Compulsion is the studio album Crispy Ambulance might have recorded after The Plateau Phase, with six of the eight tracks now included on FBN 54 written and performed back in 1982. To these are now added Rain Without Clouds, a previously unreleased outtake from The Plateau Phase newly restored from the original multitrack masters, and WMTP.2 with added synth lines by producer-cum fifth member Graham Massey (of 808 State and Biting Tongues). Almost uniquely, Crispy Ambulance has retained the same line-up since the group was founded in 1978: Alan Hempsall (vocals, keyboards), Gary Madeley (drums), Robert Davenport (guitars) and Keith Darbyshire (bass). "There's a sense of feeling compelled by irresistible forces," explains Alan Hempsall. "Compulsion is an apt way to describe our constant urge to go back and make music with people we've known since childhood. While the world may have changed, our music continues to be the product of the same influences - the passing of time, the changing of the seasons, the content of our sleeping dreams, and the existence of space." LP tracklist: 1. Rainforest Ritual2. Say Shake3. Nightfall Ends the Ceasefire4. At the Sounding of the Klaxon5. WMTP.26. Rain Without Clouds7. Lucifer Rising8. Open, Gates of Fire A limited edition of 500 vinyl copies (with free download) for Record Store Day 2015. Cover image by Peter Staessens. We have a handful of copies remaining.
