ABOUT THE ALBUM

As The Observatory reaches the ten year mark of its existence, we are pleased to announce the forthcoming release of our fifth album.

Catacombs is the result of a year's worth of jamming. Sitting in a studio day after day to see what we could come up with. We only really found our direction in September 2011. The songs that made it onto the album are us after much play and consternation. Once again, we went up north to seek inspiration in the bleak and the cold. With each other, the incessant rain, and our producer Jorgen for company, we find ourselves venturing farther into the darkness that began with our last album. It's us attempting to cross wasted borders and find musical extremities that parallel the polarities within our lives. We paid homage to our musical heroes, Scott Walker mainly, but we'd be fools to say we got anywhere close.

This time, we'd like it to be different. We want to let listeners in on our process. And so, you get the demo versions of all nine tracks, warts and all. These were mostly work in progress pieces just before we left for Norway. In the spirit of sharing our process with you, we are hoping to achieve a few things. One would be to release 'live' versions of the songs at a later time. A more immediate plan would be to give you special video previews of our Catacombs rehearsal sessions at Goodman via a QR site, for those of you into internet digitalia. Keep yourselves posted for our gig dates in April. Let the fun begin.

PREORDER

• Pre-ordering will close on 30 Jan 2012 at 2359 Singapore time
• All preorders will be posted by 31 Mar 2012
• Preorders come with exclusive downloadable demos of nine album tracks
• Order online now at www.theobservatory.com.sg
• Payment via Paypal. All prices shown are in Singapore Dollars and include shipping
• Email catacombs@theobservatory.com.sg for more information

FAQ

FOR ORDER ENQUIRIES, our email address is catacombs@theobservatory.com.sg.

General
1. Is ordering online from you safe and secure?
It is as safe as we can be as an independent band. All orders are facilitated through PayPal. Alternatively, you can wait till the album is available through international distributors such as CD Baby, Amazon or through mail order with good record stores nearest to you. If they don't have it in stock, request for it. Or email us for help.

2. What if I don't have a PayPal account?
If you do not possess a PayPal account, register on PayPal as a new user to do so. Alternatively, PayPal has an option for you to make payment as a 'guest'. Follow the instructions that fall under: "Don't have a PayPal account? Sign in as a PayPal guest and pay with your debit/credit card".

3. Can I make a direct bank transfer?
We don't encourage this but if you must, please email us first.

4. Can we meet and deal?
Sorry but we do not deal in person.

5. What should I do if I have problems placing my order?
If you have a problem at any point, email us and we'll do our best to respond quickly.

6. When am I charged for my order?
All transactions are debited at the time you confirm your order through PayPal. This includes PREORDER items.

7. Why didn't I receive an email confirming my order?
Your order/payment confirmation email is issued by PayPal. The normal reason for not receiving your order confirmation is that you are using a Hotmail account or something similar. You may have exceeded your mail quota or the message has been spam filtered. Check your spam folder first. The other reason is you may have accidentally entered your email address incorrectly or you do not have a valid paypal account.

8. Do you share my personal information?
No, your personal information isn't supplied to third parties except when it is required by law. We do not allow third parties access to our customer list.

For Digital Audio
1. What format is the download in?
You will download a .ZIP file which contains the audio files (WAV in 16bit, 44.1khz/MP3 encoded at 320 kpbs).

2. My download will not start?
If this happens, make sure you have disabled any download manager systems. If the problem persists, email us for help.

3. I keep getting this error: Cannot open file: it does not appear to be a valid archive.
Discard the damaged file, clear your cache and start afresh by downloading a new copy.

4. Why is my computer unable to open the file?
The songs will download as a Zip file. Most computers now have zip software as part of the operating system. If your computer does not, you can download a free trial version here:

PC : http://www.winzip.com/
MAC : http://www.maczipit.com/

For Physical Orders
1. Do you ship to my country?
Yes, we ship globally.

2. Do the prices include shipping?
Yes. All prices include shipping. If you buy more than 5 copies per item, please contact us for discounted shipping.

3. How long will it take for my order to arrive?
We try to dispatch orders weekly. Once your order has been dispatched it will take up to three working days to be delivered to Singapore addresses, 5 - 10 working days to be delivered to Asia-Pacific addresses and up to 3 weeks for all other countries.

4. How will I know when my order ships?
Once your order has been dispatched, we will notify you through your paypal registered email address. Orders are dispatched using 1st Class Singapore Post Mail unless otherwise stated and will not have tracking references.

5. How accurate are the product images on the site?
At this point, the images on our site are actual elements of the album art but they may not be exact on the final physical album itself. We will provide more updated artwork whenever it is ready.

6. What should I do if my goods were damaged in transit?
We take a great deal of care when packing orders to make sure that the items you’ve ordered arrive undamaged. Nevertheless, goods do occasionally get damaged in transit. If you discover something in your order is damaged you should email us immediately and explain the situation. Kindly state your subject title as "DAMAGED IN TRANSIT". We will arrange for replacements to be sent out to you. We will also instruct you on what to do with the damaged items. Do not send anything back without having contacted us first.

7. What should I do if my order is incomplete or missing certain items?
There can be several reasons why you may receive your order with some items missing. It could be your order was dispatched in more than one package and you haven’t received them all yet. Another cause is that one of the items you ordered was unavailable and so we have refunded you for that item. The final reason for your order missing items is that we had made a mistake while packing your order. If you discover that your goods are missing, notify us in an email titled "INCOMPLETE ORDER" and we’ll attend to you with priority.

8. What should I do if you've sent me the wrong items?
If you discover that your order is incorrect, kindly explain the situation by notifying us immediately through email. Make sure you subject title your email as "INCORRECT ITEMS". We will attend to you with priority.

9. May I cancel my order?
You may cancel it if the item has not been dispatched. Once dispatched, a refund will not be given.

10. May I return an order?
If you are unsatisfied with the order, simply return the item within 10 business days and we will give you a refund. We can only refund the purchase price of the item and not any incurred shipping charges. Please be aware, however, that we are unable to refund items that have clearly been worn, laundered or have been subjected to abnormal usage. If your order was already damaged upon receipt, please email us before returning them to us. Kindly state your subject title as "DAMAGED IN TRANSIT" and we will follow up from there. Please allow up to 30 working days for your return to reach us and the requested action to be taken.