A nice wee email from Anticon:

"Unfortunately we did not receive copies of Alopecia from our suppliers on time and there will be an unexpected delay. We will ship the CD orders on Tuesday March 11th and the vinyl's will ship on Monday March 17th. Thank you for your patience and we apologize for the delay."

And Caldo Verde didn't even bother emailing about Retribution Gospel Choir, and just stuck a note on their site saying:

"*NOTE: Due to a delay at the manufacturing plant, some of the overseas customers may not receive the album until a few days after the release date. Our apologies."

Oh, sincere. Oh, and last week, Warp were kind enough not to email either and stuck this on their news page:

"We'd like to advise WarpMart customers that unfortunately there is a few days delay on the Autechre 'Quaristice' special edition orders.

The photo etching process used to manufacture the steel case has taken a little longer than planned and the parts have just started arriving at WarpMart today. We've got a lot of hand packing to do but we're confident that all orders will be dispatched by Wednesday and will be with you by the end of next week.

We are extremely sorry for any inconvenience this may cause, and very much appreciate your patience. We're sure that you'll be happy when you get them."

And then they sent it on thursday, even later than they said it would be. So much for supporting the fucking labels by pre-ordering direct. Yes, nice bonus discs in each of the above cases, but that takes the piss and the biscuit, then pisses on the biscuit and gives it back to me weeks later.

I now expect Amazon to hide a note on the arse-end of their site saying "You know how you pre-ordered Street Horrrsing months back? Well, we've sent you anthrax instead."