From the mid '80s until the mid '90s, London-based Fire Records was on the cutting edge of indiedom, gaining a reputation for inspired and often maverick A&R; it released records regardless of prevailing musical trends and soon became firmly established as an important signpost label, widely regarded as one of the most fertile breeding grounds of new music. Fire released many highly-influential UK and USA artists including Teenage Fanclub, Spacemen 3 (now Spiritualized), Television Personalities, The Pastels, Telstar Ponies, Urge Overkill, The Lemonheads, Blue Aeroplanes and, of course, Pulp.
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viewing 1 To 20 of 20 items
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LP+CD
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FIRE 165LP
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"From Texan songstress Teresa Maldonado.... Weather Codes is a record about heartbreak and loneliness."
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2LP
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FIRE 326LP
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"Raw and delicate, Hard Rubbish was recorded on eight-track reel-to-reel tape, often in just a single take. Their folk-tinged indie rock is flecked with experimentation whilst retaining a firm hold on some fantastically memorable melodies. With a non-traditional set-up of two guitars, drums, and processed percussion with four vocals - Lower Plenty are set to take us on a very exciting ride." Includes the debut album, Mean.
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FIRE 292CD
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"Solo album from Australian songwriting legend Tom Morgan, best known for his contributions to Smudge and The Lemonheads. Orange Syringe includes ten perfectly formed stripped-back pop songs saturated with Aussie charm, with just the right amount of jangle and an instantly comforting hook."
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2LP
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FIRE 290LP
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Double LP version. "Smash the hegemony of dance. Stand still. Pere Ubu return with their first new studio album in over three years. The album ushers in a new era in the history of Pere Ubu, with David Thomas and band continuing to provoke and shock listeners, further establishing them as one of the most innovative, progressive, and important bands of all time. Lady from Shanghai is an album of dance music -- it is the Ubu dance party."
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CD
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FIRE 264CD
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"Blood Oaths of the New Blues is the Sunday morning 'wake and bake' record to last year's critically acclaimed Briarwood's Saturday night revelry. With his once-every-five-years proper rock and roll record out of his system, James Jackson Toth, aka Wooden Wand, retreated back to Alabama to record this spooky, heady follow-up: an album that demands close attention. This is music for quiet reflection and shares a worldview more in line with noise and doom metal artists than it does summer of love casualties and beach burnouts. Every Wooden Wand album trounces expectations, and Blood Oaths of the New Blues, thankfully, doesn't break that trend."
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7"
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BLAZE 45205EP
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"A brilliantly prescribed surf pop song about ruthlessness and getting your own way. The B-side 'One True Love' is a stunning ballad telling a yearning love story. Tom Morgan has played in a plethora of bands and fronted Aussie stalwarts Smudge, a marvelous 'slacker pop' trio who he formed in 1991 with drummer Alison Galloway." On red vinyl.
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CD
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FIRE 281CD
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"Fire Records are delighted to bring you a compilation of the very best of Robert Pollard's Boston Spaceships in a superb compilation, The Greatest Hits of Boston Spaceships: Out of the Universe By Sundown. This is the first time that any material by Boston Spaceships has been available outside of the US in anything other than import, and this collection selects the very best nuggets from their brief but productive career brought together in succinct form. All the better, then, that fans outside the States now get to hear the pure rock gold of Boston Spaceships in its most refined form."
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3x7"
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FIRE 271EP
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Triple 7" version, each one on differently colored wax. Hand-numbered edition of 1000 copies.
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2LP
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FIRE 218LP
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Double LP version. "The Inner Flame is a wonderful collection of Rainer's songs, and features Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, Emmylou Harris, PJ Harvey, Evan Dando, Lucinda Williams, Vic Chestnutt, Jonathan Richman and others, Fire Records is proud to reissue this compilation and pay tribute and celebrate Rainer Ptacek's legacy."
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LP
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FIRE 234LP
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LP version. "More than 18 years since he left the public spotlight, mysterious mad-genius David Baker, legendary frontman of the original incarnation of Mercury Rev, is back with new band Variety Lights. The masterful new album Central Flow is a collaboration between Baker and fellow vintage synth addict Will MacLean and demonstrates that Baker has lost none of his flair for the extraordinary, the experimental and the exceptional. As co-founder and vocalist of Mercury Rev, Baker helped to forge their revolutionary sound with their first two (and most critically acclaimed) albums; Yerself Is Steam (1991) and Boces (1993). The band were highly innovative and weren't afraid to experiment but above all they were loud, fun and hugely influential. The Variety Light'ss ound was created using a mixture of chained around-the-room 80's era midi expanders as well as the duo's collection of vintage keyboards and combining them with an array of drum machines and effected guitars. In creating Central Flow's sound, Baker says that 'personal adventure is and always has been the most important thing'."
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CD
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FIRE 216CD
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"Eighteen years after the release of their landmark self-titled debut, Cardinal -- the recording collaboration between Richard Davies and Eric Matthews --are preparing to unveil their long awaited new album. The new record, entitled Hymns, picks up where their debut left off -- well-crafted, layered orchestral pop, with Matthews' multi-instrumental talents enhancing Davies' sublime songwriting gems. Hymns comprises ten new originals, another milestone in the band's quest to provide the missing link in chamber pop history, following the Beatles and Bee Gees and before Belle & Sebastian, and a worthy follow up to their self-titled debut, a record lauded then, and now, as one of the most important albums of the '90s. Ushering in an era of appreciation for the orchestrated pop music the 1960s, with a modern approach, Cardinal's debut opus, originally released in 1994, seemed to come out of nowhere with its layered textures and delightful melodies, swimming against the tidal wave of grunge."
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CD
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FIRE 177CD
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"This collection of songs was recorded by WFMU over two live sessions for 'The Music Faucet' show in the summer of 1994 and 1995. This 25th anniversary reissue CD also features two bonus tracks, 'Yer Ropes' and 'Rolling Stones I Am' which featured originally as a not so secret track."
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LP
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FIRE 247LP
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LP version. "Although distinctly their own, the band's sound draws on influences far and wide, with echoes of African rhythms, free jazz textures, electronic dance music, krautrock and Indonesian gamelan music. Nonagonic Now was recorded at the fittingly named Frederick Street Sound and Light Exploration Society, a venue run collectively by the band and others in the Wellington creative music scene. Creative and exploratory it certainly is, to a dazzling level matched only by the sequins and shine of their radiating costumes. If Orchestra Of Spheres illuminate themselves as a stellar, cosmic form, this record is grounded to this earth by a strong rhythmic force, which pumps continually from the opener 'Hypercube'. Setting a subconscious canon for the rest of the album that weaves in and out of tracks, it emerges in hypnotic guise on 'Rotate' and as space funk on 'Hypersphere'."
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LP
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FIRE 181LP
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"With his new album Who's Breathing?, Ryan showcases some of his new songs which, not unlike the drink that's named after him, are both eclectic and sweetly intoxicating. The first half is a top-heavy, bleary-eyed amble through the metaphysical country moves made familiar through his work in The Silt. Central to these songs is Ryan's heady, almost surrealist lyrics, which traipse commonplace folk themes on the slant and uneven ground of a funhouse. Here his way with a turn of phrase demonstrates its dexterity amid slinking caterpillar accompaniments (including a rest stop-style pedal steel and even an English horn pilfered from the AM waves). The second half assumes the mentalist lounge approach, that particular sound not unfamiliar to those who attend the monthly Ryan Driver Quartet appearances at the Tranzac bar in Toronto."
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7"
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BLAZE 186EP
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"Grow Up, the first single from the forthcoming and much-anticipated Danielson full-length, Best of Gloucester County, required special mastering to allow for the sheer volume of attitude packed into it. Vinyl 7" is of course the perfect format for such unadulterated 'tude; it's as if the song leapt from the full-length vinyl and embraced its own Napoleon complex. Perhaps the only 'appropriate' thing about this release is that the B-side is Danielson's reimagining of the Journey classic, 'Wheel In The Sky.' All strut and swagger and burnin' 2-step, it's a wonder that the 7" doesn't melt to the turntable."
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LP
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FIRE 159LP
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LP version. "Snowblink have quickly joined the ranks of some of Canada's brightest musicians, collaborating and performing alongside Arts & Crafts artists Timber Timbre, The Hidden Cameras, Jason Collette, Broken Social Scene, and Apostle of Hustle, in addition to Owen Pallett, Ron Sexsmith, and others. Their live shows have gained high praise from Toronto's NOW magazine. Even in its state of pre-release, Snowblink's Long Live has garnered much acclaim in the US. It was named on several end-of-year best-of lists, including CBC Radio 2, Exclaim magazine, and WNYC. Songs from the record have been recorded live and aired by WNYC, Daytrotter, and CBC Concerts on Demand. The collaborators and guest appearances on the record include Jay Pellicci (Deerhoof), Thom Monahan (Devendra Banhart, Vetiver), Nat Baldwin (Dirty Projectors), Frank Lyon (Keepaway), and fellow Fire artist Ryan Driver (The Silt, Deep Dark United)."
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CD
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SFIRE 042CD
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Fire Records reissues as part of its Embers series A.C. Acoustics' Understanding Music, originally released in 2000. Coming together in Glasgow in 1990, Caz, Paul and Roger Ward (guitar) dabbled in noisy experimentalism with a line-up that included saxophone and violin. They played their first gig supporting Fire's drone-rock heroes Spacemen 3. The band soon gravitated to a series of supports with various indie hopefuls of the day, releasing extremely limited edition, exquisitely-packaged bootlegs. Then they split up -- until Paul decided to give it a second go, bringing back Caz and Roger and drafting in Dave from fellow Glasgow band Thrum, and they recorded the 5 track Wrist Eye demo in the summer of 1992. The new songs were more focused, fusing blistering guitar pyrotechnics with Paul's vulnerable, hypnotic vocals. A second demo enticed Elemental to sign the band and, with a support slot with PJ Harvey under their belts, the "Sweatlodge"/"MV" blue vinyl 7" was released in December 1993. The single prompted Melody Maker to hail the "two helpings of genius on one platter," while NME thought it "absolutely beezer." The single also caught the ear of John Peel, who was moved to play their debut session three times, commenting, "Am I hallucinating, or are this band truly brilliant?" The band's first full tour followed, as did a debut Evening Session. Recorded in early 1994, the 7 track mini-album Able Treasury garnered ecstatic reviews. NME praised the "mixture of the instantly recognizable and the frankly lunatic that makes A.C. Acoustics such a vital prospect." Later that year, the Hand Passes Plenty EP was released to similarly rave reviews. The EP's four tracks were further evidence of the steady evolution of the Acoustics' sound, with bruised melodies and insistent hooks brought to the fore. Roger was replaced by Mark, who had been spotted in local band Big Burd, and was asked to join the cause. The new line-up set about writing and recording the new album, with a break for a storming Reading appearance. Summer 1996 saw the band reward their patient fans with the album Victory Parts, which received critical acclaim across the board, with MOJO stating, "this is rock as art, and Victory Parts is a near masterpiece." After the critical acclaim of the killer single "Stunt Girl" and album, A.C. Acoustics and Elemental Records went their separate, amicable ways and the band signed to YOYO Records. In 1999, two EPs, Like Ribbons and She's With Stars were released and the band was also one of the first to use the internet as a means for releasing a free downloadable track through their web site. The band returned to the studio to begin work on the "not difficult" third album. At the beginning of 2000, A.C. Acoustics recorded a new full-length album, Understanding Music. Again, the critics were won over by the album, with Uncut calling it "an addictively strong album," and MOJO made it their album of the month.
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CD
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FIRE 135CD
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Puerto Muerto is the Chicago-based husband and wife duo of Tim Kelley and Christa Meyer, and this is the follow-up to their 2008 album I Was A Swallow, also released on Fire Records. Drumming For Pistols, Puerto Muerto's swashbuckling full-length, is not for the faint of heart. In the words of singer/percussionist Christa Meyer, the title track is "basically a call to arms. I wanted the song to evoke thoughts of revolution, without specifically referencing the subject." Equal parts sweet and sour, swagger and swoon, the album's 13 cuts range from the ragtag-circus chant-y "Beautiful Women With Shining Black Hair" (featuring Devil In A Woodpile associate Gary Schepers on tuba), to the delirious, bilingual stomper "Tanze," to the sinister swamp-dirge "Song Of The Moon." "The Bell Ringer," a tender art song inspired by Werner Herzog subject Bruno Stroszek, has a ragged opulence, rife with stately strings supplied by Tiffany Kowalski (Bright Eyes, Head Of Femur) and handbells, which Meyer rang from a marble staircase for just the right touch of reverb. Other highlights include the rousing, intricately-arranged anthem "Arcadia," which Meyer says is about "the corruption and the fallacy of the American dream," and "Tamar," a grimy, gospel-tinged rocker ripped from the pages of the Old Testament. While Drumming For Pistols delivers all the elements that fans of the Chicago-based duo have grown to love -- the chameleon-like range of Meyer's classically-trained mezzo-soprano, Kelley's rough but supple baritone, well-constructed songs that seamlessly incorporate influences spanning Kurt Weill and The Clash -- the total effect transcends expectations. Producer and engineer Jamie Carter (TV On The Radio and Metallic Falcons) -- deserves a lot of the credit, inspiring the band to use their instruments, without relying on effects or computer fixes. In addition to Kowalski and Schepers, Gary James (Box Of Baby Birds), John Furman (The Cells), John Londay, and Carter also lent their instrumental expertise. Dark, driving, and drawing from Biblical, literary, and cinematic-sources, Drumming For Pistols is a theatrical tour-de-force.
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CD
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FIRE 134CD
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This is the debut full-length release by the UK's Debbie Leggo on Fire Records. From out of the Fire studio's barred windows comes a low and pulsing throb. From under the door seeps an echoing piano. Through the vents comes a psychedelic wash of guitars and drones, spilling out into the dark, snaking round trees and disturbing the moths. Haunted melodies echo down the quiet Hackney back roads. And the voice that accompanies this dislocated but beautiful noise is by turns that of a man who has drunk too much and then a man who fears he has not drunk enough. Debbie Leggo is mysterious. She is not a pretentious woman believing in herself and her music beyond all else, and neither is she affiliated with the Lego company. Instead, the passion of music past flows in her veins and the fury from music of the quiet present, too. The band's sound is voluptuous, siren-like and steeped in urban exotica. They will get their claws into you. Members of Debbie Leggo are Chrystabel Riley (drums), Oliver Martin (guitar) and Sam Mac (bass); featuring vocals by Scottish street-poet Gerry Mitchell. Musically, they are fearless intranauts coming on like The Fall, Guru Guru, Arab Strap and Loop. Their space rock, freak folk, and Krautrock takes a medicated trajectory; a narcotic arc above the streets of North London. It provides the perfect accompaniment to Mitchell's verbal voyages, that slur, shimmy, berate, rant, eulogize and rumble like he may have Tuvan ancestry alongside his Hibernian heritage.
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FIRE 116CD
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This is Fire Records' 2008 release of a unique collaboration between Various Production and South London wordsmith Gerry Mitchell. Various Production are the mysterious duo carving out new genres with every release. Astoundingly productive, they've produced remixes for Ian Brown, Thom Yorke, Cat Power and Dirty Three amongst others. The Invisible Lodger is a shockingly new experiment of spoken word electronica, somewhat like a less-rigid Massive Attack fronted by a Mark E Smith gifted at imagery and not just wordplay. Dreamy/nightmare machine-waltzes paint sonic scenes for a narrator deconstructing the city walls around him, with collective delusions disturbing his consciousness. Scattered drones, electronic-dub, found samples and waltz-folk music envelope and elaborate the internal dialogue, a modern Notes From Underground, of a Scottish Dostoevsky. With elements of 1984 paranoia, the collaborators weave a massive range of sounds, with Gerry's urban isolation and unflinching view of himself and his surroundings; an industrial, hypnotic, spoken-word electronica. His images are unique and from a heightened sensitivity to his powerlessness; he is invisible, out of the scheme, standing still watching the consumer legions, urban fashionistas and faux-mo sapiens of the capital chase the neon colors and recycled "creations" projected on cold metal and concrete. The album's bleakness is also a pure clean wind, equally soothing and unnerving. Gerry's persona isn't a cheery one, and not for the faint-hearted. The Invisible Lodger is an original and uncompromising modern soundtrack to Mr Mitchell's talented verse and strong imagery.
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