THE LEGENDARY PINK DOTS
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Release date and tracklist
2004
NL CD Plinkity Plonk PLONK16
24 February 2013
NL MP3 self-released on Bandcamp
Credits
- Edward Ka-Spel – vocals, keyboards
- The Silverman – keyboards
- April Iliffe- keyboards
- Michael Marshall- guitar
- Raymond Steeg- editing, remastering
Artwork- Elke P., Design- Meeuw
Notes
Track 1 from “The Voice” compilation cassette
track 2 from “Rising From The Red Sands Vol. 3” cassette compilation
track 5 from “Zamizdat Trade Journal” cassette compilation
All tracks recorded between 1981-1983 at various locations in the UK. Many thanks go to the baby who protested on the tube and is now immortalised at various speeds on ‘Close Your Eyes’, and to the man who presented his Punch and Judy show in Covent Garden while a Pink Dot hid his recording walkman under his coat. ‘The People Tree’ was formerly to be found on Side Two of the ‘Traumstadt 4’ cassette-only release. Other tracks were to be found on the following long lost cassette releases: ‘Rising from the Red Sand Volume 3’, ‘Zamizdat Trade Journal Volume 4’ and ‘The Voice’.
Limited edition of 1000 copies.
Press Release
The Legendary Pink Dots recorded some of their best work for compilation and private tapes in the early 1980’s. These tapes have now long gone and the material, as included on this disc, has been unavailable for many years. You will most likely never hear the Dots sounding so intense as on the original version of “Close you eyes, you can be a spacecaptain” or so experimental as on “Premonition 15” or on “March”, which has been unavailable for over 20 years! Also included is the long-deleted 23-minute track “The People Tree” and one of their most abstract and beautiful songs “The Punchline”. Packed in a in the usual gorgeous carton Plinikity Plonk cover, this is your chance to pick up these tracks and enjoy some of the best work of the early Legendary Pink Dots.
Reviews
It’s a surprise how well they both connect to the material collected on Crushed Mementos, material recorded between 1981-83 by Legendary Pink Dots and only released on cassette. This is Pink Dots in all their glory, with familiar pieces of music rearing their beautiful heads once in a while, now showing a different side of their character because they’re out of the context they are known from. Like for instance the beautiful violin piece in Premonition 15 that became most famous for ending The Lovers Part II and the moody pulse that ends The People Tree, well known for being included in the song This Could Be The End. Crushed Mementos collects the more experimental, mainly instrumental and soundscape-like material. Even Close Your Eyes, You Can Be a Space Captain – one of the classic songs – is included here in a lengthy version, that’s grittier than the other available ones and ends with a meandering piece of music, based around the manipulated voice of a young child crying. Absolutely haunting, and two years ahead of what Current 93 would become famous for. Add to that the (again) child-voice driven The Punchline and the weird little pop ditty March, and you’ve got one of the better LPD’s “cassette re-releasing CD’s”. – RT, Vital Weekly
***
In de omvangrijke schatkist van de Pink Dots liggen de gouden momenten verborgen op de bodem. De jaren tachtig boden unieke LPD (en LSD) experimenten met, tapes, gestolen muziekflarden, elektronica, psychedelische visioenen en collagetechnieken terwijl het geheel op bezwerende wijze aan elkaar gepraat werd door de angstige neusstem van Edward Ka-Spell. De cd ‘Crushed Mementos’ verzamelt enkele obscure tracks die een kwarteeuw geleden aan tapes werden toevertrouwd. De walkman des tijds plukt onder andere een poppenkast en een hysterische baby uit de ether en vereeuwigt ze in een vervormde klankfoto. Wie tien jaar geleden afknapte op de spacerock en UFO meditaties, kan met deze essentiele terugblik de roze draad weer oppikken. Vlak voor de Amerikaanse tournee zet Ka-Spell nog snel een geverfde handdruk op ‘The Whispering Wall’, het nieuwe studioalbum. Met het broeierige openingsnummer ‘Soft Toy’ lijkt LPD terug te grijpen naar de 80’s (gooi bijvoorbeeld ‘The Maniac’ nog eens op de draaitafel), maar dan daalt het tempo en primeert de decadente sfeer van elektronica, blazers en violen. Met een grote suikerspin in de hand racen we door het spookhuis van de liefde. Een bezeten profeet trekt intussen de stekker uit onze televisiewereld en levert ons over aan de genade van Duisternis, Natuur en Magie. Deze cd is even coherent en sfeervol als mijlpaal ‘The Maria Dimension'(1991). Sing While You May? Mijn toestemming heeft hij! – Gonzo Circus
***
Und noch eine Wiederveroeffentlichung einer Sammlung aus alten Tapes und ein paar Compilations, dafuer sind CDs erfunden worden, finde ich, und die Tracks aus den fruehen 80ern der wirklich schon eher legendaeren Pink Dots. Wer mit der eigenwilligen Stimme des Saengers klarkommt, der wird diese merkwuerdige Art von Hippiemusik lieben, die hier auf dem Album zu weiten Teilen den Hauptpart uebernimmt, dazwischen aber vor allem entdecken, dass die Legendary Pink Dots damals einiges ans sehr eigenwilligen Klangexperimenten gemacht haben, die auch heute irgendwie erfrischend klingen. Nur eben ein wenig dumpf. – bleed, De:Bug
***
Crushed Mementos (plonk 16) macht Stoff wieder zugaenglich, den THE LEGENDARY PINK DOTS zwischen 1980, ihrem Gruendungsjahr, und ’83 auf Kassetten wie Traumstadt 4, Rising from the Red Sand Vol. 3, Zamizdat Trade Journal Vol. 4 oder The Voice veroeffentlicht hatten. Die Uhr wird dabei auf die fruehen Stunden zurueckgedreht, die dem Vinyldebut Brighter Now (1982) und dem Nachfolger Curse (1983) vorausgingen. Der Historismus, der zur Zeit die 80er abgrast, der aber auch schon fuer Zusammenstellungen wie Tionchor (1998) von P16.D44 oder Collusion (1992) von Zoviet*France gesorgt hat, foerdert hier neben den typischen, ganz von Edward Ka-Spels schmeichelndem Timbre gepraegten Songs ‘Close Your Eyes, You Can Be A Space Captain’ und ‘March’ ausschliesslich teils noisige, teils neoromantische Experi(nstru)mentals zu Tage. Das gut 23-minuetige ‘The People Tree’ und ‘Premonition 15’, ein sogar halbstuendiger, stupender, mit immer wieder anderen Wendungen ueberraschender Serpentinentrip, bei dem Mopeds durch Streicher im Walzertakt knattern, monotone Loops gyromantisch kreiseln und Michael Marshall seine Gitarre jaulen laesst, zeigen sehr schoen die Zwitterstellung von LPD zwischen Industrial und hippiesker Psychedelik. An dieser mit Keyboards und Tapes generierten hybriden Aesthetik haben Ka-Spel und The Silverman durchgehend fest gehalten. Das Pink im Namen weckt wohl nicht nur zufaellig Assoziationen zu Pink Floyd, als ob Ka-Spel versucht haette, Syd Barretts lyrische Versponnenheit und die Ummagumma-Surrealitaet unter einem Hut zusammen zu halten. – Bad Alchemy
***
Sul ‘Jukebox All’Idrogeno’ #2 ci dilungammo su Legendary Pink Dots, ma per quanto si sondi con puntiglio la loro discografia e sterminata la mole di registrazioni rimaste in cassetta, sia pur molto sia finito nelle raccolte piu disparate. Con imperscrutabile criterio, la Plinkity Plonk ha assemblato cinque pezzi registrati tra l’81 e l’83 nella natia Inghilterra, prima dell’esilio olandese. Se pensiamo alle ingenuita ed all’impronta wave di un lavoro come “Brighter Now”, l’immagine di Ka-spel e compagni resa da “Crushed Mementos” e parecchio distante, mostrando un progetto gia maturo di cui viene evidenziato l’elemento piu squisitamente sperimentale, con attitudini progressive, tra i ventitre minute di The People Tree, tra post-industrial, gran dispiego di tapes e Residents, l’inafferrabile The Punchline, la mezz’ora in trip acido/classico di Premonition 15. (7) – Pauli Bertoni, Blow Up
***
Longtime friend and fan of the Legendary Pink Dots, Freek Kinkelaar has tastefully tied up some loose ends with this five-track collection. These tracks represent a looser, more experimental sound that the Dots would, most likely due to their length, leave them on cassette compilations rather than include them on their vinyl LPs. “The Puncline” is a rarity few people have heard, first released back in 1983 on a legitimate Italian cassette-only various artsits collection called 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 few places, but this 11+ minute version was the one from 1983 originally found on Volume Three of the infamous Rising from the Red Sand tapes from Third Mind. “The People Tree” is a personal favorite, as this sound-effects laden 23+ minute piece only graced side two of LPD’s Traumstadt 4. Here, loud jet engines and alien synth drips like the more trippy interludes of some of the early Tear Garden stuff, while demented audio washes battle loudness and silence in an almost tribute-like fashion to Nurse With Wound’s Homotopy To Marie, primitive electronics mimic early video games, and quirky instrumental keyboard melodies couldn’t be mistaken for anybody other than the Dots. It irked me when side a (“Premonition 18”) surfaced on Stained Glass Soma Fountains without “The People Tree,” so this track is warmly welcomed by me to finally be available on CD. The brief (98 second) track “March” was the only exclusive track on the Dots on the Eyes LPD cassette-only compilation from 1981 so its inclusion ties up that loose end, while the 30 minute “Premonition 15” appeared on the Zamizdat Trade Journal, originally released in 1986, but opens the door to a couple more tracks still unavailable. “Premonition 15” starts off with a lot of unexpected guitar work, eventually mixing in the violin bits from “The Lovers (Part two)” along with other early LPD tunes here and there on top of other sound effects and aural tampering. Be warned that these recordings are not the original master recordings painstakingly restored to some super high fidelity, but recordings that weren’t great to begin with, and Raymond Steeg has done a find job of getting them at least sound as good as they could have on the original tape releases. The packaging is tasteful but somewhat flimsy and needs to be cared for very 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. – Jon Whitney, Brainwashed
