2016’s ‘Burning Car’ and 2020’s ‘Concrete and Organised Noise’ LPs had set the scene for ‘companion’ albums gathering up related tracks on vinyl to ‘Metamatic’, and 2021 would see this same concept applied to John’s 1981 album, ‘The Garden’, by way of this post’s featured compilation, ‘Church’.
‘Church’ UK LP (Metamatic Records, META71LP (red vinyl) / META71LPV (neon violet vinyl), 2021)
Release date: 19th November 2021.
As it happens, ‘The Garden’ was being given a 40th anniversary edition re-release on vinyl the same year, with half on green vinyl and half on yellow vinyl. An email from Metamatic records had announced that release thus;
“To celebrate The Garden’s 40th anniversary, Metamatic Records will release 2 gatefold and ltd edition versions of John Foxx’s classic 1981 album, featuring the singles Europe After The Rain and Dancing Like A Gun. We’re pressing up 1200 copies, half on translucent green vinyl and the other half on shimmering neon yellow vinyl. Both will be released on 30th July 2021.”
In tandem, ‘Church’ was to follow. An email from Metamatic Records dated 2nd July 2021 described the ‘Church’ release thus;
“As a sister album to the 40th anniversary edition of John Foxx’s The Garden, we’re excited to announce Church which will be released by Metamatic Records on Friday 10 September. Many elements of the original Church booklet are integrated into the gatefold artwork. Church features singles, B-sides and out-takes from the same period, along with the Miles Away single when Foxx re-introduced more traditional instrumentation to his electronic template. We’re pressing up 1200 copies, half on red vinyl and the other half on neon violet. Both will be released on 10th September 2021.”
As it happened, in both cases the originally announced release dates slipped due to the vagaries on demand for vinyl pressing during the Covid-19 epidemic. (‘The Garden’ did not appear until much later than planned, 29th October 2021.) It’s interesting to note the reference to the original ‘Church’ booklet – this came with the initial vinyl pressings of the LP back in 1981 and featured John’s photography and writing. The left-hand panel of the gatefold section of the album cover features text from that booklet.
Tracklisting:
Side One:
- This Jungle (4:44)
- Miles Away (3:21)
- A Long Time (3:52)
- Fog (5:54)
- Swimmer I (3:34)
- Swimmer II (5:18)
- Swimmer III (5:28)
- Swimmer IV (3:58)
The music contained on the album is a selection of tracks drawn from various sources and there is no direct equivalent of ‘Church’ on CD format. The first three tracks on side one and the first two tracks on side two are from single releases of 1980 and 1981 and have been re-released many times on various CDs over the years, they are not difficult to come by. ‘Swimmer III’ and ‘Swimmer IV’ have a bit more of a complex history; they were originally released as differently titled tracks on various artist cassette-only compilation albums. ‘Swimmer III’ was originally titled ‘The Quiet Man 3’ and released in 1983 on the ‘Touch Meridians 2‘ cassette, while ‘Swimmer IV’ was originally titled ‘The Quiet Man 4’ and released in 1983 on the ‘Touch Meridians 1‘ cassette. ‘Fog’ was not originally released at the time of the album and first saw a release in 2008 as part of the 2xCD ‘The Garden’ re-issue on Edsel – this also included ‘Swimmer III’ and ‘Swimmer IV’ as well. (All of ‘The Swimmer’ tracks are also gathered up on the ‘The Virgin Years 1980-1985’ CD box set.)
As noted above, the album was pressed as a limited edition of 600 copies on red translucent vinyl or 600 copies on ‘neon violet’ translucent vinyl.
What is / was unique to this compilation?
There was no otherwise previously unreleased material on this compilation. A noted above, the tracks can be found spread across various CDs, most notably you will find everything on the ‘The Virgin Years 1980-1985’ CD box set for sure.
Where can the exclusives be sourced now?
Not applicable, there were no exclusives on this release.
Summary
The earlier ‘Burning Car’ and ‘Concrete and Organised Noise’ LPs had set the scene for ‘companion’ or sister albums designed in a harmonious style to their more celebrated parent albums, gathering up related tracks on vinyl and ‘Church’ was the first post-‘Metamatic’ example – and not the last, as we shall see…