Name: Drop Out - 30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition
Brand: East Village

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

HVNLP3CDX

Colour

Colour details

Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format detail

With Extra CD Compiling Singles and Alternative Versions

Format Music GB

Limited edition

Release date

2024-01-12

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier GB

PIAS

Tax rate GB

Standard:20

UPC / Barcode

5400863119911

Total Cap

CDx2

HVNLP3X

Black

[r29450218]

Housed in Tip On Sleeve

5400863119904

Black LP

Artist

East Village

Genre GB

Indie Pop / Shoegaze

Label GB

Heavenly Recordings

Restored classics, rare finds, and sought-after releases. Whether you're a vinyl enthusiast or a tape collector, we have something for everyone.

Reissues

Welcome to Heavenly Recordings, the home of innovative and boundary-pushing music. With a rich history spanning several decades, Heavenly has established itself as a leading label in the industry. As the proud ℗ and © rights holder for all Heavenly releases, we strive to bring you exceptional music that pushes the boundaries of creativity and captivates your senses.

Heavenly Recordings is more than just a label; it's a movement. We have been at the forefront of discovering and nurturing talented artists who challenge conventions and redefine genres. Our roster includes some of the most influential names in contemporary music, from indie rock legends to electronic pioneers.

At Heavenly, we believe in giving our artists creative freedom while providing them with unparalleled support and guidance. This approach has resulted in numerous critically acclaimed albums that have left an indelible mark on the music landscape.

Formed in the mid-1980s by two brothers, Martin and Paul Kelly, East Village were an indie pop band from Princes Risborough, England. The band's music, which drew heavily on the influence of 1960s guitar bands such as The Byrds, The Beatles and Buffalo Springfield was in stark contrast to the acid house and rave influenced output of their contemporaries.

Newest Listed Items

An autumnal treasure, East Village’s Drop Out has spent the past thirty years finding new ears to bewitch and new hearts to melt. The only album from this British four-piece, recorded and released in the early nineties, it’s long been considered one of the hidden jewels of its time, and is talked of with hushed reverence by people who know. Bob Stanley of Saint Etienne once called it “an elegy for a particular brand of eighties guitar music, sweet minor chords and Dylanesque lyrics”, which captures what makes it so special; in summarising its era, though, it also effortlessly transcends it.

  Like all great guitar gangs, East Village fell together as a four-piece; having relocated from High Wycombe to London in mid ‘80s, brothers Martin and Paul Kelly on bass and guitar, set on forming a group together, were joined by John Wood (guitar) and Spencer Smith (drums). Wood and the Kellys shared writing and vocal duties; it was an ideal combination, and one of the many charms of East Village is their various song writing voices, a tip of the hat, seemingly, to the 60s folk-rock groups who influenced them. 

  Originally influenced by garage-rock and freakbeat, the band eventually came through via the same scene as groups like Felt, The Go-Betweens, The Weather Prophets, and Primal Scream. They’d formed as Episode Four, releasing an EP, Strike Up Matches, in 1986, which has gone on to become one of most sought after releases of the C86 era. Their first two singles as East Village, ‘Cubans In The Bluefields’  (1987) and ‘Back Between Places’ (1988), were released on Jeff Barrett’s Sub Aqua label. 

When it came time to record Drop Out, East Village found a supporter in Bob Stanley, who bankrolled the album sessions until Barrett re-signed the band to his new imprint Heavenly Recordings in 1990. The album that took shape is dusky, heartfelt, lamplit, full of chiming minor chords, close harmonies, rattling organs, all buoyed by a rhythm section that moves as one, steady and elegant. There’s melancholy here, certainly, on songs like ‘What Kind Of Friend Is This’, but also pleasure and freedom, on ‘When I Wake Tomorrow’ and ‘Silver Train’. The group were obsessed with Dylan’s Eat The Document at the time, and the album’s rich with references to the film; Drop Out’s character is also somehow close to the thin wild mercury sound of Blonde On Blonde, and the lambent light of the Byrds’ Notorious Byrd Brothers.

It's also an album that’s slowly accrued its own legend. From its stunning cover art, photographed by Juergen Teller originally for a Katherine Hammett campaign, to the ten perfectly formed songs within, Drop Out’s significance in the scheme of things is such that, a decade ago, it was given a rare 10/10 rating in Uncut magazine, who called the album “the lost classic of its era”. Drop Out comes round every decade or so, each edition introducing new fans to its understated beauty, and this latest reissue is its most elegant and deluxe yet.

The 30th anniversary edition of Drop Out lands in two formats: an LP with tip-on style jacket and four-page insert, designed to partner with the 2019 vinyl reissue of their singles and rarities compilation, Hot Rod Hotel; and a double CD, featuring an extra disc compiling the group’s early singles and alternative versions. This CD edition previously has only been available in Japan, though it now features a new, superior mix of their second single, ‘Back Between Places’. Both feature new, typically eloquent liner notes from writer Jon Savage.

The members of East Village have all gone on to do inspired things: Martin Kelly joined Jeff Barrett at Heavenly and has managed label mainstays Saint Etienne since 1993; Paul Kelly formed Birdie with Debsey Wykes, and is now a renowned film director and graphic designer; both Paul and Spencer Smith played in Saint Etienne’s live band; John Wood moved to China to teach, and released a lovely, understated folk album, Quiet Storm, in Japan in 2006. But with the hazy perfection of Drop Out, they’ve all already etched their names in the firmament.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Drop Out - 30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition

Music GB

Discover Drop Out - 30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition by East Village. An autumnal treasure of sweet minor chords and Dylanesque lyrics. Available in LP and double CD formats from Heavenly Recordings.