The Durutti Column produces 1980's most evocative album

The Durutti Column : Sketch For Summer

[Purchase]

In January of 1980 Factory Records released 3600 copies of The Return of the Durutti Column, the debut album by The Durutti Column, in LP sleeves made of coarse sandpaper. The album inside was anything but coarse. Classically trained guitarist Vini Reilly writes and performs the most delicate instrumental songs on his finger-picked electric guitar, with every note cascading through an echoplex. 1980 would not hear a more beautiful tune that album opener "Sketch For Summer". 

The producer is Martin Hannett who also worked on Joy Division's albums. On those he may have been heavy-handed at times. Here, Hannett has backed off to allow Reilly, bass player Pete Crooks and a very discreet drummer named Toby Toman create this evocative and timeless album. 

"(Hannett) was fascinated by textures of sound, the colour of sound, much more so than creating a very exciting live performance of a band. It wasn't about that. It was about experimenting and just playing with sound. That's the thing, we were all really playing. We were completely indulging ourselves. I was, and I still do," Reilly says in an interview on the Factory Records website.

By the way, the band took their name from Spanish revolutionary Buenaventura Durruti and the cartoon of Two Situationist Cowboys in the comic Le Retour De La Colonne Durutti (1966) 

Reilly has suffered three major strokes in the last decade. He says "I believe that everyone who has listened to one of my records is repairing some of the damage." So please listen to "Katherine" and consider purchasing this remarkable album.