Without Mercy (Factory Benelux FBN 84 / CD)

Factory Benelux presents expanded 4CD and 2LP disc editions of Without Mercy, the fourth album by Manchester ensemble The Durutti Column, originally released in 1984 and widely regarded as Vini Reilly's most ambitious album.

In 1983 The Durutti Column's mentor/manager Tony Wilson asked Vini Reilly to abandon fleeting guitar miniatures in favour of a longform modern classical piece. The result was an ambitious 20 minute instrumental suite, Without Mercy, performed by core Durutti duo Vini Reilly and Bruce Mitchell along with Blaine L. Reininger and John Metcalfe (violas), Caroline Lavelle (cello), Tim Kellett (trumpet) and Maunagh Fleming (cor anglais).

Explains Vini: "Tony had just come in for a conversation one day and said, 'Look, you keep making these albums that you want to make, and I'm quite happy with you doing that, but just give me this one album and do it my way.' He wanted it to have a narrative determined by a Keats poem, La Belle Dame Sans Merci, which he said was the poet's version of a pop song: boy meets girl, falls in love with girl, loses girl, blah blah blah. It was a very, very Tony way of looking at it. He had aspirations that I should be taken seriously."

Produced by Reilly and Wilson at Strawberry Studio and Britannia Row, Without Mercy was originally split into 19 separate stanzas, some of which have now been restored using digital cue points on the CD. Bonus tracks include the original recordings of Duet, Estoril a Noite and Favourite Descending Intervals (all re-worked for inclusion on Without Mercy), as well as companion EP Say What You Mean, Mean What You Say, collaborations with John Metcalfe, Steven Brown and Benjamin Lew, and two previously unreleased live sets across Discs 3 and 4, recorded at London School of Economics in December 1984 and Oslo in December 1986.

The remastered 4xCD set is housed in a clamshell box, with inner wallets and liner notes by Reilly, Wilson, Mitchell, Reininger and Metcalfe. The cover painting is L'Etang de Trivaux by Henri Matisse (1916/17).

A double gatefold vinyl edition is also available with free digital copy (MP3) of the vinyl tracks. The outer sleeve is printed on 500 mic grey cairn board, with letterpress typography and tipped sheets front and back. The insert (with liner notes) is printed on a 350gsm white frost card, and the whole package housed in a re-sealable polybag.

A limited edition of 100 copies of the vinyl will also be available with a postcard signed by Vini and Bruce. These copies are only available from FBN mailorder.

Available as a 4CD box, gatefold double vinyl and MP3 (vinyl tracklisting) via Factory Benelux mailorder.

For release in September 2018.

M24J (Anthology) (Factory Benelux FBN 164 / CD)

M24J (Anthology) is a collection of valuable passages recorded by The Durutti Column between 1979 and 20?? for various iterations of Factory Records, including poignant tributes to Anthony H. Wilson and Ian Curtis.

Available as a gatefold double vinyl (with bonus 7") and 2CD set, M24J includes selections from The Return of the Durutti Column, LC, Another Setting, Short Stories for Pauline, Without Mercy, Circuses and Bread, The Guitar and Other Machines, Vini Reilly, Obey the Time, Treatise on the Steppenwolf and A Paean to Wilson.

Bonus tracks on the CD version include three tracks recorded live in Leeds in October 1980, these being the earliest preserved professional in-concert recordings by Vini Reilly. The bonus 7" included in the vinyl package features two previously unreleased live recordings: a cover of Peter Green's Albatross recorded in 2004, and Spooky Tune, recorded with Poppy Morgan at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester in 2011, Vini's last major concert to date.

The remastered 2xCD set is housed in a jewel case; copies ordered direct from FBN are delivered in a Factory Benelux slipcase. The vinyl version is housed in a double gatefold sleeve printed on white matt board and includes as a digital copy (MP3).

Available in September 2018 on CD, gatefold double vinyl (+7") and MP3 (vinyl tracklisting) via Factory Benelux Mailorder.

Vini's Desktop iPhone Ringtones

The vintage Vini Reilly desktop wavs recently posted on Soundcloud are now available as iPhone ringtones:

vini-1
vini-2
vini-3
vini-4

[Please note these are supplied "as is" with no technical support on installation on your iPhone.]

Many thanks to Graham Anderson for the idea and file conversion duties.

The Durutti Column on Soundcloud

The Durutti Column is now on Soundcloud and the first batch of recordings includes Believe In Me (mixes one and two) and Duet which were first distributed on the internet by the excellent (FAC 2.26) The Durutti Column - Vini Reilly website run by Rob Stanzel. The tracks come from a DAT provided by Vini Reilly in July 1997 and are now available once again officially for internet distribution.

Tracks are available for download for the first 100 downloads only so get in there quick!