City Lights Shadow Ring, The SKU: BF038LP Barcode: 0783970982582 28.00 £28.00 Genre: Alternative Rock / Punk Rock / Emo Label: Blank Forms Editions Released Date: 6th October 2023 Buying Format: 1LP Out of stock Back Order Add to your Wishlist Description Product Info Throughout their legendary, decade-long run, the Shadow Ring were an enigmatic force on the international musical sub-underground. Before their disbandment in 2002, this shambolic rock outfit, formed by a group of rowdy teenagers in southeast England, left behind a mighty run of eight LPs, a handful of 7″s, and a spate of raucous live shows and cryptic zine appearances on both sides of the Atlantic, all which have bolstered their enduring word-of-mouth mystique. Beginning this year with the first-ever vinyl pressing of the self-released pre-Shadow Ring tape The Cat & Bells Club (1992), Blank Forms Editions is conducting a systematic retrospective of the storied group, including a multi-year LP reissue effort and a forthcoming comprehensive CD box set and an over five hundred page book. Recorded and self-released by the group’s own Dry Leaf Discs in 1993, City Lights is the debut record of the then duo Graham Lambkin and Darren Harris an assured arrival statement teeming with stripling angst and ambition. Lifelong chums Lambkin and Harris were barely nineteen and living at home in the seaside town of Folkestone, Kent, with few overhead expenses. The two were freshly employed as a forklift operator at a hardware store and an aide at a home for children with disabilities, respectively, affording them the time and funds to commit to a proper full-length release. Frontman Lambkin describes the album as a “microscopic examination of leisure activities, this time centered around a nightclub,” a conceit surging through its lyrics, song titles, cover art (depicting an audience of cats and mice at the Leas Club, a Folkestone fixture), and flip side (replete with fictional bandmates and pseudonymous liner notes). On a recently-acquired secondhand guitar, Lambkin plays repetitive, brooding licks that form the record’s backbone, weaving in and out of sync with Harris’s free-form percussion and the pair’s sing-song poetry. Tracks range from unraveling nursery-rhyme ditties to extended jams awash with Casiotone and toy piano noodling. The duo’s musical hobby-horses work themselves in: the influence of Mark E. Smith’s breathless deadpan, the headless outer-edges of ESP-Disk’s back catalog, the eerie atmospherics of Hirsche Nicht Aufs Sofa, and the deconstructed rock tunes of the Dunedin scene are all detectable, although there is a sui generis quality to the Shadow Ring’s artless temerity. “I’ve got to see and taste those city lights,” intones Lambkin on the album’s title track indeed, this is a record of naked drive and pent-up desperation, and a shimmering glimpse of what’s to come. RIYL: The Fall, Royal Trux, The Dead C, Shirley Collins, ’70s British progressive rock, Dean Blunt Artist Shadow Ring, The Genre Alternative Rock / Punk Rock / Emo Label Blank Forms Editions Buying Options 1LP Format 1LP Condition New Country UK Track Listings Double Standard City Lights Oooh Ahh Cape Of Seaweed Lyin' Eyes Cold Coffee Here Come The Candles Faithful Calls White Eyes The Visitor Snowbirds Of Alkatraz Share this On Facebook On Twitter Via Email More from Alternative Rock / Punk Rock / Emo View Product Quick View Arms Length Never Before Seen, Never Again Found Alternative Rock / Punk Rock / Emo | Wax Bodega | 1LP, Coloured Vinyl Released 24th May 2024 £20.00 Pre Order View Pre/Back Orders Arms Length Never Before Seen, Never Again Found £20.00 Genre: Alternative Rock / Punk Rock / Emo Label: Wax Bodega SKU: WAX16C2 Formats: 1LP, Coloured Vinyl Released Date: 24th May 2024 Read More Pre Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Oceansize Everyone Into Position Alternative Rock / Punk Rock / Emo | Beggars Arkive | 2LP, Coloured Vinyl Released 3rd June 2022 £26.00 Add to basket Reserve View Reservations Oceansize Everyone Into Position £26.00 Genre: Alternative Rock / Punk Rock / Emo Label: Beggars Arkive SKU: BBQ244LP2 Formats: 2LP, Coloured Vinyl Released Date: 3rd June 2022 Reserve View Reservations Read More Add to basket View Product Quick View LNZNRDF LNZNRDF Alternative Rock / Punk Rock / Emo | 4AD | 1LP, Coloured Vinyl Release Date TBC £19.00 Pre Order View Pre/Back Orders LNZNRDF LNZNRDF £19.00 Genre: Alternative Rock / Punk Rock / Emo Label: 4AD SKU: CAD3612 Formats: 1LP, Coloured Vinyl Released Date: Read More Pre Order View Pre/Back Orders Graham's picks View Product Quick View Pixies Trompe Le Monde (30th Anniversary) Alternative Rock / Punk Rock / Emo | 4AD | 1LP, Coloured Vinyl Released 24th September 2021 £19.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Pixies Trompe Le Monde (30th Anniversary) £19.00 Genre: Alternative Rock / Punk Rock / Emo Label: 4AD SKU: CAD1014LP Formats: 1LP, Coloured Vinyl Released Date: 24th September 2021 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Homesick, The The Big Exercise Alternative Rock / Punk Rock / Emo | Sub Pop | 1LP, Coloured Vinyl, Includes Download Code Released 7th February 2020 £20.00 - £22.00 Select options Homesick, The The Big Exercise £20.00 - £22.00 Genre: Alternative Rock / Punk Rock / Emo Label: Sub Pop Formats: 1LP, Coloured Vinyl, Includes Download Code Released Date: 7th February 2020 Read More Select options View Product Quick View Frightened Rabbit Painting of a Panic Attack Alternative Rock / Punk Rock / Emo | Atlantic | 1LP, Includes Download Code Released 4th April 2016 £28.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Frightened Rabbit Painting of a Panic Attack £28.00 Genre: Alternative Rock / Punk Rock / Emo Label: Atlantic SKU: 0825646486397 Formats: 1LP, Includes Download Code Released Date: 4th April 2016 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Raconteurs, The Consolers of the Lonely Alternative Rock / Punk Rock / Emo | Sony | 2LP Released 17th November 2023 £42.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Raconteurs, The Consolers of the Lonely £42.00 Genre: Alternative Rock / Punk Rock / Emo Label: Sony SKU: 19658800621 Formats: 2LP Released Date: 17th November 2023 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Strike Anywhere Nightmares of the West Alternative Rock / Punk Rock / Emo | Pure Noise | 1LP, Coloured Vinyl Released 17th July 2020 £13.00 - £17.00 Select options Strike Anywhere Nightmares of the West £13.00 - £17.00 Genre: Alternative Rock / Punk Rock / Emo Label: Pure Noise Formats: 1LP, Coloured Vinyl Released Date: 17th July 2020 Read More Select options View Product Quick View Dogs, The El Verdugo Alternative Rock / Punk Rock / Emo | Drabant Music | 1LP Released 22nd April 2022 £17.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Dogs, The El Verdugo £17.00 Genre: Alternative Rock / Punk Rock / Emo Label: Drabant Music SKU: DM155LP Formats: 1LP Released Date: 22nd April 2022 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Slaughter Beach, Dog Birdie Alternative Rock / Punk Rock / Emo | Big Scary Monsters | 1LP, Includes Download Code Released 25th October 2017 £17.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Slaughter Beach, Dog Birdie £17.00 Genre: Alternative Rock / Punk Rock / Emo Label: Big Scary Monsters SKU: BSM218V Formats: 1LP, Includes Download Code Released Date: 25th October 2017 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders See more in Alternative Rock / Punk Rock / Emo Start again
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