Pink Turns Blue - Meta (Coke Bottle Clear Vinyl)

Recorded on the heels of their debut album, If Two World Kiss (also reissued by Dais Records) and informed by the band’s oscillating live synergy and bolstered by a boon of new equipment and texture, Pink Turns Blue’s sophomore 1988 album Meta was a conceptual leap predicated by the study of sound and exploration of it's edges. With the same fervor that Joy Division mined deeper, darker, and less linear on Closer, Meta is a cohesive meditation on atmosphere and how every note and passage can traverse space individually, as part of a larger narrative.Singles “Touch the Skies” and “Your Master Is Calling” are the albums cornerstones; airy, steady, and driving tracks with a depth of melody and orchestration that sparked a shimmering new example of dark pop. The instrumental balance throughout the album creates a strobe light journey later echoed throughout gothic compatriots exploring minor keys and nocturnal themes.

Recorded by Jané Krizaj known for producing most of Laibach’s material, the Meta sessions took place in a basement studio located below a stadium. Then a part of Yugoslavia, the studio was located in now Slovenia and was affordable, but lacked many modern recording amenities, forcing the band to smuggle valuable equipment in exchange for recording time. Riding the excitement, cultural experience, and friendship of Laibach, born on the road and further fostered throughout the vibrant Ljubljana music scene and Croatian coast, Meta’s feel is a musical manifestation of beautiful confusion of exploring the new and unfamiliar.

Remastered and returned to its original vinyl format for the first time since 1988, Meta flexes the songwriting muscle and spirit of the band’s second iteration, informed by an entirely different set of circumstance and vocabulary. Most importantly, the album’s nine tracks evolved the band’s sound and undeniable imprint on darkwave, shaping its very vocabulary and sonic identity past Europe and into fans looking below the surface for melody and meaning.