Go here for Part 1. Continuing today with the remainder of the albums from the mystery box.
King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard – Live in London ‘19
The members of KGLW have released more bootlegs in 2024 than ever before (37!!), which makes their previous 14 bootleg-friendly live concert releases pale in comparison. The way the bootlegging program works is that the band openly offers the stems and files on their website, free to download, and any label can use them to create their own variant of any album made available, be it a live concert, a demos collection, Teenage Gizzard (which I discussed), or Polygondwanaland. The band’s one request is to be shipped copies of the created variant, to sell on their label p(doom) records’ own website.
Their most productive year for those, prior to 2024, was 2019. That year, the band’s albums were the boogie and blues-inspired Fishing for Fishies, and the intense thrash/doom metal of Infest The Rats’ Nest. Along came six live “official live bootlegs” recorded between July 12th and October 14th, three of which (Brussels, Adelaide and Paris) were released in January 2020 to amass money for a charity fighting the Australian Bushfires. The other three (Asheville, London and Milwaukee), released in late 2020 or in 2021, also prominently feature tracks from 2019's studio releases.
I heard them all. And despite being the only one I own out of those six, Live in London ’19, recorded at Alexandra Palace, might be my least favorite. I know live bootlegs aren’t the place for incredible sound quality (…or might not have been, but then again, compare this to the sound quality of their 2024 live output), but even here it doesn’t feel so great. Maybe it’s because I’m a lyrics guy and I like to understand the lyrics when I listen to music that has them, and it’s a bias.
Don’t get me wrong, this album has lots of fan favorites from King Gizz’s discography. The Mind Fuzz Suite (though it’s missing its finale!), Evil Death Roll, Rattlesnake and Float Along – Fill Your Lungs are examples. However, when compared to the other live bootleg albums from that year, London ’19 has little that makes it stand out. The longest track, Crumbling Castle, while still my favorite, doesn’t even reach 11 minutes. Very few songs here are given the jam treatment, so it feels like it just doesn’t have enough of what makes KGLW concerts interesting.
If it’s only your first or second time hearing a live performance from the band, it’s fine on its own. However, at the time, there were already plenty of live bootlegs with more adventurous setlists. Honestly, it’s only middling in comparison to the rest of their output; on its own, it’s pretty good and does feature the range of their sound from the time (let’s just say, they’ve expanded it a lot in 5 years).
Favorite track:
TheRealSullyG – Otama-Tunes, Vol. 1
Oh, we’re entering “quirky” territory now. And for most of the remainder of the list.
Once again, the highest-tiered mystery box came with a bonus vinyl test pressing for an album either on sale at Needlejuice Records or coming (hopefully) soon. This is the test pressing I received.
TheRealSullyG, real name Gavan Sullivan, has made a name for himself on YouTube making covers of famous songs using his favorite instrument: The otamatone. This Japanese synthesizer is shaped like an eighth note with a face on the round bottom, and notes are produced by opening the mouth while pressing your fingers on the instrument’s neck. Higher notes at the bottom, lower notes at the top. This results in a distinct wah wah sound.
SullyG has been releasing otamatone covers on YouTube since February 2017. His earliest videos with the instrument were basic “just play the song” types, but over time he increased his production quality and created animations and videos featuring his instrument. Several of his videos in that format only play a portion of the song. However, the Otama-Tunes collections released to iTunes feature the full songs. So far, seven Volumes have been released, as well as two Christmas mini-albums.
Otama-Tunes, Vol. 1 was originally released on July 2nd, 2018, and was reissued on physical formats through Needlejuice. It features extremely famous and/or iconic songs: Take On Me, Through the Fire and Flames, Bohemian Rhapsody, The Final Countdown, September, Total Eclipse of the Heart… Y’know. Classics. In my honest opinion, otamatone music is an acquired taste, and 55 minutes of instrumental wah wahs won’t be for everybody. It’s a curiosity, for sure, but like everything else, you gotta at least give it a chance. Unfortunately, Otama-Tunes, Vol. 1 didn’t sell enough to warrant adding the next Volumes to Needlejuice – but they’re on iTunes and Spotify if you want to check them out regardless.
At least the increasingly elaborate videos add a visual component that helps make them fun to watch. And if you want proof that TheRealSullyG is having a ton of fun with them: His last video of 2024 was a recreation of both the “Weird Al” Yankovic song Albuquerque, and its famous fanmade flash animation. Yes, all of it, the madman. Calling it now, that one's gonna be on Vol. 8.
Favorite track:
…Did I just Rickroll everybody? …Yes.
OK Glass – Sand (and other mysteries)
If you read the description of any of OK Glass’s albums, you may be puzzled. From New York, OK Glass (real name Joe Jakubowski – thanks Spotify) is known for quirky – here’s that word again – songs that are generally short. Most of his songs have a runtime under three minutes – and today’s album is no different, at 16 tracks for a runtime of just a little over 32 minutes, with the longest being only 2:39.
OK Glass is a project that’s very open about its stance on offering music as close to free as possible. Every album and single can be downloaded for free off its website, and its Bandcamp pages say “pay what you want, minimum 1$”; the only exception is the physical formats (CD and cassette) on Needlejuice.
Musically, Sand (and other mysteries), released on January 13th, 2021, is all over the place. Every song feels different, has its own identity and sound. It’s as though no two songs have the exact same set of instruments. Interpretation-wise, OK Glass lisps, which may not be to everyone’s liking but can help give some tracks a bit of a lovably dorky charm. The short average length ensures that no song overstays its welcome. OK Glass doesn’t perform every single instrument; several guest musicians join in on an instrument for one or several songs. (One of these guests has since been disgraced, but I swore to myself that I wouldn’t bring the mood down. Let’s keep focusing on the positive.) All in all, a very eclectic mix, that I’ve seen some compare outright to They Might Be Giants. That’s no small praise.
For what it’s worth, listening to this album a few more times to properly discuss it (and finally figure out my favorite track!) helped further endear me to it. It’s facing serious competition, hence why it’s lower on here, but it’s a fun one.
Favorite track:
Regdar and the Fighters – Repossess the Sky, Pt. 1
Once again reaching the point of the list where I almost feel the need to apologize for my opinion. Mainly because I know this isn’t some big studio or a dev team; I might be talking about a single indie artist. Hence why I try to be more informative than critical, even if I do have to explain why the album ranks lower. I don’t want to come across as mean, is what I’m saying, and I’ll always encourage my readers to go check every album/band out anyway.
Regdar and the Fighters is a solo project by Stephen Smith, the current bassist of Nuclear Bubble Wrap (NBW). He occasionally accompanies himself with actual band members, but records with randomized drum samples and synths in a software, though he composes everything else normally. As a result, the songs are described as partially procedurally generated. When doing these songs live, those samples are done through a… Dance Dance Revolution pad, of all things. Sounds about as DIY as I can imagine. Smith has already released five albums and five shorter collections of songs under the name. Smith considers all of them to be entirely or partly concept albums, and that all of his work fits under the same metanarrative.
The first part of Repossess the Sky, Pt. 1, released on September 23rd, 2022, is comprised of comedic songs. Some concepts are silly (A mall cop who also happens to be a goth; or the dichotomy between sports and anime fans, some of whom just move to other places to fully embrace what they love, only to realize the experience isn’t so great actually). Others are just funny (like a song of “factoids” of dubious veracity about webfonts, or one about being a bad dancer, expressed in tabletop RPG terms).
The last ~20 minutes are the titular storyline, with four songs presenting characters. These songs feel to me like they have a better focus overall, perhaps owing to the attempt at telling a story. The sixth track, a “bonus”, is just the previous five (+ a secret extra) layered over each other, creating a noisy mess, and honestly, I would have done without that one. The biggest issue here is that you likely won’t figure out what’s going on without the commentary track. You may also need to hunt down Regdar’s previous two concept albums, Flight of the Malibu and The Ballad of Constance and Johnny, to actually understand the full story.
The album commentary track shines a light on some of the concepts and gags behind the songs. As well as a self-admitted “let’s poke fun at Rush” mentality for the concept album side… which doesn’t realize all that much. Maybe the concept of the songs being partly procedurally generated is to blame, but it does feel like the tracks would have benefited from some further polish. Last point, Stephen Smith often sounds as though he’s holding back, vocals-wise. C’mon, put some OOMPH into it! You wanna make it epic, go all-out!
In all seriousness, though, do check it out. One reason I embed my favorite track from each album is that you can check one song right away, if you don't want to hunt down the whole album. So here, check this one out, anf if you like it, the album was linked earlier.
Favorite track:
Nuclear Bubble Wrap – Jellyfish Jams!
Don’t get me wrong, I still adore NBW. But why is this so low on the list? Well, it’s kind of a bonus that didn’t count in the 10-album limit. It’s a Minidisc included alongside the mystery box, featuring very few songs. Only six; three covers of songs from Spongebob Squarepants, and their instrumentals.
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| Yep, that's a minidisc alright. |
It's fun to own and to hear, but you’ll get much more out of it if you’re a Spongebob fan.
Favorite track:
Zer0 Rei - OST
Judging by pictures posted on the Needlejuice server by people who bought mystery boxes, the bigger ones pretty much all included at least one vaporwave album. No exception here. I’ve made my opinion of vaporwave clear last time; it can be done cleverly, but I don’t quite feel it’s for me, so I’ll respect those who make music in the genre, but that’s about it.
Belgian visual and experimental music artist Sebastien Dessauvage releases his creations under the name Zer0 Rei. He doesn’t stick to a single genre, so not all his albums can be classified as vaporwave or slushwave; his body of work can also be described as ambient, electronic and experimental. I didn’t get to hear everything from him as he pulled several albums off Spotify while I was going through my playlist, only keeping the most recent stuff there. I did get to hear a fair bit of the rest regardless. (However, everything's still on Bandcamp.)
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| In all fairness, the cassette does look pretty darn cool. |
If you love the track posted here (I don’t feel strongly for one or the other, honestly; I can barely tell them apart), well, you’ve already heard half the album, go look up the rest. Vaporwave/slushwave fans or anyone looking for some relaxing/ambient music will get their fill here.
Favorite track, I guess:
And that’s it for this year’s music list. I did not buy a mystery box in 2024, so if I do one of these in 2026 as well, it might be about the other Needlejuice albums I own – physically and digitally – that didn’t come from a mystery box.
I’ll try to have the movie reviews ready soon! (Also, wow, I had a good idea splitting this list in two this time.)
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