One to sate the sweet tooth of any fan of all things 7″ and collectable in the world of Ultravox, this was a West German only release that paired a fairly raucous LP cut, ‘Frozen Ones’, along with an exclusive remix of one of Ultravox’s finest moments on the flip side, in the shape of ‘Man Who Dies Everyday’ – and all finished off nicely in a unique picture sleeve design – manna from heaven for scratching that collector’s itch – if you can find a copy, as it’s not too easy to come by.
^ Ultravox! \’Frozen Ones\’ West German 7 inch single front sleeve design
Arriving within a short period of one another, two releases which both delve back into the history books in order to refashion roughs into polished new shapes. Wire have taken a selection of material that previously saw release only as live versions (on 1981’s ‘Document and Eyewitness’ live set and, later, the ‘Turns and Strokes’ compilation gathering together remaining waifs and strays of the period) – so, mostly familiar to long-time Wire fans. Bartos meanwhile has looked back to private musical sketches to bring something new to the world.
^ Wire ‘Changes Becomes Us’ limited edition and Karl Bartos ‘Off The Record’ CDs
The re-energised Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark will soon be releasing their second album since they returned to active duty, ‘English Electric’. The emerging picture points towards something that may revisit the spirit of 1983’s left-field wonder that is ‘Dazzle Ships’. Certainly the recently released cover artwork for the album harks back to Peter Saville’s angular design for that work.
An impeccable slab of early Antz, which has been resurrected in the live shows that Adam Ant has been playing in recent years. While I’ve known for a long while that there was the famous ‘mis-pressing’ that featured a take of ‘Physical (You’re So)’ on the B side instead of ‘Whip In My Valise’, it was much later in the day that I realised some small differences to the A side as well on different issues of this single.
In a previous post, I looked at the UK single release of ‘Nightporter’, which saw a 7″, 12″ and unique DJ edit 7″ editions. Another notable issue is the Japanese 12″ 6-song ‘Pic Label’ series EP (Virgin, VIP-4181). Retaining the same design for the front as the UK 12″ release, the rear featured a band pic along with the titles for the featured songs – which gathered together a number of edits and non-LP tracks that had surfaced originally on UK singles.
^ Japan – \’Nightporter\’ Japanese pic label 12 inch single
Of note, despite being a 12″ single, it is the 5’02” remix that is featured, as per the regular UK 7″ single, as opposed to the longer 12″ remix you might have expected to find. Similarly, despite being titled as ‘Long Version’, ‘Ghosts’ as featured on this release is in fact the same 7″ edit as per the UK single release. Finishing off side one, ‘The Art of Parties’ is the live ‘version’ that first appeared on the flip side of the ‘Ghosts’ UK 7″ single. Side two of this 12″ features a couple of tracks from the ‘Gentlemen Take Polaroids’ UK 7″ single along with ‘Life Without Buildings’, the superb B side of the original ‘Art of Parties’ single release. Continue reading “Japan – ‘Nightporter’ Japanese 12″ ‘Pic Label’ series single (Virgin, VIP-4181, 1982)”
