{"product_id":"shadow-ring-lighthouse-2xlp","title":"Shadow Ring - Lighthouse 2XLP","description":"\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003en’t look at it as loneliness, I look at it as solitude.” \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eRecorded in 1997, on \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.blankforms.org\/contributors\/the-shadow-ring\" title=\"The Shadow Ring\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eThe Shadow Ring\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cspan\u003e’s return from their final American tour, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eLighthouse\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e captures the group at their most stripped-down and visionary. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.blankforms.org\/contributors\/graham-lambkin\" title=\"Graham Lambkin\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eGraham Lambkin\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cspan\u003e’s fractured texts conjure Folkestone’s haunted coastline—Vikings, the Morgawr, a fading Britain, the pull of the sea—under the sway of Alternative TV’s \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eVibing Up the Senile Man (Part One)\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, the mechanical vernaculars of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.blankforms.org\/contributors\/robert-ashley\" title=\"Robert Ashley\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eRobert Ashley\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, and the deflated humor of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eDad’s Army\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eIt Ain’t Half Hot Mum\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eOpening the trio’s famed final phase (documented across three releases on Scott Foust’s Swill Radio), \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eLighthouse\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e finds The Shadow Ring turning away from the glare of the stage and the restlessness of the road. Retreating into the domestic seclusion of Coombe House, they work with field recording and kitchen-table musique concrète, attending closely to the internal structure of each track. Scott Foust, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.blankforms.org\/contributors\/karla-borecky\" title=\"Karla Borecky\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eKarla Borecky\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.blankforms.org\/contributors\/adris-hoyos\" title=\"Adris Hoyos\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAdris Hoyos\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cspan\u003e—newly installed at Coombe House—all make guest appearances; the latter lends her voice and drums to the D-side, while her newly minted relationship with Graham Lambkin and move to Folkestone haunt the record’s themes. In the glow of \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003ePebble Mill at On\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003ee, Lambkin’s language grows increasingly elliptical, mapping ancient hills and seascapes while gazing outward across the Channel. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eA sustained exchange between Lambkin and Foust encouraged a hermetic approach, pushing further into the lo-fi economy the group had once pursued tentatively, in the shadow of figures like Marc Bolan and David Bowie. Embracing an aesthetic poverty, they turned now toward the spare, conceptual rigor of Robert Ashley and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.blankforms.org\/contributors\/alvin-lucier\" title=\"Alvin Lucier\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eAlvin Lucier\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, deepening Lambkin’s investment in bedroom-studio production. On \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eLighthouse\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, each piece emerges as a self-contained construction—an austere form governed by its own logical constraints. Like the decommissioned beacon of its title, the album inhabits the ruins of post-Channel stagnation while conjuring a mythic past, embodying a distinctly British provincialism amid a waning United Kingdom.\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eWhile aficionados still regard \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eLighthouse\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e and its two successors, \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eLindus\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e and \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eI’m Some Songs\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e, as The Shadow Ring at their peak, Swill Radio’s cultivated obscurity meant few heard them at the time. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/www.blankforms.org\/contributors\/darren-harris\" title=\"Darren Harris\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003eDarren Harris\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003cspan\u003e has since called them the group’s finest work, but noted that the albums received only a single review, written by label boss Scott Foust himself. The world wasn’t yet ready for \u003c\/span\u003e\u003cem\u003eLighthouse\u003c\/em\u003e\u003cspan\u003e. Now, twenty-five years on, Blank Forms extends its “flood the zone” reissue campaign with a deluxe edition of this double-LP magnum opus, available again on vinyl. \u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"AMS","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45150772723920,"sku":null,"price":34.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0554\/4201\/4416\/files\/BF-043lighthousecover.jpg?v=1788562400","url":"https:\/\/www.grapefruitrecordclub.com\/products\/shadow-ring-lighthouse-2xlp","provider":"Grapefruit Records","version":"1.0","type":"link"}