Differing Aspects Of The Same Thing

 

The Durutti Column - The Return Of The Durutti Column [FACT 14 ITA 1981 24-Bit 176.4kHz FLAC]

An old favourite ...however slightly different and a brand new rip to boot.

Effectively just Mancunian guitar virtuoso Vini Reilly and legendary producer Martin Hannet left to their own devices (bird tweets and treated drum machines) in Cargo Studios, Rochdale with occasional bass & drums from original Nosebleeds, Toby Toman and Pete Crooks. Most will know this record and its significance, if not why not? 

Factory Records licensed their early releases through Base Records in Italy and for some reason the Italian label changed the running order on FACT14. They also injected the new Untitled track which didn't feature on the original UK sandpaper sleeve release. The album opens with Requiem For A Father rather than Sketch For Summer which is moved further down side A. 

This pressing has some very long gaps between the tracks and a good clean with surfactant and the HumminGuru has removed most of the surface noise. Mastering volumes do vary greatly, no more so than on Jazz which seems overly loud and the trio of Sketch For Winter, Collette and Beginning which are remarkably quiet. 

I've left this rip mostly as is, straight from the needle with just occasional pops and clicks removed to reproduce at high resolution a rip as close to the record as possible - listen closely and you can hear the studio chatter and countdowns on the intro to some tracks. There was also one bump on B4 which needed careful removal. The sleeve is slightly different to the UK textured version and is letter press thick card - also of note is that the Italians copied the original album track listing on the labels, ignoring the fact that they had altered the running order and inserted the new track.

This is about as good as I will get a rip of this album with my current set-up, my original UK is a tad overplayed to rip however I may dabble with the 2012 remaster cut at Optimal in the not too distant future.

A1   Requiem For A Father 

A2   Katharine 

A3   Conduct 

A4   Sketch For Summer 

B1   Untitled 

B2   Jazz 

B3   Sketch For Winter 

B4   Collette 

B5   Beginning 

B6   In 'D'