DOUBLE UP! by Stock, Hausen & Walkman

The "EMPTY BOX" 10 inch vinyl ep was originally released on Hot Air via the icelandic label FIRE ( a Stilluppsteypa thing ) of course, in trying to navigate the 'format wars' of the late 90's some tracks from Empty Box found their way onto the Oh My Bag! cd version... to quiet the howling remonstrations of the digital only crowd.. back when digital meant Compact Disc or DAT rather than some fuzzy 'bits' drifting through a wireless radio aether! It also slightly alleviated the chagrin after FIRE! were found to have sneakily repressing the 10” without consultation or permission.
Empty Box, Crumbs, Icebox plus Syrup in a truncated form appeared on the Empty Box vinyl and the Oh My Bag! compact disk.
....SO.... not much point fobbing people off with pointless repetition but what of TINNED & GRAVY? (or indeed tinned gravy) adding them to a first time digital release of HANG UPS 7" makes sense surely? maybe there are some as yet unreleased tracks from these sessions? Yes! a vaguely amusing loping Dadaist collision of whistling and south american frogs called VOLE and a monstrous form stitched up from some of the same sound sources as the SPHINCTER track called TROMBONER were unearthed amongst the Hang Ups also rans, 7" vinyl being such a strict mistress.. a closer inspection/cross referencing of the Oh My Bag! vinyl vs CD masters revealed another memory slippage, a last minute amendment to side A of the LP version ending it with PUT DOWN a sorry tale of pet expiry dates, completists rejoice! not least for that but because the "extra runny" version of SYRUP uploaded here is nearly 4 minutes longer than versions available 'back then' - clocking in at 10 minutes 45 seconds, probably making it the longest SHW track ever released and, for once after all that Thud & Blunder, allowing the listener to enjoy the ceasefire, sink in and drift down the flame lined Mekong of the SH&W remit uninterrupted. The track plays out like some shellshocked refugee from organ transplants vol2, Mogadon suppressing the flashbacks, or maybe falschbacks?, until a state of agitated relaxation envelops like some panic room jungle shack hideaway across the river from Kurz's compound, which you fear you will not have the nerve to venture forth from for the foreseeable or at least not until reinforcements arrive.
So that's it, 11 tracks, a good vinyl albums worth, skiing quite a stylistic slalom in the end. Everything you would expect, a few Ohrwürmer and possibly more from the 'Stock, Hausen and Walkmens'. A proud moment in any archivists life?

note for collectors: there are a few vinyl copies of both Empty Box 10" and Hang Ups 7" available here.. i would prefer to 'Double Up' and post the two items together .. anyone that hasn't availed themselves of cheap used copies from discogs or if you prefer unplayed copies direct from the source, then get in touch via bandclamp messaging.. i promise to discount anything you payed for the digitals off the costs.. everything is negotiable! probably.