Caught In The Carousel

If you visit the excellent US Caught In The Carousel website - as you most certainly should - you'll find their latest issue includes not one, not even two but three pieces on Occultation releases by Dave Cantrell:
1) Factory Star Enter Castle Perilous
A detailed and highly perceptive review of the album together with an interview with Martin Bramah.
2) The Wild Swans The Coldest Winter For A Hundred Years
A fine review of the album
3) Factory Star Lucybel / The Granite Shore When Sleep Won't Come
A review of the Christmas single.

We'd like to thank both Dave, who's put a huge amount of work into these pieces, and also editor Alex Green for all their efforts. We can wholeheartedly recommend the site, the standard of the writing is far above so many such sites.

Finally a very Happy New Year from all of us at Occultation Recordings.

Crystal Stilts cover Martin Bramah's Low Profile

You wait 20-odd years for a cover of a Martin Bramah song then suddenly two come along all at once...

Brooklyn-based band Crystal Stilts have recorded a version of the Blue Orchids' Low Profile on their new Radiant Door EP. The band are avowed fans of Martin's work and have apparently been performing the song live for a while now, but this is its recorded debut.

Obviously the other Bramah cover currently on release is The Granite Shore's version of Factory Star's When Sleep Won't Come, from this year's trenchant Enter Castle Perilous album, which is available on the 'b' side of the current Factory Star single Lucybel.

It's interesting to note that whereas The Granite Shore's version is a complete reinterpretation of the song Crystal Stilts have stayed very faithful to the Blue Orchids' original, giving both ends of the cover version spectrum.

Enter Castle Perilous review on Beatbear

The Italian website "Beatbear" has just reviewed Factory Star's Enter Castle Perilous album. Below is a very, very rough translation.

"Artist: Factory Star

Album: Enter Castle Perilous

Label: Occultation Recordings

Year: 2011

Download the album:

Enter Castle Perilous - Factory Star

The British label Occultation Recordings are noted for seeking out urgent, rather unfiltered, immediate sounds. If you want proof, try their recent releases, such as the Wild Swans album, and Enter Castle Perilous by Factory Star (released on LP and CD a few months ago) is full confirmation of this.

Factory Star was put together by Martin Bramah, co-founder of the crucial post-punk band The Fall (an institution popular even in Italy) and he also formed the Blue Orchids, an extraordinary band who burned briefly but splendidly with the psychedelic post-punk of The Greatest Hit (released at the time by Rough Trade, a guarantee of quality). Martin founded Factory Star in 2008, looking for a “fresh new start”. The band currently also includes Hop Man Jr, Chris Dutton (bass) and Tom Lewis (drums).

Enter Castle Perilous is an urgent album. Produced by Nick Halliwell, recorded in three days and mixed that same week, every track puts across a live flow of energy which is reminiscent of The Fall, the toughness of punk (in the sense of a direct, free-speaking spirit, like The Clash) and sick blues driven by Hammond and always guitar-oriented sounds.

The opening “Angel Steps” is a fine example of rough indie with a vein of Hammond organ running through it and spoken-word sections propping up the central chorus every now and again. The slow advance of “Big Mill” is made even dirtier by Martin’s stinging vocals. A few tracks are leaps into the past (such as “Cheetham Bill” and its interwoven guitar and organ), others are actually blues with a modern sensibility (such as the anguished “Black Comic Book”), others are post-punk which remind you straightaway of original punk (listen to “The Fall of Great Britain”).

Enter Castle Perilous is an honest, sincere album - it makes no attempt to wheedle or caress. It prefers to be tackled head on, scraping away. Give it a listen if you’re looking for something genuinely pithy.

Luigi Zampi"

Deck The Halls Of Castle Perilous

We are now accepting advance orders for the first-ever Occultation Christmas single, Factory Star's Lucybel, details here. We expect to have vinyl and CDs in stock in approximately a fortnight but you'll get free MP3s as soon as your orders go through. Although this is a Factory Star release, the 'b' side features a cover version of one of the stand-out tracks from 2011's Enter Castle Perilous album, When Sleep Won't Come, recorded by label-mates The Granite Shore. Both tracks can be previewed on the web page or see earlier posts for other options. We're doing this at a special Christmas introductory price of just £5 and for that you get not just a beautiful 7" single but also a CD (both in full-colour sleeves) featuring the two tracks from the single along with two tracks from the Factory Star album, which we see as one of 2011's most important releases. Bound for glory...

When Sleep Won't Come

Here's an equally rough-and-ready (OK, it's the same one) video for The Granite Shore's version of Factory Star's "When Sleep Won't Come", the original of which appears on their Enter Castle Perilous album released earlier this year.

Factory Star and Wild Swans reviews on Freq

If you care to visit the excellent Freq website, you'll find superb reviews of both Factory Star's Enter Castle Perilous and The Wild Swans' The Coldest Winter For A Hundred Years.

The Wild Swans album is also reviewed on the always opinionated (which, as its stated aim is criticism, is a compliment) Collapse Board site, you can read that one here. Although we have to say we don't agree with all the points made in this piece - why on earth should Englishmen not write about England? If we had a go at the Scots, Welsh or Irish (either side of the border) on these grounds we'd be accused of all sorts - the piece is well-argued and written and it's good to be made to think about such things. If I get more time I might delve further into this subject... (but don't hold your collective breath...)

Enter Castle Perilous review in The Morning Star

Here's a review of Factory Star's Enter Castle Perilous from The Morning Star.

Enter Castle Perilous lyrics

As a number of people have asked us about the lyrics to Factory Star's Enter Castle Perilous album, we had a word with Mr Bramah who duly obliged. So if you'd like to download a PDF containing the full lyrics to all ten songs on the album you can either visit the album's page or simply click here.

Enter Castle Perilous review in Rock De Lux

The new (July-August) edition of the Spanish music magazine Rock De Lux features a rave review of Factory Star's Enter Castle Perilous album by highly-respected journalist Kiko Amat. The original review, in Spanish, is shown above with a rough English translation below.



FACTORY STAR
"Enter Castle Perilous"
OCCULTATION


VINTAGE POST-PUNK. Occultation is a kamikaze label whose mission in life is to put out all those records that only seem to matter to an incredibly select minority. They’re currently home to The Wild Swans - perhaps the most elegant, legendary (and underground) of all 1980s Liverpool groups but, not content with that, the label has now released the first LP by Factory Star, the new group led by Martin Bramah. You all know who he is and what he does in his spare time: as a founder member of The Fall, together with Una Baines and Mark E. Smith, he was responsible for the way that group sounded, then later went on to lead the astounding Blue Orchids (whose two singles and LP for Rough Trade are essential).



So then, Factory Star sound exactly as you’d hope a group led by someone with that kind of credentials would sound. Sometimes they produce the archetypal Bramah sound, i.e. jinxed, oppressive sixties garage of the "Green Fuzz" or "Born Loser" variety with a post-punk psychopathic Fall feel (listen to "Angel Steps", for instance). At other times things get even darker and end up not a million miles away from the homicidal desolation of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds ("Big Mill" or "Cheetham Bill) and at others they go back to the Albion of The Kinks (dogged by bad luck and an air of the Dole queue, as on "Away Dull Care" or "The Fall Of Great Britain). As if this were not enough, Bramah rounds the record out with some pieces which are almost recited and reminiscent of that working men’s club vaudeville which was such a big influence on the likes of Ian Dury and John Cooper Clarke ("Black Comic Book" or "When Sleep Won't Come"). It hardly needs saying that he does this with far more style than all of those other groups who have been imitating The Fall since the day he invented them. Oh, and on top of everything they recorded the whole album in just three days. Buy it.
KIKO AMAT

Factory Star at FAC251

Above is a video of Factory Star performing When Sleep Won't Come, one of the key tracks from their debut album Enter Castle Perilous released on Occultation earlier this year, live in Preston a few weeks ago.

The band will be playing live at FAC251 in Manchester next Saturday, 20th August.

Factory Star "New Chemical Light"

Here's some fantastic footage of Factory Star performing New Chemical Light from their album Enter Castle Perilous last weekend in Preston.

Reduced Factory Star prices for limited period

Factory Star's Enter Castle Perilous is starting to get some of the attention it deserves, Angel Steps appeared on the MOJO playlist last month, we've started to see a lot of posts on social networking sites, the LP made the top 10 bestsellers on Louder Than War... This is a record that we're enormously proud of so, for a limited period, we're offering reduced prices on all versions, though the real bargain remains the LP+CD version at just £15+P&P (that's just one lot of P&P even though it's two items). More details on our ECP page.