Heaven 17 – ‘Endless’ UK Boxed Cassette (Virgin, TCVB 2383, 1986)

The first compilation/remix album by Heaven 17 (though by no means the last), ‘Endless’ is quite a curio on cassette format for a number of reasons. First off, this limited edition boxed version – packaged up in an elegant, black linen box with gold print, not a million miles away from the format that Factory Records had adopted for their cassette releases of their mid-eighties period (and which now prove very collectable indeed).

Heaven 17 'Endless' boxed edition cassette - front
^ Heaven 17 ‘Endless’ boxed edition cassette – front

Secondly, of course, some good old version craziness in the music to be found on the cassette. Apart from the ‘endless’ segue concept that is responsible for many changes to be found in the music, headline news is that the cassette edition came with four extra tracks compared to the CD version and amongst these is a 5’05” mix of ‘Play To Win’ that I had never come across anywhere else. (It has since finally been released on the ‘Play To Win (The Virgin Years)’ boxed set, I believe, though I don’t have this set.) It resembles the longer ‘BEF Disco Mix’ from the original 12″ single release, but edited down a good deal. (I tried out a digital recreation of it, hence why I know how much editing down it has had – no simple early fade out or the like, oh no – someone went to town with some enthusiasm all the way through the track!) Continue reading “Heaven 17 – ‘Endless’ UK Boxed Cassette (Virgin, TCVB 2383, 1986)”

Bauhaus – ‘4AD’ UK Mini-Album (4AD, BAD 312, 1983)

Having worked away steadily and with increasing pressure since 1979, Bauhaus finally arrived into the upper ends of the UK charts with the double impact of the ‘Ziggy Stardust’ single (top 20) and ‘The Sky’s Gone Out’ album (top 5) in late 1982. The early months of 1983 would see two more singles and further success, a major tour and then the belated release of ‘Burning From The Inside’ following the band’s implosion in the summer of 1983 and split. It all seemed premature and left a void, such that the pent up demand for their work would see numerous digs into the archive over the next couple of years and beyond – undead, the maschine rolled on, starting with this ‘4AD’ mini-album in September of 1983…

Bauhaus - '4AD' UK Mini-Album front cover design
^ Bauhaus – ‘4AD’ UK Mini-Album front cover design

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Landscape ‘Einstein a Go-Go’ Japanese 7″ (RCA RPS-39 (PB-5307), 1981)

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
^ Landscape ‘Einstein a Go-Go’ Japanese 7″ front cover design

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