{"title":"Black Market Karma","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"wobble","title":"Wobble","description":"\u003cp\u003eA twelve-track collection of “cassette-ified” lo-fi psych-pop, \u003ci\u003eWobble\u003c\/i\u003e is the eleventh studio album from Black Market Karma and their first on Fuzz Club. Hailing from London and now residing on the South Coast, BMK’s prolific output is fuelled by band-leader and multi-instrumentalist Stanley Belton who writes, performs, records, produces and up until now self-released everything from his own live-in ‘Cocoon’ studio. Pooling influences from 60s pop and psychedelia, crunchy hip-hop break-beats and lo-fi electronica.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe album’s title is a reference to tape wobble \/ wow and flutter, subtle fluctuations in pitch characteristic of analogue recording equipment. Where once seen as a limitation by older generations, for others they evoke a welcome sense of nostalgia and that’s what Belton sought to excavate here: “Sonically, I wanted the album to feel like a collection of discarded and worse for wear instruments came to life, refurbished themselves and started to play. The sound is an attempt to give form to the often formless feeling that is nostalgia. With songs attempting to crystallise a feeling known as ‘fernweh’. A kind of longing for a place and time you’ve never experienced, be it in this world or another.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e“As formats evolved these characteristics were slowly phased out but with this album I was aiming to put them back in through different methods of sound degradation”, Belton says, “reaching for a sweet spot where the sound had a lo-fi flavour but with the punch of a higher quality recording.” Drums are recorded live, run back through guitar amps and pedals and sampled. Vintage guitars are totally warped by effects, with lead bass melodies being run through overloaded Vox guitar amps. All topped with heavily saturated vocals, mono synths, electronic flutes, mallet sounds and a bunch of other instruments and the sort of creative experiments that over a decade spent enjoying total freedom in your own ever-growing DIY studio allows for.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Fuzz Club","offers":[{"title":"Cream LP","offer_id":50531110551883,"sku":"2196692","price":22.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/5060978393974_c263799d_thumbnail_4096.jpg?v=1728094522"},{"product_id":"mellowmaker-xa","title":"Mellowmaker","description":"\u003cp\u003eFollowing 2024’s \u003cem\u003eWobble\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eMellowmaker\u003c\/em\u003e is the second chapter in Black Market Karma’s two-part album series on Fuzz Club. Crafted entirely by Stanley Belton—who writes, records, and produces everything himself—the record embraces analogue imperfections and tape wobble, splicing them with modern techniques to create a “cassette-ified” lo-fi psychedelia blending ‘60s pop, ‘90s neo-psych, and crunchy hip-hop breakbeats.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\"Mellowmaker\u003c\/em\u003e was made immediately after \u003cem\u003eWobble,\u003c\/em\u003e I kinda see them as two sides of each other\", Belton says. The washed-out saturated vocals and jangling Vox guitars are there, but the in-built fuzz and repeater sounds on his cherished vintage Ultrasonic get some heavier usage here. Synths take more of a back-burner in favour of dreamy mellotron samples. Drums are still recorded with one mic and ran through guitar amps or mixed with drum machines, but lean even more into 60s dancefloor breakbeats.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAt its core, Belton states that \u003cem\u003e‘Mellowmaker’\u003c\/em\u003e attempts to give temporary permanence to the timeless and intangible, a liminal feeling permeating the eleven tracks here: \"With these two albums I've attempted to crystallise how it feels to be stuck between a feeling of amnesia of the soul and the earthly experience of piloting a meat suit... I’m still chasing that longing intangible ‘Hiraeth’ feeling. The sense of wanting to find our way home to a place that maybe doesn’t exist.\"\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Fuzz Club","offers":[{"title":"LP - Yellow","offer_id":51814162170187,"sku":"R1278-0320","price":24.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/2000x2000bb_675359b5-82ad-4d0b-9791-0cdf35ff5b4c.jpg?v=1747211023"},{"product_id":"the-grease-ladder","title":"The Grease Ladder","description":"\u003cp\u003eEnglish psychedelic group Black Market Karma's newest release is the thirteenth in. All of which have been written and produced by band leader and multi instrumentalist Stanley Belton.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eThey have collaborated with Sonic Boom (Spacemen 3), The Telescopes, Les Big Byrd and The Underground Youth, and toured with The Black Angels and The Warlocks. Between 2024 and 2026 they released three albums on Fuzz Club Records: “Wobble”, “Mellowmaker” and “Live at Fuzz Club Festival 2025”.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eThe Grease Ladder is eleven tracks of neo psychedelia, psychedelic rock, psychedelic pop and alternative, cut to transparent green vinyl.\u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Impressed","offers":[{"title":"LP - Green","offer_id":58336191971659,"sku":"R0936-4529","price":34.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0867\/1120\/6219\/files\/images_2e60c805-bc26-41c2-b2b8-95d0da4d3147.jpg?v=1788346896"}],"url":"https:\/\/shop.roughtrade.com\/fr\/collections\/black-market-karma.oembed","provider":"Rough Trade","version":"1.0","type":"link"}