Pindrop + Degenerates (40th Anniversary Reissue)

Two CDs. To mark the 40th anniversary of Pindrop, the lauded first album by cult Manchester postpunk group The Passage, LTM presents a new 2xCD set combining their 1980 debut with their third and most commercially successfully album, Degenerates, from 1982. Formed by former Hallé Orchestra percussionist Dick Witts and Fall bassist Tony Friel in 1978, the band issued two EPs on esoteric indie label Object Music before fracturing the following year, leaving Witts to record Pindrop virtually solo. A dense, brooding, claustrophobic album, dominated by layered keyboards and incisive vocal texts, contemporary critics put Pindrop on a par with Joy Division and Wire. By 1982 the group were a trio, with Witts joined by guitarist Andrew Wilson and drummer Joe McKechnie, as well as an array of emerging digital technology. The third Passage album, Degenerates, appeared on Cherry Red, trailed by near-hit single XoYo. "How on earth XoYo missed the charts must remain forever a mystery," Q Magazine would note later of an album of skewed technopop, which nevertheless retained the dark truculence of the group's earlier work. Both Pindrop and Degenerates are expanded on CD to include companion singles and radio sessions, with archive images and detailed liner notes contained in the 16 page booklet.