CONFRERE” 12” (Relapse)
Before riding high upon local shores later in the year POISON RUIN continue outputting baroque punk sounds for the comrades covered in field dirt and shining armour alike. CONFRERE is an example of the album art almost perfectly encapsulating the sounds and ideas housed within. They’ve honed an anthemic style somewhere between the lands of old school Oi and the ancient motes of power metal (Dio might not be the first thing that comes to mind when listening to POISON RUIN but it’s there). They have also a handy knack for crafting the long form riff, something that stands out in nowadays punk. If you’ve enjoyed any of their previous output this is worth your time, and indeed if you are yet to sup from their cup, this is the sort of thing that needs to be heard to be made any sense of. It’s rare that we get much of a fresh spin on this exalted filth yet this feels like an example of distilled influence sticking together and forming a new gem to be admired.

WILBURN BURCHETTE - "OPENS THE GATES OF TRANSCENDENTAL CONSCIOUSNESS" (Numero Group)
Master Wilburn Burchette opens the gates into a meditative & deeply psychedelic/heavily trem-m-m-m-molo’d world of exploration into the human consciousness & the manners of which the mind transcends itself when propositioned with a transformative experience. He dubs it “A Transcendental Ballet for the Mind of God.” The vinyl record is accompanied by a full colour instruction book, which is suitably fitting for a height-of-the-hippie-era mail-order mystic who took out ads for his special services in publications with names like Beyond Reality, Gnostica News and Fate Magazine. Substantially equipped from a conceptual standpoint, the instrumentation reads much more minimally with the compositions featuring nothing but whirly-woo’s & some distinct open-tuning finger picking (he also built a unique guitar and his own equipment with which to produce this album). Not dissimilar from fellow transcendental compatriots of the time a la Joe Meek’s ‘I Hear A New World’, Stockhausen or even the more experimental compositional work of the master John Fahey. Fr34ks & flacid ashbackers are most likely to experience high levels of euphoria when played loud and entranced. We leave you with the words of Master Wilburn himself: “This is real stereo! Be prepared to hear things you have never heard before! To eliminate the back void of emptiness I have used a background of ‘white sound’, much as a painter employs a white canvas, upon which to play my effects. Any background noises you may occasionally hear are far from imperfections of record production. They are part of the ‘white sound’ and as such enhance the total effect of the music. For best results, I advise listening with an open heart, a clear mind and good stereo equipment.”

KATORGA – “HELLFIRE” 7” (Black Against Night & Feral Dog)
Subterranean crust bandidos KATORGA are bullet belt made incarnate; dolling out shelled artery trauma as though it were as simple as breathing.  It’s blunt, it’s cold, it’s pummelling steel on steel. AXEGRINDER, AMEBIX, BOLT THROWER, CELTIC FROST, SARCOFAGO et al comprise the building blocks of their cold blooded sonic DNA; highly metallic punk poisoning whose potency increases massively with volume. The kinda shit Lemmy would be proud of, even if he reckoned they weren’t playing their instruments properly. You’d gladly trade your quality of hearing to experience this sound deep within an underground bunker, no light of day, no escape. Paradise for the soon-to-be face down.

V/A - “SHANGAI’D SOUL VOL. 12” LP (Numero Group)
Paying homage to the Shaolin monks of the 36 Chambers, this comp features some of the hardest bops to ever be unearthed by the Numero Group. Specifically picking out their most heavily sampled numbers, these twelve cuts are usually rare to find anywhere other than on a Quavo, Danny Brown or J. Cole track but here they all are in their supremely heated funky glory. Whether it’s the heartbreakingly huge ’Bound’, the strikingly wild beat & literal church reverb of ‘Can You Lose By Following God’ or the life affirming preach of Pastor T.L’s ‘Nobody Knows’, turning this on the tables should never ever get old.

SANDY HARLESS - “SONGS” LP (Numero Group)
The misty eyed sense of wonder commonly associated with the blended aura of cosmic Americana & Appalachian folk are abundantly displayed here from the very first needle drop onto the A side’s grooves. This Sandy Harless longplayer plucked out of the greatness of the Numero Group’s extremely fine ‘Wayfaring Strangers’ compilation, is heavy on the pedal steel peppered piano ballads that really hit that sweet spot when you’re chasing sonically diverse yet extremely charming song writing that’s as poetic as this is. AKA real cowboy shit. No fillers in sight & a rewarding experience for those that are either ‘STILL SAD…’ or ‘SOMEONE LIKE ME’. Highly recommend!

V/A – “SOFT SUMMER BREEZES” LP (Numero Group)
A picture perfect encapsulation of the aforementioned, enclosed are 16 interpretations of the warm & calming sensation associated with that beautiful wind when paired with a beverage sipped out of a red & white swirly straw. Backdropped by tales of true love, returning home to Memphis, scenic country valleys & the dulcet Frenchness of Margo Guryan, preserve this delicious translucent lemon wedge for December & reap the rewards.

SCIENTISTS – “SCIENTISTS” LP (Numero Group)
A debut that stands up as a unique document in the underground garage leaning power-pop zeitgeist. One that would eventually inspire a new-wave both here & abroad some 30-odd years later. Not without a hint of snarl, pre-sludged Scientists sound youthful, innocent & giddy with pop tones inspired by the excitement gained from an admirer that just directed a look their way(if not BUZZCOCKS, ZEROS, UNDERTONES etc). The rawness of a group finding themselves & their sound amidst a bloody good time had over some tin cracks & getting together in a garage banging on about what feels right. Even if nothing actually felt right as this iteration broke up almost instantly. Nevertheless i’ll be dammed if the NEW YORK DOLLS-worship found on ‘It’ll Never Happen Again’ ain’t one of the finer power-pop anthems cut to tape in this godforesaken so-called nation.

BETON COMBO - "PERFEKTION IST SACHE DER GOTTER" LP (Static Age Musik)
Basically a perfect turn-of-the-80’s punk record. It’s not just the exuberance of youth, or that holy grail sound of records from that time (crackly drums, snotty voices and guitar being oddly clean despite — I’m sure — being about as noisy as they could physically make it) but it’s the whole feeling of a group who are pushing back and pushing out with kinetic snap, snarling ideas, and a timeless but in-the-moment sense of what is fucking cool. This album is a legitimate gem and needs to be heard if you have any love for the early punk that matched friction with melody. And for a record that seems strangely unsung, its sound feels like a direct and secret precursor to modern acts like ALGARA, ECSR or RMFC. The title translates to “Perfection is a thing of the Gods” and this record nears godliness.

PITVA – “S/T” LP (Static Age Musik)
Static Age Musik described the album as “somewhere between militaristic Eastern Bloc post punk with brittle early black metal production and Einstürzende Neubauten’s approach to “music” with all the appropriate banging and noisewash” and they are correct. PITVA’s “S/T” is a glorious concoction of acidic ideas and a kind of haunted skeletal presence, obsessed spooky sounds that makes you wanna lap up the candlelight amongst cobwebs. 

RAT HENRY – “MATERIAL POP VOLUME ONE” LP (Minimum Table Stacks)
Material Pop Volume One feels concocted from staticky memory. On its face the record reads like John Cale or Mayo Thompson with Flying Nun production and sound design informed by the occult British Industrial scene. It follows the rhythm one finds internally, sitting in the dull warmth of the shade on a hot day, or standing in the inky black shadows cast by a bright lamp late at night. Disheveled and sincere, partly legible, partly lost. A tranquil baritone voice, the panned triptych of simple production, noisy but gentle. The four-track inner space on this album gives me chills, and I bow to the vision: the lonely seams of honest, self-made art. - Andy Boay, Tonstartssbandht

SHOVE – “AGENCY” LP (Rack Off Records)
SHOVE finally drop their album (via Rack Off Recs) and if you've been keeping an ear on them since they first broke ground, you're sure to dig this one. More spiteful, more gnarly, more grave. They've pushed their sound to the edges and it's paid off, reminding me at times of THE COMES, even COLD SWEAT and a little KORO when it's about to fall off the rails - the elements of chaos and darker attitude are cranked further than originally thought possible. This, of course, tends to result in a better punk record and is for the best. Lean into the mess. Embrace it. Loudly. Then spit it back out with ferocity.

ALEX MACFARLANE – “MEANDERINGS” CS (Hobbies Galore)
More stark and beautiful strangeness from patron of the why arts Alex Macfarlane. And I don’t mean strange in that the music is particularly wyrd in itself, moreso that it’s difficult to imagine many other people sitting down in their home to create this sort of music. Alex always manages to surprise and invert expectations and rules for zigging and zagging prescribed in most playbooks, and it just works. You always end up completely along with him for the ride and surprised to find yourself loving all the stops along the way. Each winding turn, ancient site, rainbow forest, antique store, velveted drinking hole along the way is a source of delight you didn’t expect. It is in through this lens that the album can be seen and thus fairly titled as meandering (like on the buses in countryside Japan where there is a warning: PLEASE HOLD ON, BUS TRAVELS ALONG MEANDERING ROADS). Yes, this is beautiful strangeness in the way you’d imagine Atlantean Pop music (pop music from the lost city of Atlantis) to be.

MATT HARKIN - "THE DOOR KNOCKER" CS (Hobbies Galore)
Oddball pop made out in the woods somewhere. This music contained herein is quite precisely what I imagine a good portion of the population thinks of when they think of music. It's definitely in its own strain, sired by more novel takes on popular music from the 70's like maybe one of the guys from The Kinks would do after running into Randy Newman on the street and listening to a little much Lindisfarne together during a long evening of cheese and crackers if ya know what I mean. That is; there's a real songiness at play but all sorts of whimsy along the way and it makes total sense that this was released on the venerable Hobbies Galore label.

KISSLAND – “KISSLAND” 7” (625 Thrash) 
625 is back thnx to the KISSLAND. Hyper, scratchy, catchy, spasmodic and, of course, snappy!!! Eyes rolling around in the head and running into walls kinda sounds. Total sarcasm. The drumming is insane, especially combined with the almost awkwardly clean but still crunchalicious guitar tone – which also moves at light speed – definitely not for your usual garage turkeys. Maqqy’s vocals suit these to a tee, teetering between almost distracted hummingbird jittering to total intense, reddened-and-maddened-staring-contest-eye-contact raging out. We like it and if you like any of the above words, we think you will too.