Shadow Ring: Wax-Work Echoes LP

Throughout their legendary decade-long run, The Shadow Ring were an enigmatic force on the international musical sub-underground. Before their disbandment in 2002, this shambolic rock outfit, formed by a group of rowdy teenagers in southeast England, left behind a mighty run of eight LPs, a handful of 7" singles, and a spate of raucous live shows and cryptic zine appearances on both sides of the Atlantic, all which have bolstered their enduring word-of-mouth mystique. Originally conceived as a compilation of outtakes and live recordings from The Shadow Ring's 1995 stateside tour, "Wax-Work Echoes" takes its name from the first line of "Put The Music In Its Coffin", the title track of the group's breakthrough release. Graham Lambkin abandons the bits-and-bobs approach, advancing The Shadow Ring concept with entirely original material that builds on the unit's self-mythologizing lyrics, celebrates the clicking of horse hooves, ponders on the sociability of rats and mice, and warns of the dangers of poultry. The first Shadow Ring album to officially include Tim Goss in the main lineup, "Wax-Work Echoes" reveals the group in its final and lasting form, awash in the outer bounds of atmospheric exploration, with Lambkin's familiar wry and morbid lyricism and the stripped-down angularity of amateurishly detuned guitars fully intact. Out of print for almost three decades and available here for the first time ever on long-playing disc, "Wax-Work Echoes" is a classic from the outer eddies of The Shadow Ring's sound, a must-have for any aficionado's collection.