Obey The Time [Factory Benelux, Record Store Day 2019]

2LP + Digital download: 13.04.19 (Factory Benelux FBN 274)

2LP tracklisting

LP1

1. Vino Della Casa Bianco
2. Hotel of the Lake 1990
3. Fridays
4. Neon
5. Home
6. Spanish Reggae
7. Art and Freight
8. The Warmest Rain
9. Contra-Indications
10. Vino Della Casa Rosso

LP2

1. Home (live)
2. What It Means to Me (live)
3. English Landscape Tradition (live)
4. Opera II (live)
5. Finding the Sea (live)
6. Otis (live)
7. Jacqueline (live)

Notes

Factory Benelux presents a deluxe 3CD box set edition of Obey the Time, the eighth studio album by The Durutti Column. Originally released by Factory Records in December 1990, the original 10 tracks have now been expanded to no less than 43.

Largely self-produced, and entirely instrumental, Obey the Time saw Vini Reilly further develop his interest in electronic music, and even embracing house and techno stylings. "The title came screaming off the TV screen in somebody's version of Othello and captured exactly the feel of the work in progress," explained Tony Wilson, Durutti manager and Factory founder. "We were in the middle of the Acieeed explosion. If you lived in Manchester, you were absolutely in the middle of it. Vini even explained why House made keyboards sound so fresh. Something to do with a chord being played with 3 or 4 notes into the sampler, but then different chords being triggered by a single key stroke. Creating mathematical harmonic relationships 'which Schoenberg had searched for but never found.'"

Indeed veteran Durutti percussionist Bruce Mitchell features on just one track, Art and Freight. Marking a further break with tradition, dance exploration Contra-Indications was taped with New Order programmer (and later co-manager) Andy Robinson. Released in December 1990, Obey the Time (Fact 274) would be the last Durutti Column album on Factory before the labelled collapsed beneath a mountain of debt.

The second record features 7 live tracks from a previously unreleased performance at Manchester University Whitworth Hall on 23 June 1990 (opportunistically billed as 'The Acid Guitar'), on which Reilly and Mitchell are joined by guests Andy Connell, Liu Sola and Rob Gray.

Original cover art by 8vo. The remastered vinyl set is housed in a striking gatefold sleeve printed in pantone colours on a matt varnished board. The bold primary colours are mirrored by the coloured vinyl – purple for LP1, and yellow for LP2.

Obey The Time (Factory Benelux, FBN 274 CD)

3CD: 13.04.19 (Factory Benelux FBN 274 CD)

3CD tracklisting

CD1

1. Vino Della Casa Bianco
2. Hotel of the Lake 1990
3. Fridays
4. Neon
5. Home
6. Spanish Reggae
7. Art and Freight
8. The Warmest Rain
9. Contra-Indications
10. Vino Della Casa Rosso
11. The Together Mix
12. For Zinni III
13. Fridays (Up-Person Mix)
14. Kiss of Def
15. The New Fidelity

CD2

1. Together – Razormaid Mix
2. Megamix
3. Dry
4. Out of the Blue
5. Paradise Passage Road
6. Rope Around My Neck
7. Short
8. Boat People 1
9. Boat People 2
10. Grade 2 Duet
11. Octaves
12. For Madelaine II
13. Pete's Riff
14. The Crowned Goddess
15. Times Like These
16. The Awards Show
17. My Country (Monarchy Mix)

CD3

1. Home (live)
2. What It Means to Me (live)
3. English Landscape Tradition (live)
4. Opera II (live)
5. Finding the Sea (live)
6. Otis (live)
7. Jacqueline (live)
8. Requiem Again (live)
9. Take Some Time Out (live)
10. The Missing Boy (live)
11. Sketch for Summer (live)

Notes

Factory Benelux presents a deluxe 3CD box set edition of Obey the Time, the eighth studio album by The Durutti Column. Originally released by Factory Records in December 1990, the original 10 tracks have now been expanded to no less than 43.

Largely self-produced, and entirely instrumental, Obey the Time saw Vini Reilly further develop his interest in electronic music, and even embracing house and techno stylings. "The title came screaming off the TV screen in somebody's version of Othello and captured exactly the feel of the work in progress," explained Tony Wilson, Durutti manager and Factory founder. "We were in the middle of the Acieeed explosion. If you lived in Manchester, you were absolutely in the middle of it. Vini even explained why House made keyboards sound so fresh. Something to do with a chord being played with 3 or 4 notes into the sampler, but then different chords being triggered by a single key stroke. Creating mathematical harmonic relationships 'which Schoenberg had searched for but never found.'"

Indeed veteran Durutti percussionist Bruce Mitchell features on just one track, Art and Freight. Marking a further break with tradition, dance exploration Contra-Indications was taped with New Order programmer (and later co-manager) Andy Robinson. Released in December 1990, Obey the Time (Fact 274) would be the last Durutti Column album on Factory before the labelled collapsed beneath a mountain of debt.

The multitude of studio extras spread across Discs 1 and 2 include single and remix tracks The Together Mix and Kiss of Def, rare compilation cuts such as The New Fidelity, The Awards Show and Times Like These, and several extracts from two unreleased Factory albums recorded during the same 1989/90 period: Guitar One: House (Fact 254) and Guitar Two: Acoustic (Fact 264).

Disc 3 features 11 live tracks from a previously unreleased performance at Manchester University Whitworth Hall on 23 June 1990 (opportunistically billed as 'The Acid Guitar'), on which Reilly and Mitchell are joined by guests Andy Connell, Liu Sola and Rob Gray.

Original cover art by 8vo. The remastered set is housed in a clamshell card box, with individual inner sleeves and liner notes.

More information and how to buy at Factory Benelux Mailorder.

Obey The Time [Factory Once, 1998]

Obey The Time [Factory Once, 1998]

CD: UK 10.98 (Factory Once FACDO 274 / London 556 040-2)

Tracklisting

Vino Della Casa Bianco
Hotel Of The Lake 1990
Fridays
Home
Art And Freight
Spanish Reggae
Neon
The Warmest Rain
Contra-indications
Vino Della Casa Rosso

Related Works

The Together Mix
Fridays (Up-Person Mix)
Kiss Of Def (Trade 2 Singles Club)

Credits

A Factory Communications Record 1998.
With thanks to Tony, Bruce, Graphic Magicians: 8vo, London
Graphic Magicians: 8vo, London

Obey the Time

All tracks written by Vini Reilly.

Drums on 'Art and Freight' by Bruce Mitchell.

Computed and Engineered by Paul Miller at Home, except 'Contra-indications' computed and engineered by Andy Robinson at Spirit Studios. Hypnosis and medication by Sydney Gottlieb. Food and relaxation by Dry.

The Together Mix

The Together Mix, written by Vini Reilly. Remixed by Together. A Factory Communications Record 1990.

Fridays, written by Vini Reilly. Recorded and mixed by Vini Reilly and Paul Miller. A Factory Communications Record 1990.

Trade 2 Singles Club

Kiss of Def, written by Vini Reilly. Remixed by Keir Stewart at Inch.

Liner notes

Absolutely in the middle of it

"I have but an hour of love, of worldly matters and direction to spend with thee: we must obey the time."

The titles of Vini's albums and even the tracks themselves come from tne oddest places. There's the easy way out: the female first name of the muse of the moment, from Katharine to Pol in G (sorry Pol, you were more than a moment), and all the rest.

Other times Vin would have something in mind and other times, I, as one third of his management would flirt around with my latest obsessions looking for a connection with Vini's pieces.

Part of this aesthetic derives from Italian directors in general and Pasolini in particular who loved having different actors dub the voices on his movies and almost intentionally doing the dubbing badly so there was a creative tension between the physical performance and the vocal performance; for the Durutti Column, there's usually some interesting stuff in the space between the title and the piece.

The title of this album came screaming off the TV screen in somebody's version of Othello' and captured exactly the feel of the work in progress. We were in the middle of the Aceeed explosion: if you lived in Manchester, you were absolutely in the middle of it. Vini, like the rest of us, has lost the ability to age or atrophy, and enjoyed the party.

He even explained why house made keyboards sound so fresh something to do with a chord being played with three or four notes into the sampler but then different chords being triggered by a single key stroke; creating mathematical harmonic relationships "which Schoenberg had searched for but never found".

In experimenting with certain beats and ideas, Vini was indeed obeying the time.

We're including as a bonus track here something that comes from the late 90's. But we submit it as a most recent example of Vini 'obeying' the time and as such connecting to the music of this period and taking us up to where the ripples of 88 still make interesting patterns on the shore.

The producer of his 1998 album, Kier, (another full-blown genius who also tried to get Vini to stop singing and met the same fate as everybody else) did this remix of My Last Kiss: sorta post-trance, sub-jungle, retro-ambient, or something. It's called 'Kiss of Def' which is partly taking the piss out of Barney's HIV lyric and partly just a cool title.

We were going to give it to Glenn and Jeff at Trade Two who were looking forward to putting it on their club label, but it got snared up with the lawyers on both sides.

And then, going back to 1990, there was Together, the 'Hardeore Uproar' cultish and soon-to-be massive dance duo who did the 'Together' remix; two fantastic kids, one with the ability to sing nasally out of the side of his mouth and the other, another young Kier, brightest eyes of any engineer you'd meet back in 1990. He died that Summer in Ibiza. Bicycle accident. Fucking tragic.

That Summer I was in Varenna, a small village on the banks of Lake Como, and Vini was short on titles for the pieces on this album, many of them emerging from mathematical / harmonic or technological inspiration rather than lovers he could name them after. So Vin let me take some of the titles from my experiences in Varenna. 'The Warmest Rain', indeed.

Obey The Time

Obey The Time

LP: UK 1990 (Factory FACT 274) [white label]
LP: UK 1990 (Factory FACT 274)
CS: UK 1990 (Factory FACTC 274)
CD: UK 1990 (Factory FACD 274) [pre-release]
CD: UK 1990 (Factory FACD 274)

DAT: UK 1990 (Factory FACT 274D)*

Tracklisting

Vino della Casa Bianco
Hotel of the Lake 1990
Fridays
Home
Art and Freight
Spanish Reggae
Neon
The Warmest Rain
Contra-indications
Vino della Casa Rosso

Credits

Written and produced by Vini Reilly
Published by The Movement of 24th January
Computed and engineered by Paul Miller at Home, except Contra-indications computed and engineered by Andy Robinson at Spirit Studios

Drums on Art and Freight by Bruce Mitchell

Hypnosis and medications by Sydney Gottlieb
Food and relaxation by Dry
Design: 8vo

Dedicated to Isabel Emily

Notes

Original Factory Records release on LP, Cassette and CD. German, Spanish and Japanese import versions also exist. Also reissued on Factory Once with 3 extra tracks in October 1998.

* - Artwork for DATs was manufactured (verified by Mark Holt ex-8vo) and the DAT releases themselves were mentioned in promotional materials but there is no evidence that there was ever a commercial DAT for this release.