The Legendary Pink Dots – Under Triple Moons

Collecting many songs from four of their earliest cassette-only limited releases (“Premonition”, “Chemical Playschool 1/2”, “Kleine Krieg”, and “Traumstadt 2”), this collection is an entertaining collection of early synth-pop, presented through the highly individualized and charismatic musical vision of Edward Ka-Spel, the Silverman, and their many companions. I was first introduced to this group by the now-defunct music service Audiogalaxy, which mainly served as a gigantic indie music bazaar promoting underground and/or sub-genre phenomena. Having earlier bought their album “The Whispering Wall” years earlier, I recently discovered upon this 1997 release.

One of the most immediate realities one experiences when first listens to this album is that, while a disclaimer is inserted into the linear notes “that all pieces were recorded on primitive equipment…Do not expect digital bliss, sensurround…”, it must be noted that, while indeed sounding a bit dated when compared with later work by themselves and others, these recordings have fared the ravages of time much better than other albums and bands recording during this time (this is partially due to the excellent re-mastering by ROIR Records). Furthermore, while the band seems to apologize for the ‘primitive’ nature of their equipment, it in no way detracts from the well-crafted structure of the songs, as well as the minute attention given towards the production.

Roughly half of the album consists of the majority of the “Premonition” release, thus most of the songs segue into each other seamlessly. Most of the songs consist of multiple keyboard rhythms, along with various treated samples swimming around Edward Ka-Spel’s monotone (yet strangely musical) vocals (on occasion accompanied by heavily vocoded vocals that are usually unintelligible). Drum beats, when they are even present on the song, perform their function perfectly without being overly noticeable or noteworthy. “Splash” is a mellow account of a night of public drunkenness, while the oddly named “Dying For The Emperor” is an upbeat song featuring spacey synth lines (and the classic chorus “We’ve gotta destroy the aliens, gotta destroy the aliens”). “Oceans Of Emotion” has more in the way of an actual song progression (as opposed to layered keyboard rhythms), with a prominent and slightly groovy bass and drum backbone. Halfway through the album is the album standout “Premonition 2”. Beginning with lethargic keyboard chords, it soon shifts to an awesome acoustic guitar passage amidst a backdrop of compelling news samples, dating from the conflict in Northern Ireland, in which the Protestant leader (possibly of the IRA) addresses an unknown audience of their conviction in their beliefs. Truly inspirational. Meanwhile, “Frosty” is a synth-psych freak-out about a paranoid kid who hides himself from the world in…the refrigerator. “A Lust For Powder [Version Apocalypse]” hides within it’s already strange sounding interior a veritable mishmash of cut-up samples, bargain store keyboard stabs, and cheap drums placed at random. The song will sometimes dangle a hint of organization for a few precious seconds, only to dash your hopes to the ground as different and new elements arise out of the seemingly endless stream of them (the many different choirs procured is quite impressive).

In short, Edward Ka-Spel has enough stories in this one collection alone to fill several books. He and his group succeeded in portraying a palatable sense of paranoia fueled by psychedelic experiences, illustrated aurally by well-constructed synth-pop. While the age of the recordings is still very apparent, it has retained it’s integrity throughout the years (something that cannot be said for the majority of 80’s synth-pop musicians…*cough, Gary Numan, cough*). For those new to The Legendary Pink Dots, and their extremely unique and diverse brand of music, I would recommend that you first purchase one of their more recent albums (such as the very good “The Whispering Wall”, which I bought way back in 2004) or the “best of” collection “Canta Mientras Puedas”. If you are familiar with the Dots, though, then this should serve as an excellent window into their earliest years of existence. Their signature trademarks, which would be radically explored and expanded upon with future releases, can be seen in very powerful form in their songs created by “primitive equipment”.

The linear notes end on a positive note, stating that “…brain damage is guaranteed”. Thankfully, it is the good kind (if such a thing exists).

“Sing While You May”

Ancient Daze: Wonderful re-release of wonderful music
by Freek Kinkelaar

In 1980 the Legendary Pink Dots released their debut, cassette-only album, Only Dreaming. A grand total of nine copies were made and given to friends. In the 90s, bits and pieces of the tape were released on CD but now, 26 years after the initial release, we get the full monty.

Carefully remastered and sounding fresh and crisp, this release is full of reversed loops, tapes and soundscapes mixed into catchy songs that illustrate the Dots’ unique, versatile and very English blend of psych-pop experimentation. Dots mainstays such as Voices, Break Day, Violence and Phallus Dei are featured here in their earliest known versions. As a bonus, several tracks from Chemical Playschool 1+2 (another 80s tape release) and three previously unreleased tracks have been added. Even though the Dots’ sound (and line-up) has changed considerably over the years, this is where it all began. After 26 years, these recordings have lost nothing of their originality and spark. Essential.

5 stars 5 stars 5 stars 5 stars 5 stars

****

Beta Lactam-Ring | MT 120

Artist: Legendary Pink Dots

Album: Your Children Placate You from Premature Graves

Label: ROIR

Review date: Jan. 12, 2007

The Dots’ music is as difficult to describe as it is enjoyable and moving to hear. Yes, they thrive on psychedelic industrogroove dabbed and fringed with experimentation; yes, the irrepressible Edward Kah-spell’s lyrics can be dark, mystical, deeply and hauntingly personal in detailing the most intimate moments and the emotions underpinning them. None of this speaks to the stark simplicity that defines the band’s 25-year legacy. No matter how intricate or complex the sound world gets at any moment, a few scraps of melody keeps everything grounded, a repeated rhythm anchors two or three broken chords. The Residents achieved this. It was also a Kraftwerk trademark. But the Dots have now taken the aesthetic to the next level.

Your Children Placate You from Premature Graves is the group’s 25th anniversary album, and it certainly captures all the weirdness, darkness and playfulness that have graced its daunting discography. Yet, there is a refinement of texture and sound manipulation evident here that I only appreciated fully after experiencing the disc on headphones. “Stigmata Part 4” bubbles with life far below the surface, distant voices and other nameless things coloring the spaces between chords and Kah-spell’s dangerously compassionate whispers. “A Silver Thread” is all repetitive sub-bass muscle against slithery saxophone, the two components threatening to tear each other apart as the musique concrete ventures of earlier albums become more integral parts of the song structures.

Lyrically, strides have also been made; themes from the 9/11-inspired king’s horses/king’s men diptych resurface in “Don’t Get Me Wrong,” where the dual perspectives of a foreigner and what might be a Guantanamo Bay prisoner are filtered through vaguely but appropriately “ethnic” sound sculpture. Kah-spell, always erring on the bizarrely aphoristic side, outdoes himself with the disc’s opening line: “Jesus loves the little children, even when they torch the cat.” Then though, there is the hypnotic and heartbreaking “Bad Hair”:

Will you stand next to me,
Will you cast nets for me,
Flying through space,
Or falling from grace, …

Similarly far-reaching and personally simplistic lines pervade the track, all set against a lush but transparent multi-pulse of guitars and subtle electronics.

If this is not the Dots’ best album, it’s in my top five, and that’s no mean feat for a group that has released consistently interesting and provocative material over the last 25 years. Here’s to 25 more.

By Marc Medwin

CD Review
Legendary Pink Dots – “Your Children Placate You From Premature Graves”
By Marcus Pan

Legendary Pink Dots, active since 1980, are a band that defies explanation. Their compositions are strange, weird…folk like, experimental and daring. As they embark on their 25th anniversary tour this year, which will include the return of Martijn de Kleer, their latest release, Your Children Placate You From Premature Graves, is disturbing and dark and echoes the state of the planet that, if you ask me, is on the very brink of disaster.

Using elemental electronics with loping movements of bass and rhythm, combining that with nightmarish spoken vocals and the occasional stabs of horns, No Matter What You Do on track two takes us further into a desperate nightmare. Stigmata (Part 4) gives us a light tinkling piano tune, a breather from the previous darker edge. The light, chanting reading is touched with desperation, but never strays too far into the murky depths, staying on the very cliff of sanity looking off into the abyss of madness.

Feathers at Dawn is a cute little tune with flamenco, Spanish influenced guitar and light male vocals. Its hoppy style at its onset and within is almost cute inside the surrounding album. Please Don’t Get Me Wrong is a party in a Tupperware factory with Ali Baba as the chief guest. The Island of Our Dreams is surprisingly sweet, but the backing electronic dirges sets a stage of weirdness just beyond the otherwise nicey nice vocals and guitar.

Songs like Bad Hair are similar, in that the Dots tread on the waters of insanity but never deluge you. The Made Man’s Manifesto has a vocal quality that is kind of leery and strange, but somehow inviting. Nearly done now, A Silver Thread is a foreboding horn and wind ensemble, jazzlike.

The Legendary Pink Dots have always astounded people with their weirdness. Compared to everything from Skinny Puppy to Coil, They Might Be Giants and more, their folk influence is apparent but they’ll mix in surprising electronics, unexpected experiments and interesting bits of out of place sounds. For anyone looking for something a little more strange for their nightly candlelight vigils, Your Children Placate You From Premature Graves will fit that bill brilliantly.

(The date of this review is unknown.)

LEGENDARY PINK DOTS – YOUR CHILDREN PLACATE YOU FROM PREMATURE GRAVES (CD by Roir)

LEGENDARY PINK DOTS – ALCHEMICAL PLAYSCHOOL (CD by Caciocavallo)

Two brand-new Dots CD releases in Vital this week. The first one, Your Children Placate You From Premature Graves, is the official new studio album. An almost traditional package of poppy songs, ballads and ambient pieces, it also marks the return of former Dots-guitarist Martijn de Kleer. At times the music steers close to Pink Floyd (for instance on ‘The Island Of Our Dreams’) and gets away with it. The plodding semi-krautrock of ‘No Matter What You Do’ however does not work. The album’s highlights are the beautifully restrained and sensitive pieces such as ‘Stigmata Part 4’, ‘Bad Hair’, ‘A Silver Thread and Your Time Is Up’. Is it on songs like these that the Dots show their true class. With sparse instrumentation, the music is able to breathe and develop leaving plenty of room for Edward’s word play and poems. Here the saxophones (if any) are non-obtrusive and constructive. More song-based than 2005’s Poppy Variations album, this album-with-the-weird-title will certainly please the vast ranks of Pink Dots fanatics.

Alchemical Playschool is an altogether different beast. It comes packed in a beautiful trident-carved soapstone box that weighs a ton. Here the Dots-core of Edward Kaspel and Phil Knight rework environmental sound-material recorded in India (by Charles Powne of Soleilmoon records, the original recordings are available on CD as Indian Soundscapes). In doing so the Dots create a beautiful dreamscape. The four long tracks (parts one to four) evoke scenes of the East with street sounds, crowd noises, voices and field recordings drifting in and out. At times the results are pastoral and on other occasions downright hectic – just as you’d imagine India to sound like. Part Four, with its beautiful voice sample and washes of sound, forms the highlight of this fascinating album. Alchemical Playschool is welcome proof that the Dots are still willing and able to create exiting experimental music. While Your Children Placate might be the easier album to digest, it is Alchemical Playschool that is the moral winner here. (FdW)

(The date of this review is unknown.)

by François Couture

More cohesive than Island of Jewels and more streamlined than Asylum, Any Day Now stands as one of the Legendary Pink Dots’ best albums of the ’80s, ex aequo with The Tower. There is no specific unifying theme this time, although alienation and estrangement seem to permeate the whole project. The Dots’ keyboard patches were starting to get old by 1988, but in retrospect, this gives the album a vaguely retro charm. Edward Ka-Spel is in top songwriting shape, with “Casting the Runes,” “A Strychnine Kiss” and “Neon Mariners” standing out as particularly catchy songs. The latter is especially haunting, thanks to careful arrangements and one of Ka-Spel‘s trademark vocal deliveries. Any Day Now is noteworthy for its lack of long experimental tracks, which (without unfairly diminishing the artistic interest of such efforts) makes the album somewhat more accessible to newcomers. The only extended track is the ten-minute “Waiting for the Cloud,” but it is through-written, with the song proper in the first half (and a strong one at that), followed by an instrumental development that showcases why the Dots were often perceived as the unlikely link between prog rock and industrial, and a final recap of the song. Patrick White‘s violin is mixed somewhat higher on this album, giving more presence to his elegant lines. The original Bias release consisted of nine tracks (ending with “Cloud Zero”). Subsequent reissues added the complete Under Glass EP released the same year, a set of three weaker and somewhat more mainstream songs, including some slap bass in “The Plasma Twins” and an arena rock-like double solo of violin and electric guitar at the end of “The Light in My Little Girl’s Eyes.”

(The date of this review is unknown.)