ARCHGOAT – THE LIGHT-DEVOURING DARKNESS PLP (Debemur Morti Productions)

The kids of today. They want all their music piled onto a sleek hard drive, primed for mass consumption. They don’t want to buy CDs. Most of them probably don’t know what a record is. Little fuckers. The underground is under serious threat because of the genesis of the digital era. Music has been depersonalised, stripped of its soul, condensed into a worthless dot. All in the name of progress. I’m not sure what the solution is but I believe labels like Debemur Morti carry at least some form of antidote; quality vinyl means a lot.

Some of the greatest joy in my otherwise embarrassingly-sheltered and unspectacular existence has been derived from the purchase / theft of records. I grew up in a town on the border and used to hunt in both territories. If a record wasn’t nailed down I generally found a way to get it out of the shop. I remember once optimistically placing an order from a distro by mail. I had no money, so I put my order note in an envelope along with my address and tore the envelope so that it might look like the cash had been stolen. The records arrived. Result. Why am I admitting to this?

You see, I come from a time and place when records were like black magic. They still are to me. They can be to you, too… DMP have, on this release, lovingly recreated the second Archgoat full-length in a glorious picture disc format. Unlike most picture discs, this one includes a cover to house it in and the whole thing looks incredible. And the music is brilliant as well. So not only do you get to hear a fantastic album; you get to own something special.

Label guru Void just keeps producing the goods in the quality department and my sincere hope is that in the battle that’s raging for the hearts and minds of a spoiled and lost generation quality will eventually prevail over quantity. This is simply awesome.

Evilometer: 666/666