Its the 27th anniversary of OYC.
In typically slack fashion we are releasing OYC25 just two years late.
Questions of willful obscurity abound but we're guessing you know that already.
Our 25th birthday celebration was (as previously posted) a rather magical affair where all members past and present
swallowed their pride and joined in an afternoon of improvisation. The resulting three hours of joyful sound has been
analysed, pawed over and generally manipulated to within an inch of its life by our producer Rob Jenkins. Its a CD we're proud of, 50 odd minutes of gritty ambience, filtered rhythms, you know the sort of thing by now...
The five tracks are numbered sequentially, 25:01, 25:02 etc. and a spare track 25:06 will be a free download on both this page and our web site. Call it a taster, thats why its not on the album.
OYC25 as a package also contains a mind-expanding DVD that is something of a insight into our history.
It originally started with a document of the actual anniversary made by Dan Mudford. We subsequently plundered his archives and discovered a tour film of 1992/3 when we were playing in Europe. Whilst containing some embarrassing moments of northern soul dancing and headbanging the film was a snapshot of a moment in time when OYC Mk 2 were touring the music from the 'Equator' period.
Also included is a rare live performance of the current Mk 3 incarnation and a few special extras from our own archive: publicity shots over the years, gig posters, the legendary OYC matchbook, the cease and desist letter from Sunchemical corp.; a whole alternate "raw" mix of the album; and, exclusively, the very first ever track we played live at the Newshouse in Nottingham that short quarter century ago. My my it sounds rough, but we thought there was a novelty in having our first and latest music all wrapped in the same cover.
The whole package comes in a gorgeous gatefold sleeve with an essay by Senior English lecturer Dr Philip Shaw who saw our very first few gigs and has deigned to cast his intellectual eye upon us.
OYC25 is released on Nov 2 at 11.14am (US Pacific time) by Soleilmoon.