For a while I was a member of the Agathocles fan club. All in all, it was a pretty sweet deal. You got a badge, a wallet, a membership certificate, a bumper sticker, an exclusive t-shirt, access to live podcasts and two split 7″s sent direct to your door every week. You’d also get an extra 7″ at Christmas, and occasional one-offs to tie in with specific events such as the passing of hated world leaders. The best part, though, was the fact that you’d get a bespoke Agathocles 7″ on your birthday with songs specifically referencing you and your life and things you’d done over the course of the year. Sweet, right? Yeah. But like all good things it had to come to an end when my record shelves collapsed, reducing my pelvis to jelly and leaving me trapped for three days beneath an avalanche of carefully-catalogued Agathocles and Unholy Grave 7″s. The mess was terrible, and the reconstructive surgery incredibly costly. Indeed, after two years I still walk with an odd, thrusting gait that many strangers find somewhat untoward. Furthermore, the required repair work to my Record Lair was extensive, with the sale of said blighted records barely covering the cost of materials. Hearing this tape, then, was something of a moving experience for me, bringing great dread and yet intense delight. Agathocles play 13 (13!) tracks recorded live in Peru (Peru!) and they sound as sharp and varied as ever I remembered them. Our reunion was a blissful one, and I fear I may have got the ‘collecting bug’ all over again off the back of it. Rotocles? They are Russian, not quite so polished as Agathocles and mostly sound like someone shouting while they hit a tin bucket with a bone. They play six songs, which is less than half the number of Agathocles songs and therefore not terrific value for money if you ask me. I don’t know as they have a fan club as of yet, but I for one will think twice about joining it if they do.
