Vanishing Point

Vanishing Point was the band's fifth studio album, released by Creation in the UK and Reprise in the US. It reached number 2 in the UK. Gillespie called it an anarcho-syndicalist speedfreak road-movie record, and it takes its name from the 1971 film, with Kowalski meant as an alternative soundtrack to it. The album draws on dub, ambient music, dance music and krautrock, and on bands such as Motorhead, Can and the Stooges.

The band wrote and recorded it with two portable eight-track studios at their Chalk Farm rehearsal rooms in two months, then mixed it in a third. Much of it began as live improvisation, with sounds, loops and vocals layered on top. Mani played on the album, though Marco Nelson played bass on Burning Wheel, Star, If They Move, Kill 'Em and Stuka. Guests include Augustus Pablo on melodica, Glen Matlock on bass and the Memphis Horns. If They Move, Kill 'Em was meant to include a sample from The Wild Bunch, but it could not be cleared in time. On the cover of Motorhead, Gillespie sang the first verse through a Darth Vader mask.

Critics welcomed it as a return to form after Give Out But Don't Give Up. NME named it the fourth best album of 1997, and it appears in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.