slumberland records

keeping it foolish since 1989

NOTE: We will be on holiday from November 23rd-Dec 1st; mail order resumes on Dec 2nd.

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Rat Columns is the ever changing musical project of David West and friends. West is involved in other groups such as Rank/Xerox and Liberation, was a member of Total Control and Lace Curtain, and in recent years has released 2 eponymous solo LP's. Rat Columns emerged from the desert outpost of Perth, Western Australia in the late 2000s, influenced by largely anglocentric forms such as post-punk and jangle pop, and has developed over time with an array of different friends from the USA and Australia, emitting a jet stream of 7"s, EPs and three full length albums along the way.

The third full length LP Candle Power was released in 2017, a mix of indie pop, post-punk and disco. The songs included on the "Sometimes We're Friends" EP were recorded at the same time as "Candle Power" in Guildford, Western Australia, in a back shed studio on a rambling riverside property. Beyond West, the Australian Rat Columns line-up of Perth underground luminaries, Amber Gempton, Louis Hooper and Chris Cobilis is featured, as well as musical wunderkind Cohen Bourgault guesting on violin. This recording sees Rat Columns dancing around classicist, German-influenced propulsive guitar pop on "Sometimes We're Friends," an indie pop gossamer ballad involving an "Astral Lover," and an unusual diversion into downer, vaguely Young-esque dirge rock on the cheery "Waiting To Die." This is the first Rat Columns release on the long-running, Bay Area-based Slumberland imprint.