Changing Places

There was an interview with Vini Reilly in The Guardian last week, a sombre and melancholic appreciation of the man and his talent. Vini talks about his traumatic past and how future Durutti Column drummer, manger and Manchester legend Bruce Mitchell saved him. Factory records, its home on 86 Palatine Road not far from where Vini lived then and now, had several people in its orbit that could be described as geniuses- Ian Curtis, Martin Hannett and Peter Saville all have a claim to the word. Vini is in that group too, his guitar playing and approach to music different from everyone else operating in the same spheres. Vini's view is if you go to Spain you can find flamenco guitarists playing in small bars 'in Cordoba and those guys will make me look stupid'. He casually dismisses his own song Otis as 'just messing about'. 

We are free to disagree with Vini of course, and to praise him and his music. 

In 1983 Anne Clark recruited Vini to play on her record, an album called Changing Places. The first side was recorded with David Harrow, Anne's poetry and voice on top of David's New Wave electronica. Vini played on the five songs on side B. Apparently he got the train from Piccadilly to Euston with his guitar, went straight to Denmark Street studios, played guitar for the five songs- beautiful, fragile, haunting, lighter- than- air guitar- and then got the train back to Manchester. A day's work for Vini but as this song has it, the echoes remain forever. 

Echoes Remain Forever

In 1991 Factory held a festival in Heaton Park to commemorate Martin Hannett. The Sunday line up was very Factory oriented. It was a warm and sunny day, everyone in a good mood. There were people coming over and through the fence, security unable or unwilling to stop them. Duruttti Column played mid- afternoon. They played Fado, a song that wouldn't be released in studio form until 1994's Sex And Death album. The music Vini, Bruce and keyboard player Kier Stewart conjured up that afternoon was a genuine form of magic.

Jitter

David Harrow's back story goes way back to the early 80s and his work with Anne Clark followed by time served with among others Jah Wobble, On U Sound, Psychic TV and Andrew Weatherall. In the 90s he moved to Los Angeles and found a second (or maybe third musical life) as James Hardway while penning Billie Ray Martin's Your Loving Arms. His releases in recent years take in ambient and dub, modular synths and deep bass.

His latest release is a two track EP for Mighty Force, two pieces of sweet sounding electronic grooves in a space somewhere between dub, acid and techno. Jitter is a five minute slice of dark dub grooves that twist and turn, never quite doing what you think it might. Quite jittery in fact but deeply rewarding too, music to get lost in. Jitter is followed by '97, a six and half minute dubbed out ride with squiggly bass, echoic synth sounds, clicking percussion and some real bounce to the rhythm. Jitter can be bought at Mighty Force's Bandcamp page. 

Slipping back three and a half decades, Anne Clark's Sleeper In Metropolis, with David's spectacular analogue keyboards and synths, electronic drums and Anne's conversational/ spoken word vocal was recorded in 1985 and sounds utterly contemporary.