crispy ambulance: plateau phase

Factory Benelux presents a new CD edition of The Plateau Phase, the debut album by Manchester postpunk group Crispy Ambulance, originally issued in March 1982. Bonus tracks include extended 12” single The Presence and Concorde Square, produced by the legendary Martin Hannett, and farewell single Sexus. This new Factory Benelux edition also features enhanced original artwork by renowned Belgian typographer Lucien De Roeck (1915-2002), and live photography. Recorded at Strawberry 2 with producer Chris Nagle, this acclaimed album captured Crispy Ambulance at the peak of their creative powers. "One of the best albums Britain's second city has unleashed" (Q, 03/2006); "Seventeen years on The Plateau Phase sounds like what it probably always was: urgent, postmodernist psychedelia with less debt to Joy Division’s music than to the universal abstract existential tension that comes with being young" (Uncut, 12/1999); "Cold and ferocious, but with enough inventive melody to lighten the black abyss of the overall mood" (Les Inrockuptibles, 02/2012); "An enthralling glimpse at a moment in musical history when the DIY ethos of punk gradually gave way to experiments with electronics and song structures" (NME, 01/2000)