THE LEGENDARY PINK DOTS

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Release date and tracklist

September 2013
DVD-r  self released on Trademark of Quantity/Bandcamp

1. God and Machines
2. Casting the Runes
3. A Stretch in Time
4. Poppy Day
5. Rainbows Too
6. Salem
7. Ash and Sand
8. Echo Police
9. New Tomorrow
10. Radiation Day
11. Blacklist
12. Isis Veiled
13. The More it Changes
14. Cubic Caesar
15. Curious Guy

August 9, 2016
NL MP3 self-released on Bandcamp

1. Introduction / Casting The Runes / A Stitch In Time
2. Poppy Day / Rainbows Too?
3. Salem / Ash & Sand
4. Echo Police
5. New Tomorrow
6. Radiation Day
7. Black List
8. Isis Veiled
9. The More It Changes
10. Cubic Caesar
11. Curiously Unplugged Guy

Credits

• Edward Ka-Spel- vocals, keyboards
• Phil Knight- keyboards
• Erik Drost- guitars
• Patrick Q. Wright- Violins
• Raymond Steeg- live sound engineer and cameras

Notes

DVD– Recorded in Tel Aviv on June 7, 2013. Track 1 is mis-spelled “God And Mashines” and track 2 is mis-spelled “Casting The Ruins” on the rear cover.

Private release of LPDs’ somewhat historic show in Tel Aviv in June where The Dots’ violinist from the 80s, Patrick Paganini, was a special guest. A 2-camera recording and sound from the mixing desk makes this document truly home-made, but nonetheless very worthy of your attention. -E. K-S.

Bandcamp MP3 release– Always pacing the thin line that divides blissful ascension with a fall from a great height, The Dots’ return to Tel Aviv’s Barby Club in 2013 was a nerve-shredding adventure. The Promoter’s concept was a reunion of the present line-up with former Pink Dot but ever-present friend Patrick Q. Wright and the resurrection of a long list of songs from the 80s. We liked the first part of the idea, but Pink Dots’ Karaoke rankled more than a bit.  Consequently we settled upon just a precious few nuggets from the past.

Even so, the biggest problem was REHEARSAL. Pat lives in Italy, and schedules just wouldn’t allow us all to be in the same room before stepping off the plane.

Consequently files flew through cyberspace and practising was a lonesome experience.
While there were mistakes (plenty), the sheer exuberance of the audience carried us through to the point where we agreed to a Promoter on his knees pleading with us to play “Curious Guy” as a second encore although we hadn’t rehearsed that one AT ALL.

An exciting little chapter in our bizarre existence and no regrets at all.  This release is Stage 2 in our efforts to raise funds for the Dots’ Page Aquarian Tour in September / October.  A BIG BIG Thank you to Ray Steeg for preparing this much requested master recording.

THE LEGENDARY PINK DOTS

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Release date and tracklist

July 29, 2013
MP3 self-released on Bandcamp

1. 10.10.1985

One continuous track includes: Intro, The Heretic, MMMMMMMMMMM, City Ghosts, Julia singing to what sounds a lot like the arrangement for Premonition 16, ‘I’m the Way, the Truth, the Light’, The Plague, Demonism, Love in a Plain Brown Envelope

Credits

• Edward Ka-Spel
• Patrick Q
• The Silverman
• Graham Whitehead
• Julia Waller
• Stret Majest Alarme
• Hans Meyer (sound)

Notes

1985 and suddenly it all felt so serious…”Pandora’s Music Box” was a high profile festival in Rotterdam. There were serviettes in the dressing room, the sound system was ‘state of the art’, we were NERVOUS. In reality the performance was decent but oddly LPDs seem to benefit from quirks and faults in the PA. This system was faultless. Line-up for the Dots included Julia Waller who joined from old friends, Attrition, and highlights of the show could well be her 2 vocal pieces on “Femme mirage” and “Love in a Plain Brown Envelope”

!! Be aware this recording omits final song “Flowers for the Silverman” as the tape was sadly damaged.!! -E. K-S.

THE LEGENDARY PINK DOTS

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Release date and tracklist

July 4, 2013
MP3  self released on Bandcamp

1. Part One
2. Part Two
3. Part Three

Credits

• Edward Ka-Spel
• The Silverman
• Patrick Q. Wright
• Stret Majest Alarme
• Jason Salmon
• Graham Whitehead
• Hans Meyer

Notes 

Part one includes: Intro (Message from our Sponsor), The Heretic, Jewel in the Crown, Premonition 16, I’m the Way, the Truth, the Light

Part two includes:  The Hill, This Could be the End, Echo Police, Poppy Day, The Dairy, Curious Guy, (tower instrumental interlude), Neon Gladiators,

Part three includes: The Plague, Flowers for the Silverman

***

THE LEGENDARY PINK DOTS

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Release date and tracklist

June 25, 2013
CD/MP3 MET 872 Metropolis

NL MP3 released on Bandcamp

1. A Star is Born
2. The Garden of Ealing
3. Esher Everywhere
4. Pendulum
5. Grey Scale
6. A Stretch in Time
7. One More Dimension

Credits

• Edward Ka-Spel- voice, keyboards
• Phil Knight- keyboards, effects
• Eric Drost- guitars, bass guitar
• Raymond Steeg- sonix

Press Release

The band’s debut for Metropolis Records, entitled The Gethsemane Option, is a seven song, hour long exploration in textural ambience and rock experimentalism. Featuring Ka-Spel’s distinctive vocals and lyrical imagery blended with hypnotic guitar and synth washes and spellbinding bass pulses, The Gethsamane Option is a musical laudanum induced fever dream. An enthralling, captivating release.  –Metropolis

Review

It’s hard to write about The Legendary Pink Dots. It’s hard on one level because they make music which tends to bypass the analytical centres of the brain and go straight for the bits that experience stuff. It’s hard in the same way that describing your dreams is hard, or trying to build a model of St Paul’s Cathedral from soup. But I’ll give it a shot, given that there’s a new album out.

Over thirty-three years and more than forty albums, the Dots have followed a pretty singular vision throughout a multitude of genres, at times as comfortable alongside Front 242 as they are alongside Syd Barrett at others. They’ve been as cosmic as Hawkwind and as intimate as Nick Drake, occasionally both at the same time. They can be as dark as Skinny Puppy (with the collaborations to show for it) or as light and fluffy as… as… I dunno, some kind of space trifle. Again, occasionally both at the same time. They can get menace from beauty, and draw out awesome from the mundane. They’re pretty ace, in other words.

Their latest offering, The Gethsemane Option, is pretty stripped-down for the Dots, although even that’s still fairly expansive and epic. For such an internationally-focused band, there’s an Englishness about this one, as illustrated by a couple of track titles. And never let it be said that Edward Ka-Spel’s genius with words or sense of the vast and contemplative has in any way lessened his completely human and entirely understandable love of a terrible pun. There’s “The Garden Of Ealing,” and then on top of that there’s “Esher Everywhere,” with its echoes of Roky Eriksson (and to a lesser extent Julian Cope), and it’s on this latter number that he turns his ire on the very deserving and very British bogeyman du jour, David Cameron. “We’re all in this together, in a place that we can share; A big society, let’s call it Esher Everywhere”. It’s the bullshit Tory dream reimagined (or perhaps a better choice of words would be “accurately described”) as a Ballardian nightmare. It’s the domestic Apocalypse, Armaggedon with a perfect lawn and access to the best schools, suburbia as a new map of Hell.

And all this takes place at the more electronic end of the Dots’ spectrum. Opener “A Star Is Born” continues the long-standing Dots tradition of starting big, and introducing an album with an epic. “This is holy magick” he repeats over the crescendo, all glitch, hiss and black hole synths. And here’s the reality, the cold hard fact of real life beyond the manicured lawns, the “shabby flat in Nowhere Town”, the “cruel, cruel world”. It’s the kind of thing most bands would have the decency to build up to, really, but the Dots credit you with the fortitude to handle this level of intensity straight off the bat. It’s flattering, and frightening.

The aforementioned “The Garden Of Ealing” opens with loops and samples that recall Throbbing Gristle, suggesting menace without actually letting on just what it is we’re being menaced by, which is always a good trick. But it’s not all excoriation and viscera. Underneath it all Edward’s still the baffled genius we’ve come to know and love over the years. Right from the opening line of “One More Dimension,” which closes the album, “Forgive my interference, there’s spirits on the line,” and the looping, mantric bassline, it’s apparent that the Dots are still perhaps the band most talented at exploring the space inside the listener’s head.

If you’re a fan, then they’ve done nothing to disappoint here; they’re still consolidating and expanding their unique sound. And if you’ve never really dipped your toes into their pool of awesome, then this is as good a place as any to take a dive.

-Justin Farrington-
freq.org.uk

Lyrics

A Star is Born
A precious star was born tonight despite our preconceptions….

THE LEGENDARY PINK DOTS
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Release date and tracklist

March 14, 2013

CDR / MP3  private release on Bandcamp

1. Dark Entry
2. The Way I Feel Today (version)
3. Unrest
4. Diary 12th
5. Coming in Waves
6. It’s the Real Thin (version 1)
7. The Loudest You can do
8. The Brightest Star Over Bremen

Credits

• Martin De Kleer- guitar, violin
• Niels van Hoorn- sax, wind instruments
• Edward Ka-Spel- voice keyboards
• The Silverman- keyboards
• Raymond Steeg- sound

Notes

A strong collection of demos and extras from the recordings of “All the King’s Horses” and “King’s Men” albums in 2001. -Edward Ka-Spel

THE LEGENDARY PINK DOTS

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Release date and tracklist

March 14, 2013
CDR / MP3    private release on Bandcamp

1. Thunderland + True Love Waits
2. Shiver me Timbres
3. Engletje
4. Jah Tension
5. The Cruel Sea
6. The Lounge
7. Session 55
8. Half a Minute
9. Adrenalin

Credits

• The Prophet Qa’Sepel
• The Silverman
• Stret Majest Alarme
• Graham Whitehead
• Patrick Q
• Jason

Notes

Before “Any Day Now” was recorded back in 1987, the Dots enjoyed a memorable afternoon of fine food, fine wine and a fine sound system revealing a plethora of ideas, sketches and jams captured on a pile of cassettes.  As evening crept in votes were cast for what would be developed into a fully fledged album. ADN Secrets is one of those cassettes, cleaned-up a little, and surely for completists- but a priceless peek into LPDs working methods at that time. -E. K-S.