The Virgin Prunes were masters of the uncanny, juxtaposing nightmares with lullabies, beauty with cruelty, combining gentle vocals and the spoken word with anguished wailing from purgatory itself. This first album powerfully laid out this terrain. Its themes ranged from mournful tales of unrequited love, frustrated sexuality, morbid eroticism and wasted youth, to yearnings for distant dreamlands which were juxtaposed with macabre visions of dystopian societies, overpowered by dark forces and where demons run amok. Guggi’s art work for A New Form of Beauty, which intimates a heartless transaction within a domestic setting, is in keeping with this sensibility.
A New Form of Beauty (1981) was recorded and produced by the band itself. It includes the tracks of the first four parts of what was a five-part, mixed-format project with Rough Trade Records. Part 1 was a 7” record, Part 2 was a 10”, Part 3 was a 12”: these were recorded between July and October 1981. Part 4 was ‘Din Glorious’, released as an audio cassette, was a recording of extracts of a live event on 8th November 1981 at the Douglas Hyde Gallery in Dublin. Part 5 was to be a film of ‘Performance, Exhibition, Event staged at the Douglas Hyde Gallery on 7th and 8th November 1981.
This deluxe edition features all four parts remastered from original tape with brand new remixes and tape loop mashup by Apparition and Gavin Friday in a 3LP Tri-fold reverse board sleeve deluxe package / 2CD deluxe mediabook with a 16 page booklet containing brand new sleevenotes by Jon Wood and original Guggi drawings.
3LP
LP1
A1. Sandpaper Lullabye (2024 Remaster)
A2. Sleep Fantasy Dreams (2024 Remaster)
A3. Sad World (2024 Remaster)
B1. Come To Daddy (2024 Remaster)
B2. Sweethome Under White clouds (2024 Remaster)
LP2
C1. Beast (Seven Bastard Suck) (2024 Remaster)
D1. Abbágall (2024 Remaster)
D2. Brain Damage (2024 Remaster)
D3. No Birds to Fly (2024 Remaster)
LP3
E1. Din Glorious, Pt. 1 (2024 Remaster)
F1. Din Glorious, Pt. 2 (2024 Remaster)
2CD
CD1
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Sandpaper Lullabye (2024 Remaster)
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Sleep Fantasy Dreams (2024 Remaster)
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Come to Daddy (2024 Remaster)
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Sweethome Under White Clouds (2024 Remaster)
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Sad World (2024 Remaster)
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Beast (Seven Bastard Suck) (2024 Remaster)
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Abbágall (2024 Remaster)
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Brain Damage (2024 Remaster)
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No Birds to Fly (2024 Remaster)
CD2
- "Din Glorious" (2024 Remaster)
- Yesterday is Tomorrow / Come to Daddy (2024 Remix by Apparition) *
- Sweethome Under White Clouds (2024 Remix by Apparition) *
- Yesterday is Tomorrow / Come to Daddy (2024 Instrumental Remix by Apparition) *
- Sweethome Under White Clouds (2024 Instrumental Remix by Apparition) *
- Beauticide (2024 ANFOB TapeLoop Mash Up by Apparition) *
*previously unreleased
