Name: Thin Black Duke
Brand: Oxbow

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

hh666228

{"blocks": [{"data": {"text": "hh666228"}, "type": "paragraph"}]}

Colour

Colour details

Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format detail

Format Music GB

Limited edition

Release date

2017-05-19

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier GB

Shellshock

Tax rate GB

Standard:20

UPC / Barcode

0634457767225

{"blocks": [{"data": {"text": "0634457767225"}, "type": "paragraph"}]}

Total Cap

1 / CD / Extended format: No / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No

Artist

Oxbow

Genre GB

Metal

Label GB

Hydra Head

Hydra Head Records is an independent record label specializing in heavy metal music. Founded in New Mexico by Aaron Turner, the frontman of Isis, in 1993, Hydra Head has grown to become a prominent player in the industry. With its imprint Hydra Head Noise Industries focusing on experimental and noise music, the label offers a diverse range of genres for music enthusiasts.

Originally established as a distribution company while Turner was still in high school, Hydra Head released its first record, a seven inch by local band Vent, in 1995. Over the years, it expanded its roster to include talented acts such as Cave In, Xasthur, Kayo Dot, Boris, and Jesu. Notable bands like Botch, Khanate, and Harkonen were also signed to Hydra Head before disbanding.

In September 2012, Turner announced that Hydra Head Records would be shutting down new releases but would continue to operate to pay off their debts and maintain their back catalogue. However, on May 10th, 2016, it was revealed that Hydra Head would release Oxbow's next album 'The Thin Black Duke.'

Over the 30 years of Oxbow’s operations, no one has come comfortably close to classifying the Bay Area group. This could arguably be the result of Oxbow’s ongoing evolution, but accurately describing any particular phase of the groups’ seven-album career is no easier than describing the broader metamorphic arc of their creative path. This is especially true with their seventh album Thin Black Duke, where Oxbow’s elusive brand of harmonic unrest has absorbed the ornate and ostentatious palate of baroque pop into their sound, pushing their polarized dynamics into a scope that spans between sublime and completely unnerving. This is new musical territory for all parties involved. As throughout their history, Oxbow grapples with channeling man’s most primal urges through a framework of meticulous, cultured, and cerebral instrumentation. But the unadulterated electric roar and percussive barbarism of their past work wasn’t as wholly satisfactory as it had been in the past. Other flavors were deemed necessary and called into play, both to slake unnamed thirsts and to suitably fit the Thin Black Duke’s lyrical themes, but also to explore the further reaches of Oxbow’s studied approach to tension and release, structure and dissonance, and melody and abstraction. Consequently, the attentive ear will notice recurring musical phrases and motifs throughout Thin Black Duke. Noticing such details isn’t necessary to absorb and appreciate the album, but as Wenner suggests, “I think I'm not the only one that finds a visceral satisfaction when you can look into something you like deeper, and deeper, and find more and more there.”

LP - Limited to 1500 copies in Deluxe Letter Pressed Jacket.

Thin Black Duke

Music GB