The Durutti Column - Sex and Death RE - dLP/dCD - Factory Benelux
After the collapse of his beloved Factory Records in 1992, founder Tony Wilson wasn't going to let a small trifling inconvenience of a few million quid debt get him down or hold him back, hence the introduction of follow-up imprint Factory Too. At least Wilson's favourite guitarist Vini Reilly had a new home for a couple of albums, 1994's Sex and Death being the first (and best).
Produced with Stephen Street (The Guitar and Other Machines, Vini Reilly, Morrissey etc), written with stalwart drummer Bruce Mitchell and featuring a clutch of impressive musicians such as Peter Hook, John Metcalfe, Martin Jackson and singer Ruth-Ann Boyle (Olive, Enigma), Sex and Death ably demonstrates Reilly's own enviable guitar acrobatics and deft arrangment skills and then some.
Tony's friendship and belief in Vini and Bruce's art is rewarded with the opening hommage track Anthony, a mercurial little vignette that typifies the mood of the other more ethereal offerings such as For Colette with its pebble-skimming electronics, the slightly mournful strings and piano-driven snapshot Madre Mio and the languid birdsong-laced My Irascible Friend.
As with many DC albums, the smooth is counterbalanced by a handful of rather more powerful and bullish songs. Mitchell's soft shoe-shuffle drums have rarely sounded so crystal-clear and razor-sharp throughout, particularly on The Next Time, The Rest Of My Life and Beautiful Lies, the latter of which uses a few familiar Reilly motifs and melodies throughout, as well as Boyle's honeyed tonsils. In a just world, the last two aforementioned tracks would have been on radio on the hour every hour.
Two tracks quietly tucked away towards the end of this enthralling set are perhaps the most impressive for differing reasons. Fado bears all the Durutti Column hallmarks - faultless Mitchell drumming, huge Reilly riffs and rhythmics, eerie and emotional real-time and sampled voices and a portentous rumbling of bass drum and bass guitar under the surface. And then there's the fuzzier bluesier Blue Period which is as melancholic and lustrous as it is simple, recalling some of Reilly's Portugal/Pauline moods.
An album this superb deserves its bonuses and Factory Benelux don't let us down. Demo, outtakes and alternative takes make up the second disc, including two interesting re-readings of album-track Believe In Me, a couple of neo-folk anthems with Rob Gray and a reverb drenched jam curiously entitled Picking Guitar for the Shrimp.
And that's the beauty of The Durutti Column's progress through the '90s. One minute Vini Reilly is stroking our brows with Paco Pena or Django Reinhardt noodlings, the next he's giving us all a thorough sounding out a la Robert Fripp, Lee Ranaldo or Glenn Philips. From Hot Club de Didsbury to the Court of the Crumpsall King and back again?
Regardless of any extras, just seeing Sex and Death back on the release schedules again is pleasing as it rates as one of Reilly and Mitchell's most satisfying and consistent post-Factory albums.
The vinyl edition appeared in May 2021. A double vinyl set with a superb gatefold, this is the first time S&D has appeared on record since it's release.
9/10