Voluntary Arrangements

 The Durutti Column - Rebellion [DEMREC 743 UK 2020 24-Bit FLAC]

We were treated late last year when Demon reissued a swathe of Durutti Column albums on vinyl for the first time. I am not convinced that coloured vinyl was totally necessary - I am no fan of this rush to colour - however I picked them all up as any fan of Vini Reilly's gentle guitar would do. 

Rebellion was originally released in 2001 on Artful via Universal on compact disc only. It represents a wide variety of styles with Vini working with two female vocalists and a rapper, although the less said about the rap track the better. I love the folky & psychedelic edges to this album, the cover of The Fields Of Athenry is sublime, Voluntary Arrangement should be regarded as a Durutti classic and our Vini gets all psyched on the blistering instrumental Meschugana.

One of my issues with coloured vinyl, is that you cannot normally see how dirty it is - this record was covered in light blue dust and speckles straight out of the wrapping when new, it need a good cleaning before ripping. Whilst the mastering is excellent, little care was taken with the pressing and it suffers from that modern day, first world problem of noisy vinyl. All the audio detail is there and thankfully the lack of vinyl quality control is only noticeable between tracks.

A1 4 Sophia

A2 Longsight Romance

A3 Geh Cak Af En Yam

A4 The Fields Of Athenry

A5 Overlord Part One

B1 Falling

B2 Voluntary Arrangement

B3 Mello Part One

B4 Mello Part Two

B5 Protest Song

B6 Meschugana