The Legendary Pink Dots (aka LPD) are an Anglo-Dutch

experimental rock Experimental rock, also called avant-rock, is a subgenre of rock music that pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique or which experiments with the basic elements of the genre. Artists aim to liberate and innovate, wit ...

band formed in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

in August 1980. In 1984, the band moved to

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

, playing with rotating musicians and having, as core members, singer/songwriter/keyboardist Edward Ka-Spel and keyboardist Phil Knight. In 2022, founding member and synthesist Philip Knight retired from touring, and Randall Frazier (Orbit Service, A Star Too Far) joined the band on

synth A synthesizer (also synthesiser or synth) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis a ...

s, samples and

electronics Electronics is a scientific and engineering discipline that studies and applies the principles of physics to design, create, and operate devices that manipulate electrons and other Electric charge, electrically charged particles. It is a subfield ...

. While no official announcement has been made, Phil Knight is not included in post-2022 recording liner notes. As of 2022, the group is composed of Edward Ka-Spel (vocals, keyboards, songwriter), Randall Frazier (keyboards, electronics), Erik Drost (guitars) and Joep Hendrikx (live electronics/devices). Their music has incorporated elements from

neo-psychedelia Neo-psychedelia is a genre of psychedelic music that draws inspiration from the music production approaches and songwriting of 1960s psychedelia, either exploring emulations of the sounds of the era or applying its ethos to new styles of music ...

ambient music Ambient music is a genre of music that emphasizes Musical tone, tone and atmosphere over traditional Musical form, musical structure or rhythm. Often "peaceful" sounding and lacking Musical composition, composition, beat, and/or structured melod ...

electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...

tape music Electroacoustic music is a genre of Western art music in which composers use recording technology and audio signal processing to manipulate the timbres of acoustic sounds in the creation of pieces of music. It originated around the middle of the ...

psychedelic folk Psychedelic folk (sometimes acid folk or freak folk) is a loosely defined form of psychedelic music that originated in the 1960s. It retains the largely acoustic instrumentation of contemporary folk music, folk, but adds musical elements common ...

synthpop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a music genre that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s ...

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of music that emerged in late 1977 in the wake of punk rock. Post-punk musicians departed from punk's fundamental elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a broader, more experiment ...

progressive jazz Progressive music is music that attempts to expand existing stylistic boundaries associated with specific genres of music. The word comes from the basic concept of "progress", which refers to advancements through accumulation, and is often dep ...

noise music Noise music is a genre of music that is characterised by the expressive use of noise. This type of music tends to challenge the distinction that is made in conventional musical practices between musical and non-musical sound. Noise music include ...

pop music Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom.S. Frith, W. Straw, and J. Street, eds, ''iarchive:cambridgecompani00frit, The Cambridge Companion to Pop ...

goth rock Gothic rock (also called goth rock or simply goth) is a style of rock music that emerged from post-punk in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s. The first post-punk bands which shifted toward dark music with gothic overtones include Siouxsie an ...

and

alternative rock Alternative rock (also known as alternative music, alt-rock or simply alternative) is a category of rock music that evolved from the independent music underground of the 1970s. Alternative rock acts achieved mainstream success in the 1990s w ...

. Although outside the mainstream (in terms of their

avant-garde In the arts and literature, the term ''avant-garde'' ( meaning or ) identifies an experimental genre or work of art, and the artist who created it, which usually is aesthetically innovative, whilst initially being ideologically unacceptable ...

music and non-mainstream career path), LPD have released more than forty albums, have a devoted worldwide following, and tour frequently.

Overview

The band was originally called One Day... but subsequently changed the name to The Legendary Pink Dots. In the 1980s, the band released albums on Mirrordot and InPhaze; in 1985 they signed with Play It Again Sam for the release of ''The Lovers''. The line-up became stable by 1988, with Niels van Hoornblower (horns) and Bob Pistoor (guitar) joining for the band's 1988 US tour. Pistoor died of cancer and his place was filled by Martijn de Kleer; drummer Ryan Moore completed the line-up live and in the studio. Their appeal has always been relatively small—a 1995 show in Mexico in front of 2,500 fans was described as "massive (by Dots' standards)". In 2004, Erik Drost replaced Martijn de Kleer on guitar, and the album The Whispering Wall was released. Their music touches on elements of

, progressive,

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

noise Noise is sound, chiefly unwanted, unintentional, or harmful sound considered unpleasant, loud, or disruptive to mental or hearing faculties. From a physics standpoint, there is no distinction between noise and desired sound, as both are vibrat ...

pop Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop! (British group), a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Album ...

, and

, with a distinctly

experimental An experiment is a procedure carried out to support or refute a hypothesis, or determine the efficacy or likelihood of something previously untried. Experiments provide insight into cause-and-effect by demonstrating what outcome occurs whe ...

bent; their sound has evolved over time and remains distinctive, making it difficult to place the group into a concise style or genre. The group's overall sound combined with Ka-Spel's distinct lyrics and singing have earned comparisons to

Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experiments ...

and

Syd Barrett Roger Keith "Syd" Barrett (6 January 1946 – 7 July 2006) was an English singer, guitarist and songwriter who co-founded the rock band Pink Floyd in 1965. Until his departure in 1968, he was Pink Floyd's frontman and primary songwriter, ...

; the group also has links to the sounds of krautrock bands such as Can,

Faust Faust ( , ) is the protagonist of a classic German folklore, German legend based on the historical Johann Georg Faust (). The erudite Faust is highly successful yet dissatisfied with his life, which leads him to make a deal with the Devil at a ...

, Brainticket and

Neu! Neu! (; German for "New!"; styled in block capitals) were a West German krautrock band formed in Düsseldorf in 1971 by Klaus Dinger and Michael Rother following their departure from Kraftwerk. The group's albums were produced by Conny Plank, w ...

(whose "Super" they covered on the 1999 tribute album "A Homage to NEU!"), as well as the music of

Magma Magma () is the molten or semi-molten natural material from which all igneous rocks are formed. Magma (sometimes colloquially but incorrectly referred to as ''lava'') is found beneath the surface of the Earth, and evidence of magmatism has also ...

Related bands

The Pink Dots frequently collaborated with

Skinny Puppy Skinny Puppy was a Canadian electro-industrial band formed in Vancouver in 1982. The group was among the founders of the industrial rock and electro-industrial genres. Initially envisioned as an experimental side-project by cEvin Key (Kevin Crom ...

cEvin Key Kevin William Crompton (born February 13, 1961), known professionally as cEvin Key, is a Canadian musician, songwriter, producer, and composer. He is best known as a member of the industrial music group Skinny Puppy, which he co-founded in 1982 ...

, forming a side project named The Tear Garden. Key played drums on several tracks of the 1994 LPD album ''9 Lives to Wonder''. Ryan Moore, who drummed on studio and live performances for the Legendary Pink Dots, left to work on his own musical outlet, the Twilight Circus Dub Sound System. He wrote and produced albums for Michael Rose of

Black Uhuru Black Uhuru is a Jamaican reggae group formed in 1972, initially as Uhuru ( Swahili for 'freedom'). The group has undergone several line-up changes over the years, with Derrick "Duckie" Simpson as the mainstay. They had their most successful pe ...

, and has worked with other reggae figures such as

Sly Dunbar Lowell Fillmore "Sly" Dunbar (born 10 May 1952, Kingston, Jamaica) is a Jamaican drummer, best known as one half of the prolific Jamaican rhythm section and reggae production duo Sly and Robbie. Biography Dunbar began playing at 15 in a ba ...

. The Pink Dots have influenced a wide range of bands, such as

The Dresden Dolls The Dresden Dolls is an American musical duo from Boston, Massachusetts. Formed in 2000, the group consists of Amanda Palmer (lead vocals and piano; additional: keyboards, harmonica, ukulele) and Brian Viglione (drums and backing vocals; add ...

MGMT MGMT () is an American rock band formed in 2002 in Middletown, Connecticut. It was founded by singers and multi-instrumentalists Andrew VanWyngarden and Benjamin Goldwasser, Ben Goldwasser. Originally signed to Cantora Records by the nascent ...

, Orbit Service, and Skinny Puppy.

Discography

;Studio Albums * ''Only Dreaming'' (1981) * ''Kleine Krieg'' (1981) * '' Brighter Now'' (1982) * ''Atomic Roses'' (1982) * ''Premonition'' (1982) * ''Apparition'' (1982) * ''

Basilisk In European bestiary, bestiaries and legends, a basilisk ( or ) is a legendary reptile reputed to be a Serpent symbolism, serpent king, who causes death to those who look into its eyes. According to the ''Natural History (Pliny), Naturalis Histo ...

'' (1982) * ''Chemical Playschool 3 & 4'' (1983) * ''

Curse A curse (also called an imprecation, malediction, execration, malison, anathema, or commination) is any expressed wish that some form of adversity or misfortune will befall or attach to one or more persons, a place, or an object. In particular, ...

'' (1983) * '' The Tower'' (1984) * ''

Asylum Asylum may refer to: Types of asylum * Asylum (antiquity), places of refuge in ancient Greece and Rome * Benevolent asylum, a 19th-century Australian institution for housing the destitute * Cities of Refuge, places of refuge in ancient Judea * ...

'' (1985) * ''Prayer For Aradia'' (1985) * '' Island of Jewels'' (1986) * '' Any Day Now'' (1988) * '' The Golden Age'' (1989) * ''Four Days'' (1990) * ''

Crushed Velvet Apocalypse ''The Crushed Velvet Apocalypse'' is an album by the Anglo-Dutch band the Legendary Pink Dots, released in 1990. The album is a cult fan favorite. Niels van Hoorn contributed on flute, saxophones, and clarinet. Critical reception The ''Chicago T ...

'' (1990) * ''

The Maria Dimension ''The Maria Dimension'' is a 1991 album by The Legendary Pink Dots. Overview The original edition was released by PIAS ( Play It Again Sam) in Belgium and Europe. The first 3,000 copies of the European CD edition included a bonus CD3" conta ...

'' (1991) * '' Shadow Weaver'' (1992) * '' Malachai (Shadow Weaver Part 2)'' (1992) * ''9 Lives to Wonder'' (1994) * ''

From Here You'll Watch the World Go By ''From Here You'll Watch the World Go By'' is an album by the Legendary Pink Dots, released in 1995. Critical reception AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. ...

'' (1995) * ''

Hallway of the Gods ''Hallway of the Gods'' is an album by the Legendary Pink Dots, released in 1997. Critical reception ''The Columbus Dispatch'' thought that "the acoustic, Bowie-esque 'Lucifer Landed', with its grandiose strings and woodwinds, is mesmerizing, ...

'' (1997) * ''

Nemesis Online ''Nemesis Online'' is an album by the Legendary Pink Dots, released in 1998. Critical reception ''The Washington Post'' wrote: "Using today's technology to evoke the spirit of 1972, the Legendary Pink Dots make a credible case for self-indulgent ...

'' (1998) * ''

A Perfect Mystery ''A Perfect Mystery'' is an album by the Legendary Pink Dots, released in 2000. Production The band tried a different method to recording on ''A Perfect Mystery'', working on the songs together in the studio instead of constructing them from ide ...

'' (2000) * '' All the King's Horses'' (2002) * ''

All the King's Men ''All the King's Men'' is a 1946 novel by Robert Penn Warren. The novel tells the story of charismatic populist governor Willie Stark and his political machinations in the Depression-era Deep South. It was inspired by the real-life story of U. ...

'' (2002) * ''Poppy Variations'' (2004) * '' The Whispering Wall'' (2004) * '' Your Children Placate You from Premature Graves'' (2006) * '' Alchemical Playschool'' (2006) * '' Plutonium Blonde'' (2008) * '' Seconds Late for the Brighton Line'' (2010) * ''The Creature That Tasted Sound'' (2012) * ''Taos Hum'' (2013) * '' The Gethsemane Option'' (2013) * ''Code Noir'' (2013) * ''The Curse of Marie Antoinette'' (2013) * ''10⁹'' (2014) * ''The Seismic Bleats Of Quantum Sheep'' (2015) * ''Five Days'' (2015) * ''5 Days Instrumentals'' (2015) * ''Pages Of Aquarius'' (2016) * ''8118'' (2018) * ''Angel in the Detail'' (2019) * ''The Museum Of Human Happiness'' (2022) * ''The 13th Step'' (2022) * ''So Lonely In Heaven'' (2025)

References

External links

LegendaryPinkDots.org
- Official LPD Online Centraal: news, discography, etc.
The Legendary Pink Dots' Bandcamp page
- Featuring a large proportion of their discography, including download-only albums and recent remasters. {{DEFAULTSORT:Legendary Pink Dots, The British neo-psychedelia groups English gothic rock groups English experimental rock groups English post-punk music groups Musical groups established in 1980 Rock music groups from London English psychedelic rock music groups Soleilmoon artists Third Mind Records artists In Phaze Records artists Cassette culture 1970s–1990s