The Legendary Pink Dots' refusal to sit comfortably within any category scares major record labels. You can’t even define them by what they’re not, as they straddle Krautrock, psych, punk and electronica; and they’re all of these things and more, spread across this superbly produced 5-LP box set covering the Dots' early recordings, with the emphasis on electro-pop experimentation. There are plenty of tangential explorations as well, and the whole features startling fully-formed gems and "nearlies" that were all originally put out on cassette across 1980-82. There’s also a batch of live recordings from Cologne, 1983.

****

Vinyl On Demand | VOD 48

Reviewed by Paul Rigby