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The Names \ Names In Mutation [TWI 098 CD]

Names In Mutation is an archive CD combining two side-projects by Belgian cold wave group The Names, best known for their work on Factory, Factory Benelux and Les Disques du Crépuscule.

The first three tracks were originally released as a solo cassette single by guitarist Marc Deprez in April 1981. Somewhat in the style of The Durutti Column, the K7 was issued in a limited edition of just 100 copies with hand-coloured inserts. A video clip for Balade à Tervueren was also included on the Crépuscule compilation video Umbrellas in the Sun (TWI 099), filmed in the picturesque grounds of the Musée Royal de l'Afrique Centrale in Tervuren.

Tracks from Marc's cassette were also used as interval music on the Crépuscule package tour Dialogue North-South in February 1982. On this tour The Names played as Names In Mutation, performing only the darker 'night' side of their acclaimed Swimming album, along with short instrumental Music for Someone and an absurdist introduction by emcee Wally van Middendorp, of Minny Pops. The set on this CD was recorded at Brussels Beursschouwburg on 3 February 1982.

Tracklist:

1. Balade à Tervueren (K7)
2. A Coeur Fendre (K7)
3. Véronique (K7)
4. NIM intro (WvM)
5. Véronique (interval)
6. Music for Someone (live)
7. Leave Her to Heaven (live)
8. (This Is) Harmnony (live)
9. Shanghai Gesture (live)
10. Light (live)

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

Or, you can order with the option of tracked shipping from our friends at Burning Shed (click here to order)

Names In Mutation [TWI 098]
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Reviews:

"Perhaps every music fan did it in the 80s: collect tapes. Once I got a tape by Marc Deprez, Balade à Tervuren. An unknown name for most, but he is the guitarist of The Names, the best post-punk band Belgium ever had. There were three instrumental tracks on the release. Yes, all wonderful, but it sounded like The Durutti Column: the same technique, and mostly the same melancholy. I cherished the cassette until it broke. Disappointed for sure, but now these beautiful songs have been released on CD, along with a live recording (on February 3 at the Beursschouwburg in Brussels). An indispensable piece of music history!" (Peek A Boo, 05/2016)

"Some 35 years ago Marc Deprez, guitarist and co-founder of Belgian new-wavers The Names. recorded a limited-run cassette-single (remember those?) of three elegiac instrumentals. With just 100 copies produced, compilers of the official Belgian charts were never likely to get in a sweat over a K7 issued in true home-made style. These tracks are simple guitar and beatbox passages that reflect on their creator's sensitive nature with an homage to his wife on Veronique, broken hearts on A Coeur Fendre and the then-quaint heavily-wooded Brussels outer suburban village Tervueren, now an ex-pat's area of choice. The similarity of these tracks to early-period Durutti Column has ensured their notoriety amongst the most ardent of collectors of related ephemera, and their inclusion on this fans-only CD should ensure continued interest."

"Comprising also a string of hard-to-find live recordings taken from the infamous Dialogue North-South tour, when the band opted to perform as Names in Mutation (a reference to the tour's insistence that the acts showcase darker less commercial material), NIM is a Names aficionados' dream. The setlist includes sprightly instrumental Music for Someone, the swaying Leave Her To Heaven and, what has become a barnstorming concert favourite in recent years, Shanghai Gesture. The quality isn't HD but it's pretty damned good considering the age of the recordings so stand down, stereo pedants. A basic picture card-sleeve featuring a Tervueren landmark, the gorgeous Royal Museum of Africa, completes the package for only a tenner!" (Flipside, 05/2016)