[.ca] Return of the Durutti Column

An Archeology of The Durutti Column:
Quite simply one of the most beautiful albums ever recorded. The complete antithesis to fellow Factory artists Joy Division, and yet a perfect complement at the same time. Much has been written about the circumstances of the recording session, but never have a series of improvisational noodlings sounded so cohesive. Ethereal, jazzy, sublime melodies that refuse to be relegated to the background. Every time I play this album I stop what I'm doing and listen. It is the only album I can think of that seems to exist out of time: it could have been recorded yesterday, or a hundred years from now. I recommend you track down a John Cooper Clarke track called 'Belladonna' (from 'Snap, Carckle and Bop') which features another fine Vini Reilly guitar contribution. I bought this album back when it came out, on vinyl in its sandpaper cover. Even though I have the remastered CD, I still love to play my beat-up vinyl version. Somehow the pops and ticks fit in comfortably with Martin Hannett's synth work. The sandpaper cover and the title? Thank the Situationist International for the inspiration. The SI were a bunch of 60s French artist-radicals who were a big influence on the Punk Movement. Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood were fans, and you can see the influence in their punk fashions and in the Sex Pistols graphics of Jamie Reid. British SI member and noted art historian Tim Clark taught Art History at Leeds University and apparently counted members of Gang of Four and Mekons amongst his students, though they tend to deny a direct SI influence. And of course Factory Records' Tony Wilson was also an SI devotee... The SI sporadically published a magazine called 'The International Situationist' - one issue had a sandpaper cover, the idea being that it would destroy everything around it. They loved to subvert images from popular culture by manipulating them - 'detournement' was the term they coined. One such image was a film still of two cowboys on horseback that had been redrawn as a cartoon. Dialogue balloons were added, saying (my translation): - What are you working on right now? - Some reification - I see, that's serious work, with heavy books and lots of papers on a large table - No, I drift, mainly I drift. This image was a sticker inserted in the Factory Sampler EP and was also a poster distributed to people on the Factory mailing list, I think. The original image was a poster put up around Strasbourg University during a student strike in October 1966. The caption underneath read 'La retour de la colonne Durruti' - The return of the Durruti column. Note the different spelling. Who was Durruti and what was the Durruti Column? If you're interested, google 'Buenaventura Durruti'... The cowboy was a popular image during the punk era. McLaren and Westwood printed a Sex Pistols T-shirt featuring two naked cowboys, and the Gang of Four's first album cover contains a series of subverted western movie stills. For more information, I highly recommend Greil Marcus' book 'Lipstick Traces', and if you can find it, an article he wrote about the punk cowboy motif he wrote for Art Forum back in the mid-80s. Maybe this review ain't much use, but I hope it's of interest!

the sounds of returning:
the return of the durutti column? well, i suppose there's a logical explanation to that title. generally, a debut release is intended to pave new ground with something heretofore unheard. and generally, that's exactly the point of departure for vini reilly, martin hannett, and the durutti column on this debut effort. each sound -- from chirping, to pumping, to chiming, to blessing...a point of departure for the avid listener. this album is beautiful, and (as i write this) lays a ground work for 20 or 30 more years of beauty to come. and, as i listen to it in this moment, i hear each sound coming back to me as one i've loved might one day return to me. hmm -- the return of the durutti column...the sound of returning...

Reilly and Hannett's Timeless Masterpiece:
Albums, like books, should never be judged by their covers, and the rough, sandpaper sleeve that originally housed The Return of the Durutti Column was the complete antithesis of the graceful jazz guitar music found within. This record was recorded and produced over a three day period back in 1978 by the legendary Martin Hannett. Hannett was just discovering the unknown pleasures and possibilities of synthesizers and the strange beats and vibrations he generated inspired some of Vini Reilly's loveliest improvisations. This is a simple album of instrumental tracks, yet it displays such astonishing depth. Vini Reilly's guitar style reminds me so much of the gorgeous arpeggiations that characterized Johnny Marr's best work with The Smiths. And the remastering, bonus tracks, and narrative liner notes make a perfect album more than perfect. Sometimes 5 stars just aren't enough.

• Sketch for Summer
• Requiem for a Father
• Katharine
• Conduct
• Beginning
• Jazz
• Sketch for Winter
• Collette
• In "D"
• Lips That Would Kiss \o*\c
• Madeleine \o*\c
• First Aspect of the Same Thing
• Second Aspect of the Same Thing
• Sleep Will Come
• Experiment in Fifth