THE LEGENDARY PINK DOTS

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Release date and tracklist

1990
NL CS Mirrordot Tapes

side a

1. The Day She Left
2. The Day She Returned
3. The Day She Thought About Leaving And Fell Into The Duck Pond
4. City Of Needles
5. The Day She Lost The Key
6. Excerpt From The Citadel

side b

1. Divine Resignation Part 1
2. Divine Resignation Part 2
3. (Chinese characters: transl: “I am doing well learning this language.”)
4. East Of Shanghai

***
1994
NL CD Terminal Kaleidoscope TEKA999

1996
NL CD Soleilmoon #?

2001
PL CD SPV L-0012 (different cover)

16 June 2012
NL MP3 self-released on Bandcamp*

1. The Day She Left
2. The Day She Returned – [MP3]
3. The Day She Thought About Leaving And Fell Into The Duck Pond – [MP3]
4. Nadelstadt – [MP3]
5. The Day She Lost The Key
6. Excerpt From The Citadel
7. Divine Resignation Part 1
8. Divine Resignation Part 2
9. (Chinese characters: transl: “I am doing well learning this language.”)
10. East Of Shanghai

* The first 2 tracks were combined on Bandcamp to preserve cross-fade.

March 4, 2021
Four Days – The 30th Anniversary (Remastered​)​/​Expanded)
NL MP3 self-released on Bandcamp

September 16, 2022
NL CDR self-released on Bandcamp

1. The Day She Left / The Day She Returned
2. The Day She Thought About Leaving But Fell Into The Duckpond
3. Nadelstadt
4. The Day She Lost The Key
5. Excerpt From “The Citadel”
6. Divine Resignation Part 1
7. Divine Resignation Part 2
8. Your Chinese Has Improved
9. East Of Shanghai
10. Steel Town (Bonus)
11. The Way She Knots His Tie (Bonus)
12. The Day She Tied The Knot (Bonus)
13. Night Train To Minsk Parts 1 & 2
14. Roadworkx (Bonus)
15. The Night She Gave Me Flowers (Bonus)

***

June 7, 2024
US 2xLP Witch Cat Records WCR-025

Side A

1. The Day She Left / The Day She Returned
2. The Day She Thought About Leaving But Fell Into The Duckpond
3. Nadelstadt

Side B

1. The Day She Lost The Key
2. Excerpt From “The Citadel”
3. Divine Resignation Part 1

Sice C

1. Divine Resignation Part 2
2. Your Chinese Has Improved
3. East Of Shanghai
4. Steel Town

Side D

1. The Way She Knots His Tie
2. The Day She Tied The Knot
3. Night Train To Minsk Parts 1 & 2
4. Roadworkx
5. The Night She Gave Me Flowers

Credits

• The Silver Man
• Edward Ka-Spel

Cover art- Elke
2021 remaster by EK

Notes

Cassette:
Numbered edition of 100 copies in colour xerox cover

CD:
This is a slightly remixed re-release.  First pressing (1994) was limited to 1000 copies and distributed mainly through direct mail order from the Dots. In August 1995, 200 extra copies were pressed; a second re-pressing of 500 was made in 1996 mainly for the American market (distributed by Soleilmoon); and there have been several editions since.
“Nadelstadt” was retitled from the original release (where it was called “City of Needles”) since it appears in another form as “City of Needles” on SHADOW WEAVER.

from the CD insert:
As the title suggests, “Four days” was a work conceived and recorded in an intense but well starved short period of time in 1988. On the fifth, Elke made the cover for the original tape release, while the results were presented to long term Dots friend, Henk, before the week elapsed. It was to be a limited edition of our copy – a musical ‘thank you’ for a precious favour. Trouble is, we all liked the music and artwork too much to keep it under a carpet. Consequently, with the blessing of Henk, ‘Four Days’ was released in an edition of 100 numbered copies on casette only. By the time most people found out about it, ‘Four Days’ was four years ago – that’s why it is re-appearing now, again with Henk’s blessing. This time there are 1000 of them… it will not rear its head again. Dedicated, of course, to Henk.

Thank you to PIAS records for their blessing of this release. Klymnyeh – Sing while you may!
written and composed by P. Knight and E. Ka-Spel

from the 2012 Bandcamp release:
1990. Summer. Both EK and The Silverman were hopelessly addicted to vinyl but didn’t have the money to feed their habit. A little bird whispered to Phil that another collector in the North of Holland had the 3 (Lard Free) albums he desired the most AND the aforesaid had just discovered the Pink Dots. It was true, but Henk – the owner of those 3 elusive discs already had already amassed a huge collection of Dots’ titles.
Consequently we agreed to make a cassette release just for Henk (who is still a dear friend). Yup an edition of just 1, with Edward’s partner at the time, Elke, making the cover. It took four days.
However Henk insisted the world should hear it, so another 99 cassettes were made. Later it was 3,000 cds on The Dots’ own TEKA label, and then a Polish re-release.  Home-made in every way, but with loving care.

from The 30th Anniversary Bandcamp release:
The DAT tape was unmarked, the DAT recorder/player had been repaired and treasure was hiding between the ones and zeroes. In fact, more than an hour of unreleased/ unheard sessions for “Four Days” emerged which has been edited for this special expanded edition of the 1994 album. Consider this one as the final word on this release.
Again, here is the story of “Four Days”.
1990. Summer. Both EK and The Silverman were hopelessly addicted to vinyl but didn’t have the money to feed their habit. A little bird whispered to Phil that another collector in the North of Holland had the 3 (Lard free) albums he desired the most AND the aforesaid had just discovered the Pink Dots. It was true , but Henk – the owner of those 3 elusive discs already had already amassed a huge collection of Dots’ titles.
Consequently we agreed to make a cassette release just for Henk (who is still a dear friend). Yup an edition of just 1, with Edward’s partner at the time, Elke, making the cover.It took four days.
However Henk insisted the world should hear it, so another 99 cassettes were made. later it was 3,000 cds on The Dots’ own TEKA label, and then a Polish re-release. Home-made in every way, but with loving care.
Remastered February 2021 by Edward Ka-Spel.

2022 30th Anniversary Edition CDR is a limited edition of 113.

from I’m not sure where:
The Day She Left /The Day she Returned– A summer’s day. The doors were open , the microphone was on..These 2 tracks comibined under a single code to preserve the cross-fade.

Nadelstadt– Prototype “City of needles”. The improvisation that was the seed for the Dots’ evergreen..

Your Chinese has Improved– Elke was learning Chinese at the time. The original title was in Chinese characters.

2024 2xLP release:
34 years after it’s initial release, The Legendary Pink Dots “Four Days” emerges as a limited edition Double LP. Containing six bonus tracks, and a special remaster.

Paying tribute to the initial cassette release, the gatefold sleeve is adorned with Elke Skeltzer’s stunningly unique artwork, which was scanned from the original cassette cover and inserts that were packaged in a plastic baggie along with said cassette.

The records come in 3 different colors, Classic Black, Clear Desert Brown, and Citrus Mixed. 100 Copies of each available. 10 Test Pressings will be available, each with a unique cover made by Edward Ka-Spel.

Reviews

Four Days is the LPDs’ most “industrial” disc, by a long shot. Sweeping violins, church-inspired keyboards, orchestral washes, light acoustic melodies, and the like are totally absent, in favour of churning, clanky, clattering sounds and deep bassy drones. Ka-Spel’s voice is featured on two of the pieces, the first being the most interesting, a sort of sing- song chant, the words almost tripping and rolling into each other. Also of interest, for those who have _Shadow Weaver_, is the fourth piece on _Four Days_, “Nadelstadt”, the German translation of “City of Needles”, and the two are nearly the same track, with a bit of remixing in the different versions. Melody yields to tension on this CD, and it isn’t for the meek or faint of heart. Four those in the mood for the some of the most challenging and “difficult- listening” sounds that the LPDs have put out, _Four Days_ comes highly recommended. For those looking for the more melodic sensibilities of _Any Day Now_, _Crushed Velvet Apocalypse_, or _The Maria Dimension_, you have been warned. This disc is for the most ardent of fans, seeking the more abstract side of our beloved Dots. And the LPDs have not made it any easier, either; the disc is a limited edition of only 1000 copies. The liner notes promise that this will be the entire extent of _Four Days_. And yes, I will not part with this voluntarily, either. And if I ever come across the bonus _MD_ three-incher, I’ll snatch it right quick… – Don Scheidt (september 28, 1994)

***

In 1988, Edward Ka-Spel and the Silverman recorded an album’s worth of material in, as the title suggests, four days, as a way to repay a friend for a favor. The one copy of this material was given to that friend, but the LPDs liked it so much they wanted to release it to their fans, and in 1989, a limited run of 100 cassettes was made available. Much later, in 1994, another limited run of 1000 CDs was issued on Terminal Kaleidoscope and sold via Soleilmoon. The music is of supreme quality for only four days of work, although it is mostly ambient and instrumental. The exceptions are “The Day She Returned,” with a frantic, maddening vocal that sounds as if it were recorded in the interior of a storm cloud; “Divine Resignation,” with its distorted speech, which acts as a sequel to Asylum’s “A Message From Our Sponsor”; and the suspenseful industrial instrumental “Nadelstadt,” originally titled “City of Needles” but given a new name after vocals were added to it for the 1992 album Shadow Weaver. – Rex

Lyrics

Divine Resignation

In the interest of you all – the living and the temporarily indisposed I retire. You know, I had such ideas… When you are alone, with eternity to play with, to shape, to build – well you can understand the weight of my ambition. But I’ve created a monster, that was never the intention. The bureaucracy of my vision has now made it impossible to realize the totality of the vision itself. Merely a few friends, as equals. No delusions of grandeur. No pity, narrow winded struggles for “power” I’m sorry, it isn’t possible. I can’t cope anymore. As I said before, I retire.

The day she returned

you took my soul away snatched it and stole away stashed in a hole with a sack full of gold for a cold rainy day, gonna wash me away. Chasing the tail of a soft spoken whale in a gale in a flood. I got it in my blood. Gonna slice up my brother. I’ll slice up my brother. I’ll cater you. And nothing makes sense, I’m a hole in a fence and this planet’s immense and expensive. I’m broke but I’m broken you push in a token you pull on a whul(?) It’s no deal. It’s a death. It’s no deal wish a death it’s no deal.

THE LEGENDARY PINK DOTS

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Release date and tracklist

1995
NL CDx2 Terminal Kaleidoscope TEKA834

2008
NL CDx2 Beta-lactam Ring Records MT172

disc a

1. A Triple Moon Salute – [MP3]
2. Cease Your Lonely Mourning – [MP3]
3. Little Oyster – [MP3]
4. Catch A Match. A Bang Bang. A Flashing Fist O’ Crackerjack. A Smack. A Lick. A Char Char. You’re All Burned Out. – [MP3]
5. Invaders In The Raita – [MP3]
6. The Artificial Silence – [MP3]
7. A Chrome Zone In Powder Park – [MP3]
8. Pandora’s Socks – [MP3]
9. Andromeda Suite – [MP3]
10. Pastorial – [MP3]

disc b

1. A Pause In Melancholy Silence – [MP3]
2. Burned At The Steakhouse – [MP3]
3. New Shoes – [MP3]
4. I Dream Of Jeannie – [MP3]
5. She Gave Me An Apple – [MP3]
6. Stirred But Not Shaken – [MP3]
7. The Ballad Of Ron And Popo – [MP3]
8. Where No Man – [MP3]
9. Premonition 7 – [MP3]

24 February 2013
NL Remastered MP3 self-released on Bandcamp

1. A Triple Moon Salute / Cease Your Lonely Mourning / Little Oyster / Catch A Match. A Bang Bang. A Flashing Fist O’ Crackerjack. A Smack. A Lick. A Char Char. You’re All Burned Out. / Invaders In The Raita
2. The Artificial Silence / A Chrome Zone In Powder Park / Pandora’s Socks
3. Andromeda Suite
4. Pastorial
5. A Pause In Melancholy Silence / Burned At The Steakhouse
6. New Shoes
7. I Dream Of Jeannie
8. She Gave Me An Apple / Stirred But Not Shaken / The Ballad Of Ron And Popo / Where No Man
9. Premonition 7

Credits

• The Silver Man
• Niels van Hoornblower
• Edward Ka-Spel
• Martijn de Kleer
• Father Pastorius
• Cevin Key
• Elke Skelter
• Raymond Steeg
• Ryan Moore
• Maria

Produced and engineered by Edward Ka-Spel, Raymond Steeg and the Silver Man
Cover art by Elke.

Notes

An anthology release of rarities, compilation appearances, and unreleased material.
Several of the previously released tracks (such as “Andromeda Suite“, “Burned At The Steakhouse“, and “Where No Man“) were slightly remixed for this release.

Little Oyster, I Dream Of Jeannie, She Gave Me An Apple, Stirred But Not Shaken and Where No Man were on the 3″ bonus CD that came with the first 3000 copies of European CD edition of The Maria Dimension.

Tracks released on Bandcamp are sometimes combined to preserve the cross-fades.

KHALAMZH ZELYNZZHDA VROYHTAN

***

From Bandcamp:
1995.  A dark room and a shelf full of bulky 8-track tapes. The boxes would sometimes proudly boast the title of an album like say “Crushed Velvet Apocalypse” in bold felt tip pen, but look closer and there would be a weedy biro line through it and the word “session” replacing it.  Play the thing and it would be a big mix of the individual tracks for the proclaimed album, a weird and wonderful jam and some events that were better left unheard. Such were the building blocks of Cp 8 and 9.

Add to that the odd tracks from compilations, the songs from that elusive 3″ cd that came with initial copies of “Maria Dimension”, cassettes which left blew oxide flakes to the four winds and it can be seen that a serious journey could be taken here.
Lost bits of Shadow weaver, remnants of Maria sessions, scraps from 9 Lives are all here.  Damn it, thee’s also “A Triple Moon salute”, which (along with “Damien”) may be EK’s personal LPD favourite.

Lastly there’s the cover…..weird weird fishes EVERYWHERE -one of Elke’s finest creations…
Take this brother, may it serve you well…..

Lyrics

A Triple Moon Salute

Floored by the tripwire. Stripped by the crossfire. Down on my knees. For the first time in years, I believed… And you came and you threw me your hand and we swam to a land where a promise was sacred, preserved. And my lady is whispers. my lady is air. I keep a strand of her hair in a heart on my breast… and I’m safe in our warm cocoon. I know you’ll be back soon and that’s a promise that’s sacred, preserved. colour me rainbows. Colour me vexed. I’m perplexed by that light from your moon. But you said you’d be back soon and that’s a promise that’s sacred, preserved.

Cease Your Lonely Mourning (instrumental)

Little Oyster

Sylvia fed me spiders in the classiest corner of town… Collars turned up to hide us we cupped our hands and shovelled them down silver blades and subtle passes slipped our pills and swapped our glasses, played footsie on a fading floor. we turned around I shut the door you shot me with a killer glance – i swore! i screamed! you’ll not put me in the circus with the fleas, or with Kathleen, the human bean… i’m scared of heights… i tiptoed tightropes… Angels spied the telescopes. “Gone fishing” but i will not be your oyster, God… i’m much too young to drink, and much to drunk to die… i’m happy in your tapestry you happy on a thread. You wove the pair of pink pyjamas and a double bed and when i sleep, I mutter “Mata Hari you strike me dead!” with hatpins baby… hit me where it hurts, Mmmm! I love it! i’ll be your little oyster – i’ll be the whole wide world

Catch a match

Catch a match. A bang bang. A flashing fist O’ crackerjack. A smack. A lick. A char char. You’re all burned out.

The Artificial Silence

Just a cry or a whisper in the artificial silence could have helped us to find our island and build a home made just for two. But your pride and my resistance and the strong advice of those who wish us well maintained the distance – and I doubt I’ll ever see you again. Yet I wonder if you wrote me…? I wonder if I called…? Would we hide behind the wall that divides us and protects us from all that fall back into violence. Can we crack this silence?

A Chrome Zone in Powder Park

Down below the apple tree, washed out by the blood flood, head – down in the daisy patch… it was still – born in the mud. Three tiny hands were stretching, longing for a breast – but it wasn’t there. Eight baby lips were puckered, antennae in the air. Nothing there! Mummy took her lover by his green and purple claw, quite resigned. “Let’s try once more. A second time! Let’s try once more…” (practice makes perfect, don’t you know…)

Pandora’s Socks

Don’t be scared, he’s only shouting. Five lives down, but then, who’s counting? I have a box to keep my doubts in. I keep them to myself. I’m quite humane. I’d never test you. The things inside me would depress you. Lock them up, you know it’s best I keep things to myself.

Andromeda Part 1…

Take this cup, dissolve with me. Tonight’s a one way voyage through your mind where all the doors open wide, where everything’s exposed… Kill all fear. Take this and sign along the dotted line. Free yourself. No possessions! Imagine there’s no heaven.

Andromeda Part 2...

Tell me doctor, what exactly is the problem? Do I not behave according to the patterns on your wall? Do I push all your parameters, am I unfit for your box? Tell me doc… do you have the perfect cure? Will you shower me with red ones, green ones and yellow ones? Is the answer in a spike, or with a rusty knife or in that place they call “heaven”? Ah… there’s no need to send me flowers for I have gardens where I go walking with my wife. Though I haven’t met her yet, I know she’s coming because she sends me messages… lots of messages. It’s along way to Andromeda but we’ll marry in the spring.

A Pause in Melancholy Silence

Turn. Turn. Run the risk. The world spins for you. In five years none of this will mean one thing. If all seems lost and they’re out to floor you – turn and face the day. And once I trapped a golden moment. It felt so good, I pulled the reins. But you turned to stone and the joy was frozen. I had to let the moment slip away. Now I confess that I’m king of nowhere. I confess I’m no master of my soul, but like a river I shall flow where I’m told.

Burned At The Steakhouse

Keep your hands in the air, keep your eyes on your navel.   Keep your back to the wall and those chains on the table.   I’m gonna staple up your body bag and tape your legs together.  Send you back in fifteen packages registered Express. American Express. 

First we’ll make a dollar, gonna take ‘em for a ride before we burn you at the steakhouse and pretend it’s suicide.  It’s not that we don’t like you, you’re an OK kind of guy.  But then, who needs a perfect planet anyhow? 

All part of the service.

New Shoes (instrumental)

I Dream Of Jeannie (transcription, revised by Edward Ka-Spel)

Ahmed liked a tigress in the bed and a kitten in the kitchen except at Ramadan. He takes a stick and beat her ’round the legs, tear the diamond from her navel, dress her in the blackest rags, send her weeping to the shed ’til the feelings got too strong. He was longing for her feel again – the fleshy mountains, just enough to hide behind, melt himself away from the flying bullets, from the crying sirens, the battered Chevrolets on every street. On every corner, insipid sweetmeats, meets the sweetest girls in cafes but the coffee’s bitter, cigarettes are vile. Smiles are poison dipped, the flakes of lamb between the teeth now yellow brown. Sun-baked like the pusher in the corner who waits and waits to take his money, spends it, tells a tale – another Yankee in the jail, another movie, one more headline.

Head is lying in the water and the eyes are dead. Blood drained away now flowing in the veins of a pimp who parades a mile of flesh. It’s delightful, it’s an eyeful, it’s a mouthful… (it’s also very fat) Roll it up and lick it, squeeze it, roll it up and use again, again, again, swallow! swallow! Let me up, keep me warm, I use you again and again… Wrap me up i’ll use you again and again.. Again and again! (wrap me up I’ll use you again and again)

Head is lying in the water and the eyes are dead. Blood drained away now flowing in the veins of a pimp who parades a mile of flesh. It’s delightful, it’s an eyeful, it’s a mouthful… (it’s also very fat) Roll it up and lick it, squeeze it, roll it up and use again, again, again, swallow! swallow! Let me up, keep me warm, I use you again and again… Wrap me up i’ll use you again and again.. Again and again! (wrap me up I’ll use you again and again)

She Gave Me An Apple

Jesus walked the earth again. He stretched his hand to kill our pain. The spring winds blew… the acid rained. Love rained for fifteen hours. Generals gazed from Lover’s Leap then took a step for earthly peace – just flew to pieces, literally… Of course, we brought them flowers. But nothing stops the great machine, the wheel spins round, the tannoy screams “Get back in borders! Orders! Orders! Redefine your lines!” And Satan walked the earth again, brought plagues of locusts, whips and chains… Played Guns ‘n’ Roses, blocked the drains but no one payed attention. Too busy in their quiet dream, playing possum drinking tea. The world concluded happily. So there.

Stirred But Not Shaken

Washed by a wave. Locked in. The grave’s deep. The sea pulls. Flesh creeps. I shouldn’t wander in my sleep… And I wandered back in time and your face flashed before my eyes. You were laughing… Total Recall. I saw doors with no keys. Black Debts. My heart leapt and I caught it in my teeth. I tried to catch a little air; I tried to say a little prayer but He was laughing… Tossed by the wind of relief and regret, I’d turn right, twist left. I was caught up in a net. And the angel whispered “Hi!” I was lifted into the sky – still breathing…

The Ballad of Ron and Popo (instrumental)

Where No Man

From our window on the vast beyond, we measure space and sing the songs that lost their meaning long before they built this cage we live in. It’s from another age. An aeon… Turn another page, experience another place… here’s a neon palace brimming with temptation. But I’m bored with Mother earth, it’s seven wonders and I wonder, “Was it quite so small?” Did we escape or are we tourists heading for some foreign flawless place that only graced the thoughts of mad professors laughing in their graves? We’ll never know the answer. We’ll never find the tapes. our Bible preaches, “Search! Research! Reshape! Recycle…” Recycle for the sake of those who come before and those who follow. We have orders from beyond, we’ve no alternative; we’re growing weaker as the years go on and on. Our mighty leader is our father and our brother and he’s sick as the in-breaders in the Dead Man’s Room who bang their plates and eat their spoons and scream profuse profanities. I wonder sometimes, “Is it them or is it me who has lost all sanity?” But, after all I hold the key – but keep it safe inside the jar. Now half of this cage is starving while the rest of us shoot stars and blast the eighteen headed Pacman from our armchairs in the bar. Zsa Zsa Korova scored a supernova! Zeros wall to wall in roses, pink, vermillion. A trillion. Five stars. A new religion. Light the candles because I re-wrote the book of Psalms. On silent nights we chant them crawling backwards and watch our world collapse in crackerjacks through cataracts. A cataclysmic, ectoplasmic burst of happy gas. We knock it back. Relax, because we’re never ever going back. We never ever can return…..

Premonition 7 (instrumental)

THE LEGENDARY PINK DOTS

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Release date and tracklist

September 11, 1995
US CD Soleilmoon SOL28CD
NL CD Staalplaat STCD 099

2009
PL CS SPV D 013-4 (different cover)

1. Clockwise
2. Citadel
3. Friend
4. A Velvet Resurrection
5. Kollusim
6. 1001 Commandments
7. Remember Me This Way
8. This One-Eyed Man Is King
9. Straight On ‘Til Morning
10. Damien
11. This Hollowed Ground

22 July 2012
NL Remastered MP3 self-released on Bandcamp

1. Clockwise
2. Citadel
3. Friend
4. A Velvet Resurrection / Kollusim
5. 1001 Commandments
6. Remember Me This Way
7. This One-Eyed Man Is King / Straight On ‘Til Morning
8. Damien
9. This Hollowed Ground
10. Remember Me this Way (full length version)
11. Beautiful Machine
12. Anastasia
13. Day Zero
14. Damien (Remix)
15. A Velvet Resurrection (version)
16. Friend

Credits

• Ryan Moore – bass/drums/percussion
• Martijn de Kleer – guitars
• Niels van Hoornblower – saxes/flutes/elec wind instruments
• Edward Ka-Spel – voice/keyboards
• The Silver Man – keyboards
• Raymond Steeg – Sound tools

Notes

Engineered by Raymond and Ryan, Production by the Pink Dots.

There were 500 promo copies of the CD released featuring a plain card cover with an information sheet pasted on it and a different label design.

The second and all subsequent pressings of the Staalplaat CD edition and all copies of the SPV cassette edition include a lyric insert.

A Jarmusic vinyl edition was planned for June, 1996, and was to include tracks from the REMEMBER ME THIS WAY CDEP, but the release was cancelled.

Tracks released on Bandcamp are sometimes combined to preserve the cross-fades.

Statement

From Bandcamp:
No album caused as much debate within The Dots as this one in1995.It was all about the order of the tracks…quite simply no permutation seemed to work. Ultimately Phil (The Silverman) took the bull by the horns and asked for the independent opinion of long-term LPD friend Christoph Heemann.
The verdict was to leave certain songs off (“Beautiful Machine”, “Anastasia”, “Day Zero”).
The resulting storm could be heard in the South of Belgium and a compromise was the “Remember me this Way” EP – a release which also settled disputes over the mix of the title track.
Even today, there can be debate about this album in Dots’ circles but the author of this piece admits that “From here” stands as a personal favourite.
Elke made the fascinating artwork. -EKS

Press Release 

Within the last nine months The Legendary Pink Dots have completed three CD’s worth of new music, released it all within the space of around four weeks, quit the record company they had been with for ten years, made their piece with them again, set up their own record company, organized a world tour, dismantled into a myriad of solo projects, reassembled, argued with each other, laughed together. The result is “From Here You’ll Watch The World Go By”, the album which The Pink Dots presented to Staalplaat and Soleilmoon at the end of July with the request that it should be released within the space of around four weeks because they were committed to a 60 date tour covering the World from Czech Republic to Mexico.

It’s maybe the 19th album of the Pink Dots, but who’s counting anyhow? After 15 years, there are still some encyclopedias of popular music that don’t even acknowledge the existence of the Dots although nearly half a million pieces of plastic bearing the band’s name are now floating around this sad planet.

The Pink Dots have followings in places like Colombia, Taiwan, Macao … teenage girls ask them what they eat for breakfast from places like Moscow and Buenos Aires. As the press release is being prepared, books are being written about the Dots in English, French and Czech. The Band has seen around 20 people pass through it. It’s witnessed birth, death, glory, sold out well known venues in the States, but also played before audiences of 9 or 10 in Sweden. Film makers have frequently used Pink Dots music in their movies, though they have failed to credit them or (of course) pay them. The Pink Dots have attracted the interest of major labels, minor labels, hobbyists, charlatans, bezerkers, Mansonists, worshippers at the temple of the dark demon, Wurggalmiah who all wanted to release their records. Sometimes the band agreed. But ‘officially’ the Pink Dots do not exist. That’s what the statisticians say anyhow. It’s great to be “really” underground, maaaaaaaan.

Review

THE LEGENDARY PINK DOTS

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Release date and tracklist

1996
US CDx4 Soleilmoon SOL1 CD

22 July 1998
US LPx4 Soleilmoon SOL1

• Brighter Now
• Curse
• Faces in the Fire
• The Tower

Notes

The first 4 Full Length albums by Legendary Pink Dots.
CD edition has slightly different covers from single CD releases (yellow ink replaced with gold ink) and is limited to 1000 copies.

LP edition features picture disks with the same artwork as the CD versions and is limited to 512 numbered copies.

THE LEGENDARY PINK DOTS

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Release date and tracklist

1996
BE CD Play It Again Sam BIAS325
US CD Soleilmoon SOL47

March 9, 2017
NL MP3 self-released on Bandcamp

1. Belladonna – [MP3]
2. I Love You In Your Tragic Beauty – [MP3]
3. Green Gang – [MP3]
4. Princess Coldheart – [MP3]
5. Disturbance – [MP3]
6. The Grain Kings – [MP3]
7. Prague Spring – [MP3]
8. A Triple Moon Salute – [MP3]
9. Joey The Canary – [MP3]
10. Siren – [MP3]
11. The Angel Trail – [MP3]
12. A Velvet Resurrection (Version) – [MP3]
13. Friend (Version) – [MP3]

Credits

• Edward Ka-Spel – Voice, Keyboards
• The Silverman – Keyboards, Electronics
• Bob Pistoor
• Martijn de Kleer
• Ryan Moore
• Niels Van Hoorn
• cEvin Key

Notes

This release is a follow-up of sorts to STONE CIRCLES, collecting various tracks from the band’s 1990-95 releases with two tracks (marked “version”) slightly remixed/extended.
The title is Spanish for the LPD motto: “Sing While You May”.

MEZHKAZH JOIE JOIE O JOIE

Tracks 1, 5 & 6 from “The Maria Dimension”
Tracks 2, 3 & 4 from “The Crushed Velvet Apocalypse”
Track 7 from “Shadow Weaver”
Track 8 from “Chemical Playschool Volume 8+9”
Track 9 from “Malachai”
Tracks 10 & 11 from “9 Lives to Wonder”
Tracks 12 & 13 from “From Here you’ll Watch the World Go By”

Bandcamp release:
A welcome rise of interest in The Dots over the last year makes it seem like a good moment to resurrect this well received Anthology – although it documents the band throughout their mid-period in the 90s,stopping in 1995.  The cd version is becoming scarce however. We managed to score 20 copies from the small box of remains!

Review

With a title taken from the Spanish version of the band’s motto — “sing while you may” — Canta Miedras Puedas is a useful enough single-disc compilation of the Legendary Pink Dots’ work in the first half of the ’90s. Those who have all the releases in question which were culled for Canta won’t need this unless they’re a hyper-completist — there are only two relative rarities on the disc, both remixed versions of From Here You’ll Watch the World Go By cuts. However, if one is a newcomer to the work of LPD, this is really an excellent place to start. Three of the band’s stone-cold classics are on here — the absolutely gorgeous acoustic-guitar led “Belladonna” and “I Love You in Your Tragic Beauty,” which makes an amazing one-two punch for the album’s start, and the swirling boulevardier swing of “Princess Coldheart” with its memorable keyboard melody and anthemic conclusion. Other cuts from The Maria Dimension and The Crushed Velvet Apocalypse crop up, while Shadow Weaver, Malachai, and Chemical Playschool 8 + 9 are represented by one song each. Two choices from 9 Lives to Wonder round out the release. -Ned Raggett, Allmusic.com

THE LEGENDARY PINK DOTS

<< back to the Combined Discography

Release date and tracklist

1989
IT 12″ Materiali Sonori MASO 7009

side a

1. Puppets Apocalypse
2. Poppy Day
3. A Lust For Powder

side b

1. Only When I Laugh
2. La Cazza Nova
3. Lyriex

***
Greetings 9 + Premonition 11 / It’s Raining in Heaven
1991
IT CD Materiali Sonori MASO CD 90029

1996
US CD Soleilmoon SOL43  (alternate image)

1. Puppets Apocalypse
2. Poppy Day
3. A Lust For Powder
4. Only When I Laugh
5. La Cazza Nova
6. Lyriex
7. Premonition 11

07 March 2013
NL Remastered MP3 self-released on Bandcamp

1. Puppets Apocalypse / Poppy Day / A Lust For Powder
2. Only When I Laugh
3. La Cazza Nova
4. Lyriex
5. Premonition 11 (full length version)

Credits

• Edward Ka-Spel – voice, keyboards, electronix
• The Silver Man – keyboards, samples, loops
• Patrick Q-Wright – violins, keyboards, drum programming
• Hanz Myre – sax, flute, sound processing

 Notes

LP:
Side a recorded live at The Ubu Club, Rennes, France in Feb/88
Side b are studio tracks recorded August, 1988.
The vinyl edition was released in two slightly different covers (alternate image).

CD:
The first part of the CD bonus track “Premonition 11″ is the original 1982 recording (taken from PREMONITION 11 7”) and the second part was recorded in 1988, but they’ve been sequenced together to make it appear as one track.
The CD edition was reissued in 1996 under the title IT’S RAINING IN HEAVEN.

MP3 (from Bandcamp):
Sometimes this remastering project produces a flush of embarassment. History can be unforgiving and it’s painful to be presented with your own grotesque mistakes from the past.
The bonus track for this cd was such a lapse of judgement. Why, oh why, did I take a fine piece like Premonition 11 and EXTEND it with sections from another (later) era of the Dots? In fact the tail end of this piece comes from Maria Dimension sessions. WHAT WAS I THINKING?

No excuses here, I take the blame fully…

Greetings 9 (later reissued as “It’s Raining in Heaven”) was the ninth episode in a series by the Italian label Materiali Sonori.
The bands and artists that played in their annual festivals in the small Italian village of San Giovanni Valdarno were asked to make an album. Such was the kind atmosphere of the occasion and the gentle nature of the people running the label that we were delighted to accept the invitation.
Live pieces are from a famous performance by the Dots in the Ubu Club in Rennes in 1988.

Shockingly three members of the Dots quit after that long tour, and violin player Patrick left a little later flowing the recording of “The Golden Age”.

The Dots were a 2 piece band (EK and The Silverman) for the 3 studio tracks that formed the original side “B” of this album.
The original “Prem 11″ was one side of a 7” single / booker (Dsordne were on the flip) issued by Snowdonia in 1987. -EK

Lyrics

Only When I Laugh

She waved the red flag. Someone charged — head down. They had to cut me from the wire — shrouded — red rosettes. She stood there laughing as they tied me to the bed, and sped me off to casuality ward 33. No coffee, no cigarettes, no cozy chats with white coat zombies mumbling through the masks of poking plastic tubes. They sewed my mouth together. I couldn’t move, but still I whistle in the dark, and you come running, laughing, armed with red carnations, fleshy grapes that you can wave before my face and eat so slowly. Oh, you always had good taste, and now you’re wearing yellow. That’s my favorite. Touch my hair, and listen hard because I’ll purr. That’s how I show affection now, you know. Love hurts, but I’d do anything for you. Anything for you. Anything. And Everything.

La Cazza Nova

On the streets again, we’re [???] again, we could grow, and when the sun goes down, people meet again, never meet again, take our chances in another town. No, we never change, never come of age; guess that’s just the way the world goes ’round. [repeats last line until the end]

Lyriex

Forever, forever, forever.

Premonition 11

We checked out where the market square once stood. My god, there’s just a hole. It’s choking wreck to wreck, truck to truck, the bumpers bumping, sirens scream, but mothing seems to move, the collar’s open, sweat jets running down the windows, elbows pressed upon the horns. No one’s going anywhere at all.(x2) It’s not a place for me and my canary Paul. Please me, pretty, pretty please me.[repeat last line until the end]