New Order, Eno, Durutti on Post-Punk Comp Reissue

Re-issue! Re-package! Re-package!
Re-evaluate the songs
double-pack with a photograph
Extra Track (and a tacky badge)...

Ah Morrissey...stop being so pessimistic. Sure, the "sickening greed" of the music industry's "sycophantic slags" dates further back than we care to remember, but certainly there are exceptions to the rule, right? For instance, the rescuing from obscurity (and exorbitant eBay spending) of notable 1980 "postpunk pop avant-garde" (thank you Greil Marcus!) compilation From Brussels With Love by LTM Recordings.

Originally the very first release by mysterious Belgian label Les Disques du Crépuscule, the From Brussels With Love cassette compilation from November 1980 has long been a sought-after oddity of a bygone era, not to mention a bygone format.

LTM released the collection for the first time on CD yesterday, February 12 (although there are supposedly ultra-rare Japanese versions kicking around, if you prefer that particular quest). Scoop it up via Darla in the U.S.

Much of the material is quite rare and appears only on the cassette, including an early committal to tape by Thomas Dolby, two "experiments" by Factory Records' Durutti Column, tunes by New Order (with one-time Ian Curtis "replacement" Kevin Hewick) and in-house producer Martin Hannett, compositions by soundtrack gurus Michael Nyman and Harold Budd, interviews with actress Jeanne Moreau and Brian Eno (by Wim Mertens), a track by Wire's Bruce Gilbert and Graham Lewis, two "jingles" by original Ultravox vocalist John Foxx, and other curios.

Clocking in at 75 minutes, this CD reissue's aim is true and it has almost everything the original cassette release did-- minus A Certain Ratio's live version of "Felch" found on the cassette, and minus the cassette itself, of course-- including a 16-page facsimile of the original booklet and artwork by the superb Crépuscule designers Benoît Hennebert and Jean-François Octave.

Thankfully what started as a schoolyard blush has turned into full-blown obsession for LTM as it continues to crush hard on the artists most commonly associated with the Factory/Benelux and Les Disques du Crépuscule labels of yesteryear. The beginning of 2007 will also have the imprint re-release the soundtrack to Peter Greenaway's film The Belly of an Architect (scored by Mertens and featuring a number of pieces by Glenn Branca) and a deluxe package dedicated to Manchester "discordo" band the Diagram Brothers.

From Brussels With Love:

01 John Foxx - "A Jingle *1"
02 Thomas Dolby - "Airwaves"
03 Repetition - "Stranger"
04 Harold Budd - "Children on the Hill"
05 Durutti Column - "Sleep Will Come"
06 Martin Hannett - "The Music Room"
07 The Names - "Cat"
08 Michael Nyman - "A Walk Through H"
09 Brian Eno - "Interview"/Phill Niblock - "A Third Trombone"
10 Jeanne Moreau - "Interview"
11 Richard Jobson - "Armoury Show"
12 Bill Nelson - "The Shadow Garden"
13 Durutti Column - "Piece for an Angel"
14 Kevin Hewick & New Order - "Haystack"
15 Radio Romance - "Etrange Affinite"
16 Gavin Bryars - "White's SS"
17 Der Plan - "Meine Freunde"
18 Gilbert and Lewis - "Twist Up"
19 John Foxx - "A Jingle *2"