The first single to be lifted from PiL’s 1987 album, ‘Happy’, ‘Seattle’ was a a lively, punchy track that sadly failed to provide much of a hit to match the momentum that the previous year’s ‘Album’ and ‘Rise’ releases had. Bolstered with a resurgent John McGeogh on guitar, its a highly polished production, courtesy of Gary Langan, and his high-tech, meticulous touches are one thing, though how well it fitted with earlier PiL sounds is a point of debate.
^ Public Image Ltd. – ‘Seattle’ Japanese CD single front cover design and OBI.
Much like 1985 had been, 1986 was another productive yet non-standard year, with the band shying well away from the traditional album and accompanying singles music business way of doing things. This year saw a stripped-down duo version of the band release a unique, subsequently well-loved minimal sounding album, one full-band, full-blooded EP and a collaborative album that didn’t even mention the band by name… plus a few more compilation releases yielding different versions or exclusive tracks once more…
^ Cocteau Twins – ‘The Pink Opaque’ UK/US CD – front
1986 got off to a start with the first ever CD release by 4AD (apparently), in the form of the compilation album ‘The Pink Opaque’ – this CD version was issued in the UK with a release date of 17th January 1986 and I’m unsure of the US release date – the significance being that this was a joint pressing between 4AD in the UK and Relativity in the US. The CD has an identical track listing to the vinyl/cassette release of this compilation from the previous year. So, it is primarily of interest as far as versions go of containing the remixed/re-recorded ‘Wax and Wane’ and the non-album previously cassette-only ‘Millimillenary’. It’s worth noting too that the version of ‘Pearly-Dewdrops’ Drops’ is the 7″ version. Continue reading “Year by Year: Cocteau Twins – 1986”
From 1979, and an era where releases could be weird and wonderful depending on the region of the globe they hail from and how that region liked to do things, a unique picture sleeve four track 7” EP from Kraftwerk. This is the kind of release that, from roughly 1986 onwards, became something of a rare occasion for Kraftwerk, the more that they standardised releases across the world with the ‘Musique Non Stop’ single and ‘Electric Cafe’ album.
^ Kraftwerk – ‘The Robots’ Brazilian 7″ EP front cover design
Another post documenting one more of the ‘Pic Label’ series of Japanese 12” compilation mini-albums that were such a collector’s delight – so far we have covered The Flying Lizards, John Foxx, and Japan – this time around the release is less unique, as it is based on the existing ‘Holiday ‘80’ EP from 1980, though no less appealing.
^ Human League – ‘Holiday ’80’ Japanese Mini-LP – front cover design
After I had finally taken to the charms of the silver CD disc as a format, there was no stopping me, and that included re-issues of all kinds – even these rather generic, budget-price compilation series – not least because on occasions they were useful for tracking down hard to find versions (or even hitherto unreleased versions, in the case of another Japan CD-only compilation, ‘Souvenir From Japan’ and its exclusive mix of Life In Tokyo’ – another story…
^ Japan ‘Old Gold’ 3 Track 5″ CD Single front cover design
