"In late November & early December of 2006 the Portland Bike Ensemble played a series of concerts in Japan -- ten shows in seven different cities. This record features highlights from that tour. Side A is the complete performance from a Buddhist temple in Tokyo, and on the flip are excerpts from shows in Fukuoka, Kitakyushu, and Kyoto. Limited edition of 200 copies, spraymounted covers." – OESB.

New solo work from Sam Meringue, aka Explorers, Matrix Metals, half of Yoga et al. Flashback Repository is a crude Xerox-psych take on James Ferraro and Spencer Clark’s Hypnagogic memory-recovery process, positing a universal storehouse where all of the waste consciousness of humanity resides. It sounds like abandoned machinery heard through a fog of tape hiss and dreamtone, with keyboards spooling loops of wasteland texture beneath hallucinatory vocal forms and far-away melodies. The feel is closest, perhaps, to the early Skaters style, with peaking drones jump-cutting into keyboard carousels and flickering dreammachine actions, all rendered in a way that sounds as if its beaming across the decades, from the future as much as the past. A reissue of an obscure cassette from Meringue’s Outer Limits Collective, the LP comes with a stapled together booklet featuring ‘explanatory’ text. Edition of 425 copies. Highly recommended. 

Limited vinyl reissue of one of James Ferraro’s greatest sides, Lamborghini Crystal’s 1992 Cool Runnings, now remastered and rebirthed as Grippers Nother Onesers’ At Slimer Beach. The LP is built around amazing disco/psych/drone/glam songs with high, high vox, gospelised choirs, repeat rhythms, jamming wah guitars and that beautiful, refracted-through-a-sea-of-fug sound that characterises all of his best work. Joyous, profoundly affecting and seemingly broadcast from a bedroom in the 1970s that still harbours the slowly decaying ghost of progressive disco/funk/glam dreams, the set runs from primitive NY Dolls-styled trash through full ensemble Aquarian musicals. Another singular release from this always confounding artist. Features Ghostbusters-tribute artwork and some naked snaps of our hero. Dedicated to Richard Ramirez..“It was formed by James Ferraro and it is the first release under this name (it is inspired by childhood memories of seeing holograms for the first time and hearing disco/rock music coming from other rooms around the house and from behind walls, I remember realizing the different shades/ and it felt mystical, and the images and sounds had employed psychic senses I had never used before, total ' disco breeze/sun reflecting on iridescent oil sunglasses,)” – James Ferraro. Edition of 450 copies.  Highly recommended. 

Massive full-length from Joe Knight aka Rangers who had a previous cassette on Not Not Fun. Heard this described as ‘mirrorball funknagogic pop’ and yeah, it’s fully mainlined H-Pop that expands on the Ariel Pink/James Ferraro blueprint by importing massive bass riffs (that at points sound like PiL), screwed and chopped production styles and fully structured songs that confuse DIY prog with 1980s pop. Think of the more guitar-focussed 80s skateboard vid soundtracks of Lamborghini Crystal cut with an Eighties frontman beaming vocals straight from late-night MTV. The whole album has a Roxy Music-bootleg vibe, a fuzzy mirror onto an alien pop music with cold, dreamy synths and monster bass. Suburban Tours is a collection of pop songs that take the raw material of Knight’s extended collage-based cassettes and turns them into classic psychedelic instants. All the tracks were recorded after Knight relocated to San Francisco from the suburbs of Dallas, Texas and there’s something melancholy in his evocation of 80s/90s teenage USA cut up with a confused love/hate for what he calls suburbia’s “failed connections with nature” – fake lighting, golf courses, air conditioning, gated communities... Todd Ledford describes it well when he says: “But despite the loneliness and melancholic themes there is a remarkable amount of color to his music. Like it's the sound of what he'd want to have playing on his headphones while riding a bike thru these neighbourhoods -- the sound necessary to make these places seem lively and fun.” Either way this is a major Hypnagogic statement. Full-colour pro-printed sleeves with MP3 download. Highly recommended.

New four track EP from Big Troubles, who redirect the fuzz pop sound of The Pastels and My Bloody Valentine into the American garage. ”Kicking off the new OESB 7" series with a 4 track single by Big Troubles. International playboy Matt Mondanile (Real Estate, Ducktails) discovered Big Troubles and urged Olde English Spelling Bee to sign these guys on the spot for their fresh "industrial shoegaze pop" sound. Done and done. Features home recordings by Alex Craig and Ian Drennan who split songwriting and vocal duties down the middle. They are joined live by Luka Usmiani (No Demons Here) on bass and Sam Franklin (Fluffy Lumbers) on drums. Their debut full-length album "Worry" will be out on OESB in July.” – OESB.