Longtime friend and fan of the Legendary Pink Dots, Freek Kinkelaar hastastefully tied up some loose ends with this five-track collection.These tracks represent a looser, more experimental sound that the Dotswould, most likely due to their length, leave them on cassettecompilations rather than include them on their vinyl LPs. "ThePuncline" is a rarity few people have heard, first released back in1983 on a legitimate Italian cassette-only various artsits collectioncalled The Voice, in a limited edition of 300 copies, later to be collected on the unofficial Italian cassette-only LPD compilation, Fragments 1."Close Your Eyes, You Can Be a Space Captain" has appeared in a fewplaces, but this 11+ minute version was the one from 1983 originallyfound on Volume Three of the infamous Rising from the Red Sandtapes from Third Mind. "The People Tree" is a personal favorite, asthis sound-effects laden 23+ minute piece only graced side two of LPD'sTraumstadt 4. Here, loud jet engines and alien synth drips likethe more trippy interludes of some of the early Tear Garden stuff,while demented audio washes battle loudness and silence in an almosttribute-like fashion to Nurse With Wound's Homotopy To Marie,primitive electronics mimic early video games, and quirky instrumentalkeyboard melodies couldn't be mistaken for anybody other than the Dots.It irked me when side a ("Premonition 18") surfaced on Stained Glass Soma Fountainswithout "The People Tree," so this track is warmly welcomed by me tofinally be available on CD. The brief (98 second) track "March" was theonly exclusive track on the Dots on the Eyes LPD cassette-onlycompilation from 1981 so its inclusion ties up that loose end, whilethe 30 minute "Premonition 15" appeared on the Zamizdat Trade Journal,originally released in 1986, but opens the door to a couple more tracksstill unavailable. "Premonition 15" starts off with a lot of unexpectedguitar work, eventually mixing in the violin bits from "The Lovers(Part two)" along with other early LPD tunes here and there on top ofother sound effects and aural tampering. Be warned that theserecordings are not the original master recordings painstakinglyrestored to some super high fidelity, but recordings that weren't greatto begin with, and Raymond Steeg has done a find job of getting them atleast sound as good as they could have on the original tape releases.The packaging is tasteful but somewhat flimsy and needs to be cared forvery cautiously. I'm not displeased in the least. Crushed Memories is one of the gems for fans at the merch table for this tour as the disc is nearly impossible to find in any store.Read More
