The Durutti Column – Renascent

Manchester’s Factory Records is best known for jagged post-punk and synth-driven dancefloor anthems, but The Durutti Column never fit that script. Vini Reilly’s long-running project, now almost 50 years in, has always moved at its own pace—introspective, guitar-led, and ambient rather than aggressive. Renascent, the group’s first album since 2008, shows that nothing has changed, except perhaps the world around them.

Reilly, along with drummer Bruce Mitchell and multi-instrumentalist Keir Stewart, remains focused on mood over mode. The album’s spare, echoing production wraps around his signature arpeggiated guitar lines, drawing from folk, jazz, and blues without settling into any one. Tracks like “Liars” and “Your Shadow at Evening” lean into a restrained funk, while “All They See is Fire” pushes into a more turbulent, ethereal space. “Time Present and Time Past” brings classical motifs, with piano and orchestral textures drifting through. The songs are curious rather than dour, building atmosphere without the need for resolution.

The result is a record that feels less like a comeback and more like a continuation, from a band that was always slightly outside the narrative, and remains so.