If you’ve been paying close attention, you may have noticed The Durutti Column’s name pop up on more than a few of our 12 Songs playlists so far. They’re often a bailout choice for me when looking for music that fits the week’s theme, whatever that may be, mostly because their music can wear so many different hats: ambient, electronic, latin, jazz, even classical at times. It’s the kind of stuff that would be equally at home played in a Buddhist monastery as it would be alongside Manchester scene contemporaries like Joy Division and Happy Mondays on a Factory Records compilation.

A good place to start for those unfamiliar with the band would be the their sarcastically-titled debut The Return of The Durutti Column, produced by the infamous Martin Hannett of Unknown Pleasures fame. Highlights here include “Sketch for Summer” and “Sketch for Winter.”

The album is recognized in the art world for its infamous sandpaper cover, which was originally Factory founder Tony Wilson’s idea. His argument was that there was some sort of obscure Dada-ist statement inherent in a record that, by merely existing, destroyed the other records it sat next to on shelves… but personally, I think this was just another case of Tony Wilson being Tony Wilson.

"I didn't even know it was going to be an album. It was just the case of jumping at the chance of being in the studio. I actually didn't get up in time, Martin had to physically get me out of bed to get me to the studio – that's how little I believed it would happen. I was still doing late night petrol station shifts…I was completely baffled. 'What, this is really going to be an album? You must be insane! No-one's going to buy this!' And then Tony got the idea from the Situationists about the sandpaper book, and decided to do some with a sandpaper sleeve. It was Joy Division that stuck the sandpaper onto the card. I was mortified." —Vini Reilly on The Return of The Durutti Column

LC, or Lotta Continua (Italian for Continuous Struggle) is the group’s masterpiece. Recorded on a four track in chief songwriter Vini Reilly’s home in 1981, the album could be considered the first ever “bedroom lo-fi” record to be released in the professional sphere.

Despite the intentional limitations put in place by Reilly’s decision to record with a four track, the album itself is a sonic triumph. Cosmically cascading Latin guitars echo from the inside of some distant black hole, saturated by copious amounts of reverb and tape delay manipulation. Keir Stewart’s basslines politely bounce around in the back of the mix, not to take away from the brilliance of Reilly’s guitar work, while Bruce Mitchell’s tribal-jazz fusion rhythms keep everything somewhat grounded to Earth.

On a somewhat unrelated note, listen to John Frusciante’s “Murderers” and then “Never Known” off LC; it’s an obvious homage to his idol, who he calls “the greatest guitar player in the world.”

Over time, the group made a noticeable shift in a more artificial-sounding direction, and the crystalline guitar licks and tribal rhythms that once defined their sound became more or less usurped by the Reilly’s newfound affinity for synthesizers, sequencers, and cheesy-sounding drum machines.

The most noteworthy release from this period - and perhaps the group’s most overlooked - is 1996’s Fidelity, which at times may sound closer to Aphex Twin than The Durutti Column; the influence is obvious. You can hear how then-recent releases of Selected Ambient Works I and II could potentially have informed the musical direction of Fidelity in tracks like in tracks like “Grace” and “Future Perfect.” It’s techno for people who might not necessarily enjoy most traditional electronica (myself included), written and crafted from the perspective of a pensive post-punker.

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Vini Reilly is yet to get the credit he deserves for quietly changing the landscape of post-punk as a whole with The Durutti Column; he’s likely the most overlooked songwriter in the entire genre. There are countless other records of theirs worth checking out that I didn’t get to mention (Another Setting, Amigos Em Portugal, Vini Reilly, and Idiot Savants immediately come to mind), but the group’s unfathomably large discography of roughly 54 LPs, EPs, and various other releases is simply too daunting to cover in one take.

We’ve included a 12 Songs playlist consisting entirely of our favorites from The Durutti Column, a “best-of” style precursor to your own venture down the Durutti Column rabbit hole. This is probably the closest we’ll ever get to curating the perfect work/study playlist, and should also act as the perfect soundtrack to your next dawn patrol sunrise (I highly recommend trying this). Enjoy. —Jackson Todd

Side Note: Check out the last track on the playlist if The Durutti Column don’t necessarily fit your vibe. It’s a song from Vini’s earliest group, Ed Banger and The Nosebleeds, a pre-Durutti punk project. Vini left The Nosebleeds upon the addition of a particularly self-absorbed crooner from Manchester named Steven Morrissey. Missed opportunity or impeccable foresight? Probably the latter.