ANARCHIC ATMOSPHERICS

Band: The Durutti Column.

Personnel: Vini Reilly, guitar, keyboards, vocal; Bruce Mitchell, percussion; John Metcalfe, viola.

History: The Durutti Column formed in Manchester, England, in 1978, amid the furor of the punk revolution, but the band’s textural atmospherics were far removed from punk. Originally a five-piece group, the Column (named for an anarchist brigade in the Spanish Civil War) was eventually reduced to guitarist Reilly. He teamed with noted producer Martin Hannett (Joy Division) for the first Durutti Column record, “The Return of . . .,” on England’s influential angst- punk label Factory Records, in 1978. Reilly then hooked up with Mitchell, who’d played jazz as a teen-ager in the ‘50s, to produce two albums, “L. C.” and “Another Setting.” In 1984 the group expanded for “Without Mercy,” a musical setting of a Keats poem, with Metcalfe and trumpeter Tim Kellet joining. The quartet recorded the group’s fifth album, “Circuses and Bread.” Kellet later joined Simply Red along with two of the original Durutti members. Since then, Reilly’s been exploring sequencers and other digital music-making devices. A retrospective of the group’s music, “Valuable Passages” will be released soon in America by Relativity Records.

Sound: The Durutti Column is an anomaly in any rock scene, since Reilly’s pretty, atmospheric sound-scapes are closer to neo-classical “new music” compositions than pop songs. With guitar reverberating in gentle, slinky lines and ping-ponging through a delay device, Reilly’s music is based on multiple modalities, at times almost sounding like surf instrumentals from the fourth dimension. What keeps this stuff from floating off into New Age preciousness is Mitchell’s supple, fluid percussion, which adds a multidimensional framework for Reilly’s pulsing sounds. A refreshing respite from rock’s aggressive overkill, Durutti Column offers sounds to resonate by.

Shows: The Roxy, tonight.