Colin Potter ‘It Was’ LP ICR DISTRIBUTION

Released by Platform 23 September 3rd 2021  Signed copies.

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8 track album vinyl LP housed in specially redesigned Reverse Card Board outer, printed insert and black paper inner. Artwork by Jonathan Coleclough.

This album compiles tracks from his two ‘Recent History’ cassettes, released on ICR in 1989. They were recorded from 1982 – 1989.

You can listen here : https://icrdistribution.bandcamp.com/album/it-was

Also view one of the tracks : https://youtu.be/L50ZFnwe88g

Review from Juno Records : It Was is an appropriately-named album if ever we saw or heard one. Colin Potter was an enigmatic and hugely influential member of the 1980s cassette underground, and while much work came before what’s presented here, the contents of this record represent close to the apex of his creative output – carefully chosen selections from the 1989 tapes Recent Histories Volumes 1 & 2.

It had taken seven years to return to the release schedule, and the gap between these tracks and the early-1980s output on ICR clearly paid off. Deftly combining sequencers, guitars, percussive accents, reversed synths and more, this is everything Potter fans fell in love with him for and then so much more besides. Definitely one of the best ways to get acquainted, or find your old obsessions reignited.

Boomkat Product Review : Post-punk pioneer and NWW synthesist Colin Potter melds languid strings and kosmiche electronics in personalised form on a clutch of aces from his mid ‘80s phase

‘It Was’ delves into Potter’s 1989 cassettes ‘Recent History 1 & 2’ to highlight a period of work post- his seminal early ’80s self-releases via ICR, and pre- his ongoing role in Nurse With Wound. The eight cherry-picked works amount to a choice overview of his output from the York-based IC studio during the mid ‘80s, holding to a visionary line of unique, DIY processed and manipulated electro-acoustics distinguished by the artist’s taste for buzzing, off-key tonalities and tunings that have earned him a cult reputation and following over the past 30 odd years. We say this to everyone, but if you ever get a chance, make sure to catch Colin playing live, where he turns a mind-boggling array of hardware into the most mind-bending tones imaginable and his art really comes into its own with proper amplification. 

Following archival salvos deployed by likes of Dark Entries, Deep Distance and Sacred Summits in the past decade, ‘It Was’ refreshes the memory of Potter’s classic works such as the magisterial, brooding collage of buzzing synths and tape looped vox ’Solidarity At Wujek Colliery’ and the ether dream eldritch elegance of ‘Green Fields’, alongside the krautrock-inspired driller ‘Saw’, plus two standouts in the panoramic scanner ‘Nine Months’, and the arcane choral procession of ’Ships That Pass in the Night’. There’s absolutely reams of stuff that edges on the zones explored by Potter, but only very few who do so with such a master of the craft that transcends it all and really hits home so modestly but acutely.

Review by Frans de Waard, Vital Weekly  :