Legendary Pink Dots
“Any Day Now”
Label: Caciocavallo
Official Website
(4/5)
This is an early album from this amazingly prolific group (originally released in 1988, I currently have the 2002 reissue from Caciocavallo/Solielmoon). Legendary Pink Dots is one of those groups that can be all over the map – like all experimental artists, they try new stuff and some of it doesn’t work. This one does. It is definitely one of my favorites by the Dots.The first 6 tracks are very solid compositions that live somewhere between goth/industrial and prog rock (wait – don’t run away yet!). They have nice solid beats, interesting synth work, and then some very nice creepy violin and other instruments weaving through the mix. Ka-spel’s vocals are quite interesting in a strange, creepy way (especially Casting the Runes, The gallery, and Neon Mariners).
Around track 7 the tempo starts to drop and the songs drift off into the void – but are not really bad.
Unfortunately, the CD version I have tacks on three more songs that are a huge mistake. Unlike the rest of the original album, these last songs are squarely in the Dot’s “doom disco” territory. I think I have listened to them once – I always pop the disc out after track 8 or 9.
Track list:
- Casting the Runes
- A Strychnine Kiss
- Laguna Beach
- The Gallery
- Neon Mariners
- True Love
- The Peculiar Fun Fair
- Waiting for the Cloud
- Cloud Zero
- Under Glass
- The Light in my Little Girl’s Eyes
- The Plasma Twins
Review by:
Celadon
Pro AudioUnit and VST plugins
2 Comments
Placing this era as a link between progressive and goth/industrial is not such a bad thing, as (and most people won’t want to hear this) the original spirit of “progressive” was every bit as experimental in it’s outlook of creating new worlds. Things like goth and industrial are just what happened to spin out of the mix. It’s all progressive in that sense. The original musicians didn’t start referring to their music as progressive until everyone else did, but if you listen to a lot of it, there is a great portion of it that is just as undefinable as some of LPD’s output.
As for the “doom disco”, I think of the last 3 only “Under Glass” really fits this category. The Light in my Little Girl’s Eyes and The Plasma Twins are both more of this progressive/industrial/goth vein of which you speak, and there is even a funky slap bass solo in the Plasma Twins!!! Some of Patrick Wright’s finest viol moments grace this album – he is missed on more current releases.
I’d have to agree about the last few tracks. I am a pretty big fan of LPD, but some of their earlier stuff is pretty ghastly. Their most recent work is very calm and subtle. An interesting combination that they seem to pull off quite well.