Handrail, Fossil (Unreleased)

When I was at the High School/Secondary School (or whatever it is called, I'll never learn) back in the 90's, there were 3 different papers, which for some reasons I constantly looked through more than anything else:

° the Italian vocabulary

° the atlas

° the Greenrecords mailorder catalogue, year 1999

The latter, according to universal awareness, was something more than a simple catalogue.

To me it has been the abc of the hc, the ancestor wikipedia of punk, my personal trainer into the world of indipendent music and most of all the best means to discover new bands and make safe purchases. (Not true: I have to admit that without a sneak preview of a record - read: the Internet- was very easy to waste your money in something which you hoped was better).

However the reviews were short and brief, with no annoying stately language, no circumlocutions, just a simple and handy definition with links to similar bands. Sometimes those writings were so sincere that they seemed to question any laws of marketing.

And so was in there that I spent days and days just by reading it, studying it, and then highlighting with three different colours the records that I might have liked the most, in order to make a savvy and sensible choice. Then after the final decision, the letter was ready to be sent via ordinary mail and after weeks of eager waiting finally the parcel was able to reach your house.

There was one record in that catalogue which I had waited with hope and anxiety for years. It was advertised as a coming new release for Green Rec and it featured members of my beloved Burning Defeat playing some kind of (old school) emo: Handrail.

After postponing the releasing date tons of times, eventually the record never came out.

Those 8 tracks can finally see the light.

click to enlarge

This is a short biography written by Andrea X Ferraris (long life to him!) one of its members, as well as of Burning Defeat.

Handrail had been active since 1998 to 1999 and after several line-up changes the only permanent members were me on guitar/vocals and Tony on drums. Fossil was recorded by Daniele Giordana at One Voice Studio in Chivasso, the final line-up was Tony on drums, Fulvio (from Permanent Scar/Jilted) on bass (who replaced Ilo), Daria on guitar and me on guitar/vocals. This recording should have been released by Green Rec/Genet Rec, but we called it quits right after the recording because I was more absorbed by OneFineDay and Tony was deeply involved with his medical studies to become a doctor.

Karate, Idaho and The Van Pelt were our cup of tea back in the days...

Band: Handrail
Title: Fossil
Label: Unreleased (Supposedly Green Records / Genet Records)
Year: 1998
Genre: Indie/emocore
Location: Alessandria- Piemonte
Related Bands: Burning Defeat, One Fine Day, Deep End and many more

1. Russian Roulette With A Bon Bon
2. Sleeping Bag
3. Fossil
4. Fader
5. End Of A Season
6. Supernova Burner
7. Glory Box
8. Ilo

Handrail, Fossil (unreleased) . zip