As musical time-machines go, From Brussels With Love is perfect. It takes you right back to 1980, when some of the most interesting music was being made by small independent artists and labels exploring left-field classicalacoustic and machine-tooled electronica outside the shipping routes of chart pop. Originally a cassette-only release, it now receives its first proper CD issue (there was a very limited one in 1996 from Crepuscule), complete with a 20-page booklet replicating the original packaging.
The sequencing is brilliant, with Harold Budd’s solo piano, Children Of The Hill, segueing perfectly into Durutti Column’s Sleep Will Come, which, in turn, moves into the dissonant sonic textiles of Martin Hannett’s The Music Room. As well as Michael Nyman, Gavin Bryars and Kevin Hewick & New Order, there are great interviews with Brian Eno and Jeanne Moreau (while Erik Satie is being played in the background), although Richard Jobson’s spoken word Armoury Show poem does make a minuteand- 17-seconds pass by very slowly indeed.
As well as BC Gilbert & Graham Lewis’ dirty experimental music, Twist Up, it’s also great also to hear Der Plan again. They showed that German electronica could not only be melodic, but also great fun. John Foxx contributes synth jingles.
