Minimal Wave Records

We’re happy to pre­sent Smile With The Eyes: a doub­le LP of selec­tions of un­released materi­al from the pro­lific out­sid­er duo Five Times Of Dust. For­med in 1980 in Bris­tol, Mark Phil­lips (MAP) and Robert Lawr­ence came togeth­er with a shared pass­ion for Kraut­rock, In­dustri­al Electronics and the bur­geon­ing DIY tape scene, as well as being in­flu­ence by the Dada­ist move­ment and the works of Bur­roughs and Bal­lard. Un­con­vention­al, quir­ky and at times melancholic and roman­tic, their music acted as the per­fect es­cape from the urban decay of early 80s Bris­tol and Car­diff, the two cit­ies they travel­led bet­ween on weekends to re­cord. Al­though un­as­hamed­ly electronic, the sound of Five Time Of Dust is far hard­er to pin down, per­haps in part due to their loc­a­tion. Both Phil­lips and Lawr­ence pro­duced music that owed lit­tle to any scene hap­pen­ing in Lon­don, Man­chest­er or Shef­field at the time. As a re­sult, the major­ity of their out­put are per­fect­ly for­med electronic curiosit­ies.

The materi­al on Smile With The Eyes spans re­cord­ings Lawr­ence and Phil­lips made bet­ween 1982-1986. As a fol­low up to The Dadacom­put­er, their debut cas­sette re­lease as a duo which we re­is­sued ear­li­er this year, Smile With The Eyes re­mains lo-fi but is musical­ly more com­plex. The re­cord­ings are cat­chy, curi­ous and em­otional­ly rich. Whereas The Dadacom­put­er could be com­pared with the early out­put of Robert Re­nt­al, Smile With The Eyes is a col­lec­tion of works that stands all on its own.

Smile With The Eyes is a doub­le LP pre­ssed on 180 gram black vinyl and housed in a heavyweight gatefold sleeve. Li­mited edi­tion to 500 hand-numbered co­p­ies. Re­lease date: Novemb­er 5th, 2013.