Edward Ka-spel "Down in the City of Heartbreak and Needles
Volume 2"
Soleilmoon Recordings SOL60CD 1998 (64:53)
Even Now (4:18)
Lady Sunshine (2:55)
Find the Lady (3:24)
Inferno (9:03)
Illusion (12:09)
The Man Who Never Was (3:47)
Paradise Then (3:04)
Atomic Roses (5:38)
A Crack in Melancholy Times (7:36)
The Fool With Spanners (8:59)
Number Nine Number Nine Number Nine Number Nine (4:00)
Music by Edward Ka-spel with Lilly Ak (lady voice), Elke Skelter (voice & synthesizer), The Silverman (keyboards) and Christoph Heemann (sonic manipulation)
Overall impression: very good. Despite Ka-spel's vast array of songs with the Legendary Pink Dots, Edward still has an abundance of leftover odds and ends that he (thankfully) puts out as a solo artist. "Down in ... Volume 2" continues where Vol 1 left off, collecting those odds and ends from the past 14 years onto one beautifully designed digitally mastered disc. Track 1 is from the 1984 Dance China Doll 12" EP, tracks 2, 3, 7 and 8 are from the 1984 Laugh China Doll LP, tracks 4 and 5 are from the 1993 Robot Records 10" mini album, track 6 is the a-side from the 1993 Robot/Anomolous Records 7" single and tracks 9, 10 and 11 are previously unreleased (no dates given, but I believe they're all 90's works). As you can see, the cd is split about evenly between old and new. The '84 songs are keyboard and vocal oriented, more structured and "song-like" bizarre pop ditties with the unique Ka-spel lyrical/vocal touch. The 90's songs are generally more experimental, often lengthy ambient/noise pieces ("A Crack.." is a noisier extended re-working of the song from LPD's "9 Lives to Wonder" album). I appreciate the balance here, the older and newer songs counterpoint each other nicely. All in all, a great sampling of Ka-spel's many worlds and yet another must have for the LPD fanatic. Sing while you may ...