Crawling Chaos - Spookhouse Album

Hi eetapes -
Is this available for sale in the digital format somewhere?
Thanks!

Punk was never a main concern for me. Perhaps it was because the first local punk rock lover was in the class as I was and it learned me a bit on behavior I didn't like, although some of the Dutch punk records were always quite alright. Still are actually. But sonically I was very soon after that interested in a stylish label called Factory Records, first through Joy Division and A Certain Ratio, but I soon collected also the 'other' bands, as far as money allowed me, and of course availability of the records. Durutti Column was one of those highlights, and two 7's were my favorites: 'Electricity' by Orchestral Manouvres In The Dark (although I had the pressing on Virgin, I knew it was a Factory Record) and 'Sex Machine' by Crawling Chaos. I played both on and on and on. That was the record industry of those days: you only had so much money and you needed to play the records over and over again, unlike today where one downloads a ton of music, which then you will never properly know. With OMD I kept up for a while, perhaps because 'Enola Gay' was such a big hit and 'Organisation' a classic LP, but Crawling Chaos I lost out of sight. I couldn't afford to buy their LP 'The Gas Chair' and I am not sure if I ever heard it back then. I did of course later on, when the CD version out, as well as the CD version of 'Homunculus Equinox'. I read stories about the band in books on Factory (I recommend James Nice's book on the subject) and don't know what to make of them or their music. 'Sex Machine' is a great song, synth based, retro progressive guitar solos. I never quite liked the b-side. The LP has more weirdness, this band never could make up their mind about what they wanted. 'Spookhouse' contains their final recordings, from 1987, and some of those pieces were released by EE Tapes on a compilation cassette back then.
But there are no further liner notes and information on the band is rather sketchy, even on the two previous re-issues on LTM. What I seem to notice here on these final recordings is that the band is more together and less sketchy/all over the place as on their first LP. Quite an electronic approach, lots of synthesizers, voices and not really the driving rhythm of 'Sex Machine'. Also saxophone plays a dominant role every now and then, sometimes to my annoyance. I've read 'Status Quo vs OMD', or connection to Joe Meek. All true I'd say. This is true pop madness, true weirdness with 'Memory Loss' being the closest to another great lost pop classic. Not great, but I love this very much, just as I did with the other releases. I can see why so many people hated this back in the day, but its simply sounds so funny/weird/nice/charming. The boys you love to hate. (FdW)

Vital Weekly 838 (2012-07-10)