A desirable release back in the day for UK dwellers such as I, another tasty US 12″ EP that contains otherwise unavailable mixes and, in ‘Producer’, a track that was never issued this side of the ocean at all – and packaged up in a unique sleeve design as well, taking its styling cue from the ‘Songs Of The Free’ parent album.
^ Gang Of Four US 1982 ‘I Love A Man In A Uniform’ (Remix) 12″ EP front cover
Side One:
I Love A Man In A Uniform (Remix) (5:35)
Produced by Mike Howlett and with Jon King and Andrew Gill.
Remixed by Steve Sinclair with Hugo Burnham. Engineered by Randy Burns. Executive Producer David Rostamo.
Side Two:
Producer (2:33)
Produced by Mike Howlett and with Jon King and Andrew Gill.
Back in the early ’80s and my nascent record buying bug began to flourish with a regular wage packet from a Saturday morning job, there were many a tempting release to be found in the record racks of local shops such as 1-Up, The Other Record Shop, Bruce Millers, Easy Rider and the like. The exotic, foreign pressed 12″ EPs or mini-album that scooped up tracks from individual 7″ single releases and brought them together in a new sleeve design were especially eye-catching. With its bright yellow cover design and stark type arrangement, this positively shouted from the racks. However, it would be some time later before I would come across a copy – before then would be a copy of ‘Solid Gold’ swapped from a school friend and the wonderful ‘Another Day, Another Dollar’ mini-album, found in the second-hand racks of 1-Up, which I have written about before. And far from the expected compilation of tracks from the singles, on close listening there is far more going on, as we’ll see…
^ Gang Of Four US 1980 ‘Yellow’ 12″ EP front cover
In the UK (and various other territories) the Gang Of Four were signed to the establishment machinery that was EMI Records – however, in the US, they were signed to Warner Brothers Records instead – since the US EMI equivalent, Capitol Records, had passed on the chance to sign the band (a facsimile of the rejection letter having most recently been one of the items of ephemera in the 2021 ’77-81′ boxed set). So, there was inevitably some leeway for Warner Brothers and their take on how the band’s releases should work – this EP (which isn’t actually called ‘Yellow’, though that has become its unofficially official title these days, not least on CD re-issues). Additionally, when it comes to the music, this EP is not quite as straightforward as its cover credits might indicate. Continue reading “Gang Of Four – ‘Yellow’ US 12″ EP (Warner Brothers Records, MINI 3494, 1980)”
Having already taken a deep dive into the complexities and version craziness of Brian Eno’s ‘Music For Films’, we are by no means done here. There is plenty left in the tank with the variations of the belated follow-up volume – with a particular focus on how you might piece together a digital version. (The answer is, not completely…)
^ Brian Eno – ‘Music For Films Volume 2’ 1983 front cover
The single that finally brought Landscape some attention, ‘Einstein a Go-Go’ with a quick focus on this Japanese 7″ edition. In the UK, the single was issued on 7″ (backed with ‘New Religion’) and 12″ (which was a quite different extended remix of the A side, with ‘Japan’ on the B side. Neither of these came in a picture sleeve – not that unusual for RCA releases in the UK. Foreign climes, by contrast, came with a variety of different designs – some going with scaled down versions of the ‘From The Tearooms Of Mars…’ LP sleeve, others going with various band photos and even more abstract (the Portuguese issue springs to mind in this respect…)
^ Landscape ‘Einstein a Go-Go’ Japanese 7″ front cover design
A simple joy of physical format products – the ability to pinpoint precise times and places associated with them. For me, Brian Eno’s 1997 album release ‘The Drop’, (All Saints, ASCD32), always takes me back to a summer morning on the ground floor of HMV’s flagship London Store on Oxford Street, on a brief city break, where I was loaded up with a shopping list of records to look out for across the many and varied record shops of the great city. New and exotic, second-hand and scarce – the list was long. This album had only just come out and was on that list…
^ Brian Eno – ‘The Drop’ – 1997 Japanese 2 x CD edition
