Danielle Dax ‘Jesus Egg That Wept’ UK Mini-Album (Awesome AOR1, 1984)

Regular visitors will most likely know already my fondness for that ’80s staple, the mini-album and in ‘Jesus Egg That Wept’ we have a prime example. Six new tracks (plus the addition of a track from the previous ‘Pop Eyes’ LP, for some reason) was a good introduction for me to the wonderfully unique oddities of Danielle Dax. Sleeved in an eye-catchingly odd cover, this mini-album was at a good time all round for Danielle Dax, with 1984 also seeing her brief but significant role in the film, ‘The Company of Wolves’ as well as an appearance on the primetime ‘The Tube’ TV show (performing ‘Hammerheads’).

Danielle Dax 'Jesus Egg That Wept' UK Mini-Album front cover design
^ Danielle Dax, ‘Jesus Egg That Wept’ UK Mini-Album front cover design

Continue reading “Danielle Dax ‘Jesus Egg That Wept’ UK Mini-Album (Awesome AOR1, 1984)”

John Foxx ‘My Face’ UK yellow plastic ‘Smash Hits flexi-disc, 1980

Something of an indulgence in this post – ‘My Face’ was a previously unreleased track that John Foxx gave away to Smash Hits magazine in late 1980, issued via the medium of a one-sided, crackly bright yellow plastic flexidisc – and what you see here is it wrapped in my home made cover design of the time. I’m pretty sure I wasn’t alone in putting together my own cover design – I was obviously trying to channel the spirit of the preceding ‘Burning Car’ and later ‘Europe After The Rain’ sleeve designs in typeface and coloured line elements when I got round to drafting this.

John Foxxx 'My Face' flexidisc housed in home-made sleeve
^ John Foxxx ‘My Face’ flexidisc housed in home-made sleeve

Continue reading “John Foxx ‘My Face’ UK yellow plastic ‘Smash Hits flexi-disc, 1980”

Siouxsie and the Banshees ‘The Peel Sessions 1977-1978’ 7″ coloured vinyl EP (Strange Fruit, 677002, 1991)

An odd little curio, two tracks apiece from the bands first two Peel sessions jumbled up on this 7″ EP that sells itself on the packaging to the max, with a mish-mash of Banshees eras; early, pre-Polydor recordings with a Kaleidoscope/JuJu era? Siouxsie pic and typeface logo from the ‘Kiss In The Dreamhouse’ era – topped off with light blue marbled vinyl for the disc itself. Both sessions from which the tracks were culled had already been out before on 12″, cassette and CD some years earlier, with the plainer, more interchangeable, generic style sleeve designs and subsequently various outings for Banshees BBC material. A rougher and rawer Banshees sound before Steve Lillywhite’s production touch and ‘space’…

Siouxsie and the Banshees - The Peel Sessions 1977-78 7 inch EP front cover
^ Siouxsie and the Banshees – The Peel Sessions 1977-78 7 inch EP front cover

Continue reading “Siouxsie and the Banshees ‘The Peel Sessions 1977-1978’ 7″ coloured vinyl EP (Strange Fruit, 677002, 1991)”

Elektric Music ‘TV’ German MiniDisc (SPV 076-92678, 1993)

An odd little item this, from Elektric Music – Karl Bartos’ initial post-Kraftwerk creative outlet, along with former Rheingold member, Lothar Manteuffel. 1993 saw the release of their debut album; ‘Esperanto’ and ‘TV’ was a highy catchy single released prior the album. In their native Germany, it came on 12″, 12″ picture disc, very limited promo-only 10″, CD single and this mini-disc edition. The mini-disc being somewhat desirable because in addition to the standard ‘TV’ track it also contained the longer re-take that is ‘TV 2’ in digital format – all other formats for ‘TV 2’ were vinyl – for whatever reason, it never appeared on the CD single variants – they instead had another take on the track, ‘Television’. As well as these two versions of ‘TV’, the mini-disc also contained two tracks from Elektric Music’s first single, ‘Crosstalk’, released in Germany at the tail end of the previous year. (‘Intercomix’ being a variant of ‘Crosstalk’ itself.)

Elektric Music 'TV' minidisc - front case design
^ Elektric Music ‘TV’ minidisc – front case design

Continue reading “Elektric Music ‘TV’ German MiniDisc (SPV 076-92678, 1993)”

Button badge goodness: Xmal Deutschland

Another helping of vintage button badge goodness to bring a dash of post-punk style to any jacket/bag badge mount of choice – this time around courtesy of blog semi-regulars, Xmal Deutschland. Spanning various eras, 4AD and beyond, these were all bought back in the day – I managed to see Xmal play live a couple of times, in support of the Stranglers and headlining when promoting the ‘Viva’ tour, and damn fine they were too.

Xmal Deutschland badge design - grey/red 'Matador' era
^ Xmal Deutschland badge design – grey/red ‘Matador’ era

Continue reading “Button badge goodness: Xmal Deutschland”