The Durutti Column
One of the those artists who pops up every five years with an album that is so different from previous work that everyone calls it a resurrection, Vini Reilly, who, for all intents and purposes, is the Durutti Column, has mostly been the victim of record company fickleness.
Or, more exactly, Factory Records' fickleness. "Keep Breathing" is not so much a reconfiguration of Reilly's sound as it is a reconsideration of all the different experiments he's attempted. Reilly was one of the few post punks with chops, and Durutti records rose or fell on the strength of his guitar. He's in excellent form here, flanging and expanding on the atmospheric club ditty "It's Wonderful," plucking out a beautiful Anglo-Irish melody on "Maggie," and soloing a bluegrass-inspired instrumental on "Neil." And for once, Reilly's enervated singing stands up to the sampled vocals he likes to slip into his songs.
FIELD OF HEAVEN, 7/29, 5:40 pm
