Always idiosyncratic, intelligent and challenging, post-punk Manchester trio THE PASSAGE produced an important and often overlooked body of work, all of which is now being re-issued by LTM.
"Pindrop", the band's 1980 debut album (originally released by the Object label back in the day) is the logical chronological entry point, and one that never ceases to haunt and provoke no matter how many times you refer back to it.
Although the definitive Passage line-up of Witts, Wilson and McKechnie was imminent, "Pindrop" is basically a vehicle for multi-instrumentalist Dick Witts alone, although the fact he recorded these strange, but compelling songs with only engineer Stuart Pickering on a basic 4-track set-up is credit to both mens' craft as new sonic tangents still crop up with exposure over 20 years on.
A murky, militant atmosphere prevails, with the Orwellian overtones of the opening track "Fear" making it abundantly clear this album won't be an easy ride. So it proves, too, as tracks like "Carnal" ( "I don't trust words, I don't trust YOU!"), the obsessive "Anderton's Hall" and the truly eerie "Watching You Dance" all upping the paranoic ante.
Witts' relentless creativity also sometimes craved a more commerical outlet, too, and thus "Pindrop" features songs like "Troops Out" - which has all the hallmarks of a great post-punk hit single and sounds scarily contemporary in today's terrorist-obsessed world - and "Carmen", which previews The Passage's poppier, more accessible sound that would be unveiled fully with third album "Degenerates."
Meanwhile, it's often forgotten that Dick Witts initially put The Passage together with Fall bassist Tony Friel and drummer Lorraine Hilton in 1978 and this trio made two rare EPS (also recorded for Object) that LTM have thrillingly included here. Of course, we're so used to encountering a bass-free Passage that to hear the band with Friel's propulsive input (not too far from The Fall's "Live At The Witch Trials" without Martin Bramah's trebly signatures) is pretty startling. The eight songs by this trio are great, though, not least "New Kind Of Love", "16 Hours" and the controversial, narcissistic, libido-obsesssing "Love Song."
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To round off, we also get a largely fantastic Piccadilly Radio session from February 1981 (featuring Witts, Wilson and McKechnie). These six tracks include some great rarities like "Mr.Terror, Chief Of Police," - where Witts takes another potshot at everyone's favourite God-bothering Supercop - and the whiplash pop of "My One Request". This latter features a chorus of "Love, fear, power, hope": pretty much setting out Witts' lyrical concerns in one accessible line.
"Pindrop," then, remains the essential first stage on any in-depth journey through The Passage. Even shorn of the early EPS and session tracks it's a frighteningly dark statement of intent, but in this extended form it's unmissable.
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