Tom Robinson - North By Northwest

"North By Northwest" was Tom's Hamburg album, partly recorded January / February 1982 at Otto Waalkes's Rüssl studios in Germany. It includes an early version of 'Atmospherics: Listen to the Radio' and 'Merrily Up On High' - both cowritten with Peter Gabriel.

Those were the days of machine driven wave rock, and so this recording is very much influenced by that plain simple sound.
The single "Now Martin's Gone", a sad little love song with a fine, catchy tune, should have become a huge hit back then, but it flopped.

"`North By Northwest´ reveals depths to Tom Robinson´s talent I´d never before suspected. Shorn of the neccessity to simply and sloganise forced on him by the expressive limitations of a conventional rock format, his authentic voice speaks loud and clear. He no longer preaches the reassuringly right-on line to the converted, but rather reveals himself as a victim of incurable romanticism, bleakly nostalgic for the past, fearful of the future. This confessional self-detachment perhaps results from the perspective of living in Hamburg, where he recorded the album with the excellent Richard Mazda." - Mat Snow, Melody Maker, July 1982

This release was digitally remastered 1997 with addition of bonus tracks 11-15 (a dance mix of 'Now Martin's Gone', both sides of a rare German 7" single, and both eccentric 'B' sides from the 1983 hit version of 'Atmospherics: Listen To The Radio').


Tracklist:
1 Now Martin's Gone
2 Atmospherics
3 Can't Keep Away (Part 2)
4 Looking For A Bonfire
5 Merrily Up On High
6 Those Days
7 In The Cold
8 The Night Tide
9 Duncannon
10 Love Comes
11 Tango An Der Wand
12 Now Richard's Gone
13 Alptraum Tango Dub
14 Any Favours
15 Out To Lunch

Tom Robinson - North By Northwest
(320 kbps, cover art included)