Dementia 13 (2017)

Two CD collection. When Purple Records was first set up in 1971, it was by no means a mere vanity label to release Deep Purple product, from Machine Head until the end of the decade; it also set out to nurture and discover raw talent too. The label would eventually become home to debut solo releases from Jon Lord, Roger Glover, David Coverdale and Glenn Hughes, as well as early releases from Yvonne Elliman and Ronnie James Dio with Elf. One of their earliest signings was a hard rock band called Bullet, featuring guitarist John Du Cann and drummer Paul Hammond, both formerly of Atomic Rooster, having played on Death Walks Behind You (1970), and In The Hearing Of (1971). They were joined by Quatermass bassist John Gustafson. After only one single, they discovered a US band already called Bullet, swiftly changing their name to Hard Stuff.

The world down under produced some of the most ferocious and provocative sounds to have emerged from the 1960s. Crammed full of fuzz, distortion, feedback, phasing, and wild dementia, this uncompromising sound was the precursor to punk rock. Buried Alive!! conjures up a superb collection of rampant amphetamine fury, jammed tight with the most vile and repulsive '60s delinquency ever put together. This six-disc anthology culls together 150 long lost sounds of toxic, teenage rebellion from Australasia. Professionally re-mastered original sound; includes previously unreleased recordings. Buried Alive!!

The Caretaker is a long-running project by electronic musician James Leyland Kirby, who also records as V/Vm. His work under the Caretaker moniker has been characterised as exploring memory, nostalgia, and melancholia. Initially the project was inspired by the haunted ballroom scene in the 1980 film The Shining, with his first several releases consisting of treated and manipulated samples of '30s ballroom pop recordings.

Having played with The Servants in the late 1980s, Luke Haines carved a unique niche for himself in the 1990s with witty lyrics, wry humour and some stellar tunes with The Auteurs and other acts (Black Box Recorder, Baader Meinhof). By 1999, feeling aghast at the state of the Brit Rock scene in the UK, Luke decided to "start a righteous solo trip", having been commissioned to write the soundtrack for the film Christie Malry's Own Double Entry (2001). Sticking with Virgin Records, Luke then unveiled his first solo album proper, The Oliver Twist Manifesto, before fronting a new-look Auteurs for Das Capital. In due course, Luke switched labels to indie Fantastic Plastic for Off My Rocker At The Art School Bop (2006), followed in 2009 by 21st Century Man. Since then, he's curated a string of imaginative, amusing and always worthwhile albums for Cherry Red Records. Alive And Well… is the first-ever anthology of Luke's solo work, cherry-picking musical highlights from each of his long players as well as a smattering of B-sides, radio sessions, rarities and - on Disc 4 - a raft of previously unissued material. Alive And Well… is a very personal statement spanning the last two decades of the musical life of Luke Haines.