A few weeks ago I finally made it back to Ignite Records in Birmingham only just short of a year since my last visit there. I was in the second city for some new Nike Air Max mainly but there was no way I wasn't going to be paying Rich a visit.
It was just the right time too, as Rich had literally just got some new stock in and I wanted a few of the records that were yet to go from box to shelf.
Night Birds - Born To Die In Suburbia
Obviously the reason I'd not yet ordered this online was to give myself the opportunity to buy this record in person from a shop, I just didn't know it yet. I was stoked Rich had just gotten this in stock and quickly made it the first record on my pile. As the
Maimed For The Masses taster release suggested this is more of the same from the Night Birds and that's just fine by me, I really like this band and the continuation of their sound makes for another good record.
Magic Circle - Magic Circle
Walking into the shop I knew there was another record that I had been after but hadn't got round to ordering yet but I couldn't for the life of me have told you what it was at that time. Luckily a mental list isn't needed in Ignite, Rich rooting through the new stock boxes held up the Magic Circle record and said 'have you heard this?' - ah! That was the other record.
This release is brilliant, I had a feeling it was going to be good from what I had read but this record really knocked my socks off! It's hard to believe actually that this is the same vocalist from Rival Mob on this Sabbath-esque doom record but he sounds awesome here. As
Mark Sandwell said, this is better than a lot of the stuff put out by Southern Lord and Rise Above. Definitely my most played record over the last few weeks. Limited to 1000
Downpresser - Don't Need A Reason
I don't think Downpresser had put anything out since the Age Of Ignorance 7" a few years ago which I liked so when I saw they'd just released a new LP on 6131 I figured I'd check it out. Luckily this isn't at all bad. I wouldn't have minded scoring a colour vinyl version but this is the black vinyl version of 600. The packaging of this is really good on a side note, thick gate fold sleeve much like the Southern Lord releases.
Along with these 3 new releases I was also able to pick up 3 older releases that I'd been meaning to get for a while but hadn't been in the right place at the right time to actually purchase.
All Pigs Must Die - All Pigs Must Die
A friend of mine first told me to check this record out about 2 years ago and I've heard a few things from All Pigs Must Die since then but just haven't got round to actually buying anything. In fact they have a couple of more records out since this one but being anal about these things I of course couldn't even think about buying those before securing the bands first release. Being that it features Ben from Converge it's probably not hard to imagine what's going on here, great, fast, heavy stuff in the vein of bands like Nails. There were 850 black vinyl copies in the second and third press, I'm not sure which this is. Great album art.
Jesuit - Discography
Speaking of Converge related bands and great album art I was also finally able to pick up a copy of the Jesuit discography too. Despite hearing all this stuff before I'd never actually physically owned any Jesuit releases so this is a good way to get everything together in one place. As mentioned the cover of this thing is just insane. The record also comes with a CD inlay style book about the history of the band which is interesting too.
Chosen Ones - They Called Your Number
I was also able to pick up a missing Reaper Records release too. I remember being curious about what this record sounded like for quite a while when
Mario blogged about it and confirmed to me that it was different from most Reaper releases. Mario did however describe it as assessable punk rock in the style of Harrington Saints and the Sydney Ducks though which is right up my street in punk rock terms so I made a note to pick it up if it was ever in front of me. Blue vinyl version of 724 copies.
Not a bad days work on the LP front and I also picked up a few 7" records from Rich's Speedowax label too.
Kickturn - The Untruth EP
This features members of Losin' It I believe. Pretty good stuff. I think Rich said this was some sort of pre-release copy but I forget now.
Machinist - Blacklist
This is the 16th Birthday Speedowax press
Kato - Buried With The Rain
I like this 7". Isis, Integrity, Full Of Hell style stuff. Nice!!
That completes the Ignite Records haul! Great stock at a great shop run by a really good dude. I'm gonna try and not leave it a year before my next visit this time.
