Once More From The Top poster

Initial copies of the Granite Shore LP will come with a free poster, shown above. There'll also be some other extras... More details to follow.

Above are the LP (top) and CD (bottom) sleeves of the forthcoming album by The Granite Shore, Once More From The Top. Official release is likely to be in April or May, but we expect to be taking pre-orders hopefully sometime in February, although current vinyl manufacturing times are making it difficult to be sure when we'll have stock. More details will follow soon... Watch this space.

Trick Mammoth: Floristry pre-orders

We're now taking orders for Trick Mammoth's Floristry and copies ordered now will start shipping next week. This is your chance to get your hands on it well before official release in late February and, when purchased from us, you get a CD thrown in, plus initial copies bought from us come with a gorgeous poster:

 We also have a number of other Fishrider titles in stock, including the Males album Run Run Run/MalesMalesMales (again, LP with CD included when bought from us) and The Prophet Hens' Popular People Do Popular People CD, which has been making quite a lot of "best of 2013" lists. Tomorrow we'll be announcing news of a special Occultation Sale which includes a special offer on buying all three of these together at a much-reduced price, along with bargains on items by The Wild Swans, The Distractions, Factory Star, The Granite Shore and The June Brides, amongst others.

Wild Swans reissues coming in 2013

As some eagle-eyed fans have already spotted, we're planning a 2LP reissue of The Wild Swans' The Coldest Winter For A Hundred Years in a few months' time. A lot of people have shown an interest in a vinyl edition so we'd like your input before taking any definite decisions. We're suggesting a double LP on 180g vinyl, with the original album on the first LP and all non-album Occultation tracks collected on the second, including the Tracks In Snow EP, featuring three tracks only officially available on a limited CD that sold out over a year ago. Like the album, these tracks have never been out on vinyl. 

 

If enough people want it, we'd consider doing an even more limited "super-deluxe" version, but we want to know what you'd like to see. If you click on the image above or here you'll be taken to a short questionnaire which'll help give us an idea of numbers and how you'd like us to go about it. 

If that weren't enough, we're also working with partners on a 2x180g reissue of the classic Incandescent compilation .We're aiming to release both at the same time which'd mean we'd be able to offer special pricing to anyone who buys both together. Again, most of this material has never been on vinyl and the original CD is long out of print. There are even plans for a truly spectacular deluxe hardback book format version.

More? Well, the band's classic debut single, The Revolutionary Spirit, has recently been chosen as the opening track on Cherry Red's huge Scared To Get Happy boxed set, due out in a few months. The box has further Occultation connections as it features Blue Orchids' Dumb Magician and The June Brides' Every Conversation.

2013 will also see a Distractions retrospective released - with Occultation involvement - by our friends at Hidden Masters, including everything the original band released and more. 

In other news, work will be getting underway soon on the Granite Shore album and, after the success of Moon / Cloud, we're hoping to coax The June Brides back into a studio too. As The End Of The Pier has done so well, there are radical plans NOT to wait 32 years before a third Distractions LP, although we'll have to see... We still have a few copies of the limited version of the 180g LP including a free poster when ordered from The Occultation Shop.

Nick Halliwell interview on Penny Black Music

There's an interview with Occultation boss Nick Halliwell on Penny Black Music - one of our favourite sites, they've supported the label from the very early days. It includes hints about upcoming Occultation releases and goes into some depth about the label's origins and plans.

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.

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: Lucybel 7" sleeve

Here's the front cover of the new Factory Star single, Lucybel (It's Christmas Time). We can now announce that the 'b' side will feature a version of Factory Star's When Sleep Won't Come recorded by label-mates The Granite Shore. More information to follow over the next few weeks, we expect to have the singles early-mid-November but we'll keep you posted.