East Village • ‘Drop Out’ • 30th Anniversary Reissue - 'Circles'

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• East Village • 'Drop Out' • 30th Anniversary Reissue •

Sleeve notes by Jon Savage - released on January 12th, 2024.

Limited edition vinyl and a special double disc CD edition via Heavenly Recordings.

HVNLP3 • LP + digital download includes the album and bonus tracks.

HVNLP3CDX • includes digital download and bonus tracks.

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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.