Legendary Pink Dots schedule tour, releasing another album

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Legendary Pink Dots - Russian Roulette (MP3)
DOWNLOAD: Legendary Pink Dots - Endless Time (MP3)

Formed in London around 1980, the Legendary Pink Dots relocated to Amsterdam in the middle of the decade, using that city as the basis for an enormously productive and diverse career that -- despite clear crypto-pop accessibility amid occasionally excessive psychedelic exotica -- has remained well below commercial radar. Proceeding out of a hodgepodge of gloomy/fringey/hippie antecedents -- Joy Division, Syd Barrett, Faust, etc. -- but adding a classical sensibility, involuted mythology, found-sound sampling weirdness, plus all sorts of stylistic cross-mingling and experimentation, Edward Ka- Spel (vocals, lyrics, keyboards), Phil Knights (aka The Silver Man; keyboards) and a shifting collection of associates have turned the Legendary Pink Dots into an open- ended adventure. Although certainly prone to enigmatic risk- taking, the enormously resourceful LPD is a mellifluous and dynamically restrained proposition: this is one dip into the rock netherworld that won't send you running for cover. [Trouser Press]

For the unfamiliar, finding an entry point into the band's, voluminous, dense, often bleak catalog is a daunting task, though I'd probably suggest 1990's Crushed Velvet Apocalypse which is a strong, relatively poppy place to start. Edward Ka-Spel and Phil Knight have kept the torch lit for 30 years with little, if any, interest in commercial appeal. Which is probably why they've remained relevant -- and still wonderfully weird -- three decades in.

All Legendary Pink Dots tour dates are below...