Lovingly pinched from Drowned In Sound: The reissue of Relaxing With The Heads, the debut album by Bristolian stoner-psych mong-o-lude monoliths The Heads, is long overdue. From the perspective of you, the would-be consumer of the pepperiest riff salad, this is because it's been out of print for? well, Christ knows how long to be honest, but it was released in 1996 and its original label, the UK division of Headhunter Records, released basically nothing afterwards.

From the perspective of the band themselves, it means that this mud-flapping sonic throb is no longer "of its time" and can get appraisal without the irritation of douchenozzle reviewers saying things like ‘They may be from Bristol and pen paeans to weed, but don't mistake The Heads for a trip-hop band!’ Obviously that is what I just did then, yes.

Relaxing With The Heads returns as a double CD, with the original album checking in at around three quarters of an hour - plus another half hour if you count the extended jam tacked on to the extended silence following the extended closing track, "Coogan's Bluff".

The other disc features several Peel and Radcliffe session tracks from around the album's release, plus most of the content of their 7-inch singles prior to this album, which are even more impossible to find. (All told, spotting The Heads in the wild is practically a game of cryptozoology: they play live in the UK about three times a year and their records are almost all either on labels that shut down or released in minute amounts.)

Continue reading:  The Heads – Relaxing With the Heads (reissue) / Releases / Releases // Drowned In Sound.