SET FIRE TO FLAMES telegraphs 2xLP mogwai GYBE godspeed

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28

SET FIRE TO FLAMES  -  Telegraphs in Negative/Mouths Trapped in Static  2xLP

Cover - VG+ (inside gatefold little warped, outside very nice)

Vinyl - VG+ (both discs little warped, plays great, sounds unplayed)

This is an original, way out of print 2xLP from SET FIRE TO FLAMES. This band shares 6 members with Godspeed You Black Emperor. This was released by Alien 8 Records in 2003 and contains a gatefold jacket and an 18 page booklet. This is a rare, out of print album that is getting harder to find on vinyl.

BBC Music (Peter Marsh) says: 

For this second album, Godspeed You! Black Emperor offshoot/collective Set Fire to Flames intended to take a portable studio setup out on a road trip through Canada, stopping and recording in ancient gas stations and deserted factories. Though they eventually abandoned this as impractical, the idea left its mark.

Like its predecessor, Telegraphs in Negative/Mouths Trapped in Static is an uneasy listen. Dark strings drone away to themselves; we hear someone packing, writing a farewell note, shoving their bags in the boot of a car. Indeterminate insect electronics chatter. An elderly man tells stories of mad horses and eyes that shoot out fire. Creaking improv likea heavily sedated free jazz outfit playing in an ancient submarine. Then suddenly, gentle hymnal guitars and strings offer a sublime, beautiful melody more shocking than any noiseburst; slowly it blossoms into a brief, funereal slice of slo-mo prog rock, then evaporates into gentle mists of reverb...

The 'invisible soundtrack' has become a bit of a cliche of late, and even then it doesn't do justice to the wobbly, grainy ear-cinema that SFF conjure. Over these two CDs they definitely control the horizontal and the vertical, sucking you in to a Twilight Zone of their own peculiar design. Sounds assume a physical presence, even if you can't imagine what's making them half the time. Episodes of barely coherent lo-fi drone resolve into sweet, luminous clouds of strings. Spaces are by turns wide open, intimate, claustrophobic. If Andrey Tarkovsky had directed The Blair Witch Project, this would have been the ideal soundtrack. Towards the end, we hear a moving, strangely stilted phone conversation between two lovers. It breaks off mid sentence; a guitar elegy unfolds over gentle rivers of static. Someone lights a bonfire.

Beautiful, infuriating, sometimes impenetrable, this is an album that pays repeated listening, and requires that you listen hard. Fat Cat (surely one of the UK's most astute, inventive labels) deserve some kind of award for putting this out. Essential.

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[my grading standards taken from another seller]

SEALED   record is in like new unopened condition believed to be mint under the shrink
NM   I dont believe in MINT records...if its MINT it is SEALED in my opinion. NM then is as good as it gets like new but opened, I use this grading very rarely.
EX   Sorry to mix up grading systems but I believe there is a place for an EX (its just a NM- or a VG++) for those clean records which are better than a regular VG+ but not flawless
VG+   This is the industry standard, a good clean record with minimal surface noise and one or two light surface scratches, cover might have some corner dings and ring wear starting but overall a good record similar to what you would find in the used bins of a local record shop.
VG   Things are getting more worn here still a good player but visually showing wear and picking up some noise.
VG-   Has a deep scratch or two visually rough also but plays through with pops and krackle.
G   Not good at all, you have been warned