Bleep

The long-awaited vinyl reissues of legendary janglists Felt finally arrive via Cherry Red. For ten years, Felt gave the world ten near-perfect albums and ten near-perfect singles that have gone to make up some of the most alluringly distinct and unmistakably unique ambient reaching post-punk music to ever be recorded.

Led by Lawrence, the enigmatic artist only known by that of his first name. Felt's debut album Crumbling The Antiseptic Beauty was recorded and mixed in six days with Swell Maps producer John A. Rivers. Crumbling contains some of the most incredibly evergreen, almost crystalised guitar tones and mind lost in the ether lyrics ever seen within the esoteric, hidden reverse underground of alternative music and culture.

Escaping the contours of his surroundings to dive deep into his own head, The Splendour Of Fear saw some of Lawrence's most wonderfully sorrowful lyrics, matched with the dark black slabs of creosote guitar. Ask any Felt fan and they will tell you, The Splendour Of Fear is the one you most need.

Produced by a then relatively unknown John Leckie (who would go onto The Stone Roses, The Fall, Plastic Ono Band...) he produced The Strange Idols Pattern And Other Short Stories for Felt. Standing as one of the groups most hallucinatory journeys, the sounds of the metal and reggae studio on the industrial district of Birmingham in which they recorded the album shines through strong.

The shortest and most experimental title in Felt's catalogue, The Seventeenth Century (originally titled Let the Snakes Crinkle Their Heads to Death) features an expansive 19 minutes of music, mostly instrumental. Yet all in keeping with the traditional Felt sound, post-punk jangle that is as compelling as it is otherworldly. Retitled for this reissue, Lawrence is quoted as saying “You can’t change the title of an album” - they told him – so he said; “if Kraftwerk can and Bowie can then I can too!!"

If you have been grabbed by Coil, Kate Bush & Cocteau Twins or recently the Solid Space reissue on Dark Entries, Offen and Stroom than look no further than this for your next hit of undiscovered, 80's eclectism. Existing entirely out of time with the groups and music that made up their surroundings back in the 80s, and praised in mixes by everyone from The Black Dog, Regis, Sleeparchive & Blackest Ever Black. Felt are one of the most incredible, yet criminally unknown groups of the post-punk generation.