Needle Time

  Crispy Ambulance - Live On A Hot August Night [FAC BN 4 BEL 1981 24-Bit FLAC] Disguised in a wonderfully suggestive Benoît Hennebert sleeve, the third single by Manchester's Crispy Ambulance was recorded on a cold January night at Cargo Studios, Rochdale in 1981 with Martin Hannett at the controls. Factory Records then decided to farm the release out to their Benelux cousins who released it in June 1981. There has been much confusion since as to which track is the a-side. For me, The Presence has always been the a-side - running at over thirteen minutes, the track kicks off with Hannett's simple electronic rhythm before the band's chopping and grinding guitar underpinned by a simple but tight drum beat and bassline. Alan Hempsall's vocals are filled with anxiety and melancholy, bringing a sense of solemn procession to the proceedings, but it is wonderful!  Concorde Square is more of a standard post-punk track before it descends into six minutes of ghostly drone ...

  Crispy Ambulance - From The Cradle To The Grave [AAR-001 MCR 1980 24-Bit FLAC] Digging an old favourite out of the singles box.... I last ripped this single in June 2011, so let's hear how it sounds now! From Manchester with love, very likely one of the most misunderstood bands from the early eighties. Yes the doom & gloom of a decadent & despairing young quartet is very similar to where Joy Division were a year earlier. The Crispy attitude was that if they can do it, so can we and we will try to be better (they probably didn't achieve that). From The Cradle To The Grave is dark & broody with poignant lyrics and a booming chorus, Four Minutes From The Frontline is JD's Interzone and the Bauhaus interpretation of Third Uncle rolled into one. Alan Hempsall famously stood in for Ian Curtis at the notorious Derby Hall fiasco in April 1980. Crispy Ambulance have never split up and subsequent material was to develop with a more psychedelic feel, however they we...

Crispy Ambulance - The Plateau Phase [FBN 12 BEL 2019 RSD 24-Bit FLAC] If Factory Records were ever to doom the career of any young band looking for recognition, then the Factory Benelux was the place to shatter careers. The first album by Crispy Ambulance should not have been 'sent to Belgium', it should have been allowed to flourish as part of the main repertoire, however this was Factory ...and this was praxis. The music press were not kind to the album as well, a delinquent and ill-informed Mat Snow once wrote in the New Musical Express (a credible journal at the time)... " This is one of the most pretentious, turgid and tedious LPs I've ever heard. Slavish imitation of Joy Division doth not good music make. All the trade-marks are there -  relentless inverted drumming, ominous bass lines, dramatic flanged guitar, bleak synth washes and a lone desperate voice. But whereas Joy Division were sincere and inspired in their depiction of obsession, loss a...

Crispy Ambulance - Fin [LTM V.X UK 1985 24-Bit FLAC] By sheer coincidence Crispy Ambulance open what was supposed to be their last album (hence the title) with a Throbbing Gristle cover. Fin was compiled from mixing desk recordings of live sets at The Circus in London's Soho on December 16th 1981, The Venue in London's Victoria on 6th May 1982, Art & Buffet in Brussels on 14th January 1982, De Effenaar in Eindhoven on 8th January 1982 and Lanchester Technical College in Coventry on 28th November 1981. Crispy Ambulance were prolific songwriters and live performers during their first incarnation between 1979 and 1982. Many tracks were never properly released and eventually saw their way onto compilation cassettes on the fledgling Les Temps Modernes label in 1983. This album closes the chapter which was Crispy Ambulance in their prime, you either loved them or you hated them, they were that divisive among critics and Factory fans alike - including Tony Wilson who...

Crispy Ambulance - Unsightly & Serene [10" FAC 32 UK 1981 24-Bit FLAC] In possibly the dreariest doom-laden sleeve possible the Crispy Factory debut, Unsightly & Serene kicks off with fabulous chopping Fenders and a ghostly chorus of ' Hear Me... Hear Me! ' If you hadn't heard Crispy Ambulance before you would be mistaken to think they were the dreariest band on the planet, perhaps that was their deliberate intention on this release. Manchester & the Crispies were never as miserable as these images portray, however with hindsight, the label should have released the follow up 12" and LP on Factory Records (UK) rather than the Benelux imprint as it turned out FAC Thirty Two would be the only Crispy Ambulance release on the UK label. A1 Deaf B1 Not What I Expected

Scissorgun - Assault Two [AAR 002 UK 2017 24-Bit FLAC] Alan Hempsall is best known as lead singer of Manchester post-punks Crispy Ambulance, and the voice who stood in for Ian Curtis at Joy Division's infamous Derby Hall gig . Dave Clarkson is a Manchester electronic instrumentalist who has  a lengthy back catelogue in a variety of guises. Scissorgun was also the name of Crispy Ambulance's reformation album at the turn of the century. Assault Two was a ten inch vinyl mini-album and compact disc set released on Hempsall's Aural Assault label a few years back, featuring five complex post-industrial arrangements leaning on Hempsall's influences from acts such as Throbbing Gristle (no more so than on Dusting For Zika ) and Clarkson's ethereal, eno-esque textures (check out Caballero ). The enclosed compact disc features full length versions of the vinyl tracks with two additional compositions. A1 Bastard Son A2 Dusting For Zika B1 Caballero ...

Crispy Ambulance - Sexus [FBN 18 BEL 1984 24-Bit FLAC] The fourth and final single released by Crispy Ambulance, Sexus was part of their live set from around 1982 onwards. Whilst not as post-punk as From The Cradle To The Grave or as splendidly dreary as Deaf and The Presence , Sexus is an upbeat number in the Crispy repertoire, fronted as usual with Alan Hempsall's manic vocal style. The very experimental & moody Black Death/Life is Knife spans the 8 minute b-side. Apologies for the occasional crackle on the flipside but I wanted to preserve the audio quality as much as possible without the use of noise removal software. Enjoy. A1  Sexus B1  Black Death / Life Is Knife

Various - Heures Sans Soleil (2016 Edition) [CY 998W7 ITA 2016 24-Bit FLAC] Originally released on the fledgling Les Temps Modernes label in the winter of 1985. Boutique label bedroom self indulgence or relevant collection of the post-punk avantgarde...? The Heures Sans Soleil compilation marked a significant landmark in my musical exploration. Attracted by Factory faves Section 25 and Crispy Ambulance, plus the need to hear more from Adi Newton's Anti-Group and the funky A Primary Industry, I parted with my hard earned dosh at a small independent store just south of Guildford, Surrey. The music contained intrigued and encapsulated me, the diversity was extremely rich ...from twisted loops of The Anti-Group through to the obtuse Polish folk of Mazowsze and the wonderful melancholy of The Happy Family, I was drawn in. Section 25 give us the full introduction of New Horizons, backed up by the dour Hold Me , Manchester's Dislocation Dance take us on a delightful d...