Dead Mellotron were initially a solo vehicle for singer\u002Fguitarist Josh Frazier, but after relocating from Louisiana to Baltimore have expanded to a three-piece. Other than that, I really don’t know anything about them, apart from the fact they are one of the best bands I have heard in years and I’m really excited to be releasing this record.I was first made aware of Dead Mellotron a couple years ago, when two people whose musical tastes I trust implicitly (Nick Talbot from Gravenhurst and Jamie Putnam, erstwhile guitarist in Fields) independently recommended them and I immediately downloaded their two self-released albums from their MySpace (there’s something that carbon dates this story; both are now available on their Bandcamp page).‘Ghost Light Constellation’ was released in 2009 and the self-titled ‘Dead Mellotron’ came out the following year. Both are stunning, and they immediately became the soundtrack to my life. The first includes a mix of ambient soundscapes and noisy psychedelia, while the second is more concise and focused. Sure, some of the songs betray the influence of My Bloody Valentine or Deerhunter, but there’s also a post-punk sensibility reminiscent of Magazine, Wire circa ‘154’, or even The Only Ones. The title track of ‘Ghost Light Constellation’, meanwhile, sounds like Fuck Buttons remixed by Brian Eno. Essentially, they are everything I like about music rolled into one band.I knew straight away that I wanted to release a record for them. However, a trawl of the internet turned up almost nothing in the way of biographical information, or even photos, just more music – a lovely cover of Beach House’s ‘Saltwater’ and a track called ‘Dead Lover’, which was premiered on Pitchfork. I desperately wanted to learn more and reach out to them, but I was wary; the one and only blog on their MySpace (where they listed their influences as “complete apathy”) was bemoaning an overwhelmingly positive online review for possibly being a joke and “making references to obscure early ’90s shoegaze garbage”. I didn’t have a chance.A few months later I was on MySpace once again (I don’t think I’ve been on it since), noticed the orange ‘online now’ symbol next to Dead Mellotron’s profile and took the plunge. I sent a message saying how much I liked the music and asked if they would be interested in doing something. Within five minutes, Josh had replied, we exchanged emails and he sent me some snippets of songs from a new album. A good start. We talked about putting out a ‘best of’ of the two previous records as an introduction to the band and even came up with a running order.A couple weeks later Josh emailed an MP3 and told me it was the first song off the new album – strangely it was a semi-classical piano piece (which now forms part of the track ‘Bye’ on ‘Glitter’) and it was hard to tell whether it was real or another example of the perverse sense of humour that saw him make a version of Justin Bieber’s ‘Baby’.Then… silence. About five months later I received an email from Josh saying he had started over with everything because he wasn’t happy. A couple more wordless snippets of music followed, tantalising but unfinished. Then another three months passed and the same happened again. This time, there was a zip file containing six brand new songs, including elements of what would end up as ‘Stranger’ and ‘Oohahh’ on ‘Glitter’. Then another few months and an email explaining that the songs had been rewritten and recorded from scratch. Again. They were enclosed as a single MP3, and the whole thing was incredible. The timing, however, wasn’t quite so fortuitous; it was a few weeks after the fire at the PIAS\u002FSony DADC warehouse in Enfield, north London and the future of Sonic Cathedral was looking precarious.But it was so good I couldn’t possibly pass on it, whatever the financial pressures. So here it is. ‘Glitter’ is less than 30 minutes long and contains a mere seven tracks, but it feels more complete and satisfying than most albums twice that length. It pulls the same trick as ‘Loveless’ by having tracks between tracks and the whole thing is segued together, so it’s like one monolithic musical landscape; at times direct and spiky (‘Stranger’, ‘Babe’) at others amorphous and dirgy (‘Oohahh’, ‘Bye’). It all climaxes with ‘Dying’, an epic in all but length which builds and builds before collapsing under the weight of its own feedback.It’s incredible. And that’s really the only thing you need to know about Dead Mellotron.