trapped under ice - big kiss goodnight

at first i had some troubles to get into trapped under ice, but as soon as the 'stay cold' 7" sunk its claws into me i was sold to this baltimore based band. i still think 'stay cold' is their crowning achievement, but 'big kiss goodnight' may come pretty close. i am not sure if this record was meant to be their farewell work, in any way the title is more than appropriate because 'big kiss' was their last release before the split.

the album is packed with raw energy and sounds so angry. just like your favourite hardcore album is supposed to be. check out 'pleased to meet you' and 'still cold' and wittness sheer hardcore to the point-ness. i won this record at the end of an ebay auction. by the time the second press was still availabe, but i thought, if i could get a first press copy for a reasonable price i'd rather take this one. as you can see, i got it for a reasonable price.

the first press copies come with a nice matte cardboard sleeve and a printed dust-sleeve, made of thick cardboard as well. i don't know if all copies came with it or if the seller was just very kind to throw this into the package, but i got a big poster with the cover art included in the sleeve. 1.000 copies made on this ultra clear vinyl. reaper records. 2011.

trapped under ice - secrets of the world

i was in london and all i got was a third press copy of a wider press. should get this on a shirt. when i was in the uk capitol for a holiday, indeed i checked what record stores may be worth visiting before i was going. all ages records was pretty high on the list, as they are advertising theirselves as the only independent hardcore/punk record store in london. i planned to go there pretty much at the end of the trip. firstly to avoid blowing my holiday budget on the first day and secondly to avoid boring my girlfriend to death the first day already.

i found the store without much problems and my first impression when i entered was, man, that's a small shop. not that there was anything wrong with that, i actually prefer that. so i made my way to the hardcore section and began to flick through the racks. well, what can i say. i mean, i hadn't anything special in mind, but i hoped to score something cooler than a record i could have easily ordered here in good ol' germany.

i took the record anyway because there was no way i was leaving empty handed. afterwards i wanted to go to flashback records and the nice shop keep told me how to find it, but that will be another story... to the record, yeah i came to like trapped under ice way too late. i bought my first record of them, the stay cold 7", not until last year. so their debut album was on the list since that point but not high priority. after i stumbled upon it at all ages, who am i to say no?

the record is great. i love their fresh take on hardcore. i mean, they weren't playing anything real new. they threw the same ingredients in the mix as every self-respecting hardcore band but somehow they managed not to sound battered and worn-out. they really had a unique style. check 'from birth' and 'gemini' and buy their legacy if you can. probably you already have. 'secrets of the world' was pressed for three times and this a copy of the last press out of 1000. the artwork got a little made over. the lettering comes in green instead of red ink. love the art work. reaper records. 2009.

stateless society pt 2/2: trapped under ice - dirty money split

trapped under ice/dirty money split 7"

of course i needed at least one more item from stateless society. that's a law. and because i'm a law-abiding citizen who knows what's right and proper i opted for another 7". what i found was the only other 7" in store and answers to the name of the trapped under ice & dirty money split release. because i'm really getting into tui at the moment and couldn't get enough of their 'stay cold' 7" there was no doubt what i was about to do seeing this record in the store. adding it to cart indeed!

in that case i didn't even listen to the songs in advance. i knew i would love the tui part. and 'gemini' and 'death clock ticking' are as sharp as expected. the dirty money part is cool too. dm was a band from the u.k., london to be precise. they played a similar brand of hardcore and because of that teaming up with tui was a good choice. on my search for information about dirty money i found out that they called it a day in 2010. check out 'hollow shell' or '2007 was a bad year', their contributions to this split e.p.

looking for pressing information deadformat.net proved to be the most enlightening source, leaving some shadows nevertheless. dead & gone records from the u.k. handled the european version with a complete different art work. a389 records from the u.s. did the north american pressing. a389's first pressing was 700 on black and 250 on clear vinyl (100 out of that numbered and with a special cover for the record release show). albeit there is photo up on the site showing a clear blue record. what's that all about? can't be part of the second pressing from 2012 according to the information given there. three colours: red, white and my grey version. unfortunately only the red pressing provided with numbers - 100 pressed. quite confusing. anyone here an idea?

a389 records. released 2008.

(again) burnout store pt. 2/2: trapped under ice - stay cold

trapped under ice – stay cold 7“

tui and me has been a difficult story in the beginning. i checked them out before because they are on reaper. i listened to some song from their first full length i believe. didn’t really convince me so i passed on. at one point i was reading a lot of good posts of fellow bloggers about one or another of their albums or 7”es. knowing myself and my unreliable first impression i tried again. and yet again some ‘secrets of the world’ song didn’t do much for me. if i just could remember which it was. but anyway i wrote an imiginary note to myself to abandon tui once and for all.

but then came burnout store and its 7” section. i flicked through it and saw this cover of stay cold. i knew what the actual cover of ‘stay cold’ looked like and so i thought this had to be some pretty limited version (oh what a fool i was). i pulled it out of the rack, threw it on the turntable and realised that this stuff is actually quite good. and even better! i listen to this baby pretty much every day right now. so damn good. the solos, the hooks, the breaks – ‘stay cold’ has it all and it just won’t let you go! one of my favourite records in the moment.

of course i wanted to check how ‘limited’ my version really is. i found out that it’s the highly sought after fifth press which came with the small amount of only 1000 copies and revised artwork, which tricked me into believing this was special. ah well, i think i don’t deserve better after falsely ignoring them for so long. white with blue splatter vinyl looks ace nevertheless. it was the right day for that colour pattern it seems.

comes with digital download card. reaper records. 2008.