Another criminally overlooked musician, Vini Reilly was the sole member of The Durutti Column. A Tony Wilson (of Factory Records) find, Reilly tried to make the band a collaborative effort but all the other members parted ways (two would go on to start '80s easy listening act Simply Red), so Vini opted to play all the instruments on his records (save drums, here on LC the duties went to Bruce Mitchell).
LC could arguably be labeled as one of the first post-rock records, Reilly uses piano/keys, guitars and basses more for timbre than for rhythm, rather than chunking chords out one after the other he relies on echo, delay and other processed effects to convey emotion and movement. Some of the songs feature vocals, but they stay half-buried under sheets of reverb and layers of ambient synth washes. There are also jazzy elements as well as the post-punk ideas left over from working with Martin Hannett (who produced Joy Division's records). Reilly has gone on to find more notoriety later in his career by writing a lot of the music (and playing guitar and keyboards) on Morrissey's debut solo outing, Viva Hate.
Here's another wonderful album that's been under-rated and overlooked (it contains some out-takes and bonus tracks, from the 1996 re-issued remaster)...
