The GTC - Columbus and His Robot Army 7" (last copy)

This is, for me, probably the greatest record ever released by a band from the Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania. The GTC were a relatively short-lived hardcore/screamo band active from around 2000–02 and this was the only official recording ever issued, the second release on Matt Kosloff's White Denim Records (which between 2002 and 2018 would issue a number of eye-opening releases from the likes of Nice Nice, Air Conditioning, Menstruation Sisters, Popular Shapes, Native Cats and Daughn Gibson, to name a few). 

While some comparisons have been made with Honeywell, Antioch Arrow or Constantine Sankathi, The GTC sound truly original, with frenetic hardcore amplified by screechy grindcore vocals and blasts of free jazz trumpet. The group is most impressive in their juxtaposition of tempos and dynamics, as they will juxtapose freak-outs with soft and sinister interludes which always find the right mark. This 7" gives an accurate representation of the group's power as a live act, which was pitch-perfect. 

We have two deadstock copies of The GTC's only 7" which have been sitting in a distro for 20 years, so they have some shelfwear but are totally unplayed. Following the band's breakup, vocalist/trumpeter Kevin Morris fronted the (recently-reissued) Lehigh Valley metal/grind band The Motel Bible. But this release still stands as a formidable statement and a completely under-the-radar record waiting to be rediscovered.