bloodmusic

Those copies are sold out already! This shop still has some: http://www.recordshopx.com/search/?f=all&q=cloudkicker&w=music

Really glad to hear that everyone is satisfied! Tried to tell Mr. Sharp earlier on that these could be restored for vinyl prep, but he didn't believe it. Now he has to. All around success for everybody.

The largest metal box set of all-time is coming for pre-order on May 28th. More information to soon follow.

As far as Signal/Noise - believe it's not on his Bandcamp - so he hasn't set the rights available. Someone would have to confirm that before pressing it. Would others be into the myspace.com/musicistight? Know it's not as popular, but we like it. It would be expensive as hell to pull off - a triple LP!

Great news, and thanks!!

Once again - there are still a handful of copies available here: http://www.recordshopx.com/search/?f=all&q=cloudkicker It's a legitimate store, and this funds the whole chain of record production. Better off than buying on eBay. Anyone looking for a copy - go there.

Folks - these are the last copies in stock anywhere: http://www.recordshopx.com/artist/cloudkicker/discovery/#lp http://www.recordshopx.com/artist/cloudkicker/eps/#2lp There are several people in here looking for copies - go there and support them.

Give it some time, and we'll look into it!

Totally understood - well the interesting news is that on down the road, we'll consider repressing it. It seems like Ben wouldn't have a need to press it - since he never wanted to in the first place, and now interest is a bit diminished. But - we have the plates and everything - maybe in a year or something we'd consider repressing, but for now we're going to move on! About test pressings - we sell them privately, so hit us up via e-mail!

This gets brought up a lot, but on this one was a number of complicated factors, most of which were hit upon already - Yes, a small handful of people bought these as mystery records that did not want them. No, they did not buy from Finland to ship to USA, but they may've bought from Finland to other parts of the world. Our USA mystery sales were all direct to USA from our USA base. Yes, we had no clue how these would sell as a mystery release. Yes, we had no clue how Mr. Sharp would react. Yes, there are just flippers in general looking for a profit. Otherwise, people ask continually why we don't press 500 copies of things we press 400 or 300 of. True, it's cheaper per unit but it's not cheaper overall. It costs more money in manufacturing and way more money in storage if we can't sell them. We'd much rather sell everything than sit on 200 copies that we can't sell. Seems like a waste of money and material resources to do that. We don't have a massive warehouse, and we release about 30 albums per year. Must keep things moving. We had a few copies on eBay at the end for a high price - but it mostly accounted for the shipping cost from Finland to USA. But, they were the cheapest ones there and are all sold out. Dark Descent had some in USA too, but also sold out. Levykauppa X in Finland may still have a couple copies. That would be the last 'legit' place to have them: http://www.recordshopx.com/ Ben told us he planned to sell his for a high price - but we don't know if that's definitely the case or not. We still have plenty of CDs!

PRE-ORDER: April 23rd at 5PM Finnish time (10AM NYC). RELEASE: June 17th. Blood Music will soon be releasing the 3rd album from one of the leading forerunners in the outrun scene - Perturbator. This Parisian powerhouse has exploitation cinema soundtrack down to a science and will see his latest work "Dangerous Days" published on high-quality digipack, ultra-limited deluxe edition vinyl and in digital format. This is the first physical publication from Perturbator. Perturbator "Dangerous Days" 2xLP: * Ultra-limited edition of 200 Light Blue on Transparent Blood Red Splatter 2xLP. * Ultra-limited edition of 100 Black 2xLP. * Pressed onto 180-gram+ vinyl. * First time ever vinyl pressing from Perturbator * Mastered specifically for vinyl from the 24-bit original mixes. * 350gsm heavyweight board gatefold jacket with black flood inner printing. * Black inner sleeves. * First time ever CD pressing from the reigning king of retro-futurism * Mixed and mastered by the artist himself. * Professionally glass-mastered CD in 6-panel high-quality, fold-out digipack. * Limited to 900 copies worldwide. * Special and ultra-limited edition custom-made CD long box by Telefuture. * First time ever CD pressing from Perturbator. * Includes professionally glass-mastered CD in 6-panel high-quality, fold-out digipack by Blood Music. * Includes 1 custom-drawn comic book by the artist who drew the album cover - Ariel Zucker-Brull. * Includes 2 custom-made stickers, featuring the original album art and Perturbator logo. * Includes 2 custom-made buttons, featuring pieces of the original art. * Limited to 100 copies worldwide! * The first-ever Perturbator T-shirt. * 4-color screenprint on ultra heavyweight Gildan cotton T.

PRE-ORDER: April 23rd at 5PM Finnish time (10AM NYC). RELEASE: June 17th. Blood Music will soon be releasing an incredible and surprising entry in the ultra-progressive death metal category, owing in no small part to "Focus"-era Cynic, early Pestilence, Atheist, and Coroner. Belarusian band SERDCE has spent five very careful years composing an incredible journey of progressive experimentation with "Timelessness" and will see their latest work published in a high quality CD pressing, ultra-limited deluxe edition vinyl and in digital format. SERDCE "Timelessness" 2xLP: * Ultra-limited edition of 200 Splatter Madness 2xLP. * Ultra-limited edition of 100 Black 2xLP. * Pressed onto 180-gram+ vinyl. * First time ever vinyl pressing from SERDCE. * Mastered specifically for vinyl from the 24-bit original mixes. * 350gsm heavyweight board triple-gatefold jacket with flood-inner printing. * Black inner sleeves. * Professionally glass-mastered CD in clear jewel case with 12-panel booklet. * Limited to 1000 copies worldwide.

We have one copy of "The Discovery" left until we're sold out of everything on vinyl.

Glad to hear these are arriving well, thanks to everyone! These are on very last copies.

We only have copies left in Finland! Our USA copies are sold out.

Do not know what they used for those, as we don't have the first pressings. Most labels do not master for vinyl, however, which is almost always a mistake. We're done talking about SYL for now, though. Back to staying on topic if anyone still cares about the Cloudkicker.

Yes, sorry. We get a fair amount of asking for gear recommendation - but the main issue is that we don't have the time to test every piece of gear on the market, so we don't want to make any ringing endorsements of one item over another. We use a very good but basic setup for our record testing (which set us back a few grand), as we assume this to be the average. That said, the remastering is done before the audio hits the plate, so we're generally reference-testing both in conjunction with our engineers on their setup and here without the TT, so the turntable is mainly there for quality control once the master is cut. Threw on the two SYL records you speak of last night and can understand your thoughts about "Alien," but that's the state that record was left in. We can A/B it with the CD in time, but we don't believe you'll get a better vinyl cut than that - the original audio signals have been overprocessed, and that's what's left of the original audio. It sounds good to our ears but can hear the crushed elements of it - there's unfortunately no way to go back to the actual stems (they were destroyed), and we can't pull the instruments apart from the final mix. We can't remix it at this point, only remaster it and with the audio information that is available. This was the only SYL record from recollection that we had to try several passes with - but it is as you hear it. As far as "City," we're missing your thoughts there - it sounds fantastic to us. Very powerful and full of life. There are a few things to consider with regards to hearing these albums: 1) If you are very familiar with another version of the same material, it is very possible to have the effect that you know the original so intimately, all possible later publications might pale in comparison. This has happened to us on some demos that bands turn into us - we listen through them 10 times and get to know them, and when the final record comes out - it sounds wrong to us. After ample time listening to the final recording, it becomes clear it's superior to the demo. Just a thought. 2) CD has unlimited bandwidth, whereas vinyl does not. Any hard hit in the extremely high or extremely low frequencies will cause the stylus to jump out of the groove and render the record unplayable. This is part of the preparation for vinyl. So, it might be that you need to check your expectations when listening to vinyl. It can have a "better" and 'warmer" feel than digital, and we vastly prefer it for listening, but it isn't superior to digital in every way. It sucks that it's not as you would want or expect it to sound - but it might just be that it's impossible to ever sound that way. Then again, it's also possible our ears are different and just don't agree. We think these Cloudkicker records sound great - we've listened through "The Discovery" LP so many times here and agree it sounds far better than the digital release of it. So it is. Thanks!

And as for why "Alien" sounded different than the rest - please understand that all of these albums were created at different times, so it's impossible to get all of the music sounding the same. Devin has stated that he basically considered himself suicidal and certifiably insane at that point, and the mixing of the record in its original form is totally overdone. It's an incredible album, but we worked with the highest resolution audio that exists and prepped it for vinyl - so it likely wouldn't be possible to do better. There is no "vinyl warmth" filter that is added in the mastering process - so that perception of warmth is coming from your system chain of stylus, amp, and speakers. The real process that occurs during mastering is mostly the prepping of the material to fit within the suitable bandwidth of vinyl, accounting for headroom where possible, while keeping the original sound as intact as possible. If you listened through the albums and heard one thing you didn't like and considered it a flop, we think you missed the point of the collection.

We let Devin choose which engineer he wanted, and he chose Troy (who has mastered all the DTP records). We let Troy do his thing, and didn't disturb. Plus, you should realize that SYL is not a very "dynamic" band in that sense. Much of the material is intentionally brick-walled. That's the first time we've heard a complaint about them, but to each their own. We think those sound great and these too.

Here are images of "The EPs" 2xLP. https://www.flickr.com/photos/bloodmusic/sets/72157643826036494/

Yes - The EPs is the 2xLP and The Discovery is a single LP.

Thanks man! Sorry about the brutal shipping and shit. That's Finland for you. :| Plan on sending out stuff next week!

We still have copies in our EU store!

Here you can see images of "The Discovery" LP, which was the cover that was totally re-drawn. Of course, the back image never existed, so we created that out of the same motif - very simple. The reverse contains all original credits and official Creative Commons code. https://www.flickr.com/photos/bloodmusic/sets/72157643788492363/