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reconnecting the dots
The first four reissues of Legendary Pink Dots have surfaced onSoleilmoon's Caciocavallo imprint. For those who have the entire PIASback catalogue already, it's unnecessary to buy these again, as themusic is exactly the same, but for the few who never had the chance,your time has come as they're now readily available again. The discsare packaged with a little extra special care with notes, layout, andartwork while mid-priced for your convenience. Unlike other Soleilmoonreissues, these feature the original covers and also include an insidetray card with artwork from 12" singles whose tracks appear on thealbums.
'Asylum' (their first deliberate Tarot card reference) firstmaterialized in 1985 and was considered by the group to be a troubledtime. The group's lineup had been fairly steady since the early daysbut their home base had recently moved from the UK to Holland. Songswith titles "Prisoner", "The Last Straw" and "This Could Be the End"symbolify the sentiments of a writer feeling trapped and a group on theverge of calling it quits. Steven Stapleton of Nurse With Wound wasbrought in to perform various production and editing duties. Popularfavorites include the violin-heavy "Fifteen Flies in the Marmalade,"the epic multi-part madness of "So Gallantly Screaming" and the classicsignature LPD sound of "Golden Dawn."
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'The Golden Age' was originally released in 1989 and was the first longplayer to feature guitarrorist Bob Pistoor. While many LPD fans don'tconsider this one of their fave releases, it did give clubs the popularhits "The More it Changes" and "Blacklist" (included as a bonus trackfrom the 12" of the same name). The album features a couple of theirrecurring themes with the gorgeous "Hotel Noir" and swirlingneo-classical signature LPD style of "Lisa's Separation". The album wasproduced with Hans Myre and primarily featured a stripped-down lineupof the core three members at the time: Edward, Phil (the Silverman) andPatrick Wright on violins. Thus the sound was completed more byelectronics than conventional rock instruments. Rarely throughout the90s until now has the group performed any of these songs in concert.
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Therecordings for Crushed Velvet Apocalypse began in 1989 with the albumsurfacing in 1990. Between 'The Golden Age' and this disc, theLegendary Pink Box surfaced too, a 3xLP set with 2 LPs worth of newmaterial. The Dots were on fire! Bob Pistoor, now a full-time memberopens the album with the familiar guitar work of timeless LPD classic"I Love You in Your Tragic Beauty." On other tracks Pistoor gracefullyadds sitar and wonderful bass lines. Saxophonist, clarinet and fluteplayer Neils Van Hoorn is also now part of the full time lineup but theviolin virtuoso of Patrick Wright has departed from the group. Thisdidn't inhibit the Dots from turning out what many point to as theirfavorite full-lengther. 'Crushed Velvet Apocalypse' showed a maturedsense of writing ability, coordinated musicianship, and a stellarproduction which can conjure emotions of love, awe and horror withinseconds of each other. Songs like "Green Gang," "Hellsville," "Just aLifetime," "The Death of Jack the Ripper" and "Princess Coldheart" areoften played live to very warm receptions. The back of the CD featuresa newly surfaced image, a stunning tribute to Pistoor (by means of abeautiful live picture), who died the following year after a shortbattle with cancer.
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Recorded in 1990 and released in 1991, the lineup remained constantfrom the year before and the group's bonds had grown stronger throughvarious tours all over the world. Initially released as a single LP,double-CD (70+ minutes and a limited edition w/a bonus 3" CD single),this album went on to become their most successful release ever.Popular favorites include the tear-jerking surrealistic dark ballads"Third Secret" and "Belladonna", the pretty yet spooky "Charaderama" orsax and sequencer filled "A Space Between," which has given way to manyemail signature files with the popular EKS lyric, "we all have names."The apocalyptic nightmare of "The Grain Kings" has become a frequentlyused last song or encore number on recent tours and even "Disturbance"rears its head occasionally. The Maria Dimension was the first albumreleased on the newly forged partnership between PIAS and Caroline.Guilty only by association, the releases that were co-issued byWaxTrax! may have gained the LPDs some cred with the gothpost-industrialists but with the new deal on Caroline the space rockersand indie rockers now had better exposure to the crew. One of themagical things about the Dots is going to a concert and seeing allsorts of fans present. This period the Dots seemed to be flying high,1991 saw the US-release of the Pink Box and the recordings of 'FourDays' took place. The passing of Pistoor later in the year shook theband's foundations, the band soon recruited Martjin de Kleer and thelegendary Ryan Moore as they entered a new phase and called up oldfriends (Steven Stapleton and Patrick Wright) for the subsequent ShadowWeavers.
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