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Blaine L. Reininger \ Night Air [TWI 267 CD]

An expanded 2xCD edition of the classic second album from Tuxedomoon member Blaine L. Reininger, originally issued by Crépuscule in 1984 and now newly remastered from the original analog tapes.

Night Air was recorded in Brussels in 1983, shortly after Reininger left Tuxedomoon, in collaboration with former Sleepers guitarist Michael Belfer. Other guests include Steven Brown and Winston Tong of Tuxedomoon, and Marc Hollander of Aksak Maboul. The final mix was supervised by Gareth Jones, famed for his work with Depeche Mode, Einsturzende Neubauten and Wire.

The part-instrumental album offers a sequence of bittersweet expatriate vignettes. "I suppose I should be grateful to the capital of Europe for providing the seed around which so much of my spleen could crystallize for so many years," explains Reininger, who hailed from Colorado via San Francisco. "Brussels provided me with such a rich source of melancholic poetry."

The 10 core tracks on Night Air include popular single Mystery and Confusion, as well as Birthday Song (originally performed by Tuxedomoon), the elegiac Ash and Bone, and the exquisite baroque pop of A Café au Lait for Mr XYZPTLK. The 6 bonus tracks on Disc 1 include Windy Outside (a collaboration with Mikel Rouse), The Sea Wall (performed with Durutti Column) and two versions of Crash, written by Reininger and Belfer in 1980 for Tuxedomoon, and subsequently remixed by The Residents.

Disc 2 preserves a previously unreleased live recording from Bologna, Italy, on 19 March 1984. Billed as the Spiny Doughboys Review, the 14 song set includes songs from Night Air and Broken Fingers.

The deluxe 2xCD set is housed in a 6 panel digipack. Photography by Charles Van Hoorick, with liner notes by Reininger, Belfer and Gilles Martin.

Tracklist:

Disc 1:

1. Night Air
2. Birthday Song
3. Beak People
4. Mystery and Confusion
5. Intermission
6. Ash & Bone
7. L'Entrée de l'Hierophante
8. A Café au Lait for Mr XYZPTLK
9. Miraculous Absence
10. El Mensajero Divino
11. Mystery and Confusion (7" Mix)
12. Bizarre Bizarre
13. Windy Outside
14. The Sea Wall
15. Crash
16. Crash (Residents Remix)

Disc 2 (live):

1. Violin Piece
2. Spiny Doughboys
3. Gigolo Grasiento
4. Volo Vivace
5. Ash & Bone
6. Night Air
7. Birthday Song
8. Magnetic Life
9. Sons of the Silent Age
10. Mystery and Confusion
11. Broken Fingers
12. Uptown
13. A Café au Lait for Mr XYZPTLK
14. That's Amore

Available on 2xCD digipack + digital (MP3 or FLAC). To order CD please select correct shipping option (UK, Europe or Rest of World) and click on Add To Cart button below the cover image. Digital copies are supplied via link by email.

Night Air [TWI 267 CD]
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Reviews:

"Electro noir? Oh yes please. Reininger made this with a bunch of pals in Brussels in 1983 shortly after he left the day job in Tuxedomoon. There's all sorts in here - eastern vibes, smoky saxophones, clattering bright drums and tiptoes keys. Nice job" (Electronic Sound, 11/2017)

"One of the stranger documents of the transatlantic golden age of independent labels after punk - European art song through theatrical and decayed San Francisco proto-punk. Reininger's lyrics obsess over moods familiar from Cold War fictions like John le Carre's Smiley novels and Mitteleuropean nostalgia" (The Wire, 12/2017)

"A major album - highly atmospheric, steeped in mist and melancholy, and redolent of Dashiel Hammett and Tom Waits, or even Brian Eno with a latino croon" (Libre Belgique, 09/1984)

"Night Air seeks to combine modern classicism with a new approach to atmospheric chanson. Reininger is way ahead of his time" (Rock This Town, 06/1984)

"Pure chin-on-floor time. On Windy Outside, Reininger croons an alienated cowboy song on which gripping melancholy collides with Jack Bruce" (Time Out, 12/1984)

"Crash is a rare and marvellous achievement, and the only truly honest record of the week" (NME, 1980)

Night Air [TWI 267 CD]