A Factory Assembly for Electronic Sound

Issue 54 of Electronic Sound magazine is a Factory Records special and there's a special double seven-inch single, 'A Factory Assembly' in homage to the original FAC 2 A Factory Sample with certain copies. The Durutti Column contributes 'Lips That Would Kiss (Form Prayers to Broken Stone)' alongside prime cuts from A Certain Ratio, Minny Pops and Section 25. The bundle is sold out online but copies with the single may still be available from certain stockists.

Obey The Time (Factory Benelux, FBN 274 CD)

Factory Benelux presents a deluxe 3CD box set edition of Obey the Time (FBN 274 CD), the eighth studio album by The Durutti Column. Originally released by Factory Records in December 1990, the original 10 tracks have now been expanded to 43. Release date is 13 April.

Largely self-produced, and entirely instrumental, Obey the Time saw Vini Reilly further develop his interest in electronic music, and even embracing house and techno stylings. "The title came screaming off the TV screen in somebody's version of Othello and captured exactly the feel of the work in progress," explained Tony Wilson, Durutti manager and Factory founder. "We were in the middle of the Acieeed explosion. If you lived in Manchester, you were absolutely in the middle of it. Vini even explained why House made keyboards sound so fresh. Something to do with a chord being played with 3 or 4 notes into the sampler, but then different chords being triggered by a single key stroke. Creating mathematical harmonic relationships 'which Schoenberg had searched for but never found.'"

Indeed veteran Durutti percussionist Bruce Mitchell features on just one track, Art and Freight. Marking a further break with tradition, dance exploration Contra-Indications was taped with New Order programmer (and later co-manager) Andy Robinson. Released in December 1990, Obey the Time (Fact 274) would be the last Durutti Column album on Factory before the labelled collapsed beneath a mountain of debt.

Other extras include single and remix tracks The Together Mix and Kiss of Def, rare compilation cuts such as The New Fidelity, The Awards Show and Times Like These, and several extracts from two unreleased Factory albums recorded during the same 1989/90 period: Guitar One: House (Fact 254) and Guitar Two: Acoustic (Fact 264).

CD3 features 11 live tracks from a previously unreleased performance at Manchester University Whitworth Hall on 23 June 1990 (opportunistically billed as 'The Acid Guitar'), on which Reilly and Mitchell are joined by guests Andy Connell, Liu Sola and Rob Gray.

Original cover art by 8vo. The remastered set is housed in a clamshell card box, with individual inner sleeves and liner notes.

More information and how to buy at Factory Benelux Mailorder.