The Shadow Ring

Put The Music In Its Coffin

Genre: INDIE / ALTERNATIVE

LP (Black Vinyl)

Boomkat Product Review:

Reaching deep into the bowels of ‘90s lo-fi DIY, Blank Forms pluck out Graham Lambkin and Darren Harri' 2nd LP of gonzoid, half-cut songcraft as The Shadow Ring for its first vinyl reissue since the original 1994 pressing

‘Put The Music In Its Coffin’ was the Kentish teenagers’ first side for Philadelphia’s legendary lo-fi rock sanctuary Siltbreeze and arguably the one that put them on an international underground map with the likes of Dunedin, NZ’s Flying Nun lot, or US outsiders such as Sam Esh - all pushed to the scene by mail-order mavens Forced Exposure. Recorded at Lambkin’s parents’ gaff in Folkestone, their follow-up to 1993’s ‘City Lights’ made no concession to the band’s spellbinding crudeness, doubling down on the raggedy, direct-to-tape tekkerz in a pure expression of english eccentricity and crankiness that pushed the boat out further (as they do in Kent). Over the years since their records, including this one, have become increasingly scarce and eluded mitts, cultivating a mystique and word-of-mouth reputation that’s preceded them ever since.

Hustling cantankerous songs about pet food burgers (‘Horse-Meat Cakes’) inspired by a Philip K. Dick anecdote, along with a janky ode to a hangover cure (‘Caribbean Porridge’), and continuing the food theme, a tangy banger ‘Mustard Hooves’, it all feels like a voyeuristic perspective on a bunch of middle class kids pretending to be mucky roughnecks while their mam tells the home help to do the washing in another wing of the house, leaving the boys to make their racket and stay out of bother in the village. In the process they made a sound that took DIY post-punk and grunge to logical levels and went firmly against the grain of ‘90s conventionality, and certainly the preceding decade’s turn toward shininess and manicured hooks, or people having fun at raves.

LP (Black Vinyl) (10)