Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

The Durutti Column

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    The Durutti Column

    Despite them being from "my era" (mainly 80s) I have only recently found how much I love their sound. Especially these tracks:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z--mcTEWXvA&list=PLJ9opw6KJbENgiCCxc0oIL7IJRVD6wIbA&i ndex=22

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3VaEyUyHVk&index=75&list=PLJ9opw6KJbENgiC Cxc0oIL7IJRVD6wIbA

    Perhaps I had to reach a certain age? I certainly detect their influence in the Cocteau Twins and maybe the 90s ambient scene.

    #2
    The Durutti Column

    The fannies couldn't even spell Durruti.

    Comment


      #3
      The Durutti Column

      I love The Durutti Column and took delivery of the new box set version of the Domo Arigato live album quite recently.

      The best stuff is on the seven studio albums that originally came out on Factory, plus Short Stories For Pauline or one of the earlier compilations that gathered up that material. There's quite a variation in style through the '80s albums, some having a plusher production and/or more electronics than others, but Vini's guitar is consistently great and his vocals are, erm, consistent.

      It is very incongruous when they come in on the soundtrack to Jerry Maguire.

      Although the later albums were a bit patchy/for the diehards, they (essentially Vini, the mighty Bruce Mitchell and Keir Stewart) were an engaging live prospect until the turn of this decade. Sadly, Vini's health problems make a return seem like a remote prospect although it would be great to see them again. I once dragged Mrs Benjm off to Windsor for the weekend, basically to see them, which ranks high in the annals of not so rock'n'roll road trips.

      They are probably due a revival.

      Comment


        #4
        The Durutti Column

        No clue...only that they get mentioned alongside Joy Division quite often.

        Comment


          #5
          The Durutti Column

          Of the albums I have heard all the way through, I thought Without Mercy and Vini Reilly were among the best albums of that decade by anybody, truly awesome in how they arrange piano, viola, trumpet and operatic vocals around Vini's guitar shapes.

          I am still working up to the 2000s stuff, but thus far I think this later track (2008) is amazing:

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqNo7J3MHQQ

          And this is the kind of stuff Morrissey could have been doing these days, if he had a tenth of Reilly's desire to realize his talent:

          https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAyzvpB7fvY

          Comment


            #6
            The Durutti Column

            I thought this was going to be about Simone Weil . . .

            Comment


              #7
              The Durutti Column

              Different spelling (see post #2)

              Comment


                #8
                The Durutti Column

                Vini's last album of wholly new material (to date), the tribute to Wilson, is very patchy but has this immense track:

                https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xL5C7y-B5YE&list=PLIIvAoxPul_tEpQNlp3fExaSDUcfzNHFr&index =7

                Comment


                  #9
                  The Durutti Column

                  I've been engrossed in their sound several hours a day for over a month now and would say that there is a a very good album in very five year period, but the very best are LC (1981), Short Stories for Pauline (1983, belatedly released 2012), Without Mercy (1984), Vini Reilly (1989) and Sunlight To Blue...Blue To Blackness (2008). But this music is so personal that each listener has to find their own path through it. In my case, the path feels immensely rewarding.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    The Durutti Column

                    Conduct sounds like a bright summer day in 1970s Manchester before the tune turns and storm clouds start gathering over the Hulme Crescents. It's brilliant.

                    I've only got a Best Of but I'll need to remedy that soon. I also have a signed setlist from when I saw them do a charity gig at the Hard Rock Cafe in Manchester in 2007. Bruce signed it first and I asked if he could ask Vini to sign it. "Can you sign this for this hotshot here?" the drummer asked the guitarist.

                    Being called a 'hotshot' by Bruce Mitchell remains a high point.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      The Durutti Column

                      I think Vini was reaching a new peak just before his first stroke, because his last two albums are both crackers and would be career defining for any other act.

                      btw I think it's criminal that Vini does not get credits and royalties for Morrissey's "Viva Hate" (AFAIK), which is really a joint collaboration as per Morrissey-Marr. Not like Mozza to rip off his musical partners **cough**

                      Does anyone know if there are any long interviews with Bruce Mitchell available anywhere? I have not found any.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        The Durutti Column

                        I've got the double CD compilation too, bought when it came out maybe 10-12 years ago because I had a single track on a compilation tape somewhere that I liked, and always felt that I'd missed out. It's wonderful, and every time I put it on if people are round then someone asks me who it is and notes down the name.

                        He and A Certain Ratio seemed to get the piss taken out of them something rotten in the shambolic '24 Hour Party People', though I assume Vini wasn't that bothered as he made a cameo appearance in the film at some point, I think. And maybe it was like that in the Factory scene, that no one seemed to take themselves very seriously, despite the gloom and cemetery image of Joy Division. Can't fault them for that, but when you listen to The Durutti Column the music is so out of sync with that whole scene you have to admire the fact that it was made and released at all.

                        Speaking of being out of time - 'hotshot'. Great but forgotten word. Am going to start using it again.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          The Durutti Column

                          Vini Reilly is, without fear of hyperbole, a musical genius. The teenage TG's record collection comprised a huge amount of metal, then The Monkees, XTC and Durutti Column.

                          Plus a load of K-Tel compilations which belonged to my dad, but we don't talk about those.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            The Durutti Column

                            I've tried really hard to like XTC - a friend of mine swears by them, so I once taped at least half of their records off him - but they just leave me cold. I can't quite pin down what it is (or isn't). They sort of plod along, and don't seem to have many tunes. Kind of like an amateur bedroom version of Talking Heads.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              The Durutti Column

                              Satchmo, can I suggest you give July Skies a try? https://julyskies.bandcamp.com

                              Comment


                                #16
                                The Durutti Column

                                imp wrote: I've tried really hard to like XTC - a friend of mine swears by them, so I once taped at least half of their records off him - but they just leave me cold. I can't quite pin down what it is (or isn't). They sort of plod along, and don't seem to have many tunes. Kind of like an amateur bedroom version of Talking Heads.
                                Funny - I was thinking about this, the other day, since - just before I saw Shriekback, last week - I was reminded that they were originally essentially a member of XTC + a member of Gang Of Four. Now, Shriekback were very good, live (in the cosy confines of the Con Club in Lewes) but they were definitely rocking a 'Talking Heads-lite' vibe, with a massive band including two female backing singers. However, XTC always felt to me like they still had some vestiges of 'quirky' Prog alongside their supposed New Wave-ness. It was probably this that grated with me and stopped me ever 'getting' them.

                                Comment


                                  #17
                                  The Durutti Column

                                  Satchmo - will you be checking out Felt next ...or are you already fully familiar with them? They may not be 'from the same stable' as Durutti, but I kind of lump them in together, since they're both projects of 'mavericks' - Vini Reilly and Lawrence Hayward - and both guitar-driven (old-school) indie bands.

                                  Comment


                                    #18
                                    The Durutti Column

                                    Furtho and evilC, I will indeed check out Felt and July Skies. Many thanks!

                                    Comment


                                      #19
                                      The Durutti Column

                                      OK, I had a listen to July Skies and Felt.

                                      July Skies are very close to Vini's sound, almost to the point of copying him. The strumming is very closely miked and has an echo and sense of space.

                                      Felt seem more conventionally indie. The song with Elizabeth Fraser was on nighttime radio a fair amount and has that Cocteaus ambience, whereas other tracks have a kinda Lloyd Cole thing going on. All very nice but Vini is way more out on his own as a guitarist with classical and jazz influences.

                                      Comment


                                        #20
                                        The Durutti Column

                                        Try the Felt album "Splendour of Fear". Hypnotic and beautiful.

                                        I too have recently been exploring the wonderful Durutti catalogue. "The Sporadic Recordings" is another really good one.

                                        Comment


                                          #21
                                          The Durutti Column

                                          Thanks, I will do that. I also need to catch up on New Order because I only really know the singles and the two Joy Division albums; they're another band that I saw unfairly through Smiths blinkers at the time. Sumner especially seems to have been a hugely talented writer and arranger, with the Beatles-ish knack of knowing which new trends to borrow from.

                                          Related to Felt and Durutti: the Talk Talk "Spirit of Eden" album is sensational.

                                          Comment


                                            #22
                                            The Durutti Column

                                            Felt - this is very nice indeed: Sempiternal Darkness (1984)

                                            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJZHacjfJhU

                                            Comment


                                              #23
                                              The Durutti Column

                                              Lawrence also had another project - now dormant, I think - called Denim.

                                              Comment


                                                #24
                                                The Durutti Column

                                                Go-Kart Mozart is his most recent incarnation, but I don't think they've had an album out for a while now. GKM is more like a lo-fi version of Denim's '70s bubblegum pastiche than anything from his Felt period.

                                                Comment


                                                  #25
                                                  The Durutti Column

                                                  I really didn't like the first Denim album when it came out. Where the Felt lyrics had been poetic and the music supple and beautiful, Denim's lyrics were "sloganny" and the music clumpy and unsubtle. I've just listened again to the track "Back in Denim" on Youtube, and I still don't like it! The album of the same name is well rated - is it worth revisiting?

                                                  If you like Durutti Column, The Gentleman Losers are worth trying:

                                                  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GcZQ_G23iU

                                                  Comment

                                                  Working...
                                                  X