Release date and tracklist

1. Krussoe – [MP3]
2. Personal Monster – [MP3]
3. It Doesn’t Matter Anyway – [MP3]
4. The Equaliser – [MP3]
5. L’oiseau Rare (Parts I and II) – [MP3]
6. The Hot Breath On Your Neck – [MP3]
7. The Poppy Variations Part I – [MP3]
8. The Poppy Variations Part II – [MP3]
9. Premonition +To Just to Slip Away*

*Bandcamp only

Credits

• Edward Ka-Spel – Voice, Keyboards, found sound
• The Silverman – Keyboards, Poppy-filled landscapes
• Erik Drost – Electric and acoustic guitars
• Niels van Hoorn – Saxophone, Flute
• Raymond Steeg – Sound wizardry

Notes

Recorded in 2003/2004 at Chez Dots/Studio Klaverland.

LP: Ed. of 450 copies in a full color sleeve & 2 – 180 gram audiophile LP’s & bonus 4th side of material. The songs feature a slightly different mix than the CD edition.

***

I guess the seed of the “Poppy Variations” was sown back in the year 1997. The Pink Dots were on the way to New Orleans in a recreational vehicle and when the heat and the journey was too hard we pulled up and booked a motel room somewhere in Alabama. Typically we had almost no money so just two of the band had the luxury of a “real” bed while the rest of us collapsed sweating on, rather than IN sleeping bags. It was early in the morning when we heard about the death of princess Diana in that underpass in Paris. I never paid much attention to the British Royal Family before but this felt unreal and utterly tragic. In the bus we could speak of nothing else, but as we tried to squeeze more information from the radio all we seemed to reach were mad baptist preachers offering expensive tickets to somewhere that wasn’t hell, but of course THEY would be there. Roll on seven years and the day came back.

I’d been playing with the words for poppy Variations Part 1 for years…finally they came to me. And so to Part 2 that began from a snippet of bagpipes from the funeral of king george V in 1936. An old BBC record, battered , scratched…I just worked up on it, extended it, looped it, reversed it, sent it to the angels who threw it back on a paper plane. That piece saved me at a time when I was having a lot of self doubt. That tiny scrap of bagpipe music opened the floodgates. More pieces followed, I replaced at least two vocal parts and sets of lyrics of “Whispering Wall’ which was coming to a conclusion, I just felt liberated. “Poppy V” was initially going to be a solo album, but the rest of the Dots reacted favourably to the songs when i played them to everybody so we arranged a day when the rest of the band would “finish” the album. It was a great day- early morning until night in Niels’ barn. Lots of spontaneity although nobody really wanted to touch Poppy Variations part 2 which divides us all to this day. Im still proud of that one, but I always liked a good noise… I love “Poppy variations”- it pulled me out of a crisis and sounds like an old friend. – Edward Ka-Spel

***

From Bandcamp: Early 2004. “Poppy Variations” was being prepared ostensibly as an EK solo album, but the idea arose to make it a fully fledged LPD album. In typically bizarre Dots fashion, EK finished the solo album …and then threw it open for additions.The catch? Everybody had to deliver their parts in one DAY! There was a party atmosphere at Niels’ farm as recording commenced early in the morning and went on to nearly midnight.

Though EK is far from being a royalist, the tragedy of Princess Diana’s death resonated deeply (indeed we heard the news on tour at a road stop in Alabama).
Poppy Variations Part 2 is based upon a small phrase played by Scottish pipers at the funeral of King George V in London in 1935. It still clears a few rooms.

The original Poppy Variations cd was self-released by The Dots, it later saw a reissue with a new cover on Big Blue records, Poland.

Press Release

From the opening clogging cadence & cicada drone of Krussoe, the air begins to smell something like an Asylum on the eve of a Crushed Velvet Apocalypse. Poppy Variations isn’t aping old LPD material (though it samples & processes it in the background). PV has, rather, captured those warm, heady, sweetly melodic tones of the old guard. Personal Monster & The Equaliser further evoke the thudding undercurrents & whimsy of Ancestral Dots. Crisp, walking bass stabs; percolating sequences; saxes & flutes conversing with the electronics, Edward’s voice quietly projecting, as from an interstellar transmission…brilliant! The acoustic L’Oiseau Rare is a beautifully bright psych/folk piece that disintegrates into flanged electricity whose melody sounds like someone trying to tune a short wave radio to one of those weird numbers stations. New member Erik Drost’s (Girlfriends) subdued guitar ministrations weave carefully & sparingly into the mix. The production as a whole (Raymond Steeg/Edward Ka Spel) does not hesitate to sound like the Viking II L&er on extended sonic missions. Songs w&er out into the witch-filled wardrobe & then return for an outro. Why, there’s even a ballad that could be classified as pretty (not “cherubs & ice cream” pretty, but more “latter day Nick Cave broody” pretty). The album ends on an appropriately cosmic & amazing grace note, experimentally riffing on “Poppy Day,” but only referentially, until a brace of m&rax-dosed, astral pipers shows up to chase away lingering ghosts. PV is absolutely one of LPD’s finest, most inspired constructions. Not a day in the life should go by without a tiptoe through the poppies… –BLRR

1. Soft Toy – [MP3]
2. A Distant Summer – [MP3]
3. Dominic [MP3]
4. In Sickness And In Health – [MP3]
5. For Sale – [MP3]
6. King Of A Small World – [MP3]
7. The Region Beyond – [MP3]
8. Zero 6 – [MP3]
9. Peek-a-Boo – [MP3]
10. The Divide – [MP3]
11. Sunken Pleasure / Rising Pleasure / No Walls, No Strings – [MP3]

Credits

• Edward Ka-Spel – Voice, Keyboards
• The Silverman – Keyboards, Electronics
• Erik Drost – Guitar
• Niels van Hoorn – Saxophone, Clarineta
• Raymond Steeg – Engineer, effects

Notes

Recorded at Studio Lent and Studio Klaverland, January-March 2004.
Klymyzh Plazhda… Sing While You May

From Bandcamp: 2004.The first album featuring Erik on guitar and an absolutely blistering
introduction on the first track . Even so, it was an album plagued with problems including a computer crash , an endless battle to find the right mix for a lot of the songs and a writer’s block for EK at an awkward moment. Oddly the result is a decent album, although with the benefit of hindsight it could have been slimmed down a little to create a more coherent journey. Do note this has NOT been remastered.

Press Release

The Whispering Wall is the Legendary Pink Dots’ latest album & third release on ROIR. The album will coincide with a 35-date North American tour. The Pink Dots know that the future, our man-made future is coming. And it is coming to get us. Whereas 2002’s All The King’s Men relied heavily on lush weighty soundscapes, The Whispering Wall provides Ka-Spel’s poetry more room to flourish. Prophetic lyrics & haunting vocals envelope the listener; each song a continuation of the on-going story the LPD tell– either through whimsical songs about Humpty Dumpty’s travails or frightful anecdotes about a society increasingly dependent on technology yet perilously incapable of doing without it. Please take a listen– it may be the most intriguing story you’ve heard in a very long time– until next time. For the last 25 years, the Legendary Pink Dots have been one of the most consistently innovative and intriguing bands around. Constantly touring on the Continent and in North America, they have produced over 25 records on labels such as Play It Again Sam, Wax Trax, Staalplaat, Caroline, and Soleilmoon USA. Their leader, Edward Ka-Spel, a frequent collaborator with Skinny Puppy, has released albums of his own material and with Tear Garden (members of Skinny Puppy). Their unusual mixture of psychedelic whimsy, industrial gloom, and Alice In Wonderland textural madness has made them a constant presence on the innovative fringes of the cult music scene. Their dedication to the road and their inimitable style has earned them a near universal respect from critics and peers. –Roir

Reviews

The Legendary Pink Dots seem unaware or unconcerned about the unwritten record industry rule that discourages artists from releasing multiple albums simultaneously. The proverbial wisdom has it that multiple releases confuse the record-buying public, and the albums tend to cannabilize each other’s sales. Multiple albums have ruined a multitude of bands, from the Incredible String Band all the way to Kiss and Guns N’ Roses. Well, the Pink Dots have been ignoring that maxim for quite a while now. In fact, Pink Dots albums tend to come it two and threes, often with a few solo albums thrown in for good measure. No exception here, as this month brings three new Pink Dots releases, in addition to a new Ka-Spel solo album.Everything is being released on the eve of their North American tour, which takes them through far more US cities than any other underground British/Dutch post-industrial psychedelic art-goth group could even dream of visiting. The extensive touring may be the secret to the Pink Dots impressive longevity and endurance, as they are frequently one of the most critically ignored bands in the underground scene. The Whispering Wall isn’t going to rectify this situation, a typically indigestible concoction of psychedelic whimsy, wildly experimental textures, densely prophetic lyrical themes and skewed songwriting all mixed up together in a gooey prog-rock quagmire. Evaluating its relative quality compared to other albums is almost a moot point, as most hardcore Dots fans will certainly want to own every album regardless, and others stopped caring 30 albums ago.That said, The Whispering Wall does have some brilliant moments, and is very cohesive, easily eclipsing 2002’s double feature of All The King’s Horses and All The King’s Men, albums that had strong points, but would have been better whittled down to a single disc. Those albums saw the band in a transitional period, finding their footing after the departure of Ryan Moore, trying out a more intimate, stripped-down sound that became tiresome after a few listens. This time around, there’s been a few more personnel changes — the loss of guitarist/violinist Martijn de Kleer and the addition of guitarist Erik Drost — but the Pink Dots have come out intact and smelling (and sounding) like a bouquet of atomic roses. All the familiar Dots elements are present on The Whispering Wall. There’s a good bit of future-scare dystopian proselytizing (“Soft Toy”); a sinister riff on a nursery rhyme (“Dominic”); a slow-cooked instrumental (“The Region Beyond”); the ubiquitous spoken-word EKS narrative against a backdrop of densely layered noise and sound effects (“The Divide”); and just plain demented silliness (“King of a Small World”). The soupy production by Dots mainstay Raymond Steeg is typically heavy-handed (in a good way, lots of sonic detail), and each player is given time to shine: Silverman’s expertly-wielded synthesizers and rhythm programming, Niels Van Hoorn’s exquisite saxophone blasts and Erik Drost’s gutsy swathes of shredding psych guitar are all variously highlighted in the mix. It’s an accomplished album by a prolific band who continue to prove that although less is certainly more, more can also be more. – Jonathan Dean, Brainwashed

Lyrics

Soft Toy

I’ll not let them touch you dear, it’s a wicked world out there
Crawl inside my pocket, dear, we’ll hide behind the chair
Ten floors up, the chain is strong
The phone’s unplugged, the TV’s on and blasting
If it gets too much, I shall change the channel

Lie back, feel secure, my dear
I’m always right behind you
Should you tremble, should you quake,
These ropes are here to bind you
Hide your eyes, mute your screams,
It isn’t real, they’re only actors playing out our darkest dreams

Each day’s a rerun of the last one, the bad guys never win
Let’s order in, let’s keep it cozy
Give you anything…

I said anything…
I’m your soft toy.

A Distant Summer

A discontented winter, an unprecedented fall
Broken spring, she pawned her ring
One steamy summer night in ’64

See, he left without a warning
He did not leave a note
We trolled the river, drained the moat
Could not find him

And the neighbor screamed blue murder
Which was such a bitter pill
Still she swallowed it with dignity
And handed us the key to her domain

Such a shame about the garden
And the posse in the hall
We drank her coffee, knocked down walls, finding nothing…

And they sat around her table
Calling voices from beyond
Spectors moaned, a dancing bone murmured “woooooh”…

Dominic

Let’s make an omelette out of Egghead
Beat him hard until he’s stiff
Spill the oil and flip him over
Boil him, push him through the sieve
Maybe sit him on the wall…
A sad mistake— we knew he’d fall

All the horses, all the men tried hard, could not repair him

Here inside this egg-world
I take on another shape
A shell that breaks just means a new horizon…
Piece of cake
See me rising in your lava lamp and set upon the hill
The amber nectar, yellow peril
Perched upon your windowsill
Dripping… dozing… humming…
I whistle as I work

Dripping… dripping…
Watch out world— I’m turning nova

In Sickness and In Health

Keep the curtains closed
Before the lights turn low
Trust the contents of your plate are perfect
I’ll serve it with a smile

Now I’ll light a candle
Guide you through the gate with flowers, with style

Every Sunday, I will kneel
I will swear was for the greater good— the bigger picture
I’ll reveal your words, your figures
They’re engraved upon my heart
Your truth will linger like your…
When your… when your ashes are just dust
You might (???)

Say it again— I need my shot, I need to fly
I’m stretching, but I’m frightened
Say it for me one more time

These arms are here to hold you
These arms are not for sale
These arms are here to fold you, keep you warm
You’ll never fly away

These arms are here to hold you
These arms are not for sale
These arms are here to fold you, keep you warm
And never, ever, ever…

For Sale

I insist you will not buy me, even if you really try
I’m set in stone, decided
We have a pact
Don’t turn your back…

“Stand up for yourself,” you said
“Don’t lose your precious pride.”
In sickness, in health
We have a pact
Don’t turn your back…

King of a Small World

Sad willow lost the will to weep
And bow to dying swan
Touching ninety, midnight, mid-July
We’re crouching by the pond
Taking shots at those unwary
Taking shots at piles of cans
Don’t you smear my face paint, honey
Keep that shaky hand pressed to your mouth

Out here we’re on our own
And yeah, we’re probably surrounded
Could call it quits right now
And simply throw the bloody towel in
Heads hung low, hands in the air
I’m sorry… hell, I’m sorry
And when they least expect it
We shall take ’em in a blaze of glory

See the future, see the chalk lines in our last embrace
We’ll take you home, we’ll light your path…
Make my day

The Region Beyond

Zero 6

Peek-a-Boo

The Divide

Sunken Pleasure / Rising Pleasure / No Walls, No Strings