4AD presents a trifecta of special 30th Anniversary Editions of classic releases from stand-out artists across our catalogue, available on digital platforms and CD on 23 May. This includes the following:
Pale Saints – Slow Buildings (30th Anniversary Re:Masters) – Remastered & using the original art photography by Dominic Davies. Pre-Order CD and Pre-Save on Digital HERE.
Pale Saints complete their series of 30th anniversary reissues with the release of an expanded edition of their third and final album, Slow Buildings.
By 1994, they were the quartet of Meriel Barham (vocals / guitar), Chris Cooper (drums), Graeme Naysmith (guitar) and Colleen Browne (bassist), who having just left The Heart Throbs replaced founding member Ian Masters who had departed the band to form Spoonfed Hybrid with AC Temple’s Chris Trout.
Primed by the brilliant single ‘Fine Friend’ (a song adapted from 1981’s “Poison in the Airwaves” by Scottish band Persian Rugs), third album Slow Buildings shows the band still venturing forward – this time, keeping the experimentation and guitar fuzz of their early records whilst opening-up their songs so Meriel’s vocals could hit new, pop heights.
As with the 30th anniversary reissues of their previous two albums, this special pressing sees this long out of print record being remastered and expanded to include a wealth of bonus material that’s sure to delight fans. Working with mastering engineer Kevin Vanbergen, this new edition runs over two discs with the album being packaged with the Fine Friend EP and a great selection of previously unheard tracks and demos as handpicked by the band.
Lisa Germano – Geek the Girl (30th Anniversary Special Edition) – Pre-Order CD and Pre-Save on Digital HERE.
Lisa Germano’s landmark 1994 album, Geek The Girl, is a prescient yet unsettling listen. A record that explores themes of stalking, sexual harassment, anxiety and the female experience, word of mouth has only grown since its release, & now widely seen as a classic of its time.
A record that is as vital a statement today as when first released, Lisa is unflinching and unbowed throughout Geek The Girl, giving a platform to the silenced, or as she says, “people who are stuck but want to go somewhere else.” Writing with a raw, emotional honesty – sometimes from a kowtowing perspective – she holds little back. An incredible body of work, the atmosphere is heightened by a jaunting violin sound and her use of (with permission and after much deliberation) of a real 911 call in which a woman confronts an intruder in her own home. Her recurring use of Sicilian folk tune ‘Frascilita’ as an interlude jars too, even though she intended for it to give the album some needed “comic relief.”
Belly – King (30th Anniversary Edition) – Remastered by Kevin Vanbergen Pre-Order CD and Pre-Save on Digital HERE.
Belly found themselves at something of a crossroads when it came to following up their 1993 debut album Star – a wildly successful record that earned the band two GRAMMY nominations including the coveted Best New Artist award. With bassist Gail Greenwood having joined the ranks in between, she plus the trio of Tanya Donelly and brothers Chris and Tom Gorman rented a house in rural Rhode Island to write collaboratively before heading to Nassau in the Bahamas to record in Island Records founder Chris Blackwell’s legendary studio Compass Point (a place famed for where AC/DC, Grace Jones, Tom Tom Club, and countless others recorded major works). Away from industry pressure and guided by veteran producer Glyn Johns (Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, The Who), they made the most of the relaxed surroundings, recording live in the room and minimising overdubs so to capture as much of the band’s chemistry on tape as they could.
Featuring singles ‘Now They’ll Sleep’, ‘Seal My Fate’, and ‘Super-Connected’, the resultant King was a step on, a deceptively complex album where the quartet had chosen artistic growth over commerciality. Their lyrics took more of a political and personal bent, while musically it was heavier, in part due to Gail’s muscular playing style and more deft guitar interplay between Tanya and Tom. SPIN Magazine saying at the time that it marked their evolution from “indie darlings to rock contenders.”
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