The Railway Children - Reunion Wilderness & Recurrence LPs



Grabbed these a little while back for dirt cheap because I'd vaguely remembered to check out this band but kept putting it off for whatever reason. Both are U.S. promo copies. The sound is 80s jangle pop with traces of an earlier post-punk sound. The first LP is actually and expanded version of a 12'' EP that originally came out on Factory Records. The songs are good and the singer has a deep/rich/smooth voice that helps distinguish the band. I wouldn't say these are the most amazing records I've ever heard in the style, but I can never seem to get enough of this sound, so I'm happy to have them in my collection.

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Masters of Reality - Best of Mix by Rchecka

Now here's a band I've never heard of until recently, named after my second favorite Sabbath LP to boot.

The first thing I thought when hearing them is that they sound kinda like a neo-psych, Paisley Underground type group but quite a bit heavier, with more of a 70s hard rock vibe. I guess you could fit this in with the whole stoner rock thing, and given the current popularity of that whole scene over the last several years, I'm not sure why Masters of Reality aren't more popular.

I've only listened to the first disc so far, but I'll be playing the rest later. I would say my impression is their sound is a bit more diverse than most of your stoner rock type groups.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/05/2015 09:21PM by LionsMouth.

^Nice, great words, I'm glad you liked the first disc.

I think you'll like disc 2 even more it's mixed and a little bit deeper b-sides. Good description, BTW, you nailed it.

Quote
LM

I'm not sure why Masters of Reality aren't more popular.

That's kind of the story of their life. At one point when you went to one of their fan sites the banner came up "Masters of Reality, the most slept on band in the world" which I completely agree with.

Easily one of my favorite bands, and if you have to get just one of their albums make it...

Sunrise on the Suffer Bus

They had Ginger Baker on the drums on that album and it is a solid 10. I wish they pressed that on vinyl, there's a bad bootleg floating around I heard but I am hoping they just press that on legit first pressing RSD style vinyl some day. I don't know who to talk to to make that happen but if I could only assure them we need this more than another Falco Rock Me Amadeus single maybe they'd listen.

Chris Goss is the brainchild behind that band if you look at his collaborations and acolades over the years you'll be impressed. He worked closely with Queens of the Stoned Age and helped produce many of their tracks. He helped produce one of UNKLE's albums, he worked on Mark Lanagan's old albums, Screaming Tree's albums, The Cult, Kyuss, Soul Wax, the Flies, and he produced and sang on a few tracks on the recent soundtrack for the documentary "Sound City - Real To Reel"

He plays on this song for example...





So, yeah, I'm a huge fan. Huge.

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@Rchecka, re: Masters of Reality, I listened to the second disc of the mix today and liked it better than the first disc. I think they'd be a great live band. Also checked out some interviews with the singer, seems to be an interesting character with a lot of stories for sure.

I was just looking through some old Screaming Trees CDs today, I'll have to check the credits now....

RE: Ginger Baker, I am definitely a fan of Cream and know he's worked on a ton of stuff over the years including playing with Fela Kuti IIRC but I'm not that well versed in his career.

RE: the proposed reissue of that album, the thing that would probably hold it up more than anything is the copyright owner. If it was released on a major, chances are (due to the nature of major label record contracts) the rights to the music are still owned by that major or their parent corp. Whomever wanted to do the reissue would need to license it from them. Depending on the owner's stance on licensing it may be impossible. If the owner will play ball then it's just a matter of raising the money for the licensing and record production.

For example, Psychic TV did a couple records with majors early in their career. These are classic albums and the demand for reissues is certainly there. However, they are owned by two completely different labels with different approaches to handling things. Result: the band was able to license one of them but not the other for reissue. The only reissues of the first album are CDs from the 90s with really crappy mastering (either high gen tape or needledrop, channel distortion/dropouts/etc.). The band has been trying to do a reissue of that one for several years but no dice.

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The Icicle Works - 5 Album CD Boxset



More 80s guitar pop, probably on the more commercial side as opposed to the indie rock side. This set contains the band's first 4 albums plus a live performance.

This is one of those budget CD sets that is so popular these days, with minimal liner notes but heavy on the music. This one is a bit more nicely packaged compared to the Columbia/Warners/Rhino budget sets in my collection.

I've been working my way through this set, and this is my first time hearing most of the material on it. I'm a big fan of the group's debut LP, which you can probably grab in many used record shops dirt cheap, but had been curious about their later albums for some time. While the first LP is very well recorded and produced (for the time) by Hugh Jones, the 2nd and 3rd albums take a hit from the 80s over-production cliches and slicker sound. If you can get past the production aesthetics, there is some great material here, though it can be a bit inconsistent at times. All the albums have a bunch of bonus tracks so you get a lot of bang for the buck.

Still need to listen to the fourth and fifth discs. My hopes aren't very high for the fourth one (most seem to view it as a low point for the group), but the live album seems very promising.

Here are some tracks from the bands first LP:

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