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1998, Dust to Dust E-Zine
Rating: 8
Alright. First off there are two things you should know about this album before you buy, love, hold (etc.) it. They go as follows:
1) There is, in fact, virtually no new music on this collection.
2) There is absolutely no new cover art or text.
Ok, now you can buy it.
EP Collection Volumes 1&2 is a massive set of Cranes hit singles (a.k.a. stuff that might have made air play on any radio station in Great Britain). Slightly more than a third of the songs can be found on their LPs and the rest are reasonably common a and b sides. The only previously unreleased material on the record set are two hidden songs: the rare Slide and an unfulfilling remix of the classic Starblood from their second album Wings of Joy. The cost: only sixteen dollars.
Although it contains nothing off of the 1986 self released tape Fuse, it does give a very accurate description of the Cranes voyage over the last ten years. The collection features two discs following an approximate cronological order. It starts with two songs from the early Self Non Self EP and progresses through musical states the Cranes went through instead of strictly by time. Therefore the album begins with the Cranes forced early industrial stage (they did not have enough band members to play anything but industrial) to a more ethereal goth to a folkish sounding indie pop. The listed collection ends with two songs off La Tragédie dŽOreste et Électre (based on a sartre play which was based on Euripides) showing off the Cranes versatility and orchestral brilliance. Two hidden tracks complete the collection with an excellently refined but previously unknown Slide summarizing the second disc and a remix of the popular Starblood, a model of the Cranes first half career with powerful drums and a harsher sound.
Reviewer's notes: So you are probably wondering why there is a rating of eight at the top of the screen. When I first bought the record, I too, questioned it's value because of it's lack of new material. After a while I noticed that it quickly became the most played record in my collection. Although I owned all of the songs on other discs, I began to only listen to it. Why? Because it houses the best stuff the Cranes have ever done. Although it is not exclusive, it hits all of the high points throughout the Cranes career. I personally favor the second disc's softer etherealness to the more noisy first. My favorite tracks include Casa Blanca off the first disc and September off the second.
© Dust to Dust 1998
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