is Dr.C looking forward to 'em? does a bear et cet...? *winky face*

Hey, he's not the only one y'know.... :)

To rephrase....

:)

LTM never fail to amaze

Hurrah for The Passage, back in fashion! Hurrah for the LTM / Darla rereleases, courtesy of that nice man James Neiss! Hurrah for the new website, Dancing Through Dark Times! Hurrah (eventually) for the essay I've promised to write for them! Hurrah that Andy Wilson was on this thread, beaming in from Ibiza! And hurrah for Dick Witts, who, on September 11th 1999, came to a little show I gave in Borders, Oxford Street, London, and posed for a photo with me holding up a decorating book!

http://www.demon.co.uk/momus/momuswitts.jpeg

So how come Dr. C hasn't posted yet? Has he exploded in sheer happiness?

HAIRY ARMS

(5/12/03 is this uk style dates, so december yes? or retarded american style?)

Dr.C's in DanPerryville at the mo' i think. but i'm sure we can keep this thread going until he gets back

*stares out the window*

The Passage info is taken from the darla website, therefore American !

I've gone off them now.

Yeah, I figured. I hate MBV now too.

I'm planning to go off them as soon as they become more popular.

yay yay yay!
I'm excited too! I learned about The Passage last semester when I did a synth-pop specialty radio show - but Degenerates is the only thing I've ever heard by them. Clarke B. got me the LP for Christmas so I've been enjoying that, but I'm excited to see all the other albums getting re-released as well (along with bonus tracks!).
Hurrah for LTM/Darla.

I went off them before Dr C.

I like them again now it's Friday and I'm back home.

The BBC sessions one looks good, and I'll prolly get Pindrop as don't have it any more. I see LTM are also releasing Crawling Chaos's magnificently stupid 'The Gas Chair'. This was one review :

In the NME Adam Sweeting wrote: “They played so badly for so long that a phone call to McWhirter and his Book of Records would surely have been received favourably. Ineffectual doodlings on guitar and keyboards became ends in themselves. A guest singer stood at the microphone and coughed for several minutes. Nobody danced or even twitched a leg. The bloke at the mixing desk read the Evening Standard and someone next to me asked the time before falling asleep. Anyone who needs this garbage is probably already dead.”

They were great!

May I be the last to say

'FUCK THE NME!!!!'

(if they still exist).

when the hell did adam sweeting write for the nme?

Dunno - but I just cut n pasted this from the LTM site. They might be wrong.

Good to see the interest in the passage and the upcoming re-releases.
I've enjoyed digging out all the old tapes -radio sessions etc [good job as it took sometime]. It'll be interesting to hear what people make of the less familiar stuff.'whatcha mean that'll be all of it then!'
joe

Holy shit - we only need Witts to post and we've got all three!

The re-release program should be titled 'This we will repeat for the hard of hearing'.

What song was that from? Was it Clear as Crystal from Enflame? It's bugging me!

Yes.

I remember a fantastic gig from my time in Manchester, with The Passage and The Nightingales (another neglected giant of a band) on the same bill. A PR cock-up meant few knew it was on and about 50 of us saw Dick Witts rave on and on about whomsoever made the mistake with advertising - however, the adrenaline pumping through his veins made him a fantastic stage presence that night.

Anyone got any of re-releases yet? I bought Pindrop yesterday - 14 extra tracks including the first 2 Object EPs and a 6-track Piccadilly Radio session. Pindrop sounds a lot more accessible than i remembered, but still not like anything else ever. The second Tony Friel-era EP is utter genius. Haven't got onto the radio session yet.

I hope to finally get some of these tomorrow at Amoeba...

Do so!

Assuming Amoeba keeps their LTM rereleases in stock as they usually do, it will be no problem! (After that, I need them early Simple Minds reissues...)

LTM has gone crazy recently. I want him to stop so I can catch up!

Okay, so -- I did in fact get all five Passage discs (and the first six Simple Minds, but anyway). And while I have yet to listen to them, I read the accompanying essay reprinted in each CD's booklet and note with delight and amusement that these selections upthread from Momus:

One of the greatest, yet least known of 80s groups. I bought their fantastic debut album, 'Pindrop', on Object Records, in, I think, 1980 after hearing one track on Peel. The album (slightly murkier, more introverted and mysterious sounding than later releases) was like nothing else being made at the time. Totally electronic, spooky, intelligent, political, passionate as hell, like Laurie Anderson crossed with The Fall.

'Degenerates' and 'Enflame' are also great records, Brechtian politics melded to angular, caustic lyrics. The Passage were very unEnglish in their willingness to write about sex and politics. Check out songs like 'Angleland' and 'Wave'.

Witts started as tympanist for the Halle Orchestra, and now writes books (he published a critical survey of the history of tbe Arts Council a couple of years ago). I've met him a couple of times. I saw The Passage live in Edinburgh. Witts performed in a blood-spattered white T shirt. There were about fifteen people in the audience.

I think you'd have to see them as libertarians in a peculiarly Protestant mode, like Quakers or Methodist radicals or something. Witts was obsessed with Manchester police chief James Anderton to an unhealthy degree.

...were quoted almost verbatim. Hurrah for Mr. James Nice of LTM doing some net scrounging/lurking here, but please speak up and tell us more about what you want to reissue on LTM. And mention ILX by name! ;-)

James Nice lurks here? JAMES YOU ARE THE REISSUE GOD

Blimey - no holding back Ned as he hoovers up the Passage's body of work. I shall buy the BBC sessions in a week or so, but will stick with beloved vinyl for the rest.

Well, I'm finally listening to Pindrop. My goodness what a strange (and wonderful) album.

It is. I'm playing it constantly at the moment - I'd regarded it as the least essential of their albums, but maybe it's the best? The *sound* of the whole thing is amazing - the atmosphere is so unsettling, yet there is definitely some great pop ideas lurking there - 'Carnal', 'Troops Out'. I first heard Pindrop in the summer of 81 and the opening track 'Fear' still has *exactly* the same effect as it did back then - a stark 'what the f*ck is going on here' feeling as those drums rumble out of the speakers and Witts menaces. The keyboard sounds! I have to get a sample of the opening sound on '2711' for use with my own band! I wonder what keybds he used - no-one has ever come close to most of the tones and textures they came up with. The Tony Friel era stuff on the Cd is also grebt - 'Taking My Time' particularly - I love the way the cello comes out of nowhere at the end. Also the Stuart James session - a much more clean n conventional sound, but really powerful.

Oh I forgot to say - latest from LTM : http://www.ltmpub.freeserve.co.uk/ltmnews.html

Quando Quango and Artery coming up later in the year!! - along with shitloads of other good stuff. A NEW album by LUDUS!! My goodness!

I saw two the Passage LP's in a 2nd hand shop yesterday, v. reasonably priced. Reading this thread I think I'll return to buy them asap.

"Quando Quango and Artery coming up later in the year!!"

Artery were brilliant so I'm looking forward to that one.

Quando Quango 'though.... I remember the name but I haven't got anything by them and can't seem to place them. What were they like Dr. C?

Oh and are you going to see Ari Up at Camden Underworld next thursday???

Hi Stew! QQ were ace I reckon, although no-one else seems to like them. They featured Mike Pickering and were a sort of more commercial, more electro version of ACR with less gloom. Genius is prob. the best known track - early House, very Hacienda 1983 & so on... I love the album too.

Artery were a wierd bunch - I can't remember the name of the singer. What was it? Ah - Mark Gouldthorpe? I hope LTM will re-release 'One Afternoon In A Hot Air Balloon' too.

Ari-up : I saw the other thread. Probably not, as i have a darts match to play. If it's cancelled then possibly. Enjoy it!

i'm quite keen on the upcoming BeMusic productions compilation LTM are doing..

Pigs and battleships is pretty good, but nothing on it is reaches the splendour of Love tempo. Do LTM reissues have bonus tracks, remixes etc? Cos' then it would be worth investing in a copy.

Incidentally it probably has the worst sleeve for anything released on Factory, Peter Saville must have been on his holiday's.

Do they have bonus tracks! I have yet to see the LTM reissue without bonus tracks, I think, and that's all to the good. James Nice believes in value for money, that's for dang sure.

And continuing my listens, For All and None is pretty damn good as well -- "Photo Romance" is my favorite from that one, that's one wonderfully weird and grand song, as is "Do the Bastinado" -- while Degenerates is currently doing my head in. "Xoyo" is SO fucked up...

Yeah, I reckon the QQ LTM reissue will have all the singles and b-sides added on, Billy, they usually do.

"Xoyo" is the only song of theirs I've heard, but from it I put a star next to the passage on my to-get list.

Here's the info on the Quando Quango release :

http://home.planet.nl/~frankbri/ltm2360.html

i've discovered lots of good music after reading about it first on ilm, so when i saw a copy of 'degenerates' by the passage for a pound(!) i remembered this thread and bought it.
and i just dont get it. this is one of the worst records i've ever heard. incredibly dated keyboard sounds, terrible singing with that 80s 'must speak some of the lines cos they'll sound more meaningful n stuff'. its like they want to be omd but wouldnt dare do anything so pop, so act all selfconsciously weird instead. ugh.

are all their records like this, or is this one of those you needed to be there at the time things?

Oh my. Amazon kept recommending that I buy stuff by the Passage and I read up on them and AMG-ed and stuff and last week I got Degenerates and it is exactly exactly my cup of tea. I was completely struck by how un-dated it sounds, XoYo is Favourite Song Ever at the moment, it's all beetlebrowed and whirry and things and I cannot wait to purchase the other three. And the sleeves are really ace too.

fck i just heard pindrop for the first time in eons and its fantastic. i have some baggage there, sure, but, uh, oh, i dunno joni. can't be rational...ned! help! ;-)

xpost: thanks alex. does it really go "xoyo triple x sex mosaics?"

I think it does, acely. The Passage maybe nudge past Disco Inferno as Without-ILM-I-Would've-NEVER-KNOWN gleamy gem now.