The Durutti Column
The Return of The Durutti Column [45th Anniversary Reissue]
LONDON
Though guitarist-producer Vini Reilly was part of Manchester’s post-punk revolution, neither his attitude nor his albums were the stuff of that movement, utilizing as he and his floating Durutti Column membership did the sounds of English classical music and jazz in their mix, as well as a sense of soundscaping and doom-shaping that would fuel his songs and reputation. In fact, save for their industrious DIY vibe and his original Factory label setting, you’d never know that the work of the altogether-elegant Reilly held any of punk’s ethos as his own.
This 45th anniversary reissue of Durutti Column’s debut may not come with the sandpaper sleeve it had upon its initial release in 1980 (thanks to art director and Factory co-founder Tony Wilson), yet that doesn’t make its all-instrumental, always-haunting music or its sour-sweet-then-sour-again presence any less abrasive. Produced with the soon-to-be legendary Martin Hannett (who additionally added his own soft, sheets-of-synthesizer sound to Durutti’s rumble), The Return of The Durutti Column is gentle, moody, and low-candle-burning jazzy (as one song titled “Jazz” might just be)—complexly played yet luminously understated, singularly stark and beautiful in ways unimaginable in the 1980s of Manchester.
You might not recognize that there’s a bass, drums, or even Hannett’s sheen at work within the mix of Return, as Durutti Column’s rhythm section of Pete Crooks and Toby Toman are laid back to the point of lying down as Reilly applies memorable electric arpeggios and crescendos to moments such as the crosscutting guitar army of “Conduct” and “Sketch for Winter” (sounds that truly burst forth with the London label’s fresh remastering from Factory’s original tapes, then cut at half speed for the sake of crystal-clear fidelity that never loses its mossy atmosphere). Such is the poignancy of Reilly’s compositions and the prickliness of his playing that you want to know the backstories behind “Katharine” and “Collette,” and the reasons why his “Requiem for a Father” is so naggingly attractive, weird beat box and all.
It’s no secret that the looming doom of Reilly’s 1980 debut influenced both Hannett and his production charges in Joy Division to make Unknown Pleasures so dank and epochal, and therefore tied up into the late Ian Curtis’ legend for better or worse. So be it. The Return of The Durutti Column and Vini Reilly stand on their own when it comes to powerfully emotive electric guitar music that’s as unexpected as it is unnervingly beautiful.
