Various (Harry Pussy , The Wrens etc.)

Our review
Customer reviews
Press release

4...according to our Phil on Wed 13 Apr, 2011.

You may remember we've had a few bits in on this label before by Machinefabriek, Nils Frahm etc. and here's a new release on the label which is the first one in a while. It's a cassette in a nice wrappy foldy brown sleeve numbered of 100 copies. On this cassette you get a radio show of sorts where each song is introduced by the head honcho of Brian Records with a bit of an introduction. It's a novel approach releasing a radio show on a cassette but there you go. On the cassette you've got tracks by The Wrens, Cat Vs Dog, Harry Pussy, Tim Friese-Greene (Talk Talk chappie) and more folks you've probably not heard of. What makes this weird is all the tracks are exclusive so you've got an exclusive Harry Pussy track here. So you've got a pretend radio show with exclusive tracks on. Go figure! The tracks vary in style but there's a nice selection of interesting acousticky folk gear here which is appealing greatly. It's pleasing on the ears as is the packaging which includes a bunch of tiny pictures including one of a bin (there are 16 random pictures included!)

When I was 13 I got given for my birthday a bright yellow ghetto blaster with twin cassette players and blue speaker cones. It also came with a built in mic, which was really exciting as it meant I could make my own cassettes for people and talk about the music, or the weather or whatever else came into my head. This was even more useful because at the time I didn't own many cassettes. In fact I owned two Mickey J tapes, the soundtrack to Buster (don't even ask), and some Metallica and Megadeath tapes (oh and Super Fuzz Big Muff by Mudhoney, which is still one of my favourite records). As a result my compilations relied heavily on me using that tiny built in mic. I would hand make the sleeves, normally creating montages from pages of magazines. I like to think 20 years on the seeds for Radio Brian Volume 2 were sown by that little yellow tape player.

Anyone who has picked up Brian 50 will know that long before Brian was a record label it was a music club. A few years back, when we were doing our six favourite tracks, I decided to break with tradition and rather than make a booklet and CD, I thought I would just make a CD and on the CD I would talk about the music and why I liked it (as well as playing a short excerpt of Duran Duran Duran's gabba remake of Slayers Reign In Blood). Radio Brian was born. James CE, who curated Radio Brian Volume 2, is also a member of the music club and we agreed he would make a follow up to Radio Brian Volume 1. This time the tracks would be exclusive, and the release would be available to anyone who would like a copy. So Radio Brian Volume 2 was born.

Radio Brian Volume 2 isn't really a radio show at all. Instead it harks back to the days of dreaming about having your own radio show (a dream that never dies). At its most basic level it is an MP3 album with 10 tracks and 40 minutes of music. It features amazing and exclusive songs by The Wrens, Tim Friese-Greene (of Talk Talk fame), Harry Pussy, Cat Vs Dog, Matt Carter, Tie, Jonny Rogers, Esther Tyler Ward, DJ Roach and Runge Kutta. It also includes a tape, which functions as the insert for the release, explaining why we love the tracks and what makes them special, as well as ruminations on non-league football teams, jingles and all sorts of other stuff. The tape and MP3 voucher are housed inside a recycled card sleeve and each one is individually painted, decorated and numbered. No two look the same. Inside you will also find some notes in bafflingly small type as well as 4 colour images randomly selected to ensure every persons experience of Radio Brian Volume 2 is different.

Most importantly of all we love Radio Brian and we hope you will too. Jimlad – Brian Records

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