Quite a few of my favourite bands were to see their albums sliced and diced and re-packaged for overseas markets. With no UK equivalent, these were interesting regional curiosities that the record industry of the time would throw up and were exotic manna for collectors such as I. Released in America only, this compilation is one such example, others being similar releases by Japan and Heaven 17. ‘O.M.D.’ pulled together much of the band’s debut, self-titled, album and their second, ‘Organisation’.
^ Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark O.M.D. US compilation LP, 1981, front cover design
His contract with Virgin coming to an end, the year 2000 saw an attractive and interesting selection of Sylvian’s work pulled together as the ‘Everything and Nothing’ compilation CD. The selections reached back to the 1980 period with Japan through to previously unreleased works that were leftovers from the previous year’s ‘Dead Bees On A Cake’ album, finished off in 2000. The album kicked off with one such leftover, ‘The Scent Of Magnolia’. This featured promo CD contains a unique 3’28” ‘Radio Edit’ of that song.
^ David Sylvian ‘Everything And Nothing’ Radio Edit two track promo CD single – front cover design
‘Extended Ultravox’ is a 1998 UK released CD that was the first such compilation to bring together some of the wonderful Ultravox 12″ A side single mixes to CD format. It has since been superseded by the later ‘Extended’ release from 2018, which somewhat broadened the scope of what to compile.
^ Ultravox ‘Extended Ultravox’ 1998 UK CD – front cover design
‘Deep’ was very much Peter Murphy’s breakthrough solo album and perhaps it was in no small part due to the promotional push of the record company machinery of the era, still some years away from the MP3 meltdown and subsequent diminished times. This cassette is one of those curious promo-only releases of the era picked up along the way, a reminder of those times.
^ Peter Murphy ‘4 Cuts Deep’ Canadian Promo-only Cassette EP – front pack design
Rarely has an album sleeve so poorly represented the mood and the message of the music inside than ‘The Fury’, I dare say. Musically, this was a hard-edged, tough, largely electronic sound filled that mined the technology of the day to keep up with the in your face sound of acts on ZTT, et al. To the extent that it left behind the earlier, more unique Numan sound, much to the alienation of a good chunk of existing Numan fans – even more so than ‘Berserker’ (which we looked at before) already had, as it had ushered in the move to digital synths, leaving behind the analogue warmth. Partly, that fan exodus may well have been because they never made it to the music, such was the antipathy to the image. Fair to say that both ‘Warriors’ and ‘Berserker’ had already been a tough sell, image wise – but this time round, beyond the pale for many a fan, I would wager. While the music may have been edgy and electronic, the image was – as Numan himself would later describe in his autobiographies – less the intended James Bond and more “the man who lost it all at Monte Carlo” casino wheel/cards table.
^ Gary Numan – ‘The Fury’ various formats/releases front cover designs – Numa LP, Numa CD (standard version), Numan cassette (standard version), Numa CD extended mixes.
The album itself as released on the Numa label though comes in two distinct versions – the ‘regular’ standard issue and the ‘extended mixes’ version – much like ‘Berserker’ had ushered in, but this time every track was longer on the extended mixes version. Continue reading “Gary Numan ‘The Fury’ – Numa variations”
