{"product_id":"shadow-ring-hold-onto-i-d-lp","title":"SHADOW RING - Hold Onto I.D. LP","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"This singular 1998 album is billed as arguably being their best-known and most accessible album, but there are a couple of important caveats to that claim. The main one is that The Shadow Ring’s entire discography had been out-of-print before Blank Forms reissue campaign began and this album was the only one available on streaming platforms, so it is arguably their best-known album for reasons other than its merits alone. Secondly, accessibility is a relative thing and “most accessible Shadow Ring album” essentially means “a bit more accessible than a Jandek album.” Despite the clattering martial-style percussion on de-tuned drums, Lambkin’s discordant guitar abuse, and Goss’s queasily disorienting synths, however, this album is an improbably fun and haunting glimpse into a deeply weird and unfamiliar world.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNotably, I personally find the earlier Wax-Work to be much more musically satisfying and easier on the ears, but the more spoken word-centric Hold Onto I.D. is a fascinating and unique release in a completely different way, as it offers an unsettling and vaguely sinister account of Graham Lambkin and Darren Harris’s new life in Coombe House after moving out of their parents’ homes. Blank Forms rightly describes this as the band’s “most overtly autobiographical” release, the actual reality of Coombe House is transformed into a curdled magical realist nightmare in which our two dour protagonists are continually besieged and menaced by an alarming infestation of sea creatures.  \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e2nd album to feature Goss on electronics and keyboards. In theory, the reduced emphasis on Lambkin’s jarringly discordant out-of-tune guitar strums seems like it should have heralded a big leap forward in listenability, but that is again not always the case here, as Goss unleashes some willfully annoying and incredibly shrill sounds in Hold Onto I.D.’s first two pieces. Also, there is still plenty of dissonant and gleefully inept guitar playing to be found.\" - Psychotropic Wonderland\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ciframe width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/QRUM2oYi-jw?si=RsJUDLdQwrgmrZbO\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen\u003e\u003c\/iframe\u003e","brand":"Blank Forms","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67825579753566,"sku":"SHADOW RING - Hold Onto I.D. LP","price":47.95,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1273\/6111\/files\/shadowring-holdonto.jpg?v=1792650296","url":"https:\/\/www.strangeworldrecords.com.au\/products\/shadow-ring-hold-onto-i-d-lp","provider":"Strangeworld Records","version":"1.0","type":"link"}