The Durutti Column- Amigos em Portugal (1983) MP3 & FLAC

"All I really need is the mercy of your lies and the clouds to break."

Amigos em Portugal, out of print for more than twenty years until re-issued in 2005, is an obscure gem that also happens to contain some of Vini Reilly's most beautiful guitar work. Recorded solo (for the most part) over the course of a few days in Portugal for a newly-formed independent record label in anticipation of The Durutti Column's Without Mercy, Reilly's guitar oscillates regularly between Jazz, Flamenco, and his trademark percussive style, all of which is interwoven into some haunting piano passages. "Lisboa," for example, uses an impressionistic piano foundation over which Reilly indulges in some amazing guitar improvisations; at times, the proceedings sound almost raga-like. While most of the album is instrumental, Reilly does add vocals to three tracks, the best of which is "Lies of Mercy"; however, in the others, he sounds quite reticent and often out of tune. Despite this minor flaw, Amigos em Portugal is a must-listen for anyone with even a passing interest in The Durutti Column's work. Presumably due to lost master tapes, this CD re-issue was remastered from the original vinyl, so surface noise is audible, but the beauty of the music quickly overcomes the sonic limitations of the source.

The Durutti Column- Circuses and Bread (1985) MP3 & FLAC

"All I wanted was your time; all you ever gave me was tomorrow."

Led by Vini Reilly, arguably the most subtle and gifted guitarist of the Post-Punk era, The Durutti Column dispensed with conventional notions of what guitar-based alternative music could sound like, and in doing so, played a big role in laying the groundwork for a more experimental, less structured form of rock composition, perhaps best embodied in the later work of  Mark Hollis' Talk Talk. Circuses and Bread  is fairly typical of The Durutti Column's early eighties work, in that it is dominated by Reilly's deft, electric arpeggios, which at times take on Jazz-oriented inflections, but more often than not, spin beautifully ornate, crisp melodies that may shine on the surface but also reverberate with regret and despair. For example, on "Royal Infirmary," Reilly's lovely, melodic guitar work is joined by piano and trumpet, creating a spaciously dark and moody soundscape that is hard to shake once the song ends. While primarily an instrumental album, Circuses and Bread does contain one of Reilly's better-known vocal turns on "Tomorrow," a gloomy ode to a love that dies on the vine; this is a song deserving of a far better fate than the relative obscurity it now wallows in. Truly one of the most distinctive bands of the eighties.