Kōban - Abject Obsessions; Qual - Sable; Avant! Records and Tedium House

I purchased this as well as Qual - Sable as soon as Kōban announced that they had a US distributor for Avant! Records called Tedium House. Tedium House describes Abject Obsessions as "Cold, dark, and catchy post-punk by this Canadian duo from Vancouver. Caustic drum machines, voix féminines en Français and male vox in English, menacing synths and guitars as sharp and dangerous as a rusty blade." I think that is fairly efficient and spot on.

Kōban are Samuel Buss and Brittany West. They create dark post-punk music with electronic/industrial elements. The have had several releases on several different labels.

This can be rather annoying when you are trying to track down their releases, at least on vinyl. I'm waiting on a resolution to an escalated issue with Broadway to Boundary as I haven't received the record "Null" I ordered via bandcamp over 5 weeks ago. It looks to me like the label might have disappeared as the facebook page is inactive and the website address doesn't work anymore.

Abject Obsessions Tracklist:

A1 This Pursuit 4:35
A2 Instinct of Ego 3:12
A3 Lesser 3:03
A4 Elias See's 2:30
A5 Between the Differences 4:08
B1 Illusion 3:05
B2 Certain Tears 2:18
B3 Maladie 3:33
B4 Le Cauchemar 3:46
B5 We Run Red Lights 3:20

Not an album for sedentary listening. There is energy and passion in this record. "Certain Tears" is almost a mosh pit ready anthem and several other tracks are fit for dance floor antics and appropriate for thrashing.

Avant! Records has a great catalog of artists and releases. But shipping from Italy can be prohibitive.

Thankfully you can get them and a lot of other cool items, artists and labels from Tedium House.


For instance: Qual - Sable which is also on Avant! Records and I have been trying to score a copy since last year. Qual is half of the band Lebanon Hanover and his record is just a bit darker and grittier.  

As long as I was placing an order I looked through their other offerings and found that Tedium House also sells used records. I ended up getting Calla - Calla, an awesome experimental rock band headed by Aurelio Valle. The listing gave no grading but I hoped that meant the used listings were curated would be a high quality. I was not disappointed.