The Label
Lightarmour Editions is a Record Label and Multimedia Studio inspired by an underlying musical spirit rather than any specific genre; the jewelled ghost of primal-era Factory, 4AD, Mute, Fast Product, Play It Again Sam, Some Bizarre, and Rough Trade (amongst many others, including Australia’s Volition, and New Zealand’s Flying Nun) has been in the air for some years now, and the Post-CorporateHipHopPop generation has gagged on crass and vacuous non-imagination long enough.
Initially set up to release the various projects of founder/producer V.Valentini (Crimson Boy, Fate Razor, The Noise of Ghosts, Salvarosa), the label has gradually broadened its scope, including the Jack Morph compilation album – Unholy Kings on a Black Horizon – and upcoming debut releases from first signings Odessa-X, Gazelle, Time Of The Signs, and King Proteus.
Lightarmour Editions is not a retro label – the essential spirit of the postpunk period is a guiding inspiration, just as much as the creatively rich and mystical 60s underground, or the austere No-Wave scene of late 70’s New York, the DreamPop-ShoeGaze movement that took its cue from A.R. Kane and The Cocteau Twins, the first wave of sparse purist Techno that usurped the pompous clutter of the music industry, the fractured and emotive dubstep of Burial, or the return in recent years of freeform analogue/modular jams and soundtracks. Having been thrilled by so many types of music, it’s clear that form is a secondary issue, and that really the primary issue is the incendiary spark it carries.
Finally, the amazing range of music been produced by the unfettered human imagination inspired one of the main ideas that the label was founded on – i.e. the rebellious and inquisitive musical spirit is an unrelenting force, and the aspiration for beauty (both light and dark) is essential, always.
A sample of inspirations and suggested listening:
A.R. Kane – Lollita
Methyl Ethel – Ubu
IAMX – Happiness
LNZNDRF – Future You
She Past Away – Asimilasyon
Wulfband – Liebe Offensive
Hunters and Collectors – Lumps of Lead
Life Without Buildings – New Town
Chromatics – Night Drive
Interpol – Obstacle #1
Soviet X-Ray Record Club – Never Enough
The Walker Brothers – Nite Flights
Laibach – Eurovision (Spectre)
Mark Stewart – As the Veneer of Democracy Starts to Fade
Sielwolf – Beweglich Animalisch
Cocteau Twins – Musette and Drums
The Triffids – A Trick of the Light
Radiohead – House of Cards
The War On Drugs – Thinking Of A Place
And Also The Trees – Slow Pulse Boy
The Human League – Black Hit Of Space
Street Sects – End Position
Then Comes Silence – Strangers
And An A – Affirmation
The Models – I Hear Motion
Orkestra Obsolete – Blue Monday
Boris Brejcha – Bounce It
Eyeless in Gaza – The Eyes of Beautiful Losers
Cindytalk – The Ghost Never Smiles
Camaron De La Isla – Nana Del Caballo Grande
Coil – Blood From The Air
Sort Sol – Marble Station
Small Faces – Tin Soldier
Tommy James & The Shondells – Crimson And Clover
Joy Division – Heart and Soul
Whirlywirld – Window To The World
The Flowerpot Men – Jo’s So Mean To Josephine
Plaster – Unicore (Part 1-2)
Scattered Order – Tost Rust Host