Showing posts with label cassette. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cassette. Show all posts

Wednesday, 13 September 2017

simple minds : live in the city of light

https://www.flickr.com/photos/japaneseforms/36810478190/

This is the one and only Simple Minds tape that I possess. Have only had it for a short time as I bought at a car-boot sale the other day for all of 0,50€! Now, Simple Minds were a band that I really liked from 'Real To Real Cacophony' in 1979 to around the era just after 'New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84)'and the 'Up On A Catwalk' single in 1984. After that the band took more or less the same road as U2 and turned into one of those turgid stadium rock bands. Still, their early stuff is really excellent and I'm glad that I still have all my vinyl.

This is a tape copy of their 'Live In The City Of Light' album which was released in 1987 on Virgin Records. I've never heard this album; nor this tape for that matter, which was; except for one track, recorded live at Le Zenith, Paris in August 1986 when the band was more or less (*groan*) at its zenith too.

Their single, "Don't You (Forget About Me)" which had been featured on the soundtrack to the highly successful 'The Breakfast Club' film in 1985 helped break the band in the USA but they were already stadium rock stars in the UK, Europe, Australia and Canada by then. I did buy a couple of their singles after '85 but I really went off them pretty fast.

Anyhow, this tape, though its J-card is a wee bit scuffed, will easily find a place in one of my boxes of tapes and I'm rather glad to have it as part of my collection.

Artwork of the original Mick Haggerty Minds' logo in gold on a black background is very nice indeed. The Claddagh; design for a traditional Irish ring given which represents love, loyalty, and friendship, drawing is by one William F. Ryan.
J-card is a 3-panel fold-out which features colour photos of each of the band members for that show in Paris.





Monday, 7 August 2017

david bowie : station to station

https://www.flickr.com/photos/japaneseforms/5903758025/
david bowie
station to station (tape)
rca records (1976)
apk1 1327

design : AGI
photography: steve schapiro

 Another classic album from Bowie's best decade; the 70s. The year was 1976 and this was incredibly Bowie's tenth album release! Station To Station was recorded after he completed shooting Nicolas Roeg's Sci-Fi film, The Man Who Fell to Earth. The actual album artwork features a still from that very same film. As does the first of the "Berlin Trilogy" albums, Low.

Musically, Station to Station is a bit of a transitional album for Bowie. Developing the funk and soul music of his previous release, Young Americans, Bowie takes a new direction towards synthesisers and deutsch-motorik rhythms. Rhythms highly influenced by German electronic bands such as Neu! and Kraftwerk that were beginning to emerge and become known to a wider audience.

This trend would culminate in some of his most acclaimed work, the so-called
"Berlin Trilogy", recorded with Brian Eno in 1977–79 at the famous Hansa Tonstudio in the Kreuzberg district of '70s Berlin. Interesting to note that Bowie's buddy, Iggy Pop, who accompanied the Thin White Duke on his German sojourn, also made what are probably his two best solo albums, The Idiot and Lust for Life, during the same period.

After recording Station to Station in the USA, Bowie heavily addicted to cocaine, decided to get away from his Los Angeles base. In an attempt to flee the substance-fuelled years that had taken a toil not only on his sense of judgement but had also seen him go from thin to downright emaciated, Bowie departed for Berlin.

Incidents such as the infamous and supposedly "Nazi" salute photograph in the New Musical Express, under the headline "Heil and Farewell", as well as Bowie's apparent fascination with fascism and collecting Nazi paraphenalia really weren't doing his public image any good at the time. So, Bowie and Iggy packed their suitcases and set up home in the then very much divided and isolated former Reich capital. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Anyhow, I'd sort of gone off Bowie with  the Diamond Dogs and Young Americans albums -albums which I've since reappraised and found that they belong up there with Bowie's other great seventies recordings- but Station To Station put back him on track (no pun intended!) as far as I was concerned and gave us a glimpse of what was to come with the fabulous "Berlin Trilogy." Golden Years indeed!

Saturday, 1 September 2012

Thursday, 12 July 2012

the cure : the peel session

the cure
the peel session
off the track records (1988)
jd ott 37023
4-track ep tape

Thursday, 5 July 2012

Wednesday, 20 June 2012

Monday, 2 April 2012

Friday, 30 March 2012

brian eno : before and after science + button badge

brian eno : before and after science + button badge by japanese forms

brian eno
before and after science
polydor 3100 386
polydor records (1977)
+
before and after science
button badge

Thursday, 9 February 2012

patti smith : dream of life

patti smith
dream of life
arista records (1988)


photograph : robert mapplethorpe

+
patti smith
"it's not only rock 'n' roll" exhibition button badge

Sunday, 5 February 2012

public enemy : it takes a nation of millions...

public enemy : it takes a nation of millions... by japanese forms

public enemy
it takes a nation of millions to hold us back
def jam recordings (1988)
def 4624154

Friday, 3 February 2012

sonic youth : "goo" (tape & badge)


https://www.flickr.com/photos/japaneseforms/6424137331/

sonic youth
"goo"
tape & button badge
geffen (1990)
dgcc 24297

cover drawings: raymond pettibon
photos: michael lavine
art direction: kevin reagan

Sunday, 29 January 2012

the smiths : this charming man


https://www.flickr.com/photos/japaneseforms/6172142021/

the smiths
this charming man (tape)
rough trade records (1983)
wea yz0001c (1992)


cover star : jean marais in jean cocteau's "orphée" (1949)

Saturday, 28 January 2012

Wednesday, 18 January 2012

père ubu : the modern dance ( visual 2)


https://www.flickr.com/photos/japaneseforms/6358179915/

pere ubu
the modern dance
blank records (1978)
fontana (1988)
collectors edition of 1000 copies

Sunday, 18 December 2011

bryan ferry : let's stick together































bryan ferry
let's stick together
island records (1976)
zci9367


cover photograph : richard wallis

Monday, 21 November 2011

père ubu : the modern dance

père ubu : the modern dance by japanese forms

pere ubu
the modern dance
blank records (1978)
fontana (1988)
collectors edition of 1000 copies

Thursday, 27 October 2011

judy nylon : pal judy






















judy nylon
pal judy
reachout international records (1990)
a-179


Pal Judy is a re-release of ON-U Sound LP #16 originally released in the U.K. in 1982.

© analogue jugend