Random Textures / Compulsion

Factory Benelux presents 'Random Textures', a new instrumental album by cult Manchester group Crispy Ambulance, now issued as a double CD set with the 2015 album 'Compulsion' included as a bonus disc.

'Random Textures' features material written by the band for a series of multi-media events in Manchester during 2015/16 and billed as the Subliminal Impulse Review. The producer is long-term collaborator Graham Massey of 808 State/Biting Tongues.

Companion disc 'Compulsion' was originally issued in a limited edition of 500 vinyl copies to mark Record Store Day in 2015. In many respects, it's the second album Crispy Ambulance might have recorded in 1982 after the release of the seminal debut 'The Plateau Phase', with seven of the ten tracks written and performed live at that time. To these are added 'Rain Without Clouds', an outtake newly restored from the original multitrack masters, and remixes of 'Four Line Whip' and 'WMTP.2' by producer-cum fifth member Graham Massey.

Almost uniquely, Crispy Ambulance has retained the same line-up since the group was originally founded in 1978: Alan Hempsall (vocals, keyboards), Gary Madeley (drums), Robert Davenport (guitars), Keith Darbyshire (bass). Cover image by Paul Normann.