The Durutti Column - Obey The Time - Factory Benelux - CD box / RSD vinyl
Originally issued on Factory some 28 years ago, Obey The Time is something of a critical blip in Durutti Column's catalogue. Fusing acid-house, ambient and dub and not so much of Reilly's trademark guitars (or co-performing regular Bruce Mitchell's drumming, for that matter), OTT was somewhat maligned by a few critics upon its release in 1990 and remains a rank outsider when favourite DC albums are compiled. It is certainly different to what followed before, if only because it is more machine than guitar.
It's had a reissue once before - London promoted a Factory Once series of Durutti releases during the late '90s - but nothing as elaborate as this remastered triple-disc set (double for vinyl heads). Finally justice has been done.
Disc one gathers up the original album and a handful of not-dissimilar extras (there are over 20 unreleased tracks across this box-set). Obey The Time itself is an absorbing combination of fractured guitar loops, synthesized beats (save for Art and Freight, drummed by Mitchell) and atmospherics that fuses perfectly together to make up forty minutes of post-clubbing pre-comedown 'acid-guitar' instrumentals. As with previous DC releases, the processed beats are somewhat wonderful off-kilter - The Warmest Rain contains the same powerful 'drummatics' as Dance II from Circuses and Bread and Bordeaux Sequence from Guitar and Other Machines while Spanish Reggae is woozy spaced-out dub atmospherics. The beautiful Home remains one of Vini Reilly's most enviable and lachrymose recordings, more Cafe del Didsbury than Ibiza sundown though. Things even get junglist massive on Kiss of Def with its thunderous bassline and relentless beats.
Disc two includes material previously assembled for the Materiali Sonori albums Dry and Red Shoes, rare 'giveaways' from magazines and other unreleased or long-term out-of-print selections including an extended take on early track Madeleine and a reworking of My Country.
On disc three there is concert gold in the form of the band's live showing in Manchester in 1990, recorded during the height of Madchester and aciieed. Just one Obey The Time track gets an airing, the elegiac Home. Elsewhere, most of the recording comprises pin-sharp renditions of earlier fan favourites Jacqueline, Finding The Sea and The Missing Boy. The interplay between Reilly and Mitchell is exemplary on Jacqueline - the guitar and Mitchell the machine.
As well as a triple-CD clamshell box-set, there's a limited vinyl edition for Record Store Day.
9/10
It's had a reissue once before - London promoted a Factory Once series of Durutti releases during the late '90s - but nothing as elaborate as this remastered triple-disc set (double for vinyl heads). Finally justice has been done.
Disc one gathers up the original album and a handful of not-dissimilar extras (there are over 20 unreleased tracks across this box-set). Obey The Time itself is an absorbing combination of fractured guitar loops, synthesized beats (save for Art and Freight, drummed by Mitchell) and atmospherics that fuses perfectly together to make up forty minutes of post-clubbing pre-comedown 'acid-guitar' instrumentals. As with previous DC releases, the processed beats are somewhat wonderful off-kilter - The Warmest Rain contains the same powerful 'drummatics' as Dance II from Circuses and Bread and Bordeaux Sequence from Guitar and Other Machines while Spanish Reggae is woozy spaced-out dub atmospherics. The beautiful Home remains one of Vini Reilly's most enviable and lachrymose recordings, more Cafe del Didsbury than Ibiza sundown though. Things even get junglist massive on Kiss of Def with its thunderous bassline and relentless beats.
Disc two includes material previously assembled for the Materiali Sonori albums Dry and Red Shoes, rare 'giveaways' from magazines and other unreleased or long-term out-of-print selections including an extended take on early track Madeleine and a reworking of My Country.
On disc three there is concert gold in the form of the band's live showing in Manchester in 1990, recorded during the height of Madchester and aciieed. Just one Obey The Time track gets an airing, the elegiac Home. Elsewhere, most of the recording comprises pin-sharp renditions of earlier fan favourites Jacqueline, Finding The Sea and The Missing Boy. The interplay between Reilly and Mitchell is exemplary on Jacqueline - the guitar and Mitchell the machine.
As well as a triple-CD clamshell box-set, there's a limited vinyl edition for Record Store Day.
9/10