Factory Benelux presents a new studio album by cult Manchester postpunk group Crispy Ambulance, issued in a limited edition of 500 vinyl copies to mark Record Store Day 2015.
In many respects Compulsion is the second album Crispy Ambulance might have recorded in 1982 after the release of The Plateau Phase, with six of the eight tracks written and performed live at that time. To these are now added Rain Without Clouds, an outtake from The Plateau Phase newly restored from the original multitrack masters, and WMTP.2 with added synth lines by producer-cum fifth member Graham Massey, of 808 State and Biting Tongues.
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). "There's a sense of feeling compelled by irresistible forces," explains Alan Hempsall. "Compulsion is an apt way to describe our constant urge to go back and make music with people we've known since childhood. While the world may have changed, our music continues to be the product of the same influences - the passing of time, the changing of the seasons, the content of our sleeping dreams, and the existence of space."
Cover art by Peter Staessens. The package also features a free digital download of the album.