THE OFFSET: SPECTACLES debut LP for sale + US distro from Violet Times

Have you guys heard The Offset: Spectacles yet?  They're a Beijing / Hong Kong 3-piece, now splintered for the moment, exiled to parts unknown?  I heard this, the band's debut LP, and got in touch w/ them the very next day.  It's an all-analog affair from the recording start to the vinyl pressing finish w/ the Offsets flying to a UK studio to put their sound on reel-to-reel tape as they weren't able to easily do that in their homeland.  Purists.  Sounds great.  Looks sharp as well, with a printed inner sleeve and spot-on liner notes.  Aesthetically they've got it going on as well.

One of the other things i found out upon contact is that they hadn't had any US distribution since releasing this album themselves on their own Rose Mansion Analog label in China.  Knowing that some of you Americans reading also needed to be turned onto this great band like i was, without paying for the higher costs of international shipping, i decided to get copies to sell for a bit cheaper to the people of the USA.  Who's in?  

Buy The Offset: Spectacles 1st LP via exclusive* US distribution from Violet Times. . . 

The Offset: Spectacles "s/t" LP is now SOLD OUT from VIOLET TIMES but check out the other items for sale in the links at the top of the page for OHIO rarities and more...

. . . If you want crazy Lou '67 guitar freek-outs and mind-split-open leads by a band that use no drummer conjuring a 'phantom rhythm' and cite their fave groups as The Velvet Underground, Silver Apples, and The Monks while managing to sound as timelessly out of step as those avant/garage heroes, this is it.  I'd say there's easily also a wide cross appeal here, something for the stoners, droners, rock n roll boners, and more.  Both hipsters and hip replacement recipients can rap it together.

These sounds The Offset: Spectacles make are wild, sometimes dark, noisy repetition riffing jamming hypnotic, ghostly cinematic.  Lots of banging and clanging end of the world racket amidst the guy seemingly on the verge of losing it much of the time there are vocals.  There's a lotta tension.  At any moment throughout, the songs sound like the whole thing may fly apart as the impending doom and dirge of clatterist sound ultimately does combust into the whole thing blowing apart in a frenzied flailing freek-out by the end of side two.  Cataclysmic.  Metal Machine Music.  Shards of sound stabbing the mass ear like a hand grenade gone.

Random initial notes, intact. . . (so you can laugh with, or at, me :)  Both mellow and raucous guitar parts, head splitting flourishes, banging and clanging, then it sounds like sonic destruction stomping, shrieking, really cool guitars and it's the end/beginning of the world and it's really time cuz the universe is splitting open.  end/shredding/beginning .  Red between the lines.  Super jamming and minimal and epic and then the dude starts barking.  Electron burning.  Buzzing buzz buzz.  It sounds really haunted, ghostly.  Timeless travel.  Unravel. .  Cinematic ominous hypnotic open free sounds like Lou 67 and Cale clash shred your mind()rain goes off the rails du b bu d dub dub it's like that.   Lotsa shredding.  Ripping guitars and sounds electronic all over the minimal.

Play loud, they do. 

If ya don't wanna take my words for the silver and gold they are tonite, check the text and video of others below. . .      

"This is the real deal — completely blown out guitars and organ, frantic breakdowns, hypnotic chord sequences, and some of the best Lou Reed-styled guitar I’ve heard in forever. From building repetition to wide open grooves, this thing is pure energy." - Foxy Digitalis.


"The Offset: Spectacles are probably the most stubborn band in Beijing. Their brand of precisely overblown Cantonese rock n’ roll condenses the urban scream of their native Hong Kong into blasting surrealist bangers that are as captivating as they are uncompromising. In concert, the band dispenses with pleasantries like stage banter or directly facing the audience and challenges the clangor of the Chinese capital with their own cathartic racket. Inspired by the massively influential Chinese band P.K. 14, The Offset: Spectacles moved to Beijing in 2009 in search of like-minded musicians. Within two years, they had started Rose Mansion Analog with three other Beijing bands: Soviet Pop, Hot & Cold, and Golden Driver. The boutique label is dedicated to analog recording and reproduction, documenting Beijing’s thriving scene through the lo-fidelity, one-room-and-a-mic tradition of early blues recordings. On stage, Vince Li and Ah Ki’s guitars strut and snarl against the steady pulse of Ou Jian’s bass, producing a darkly cinematic sound that’s forceful and driving. The group aims for what they call “phantom rhythm”: without a drummer, the roaring percussive clash of pawn-shopped 1960s guitars gives the impression of ghostly snare-hits and echoing cymbals." - Noisey / Vice.

Watch a short documentary snapshot of the Offsets below and listen to the whole album at the bottom of the page via Bandcamp- you'll also find their previous cassette-only debut there. . .

* I said 'exclusive' w/ an asterisk above, because i've also sold copies to Fusetron to re-distribute as well.  In New York, i've sold copies to these real world record shops, please support by nabbing a copy from their bins, instead of mailorder:  Academy East Village, Other Music, In Living Stereo, Kim's Video, Generation, all in Manhattan.  In Brooklyn, Academy Annex, Record Grouch, and Deep Cuts bought copies.  Please- no mailorder from me to NYC, support physical record stores. 

Any and all other shops across the states who want to deal direct, please get in touch- my contact email is in the upper right sidebar above.