Precum - Throwing Circles (2000)

 



It's a little-known fact that the very first album released this millennium was Precum's Throwing Circles, the follow-up to their little-known better-known debut 'Flangetastic'. 

The decision to release the record at one second past midnight on January 1, 2000 in Tonga could've been a great publicity stunt, were it not for the fact that their label, Shithouse Records failed to actually release it anywhere else in the world for a further 15 months due to 'suboptimal planning' by the label's management team. 

Throwing Circles finally got a world-wide release the following year and 'Suboptimal planning' was chosen as the title for their third and final album before multi-instrumentalist Tristan Greft quit the band, effectively sealing their demise. 

Precum were, perhaps ironically, late arrivals at the Britpop party, and their Art Rock sensibilities are arguably not sensible enough, with tracks such as 'If you really don't want to go to South America you don't have to' and the Flugelhorn-heavy 'Fromage of the Bladder II' demonstrating a sense of humour front-loaded with pretension. 

That said, it's an album that merits from repeat listening, which is difficult because the worldwide release was a vinyl-only special edition requiring a turntable capable of playing records at the somewhat irregular speed of 37 6/16 RPM.


Discographicalz

  • Flangetastic (1998)
  • Throwing Circles (2000, Tongan market only)
  • Throwing Circles (2001, Worldwide)
  • Suboptimal planning (2002)

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