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Side by side: Brian Eno ‘Ambient 4: On Land’

First released on LP and cassette formats only in 1982, Brian Eno’s ‘Ambient 4: On Land’ arrived with some modesty compared to the esteem with which its influence in ‘dark ambient’ circles would grow in subsequent years. Originally just the fourth (and final) in the ‘Ambient’ series of releases first started with Brian Eno’s 1979 album release ‘Ambient 1: Music for Airports’, the accompanying press coverage would make it clear to anyone still optimistically hankering after a return to song-based vocals pieces, which Eno had been most well-known for since his departure from Roxy Music, that he was done with that for good (or so it seemed…)

1982 UK LP

Brian Eno - 'Ambient 4: On Land' - 1982 UK LP front cover design
^ Brian Eno – ‘Ambient 4: On Land’ – 1982 UK LP front cover design

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John Foxx compilations across the years Part 11

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’.

John Foxx ‘Church’ LP front cover design
^ John Foxx ‘Church’ LP front cover design

‘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; Continue reading “John Foxx compilations across the years Part 11”

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Scritti Politti ‘White Bread Black Beer’ Japanese Limited Edition CD + DVD (Rough Trade / Imperial Records TECI-28378, 2006)

May 2026 has witnessed signs of life from the Scritti Politti camp by way of two news pieces of interest, the announcement of some live dates to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Rough Trade record label and a new ‘deluxe’ re-issue of 1985’s ‘Cupid & Psyche 85’ album. Sadly though, still no news of any new album release, which leaves ‘White Bread Black Beer’ the band’s last album release to date, twenty years ago in 2006, the subject of today’s post.

Scritti Politti 'White Bread Black Beer' Japanese Limited Edition CD + DVD, front cover design with OBI
^ Scritti Politti ‘White Bread Black Beer’ Japanese Limited Edition CD + DVD, front cover design with OBI

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Cabaret Voltaire ‘Here To Go’ UK CD single (EMI Parlophone, CDR 6166, 1987)

I have liked Cabaret Voltaire for a long time now. First introduced in 1981 with their classic Rough Trade era singles and EP up to that point courtesy of a school friend, Eddie. I’ve stuck with them over the years and changes in sound and was fortunate enough to be able to see them play live for the first time ever (at least, the 2025/26 incarnation of Cabaret Voltaire) late last year, along with my other schoolmate of the same period – and frequent contributor to this blog – Lieutenant030. I can thoroughly recommend trying to see them live on their tour later this year if you are in any doubt about it. I mention in passing the 2025/26 incarnation of Cabaret Voltaire, as this is a band (along with other Post Punk contemporaries) with a complicated history. Even within the timeframe of the most stable and long-lasting  line-up, the duo of Kirk and Mallinder, there were periods that would divide opinion, with radical shifts in the bands sound. This release hails from one of those periods, their era signed to EMI’s Parlophone label.

Cabaret Voltaire 'Here To Go' UK CD single front cover design
^ Cabaret Voltaire ‘Here To Go’ UK CD single front cover design

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Richard Jobson – The Absolute Game book (No Bad Books, 2026)

The first few months of 2026 have gotten off to start with not one but two books that revisit, to varying degrees, the subject of the Skids and Stuart Adamson. The first of them is this slim but illuminating book from Richard Jobson reflecting ostensibly on the background to the 1980 Skids album ‘The Absolute Game’, but much more beside. The second tome is ‘Stay Alive: The Life and Death of Stuart Adamson’, by Scott Rowley and is an official biography chronicling his career and tragic death. That will have to wait for another time

Richard Jobson - The Absolute Game book, front cover design
^ Richard Jobson – The Absolute Game book, front cover design

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