September 22, 2012
In 1966 Eric Clapton had been playing blues guitar with the band John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers but he was dissatisfied or whatever.  Anyway he hooked up with  Jack Bruce, who played bass and drummer Ginger Baker and thus was formed the super successful phsychedelic blues rock band, Cream.  Their debut album was entitled: Fresh Cream and it reached number 6 on the UK charts and also did well in the US.  Disraeli Gears, their second album hit the top 10 in both UK and the US but it wasn’t until they released their third album (a double) called: Wheels of Fire that they achieved super stardom.  It was the very first album in the history of rock and roll that went platinum.  They disbanded in 1968 but continued with their solo music careers.
 
Today’s cover has a collage consisting of a day-glo psychedelic picture of the band surrounded by floral artwork. The type face is also in keeping with psychedelia art.  The flip side of the sleeve is similar and includes photos of the band members and other random shots.  The artwork is by famous Australian pop artist Martin Sharp, also an underground cartoonist, song-writer and film maker.  When he moved to London in 1966 he started hanging out at a popular  nightclub called the Speakeasy where he met Eric Clapton.  Martin co-wrote the lyrics of Strange Brew with Clapton.  And then, being an artist, it was only natural that it led to the commission to design the famous Disraeli Gears cover for Clapton’s band, Cream.  A friend of Sharp’s, Bob Whitaker is credited with the photography.  Martin Sharp has had a most interesting career and here’s a link to his page on Wikipedia if anyone is interested learning more about this talented artist.   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Sharp 

This Record:
Disraeli Gears by Cream
12”LP, 33rpm
1967, Atco Records

Go to www.ricsrecordrack.com for more information. My records are in super mint condition and still available, unless specified otherwise. Email if you require a detailed description of the condition of a particular item (ricsrecordrack@yahoo.com)

September 21, 2012
Alien Sex Fiend was formed by Nik and his wife Christine Wade (aka The Fiends). They hung out at a club in London called Batcave where they met their future band mates guitarist David James and drummer Johnny Freshwater. Their music can be best described as Goth Rock or Death Rock with some post-punk and electronic thrown in. They're still active today and have been booked for shows all  throught out the UK and Europe.

All artwork for the albums sleeves is created by Nik Fiend/Wade who is also a very successful artist. He describes his work as a form of self discovery. Using all types of mediums to create his artwork from oils, watercolours, paper collages, acrylics, ink, felt pens, airbrushes, ultra violet paints and anything else he can get his hands on, he experiments with colour and textures to create his mind-expanding masterpieces. The tools of Nik's work range from his hands to palette knives, matchsticks or simply blobbing paint tubes on a picture, "I like to challenge what is considered acceptable," Nik comments, "When I started to work with oils the first thing I read in an art book was 'Do not use black', so of course I ran out and got a load of black paint!"  (Some of this information is courtsey of the Alien Sex Fiend website)
 
This featured record:
The Impossible Mission by Alien Sex Fiend
12” Single, 45 rpm
1984, Anagram Records

Go to www.ricsrecordrack.com for more information. My records are in super mint condition and still available, unless specified otherwise. Email if you require a detailed description of the condition of a particular item (ricsrecordrack@yahoo.com)

September 20, 2012
The new wave band Sigue Sigue Sputnik played dub rock or electro rock and was formed in 1984 by Tony James previously of Generation X. He was also a member of the Sisters of Mercy briefly, in 1991. The band comprised of James, Ray Mayhew, Chris Kavanagh, Martin Degville, Neal X and Yana Ya Ya. They began playing to packed houses at a small club in London called Borderline but were initially written off by critics who claimed they were neither artistic not  would be commercially viable. In an article (by Mathew Denby) they were  described as, “…An explosion of latex, wigs and Mad Max chic, Sputnik seemed the perfect pop act for a world entranced by Dynasty, The Terminator and big hair.”  But they achieved commercial success with their very first album: ‘Flaunt It’ which reached number 3 on the UK charts. Their subsequent releases also did very well. They disbanded in 1990.

The artwork for the cover is credited to Bill Smith Studio and the cover design to Design Madness. Bill Smith has provided artwork for over 3,000 records for many  greats of that era including The Cure and Genesis. He is no longer associated  with the Bill Smith Studio. I came across an interview he did with a site called Arkade and this is what he had to say: “I was art director at Octopus Books in 1975 and became art director at Polydor Records and worked at Polydor from 1976-78. I designed covers for Jazz legends such as Ella Fitzgerald and Peggy Lee as well as working on other Polydor artists such as Rory Gallagher and the Who (I was at the photoshoot for ‘Who’s last’ where Keith Moon was sitting on a chair which said ‘”not to be taken away” very apposite). In 1977 I designed covers for the New Wave artists, The Jam, who I designed all their album and single covers from In The City until the Bitterest Pill; and The Cure I designed their covers from Killing an Arab, Three Imaginary Boys and 17 Seconds. I left Polydor in ’78 to set up BSS.” (The complete interview is available at:  www.arkade.com/content/Features/Bill+Smith+Album+Cover+Design

Here's my collection of Sigue Sigue records:
Albion
Dancerama (Or Is It Sex?)
21st Century Boy
Vision Of The Future

Go to www.ricsrecordrack.com for more information. My records are in super mint condition and still available, unless specified otherwise. Email if you require a detailed description of the condition of a particular item (ricsrecordrack@yahoo.com)

September 19, 2012
German, Schulze is a drummer, bass player and guitarist who later turned electronica music composer.  He played drums for Tangerine Dream on their 1969 album Electronic Meditation then left to form his own Krautrock and heavily psychedelic group called Ash Ra Temple (later Ashra) but again moved on after the release of their first album, to pursue a solo career concentrating on spacey, trance-like, electronica genres, similar to that of Brian Eno.  In 1976 he collaborated with Japanese Stomu Yamashta along with Steve Winwood, Al Di Meola and awesome drummer, Michael Shrieve previously with Santana's band, and formed the very short lived band called Go.  They released two studio albums entitled Go, Go Too and a live album: Live from Paris.  He turned producer in 1989 producing the album, The Breathtaking Blue by German band Alphaville.  He has released more than 40 albums and has a new one scheduled for 2013 called Shadowlands. 

The record I picked today is entitled, Body Love Vol. 2 and was an addition to the original soundtrack by Schulze for the porn movie called Body Love directed by Lasse Braun, an Italian pornographer, film director, producer, screenwriter,
novelist and researcher. The cover features sexy siren-like bare breasted women, obviously representative of the movie, photographed by the mysterious Han Chew Tham who has worked with many artists of that era, including, Alan Hull, Split Enz, Dizrythmia, etc.  No other information is available about him on the ‘net nor about Bloomfield/Travis, the designers of the sleeve. 

This Record:
Body Love Vol. 2 – Klaus Schulze
12” LP – 33 rpm
1977, Brain, German import

Go to www.ricsrecordrack.com for more information. My records are in super mint condition and still available, unless specified otherwise. Email if you require a detailed description of the condition of a particular item (ricsrecordrack@yahoo.com)

September 18, 2012
Since the band formation in 1990, Apollo 440 have played with a number of different line-ups but the core of the group included the brothers Gray: Howard, the sound engineer/remixer and Trevor, keyboards, Noko (Norman Fisher-Jones) on guitar and their drummer, Cliff Hewitt.  John Gardner also part of the group left after the release of their first album.  Between 1997 and 2000 they toured extensively round the world as an eight piece live band.  The band has written, recorded and produced 4 albums, they have collaborated with and produced other artists, remixed as Apollo 440 and as ambient cinematic alter-ego Stealth Sonic Orchestra.  They have also created music for film, tv, ads and multimedia including movie themes "Lost In Space" and "Charlie's Angels". During their eleven years at Sony, 1993-2004, they notched up 11 Top 40 UK Singles with three Top 10s, and had a chart presence worldwide.  Collaborators over the years have included Jeff Beck, Jean Michel Jarre, Billy Mackenzie, Ian McCulloch and Hotei (of Kill Bill soundtrack fame).  Over 50 different Apollo tracks have featured repeatedly on movies, trailers, tv, games and ads worldwide, the latter including globally branded cars, beers, soft drinks, phones, audio and software. I am also posting a picture of their 2012 release entitled: The Future’s What It Used To Be.  Some of this information is from the Apollo 440 website
(http://www.apollo440.com/)
 
Today I have picked their single: Liquid Cool (Theme For Cryonic Suspension).  The beautiful hi-rez image of water droplets does a good job of representing the title track.  Photo is by Ray Massey, an advertising photographer who specialized in photos of liquid and drinks photography. (www.raymassey.com) The sleeve was designed and illustrated by The Carpet Gypsies who also did other record covers for Apollo 440 via Stealth Sonic Recordings and also designed for record labels like Limbo Records, Sound Of Ministry, 23rd Precinct Recordings Ltd, etc.  
 
This Record:
Liquid Cool by Apollo 440
12”Single, 33 rpm
1994, Stealth Sonic Recordings, UK import

Go to www.ricsrecordrack.com for more information. My records are in super mint condition and still available, unless specified otherwise. Email if you require a detailed description of the condition of a particular item (ricsrecordrack@yahoo.com)

September 17, 2012
All  New Order fans rejoice.  After re-uniting last year and touring all over Europe they are finally making their way here to the US and have two shows lined up at the Roseland Ballroom in New York City on the 18th and 19th of October.  Check their website more info.: (http://www.neworderonline.com/)

Now, getting back to business and talking about today’s record of the day, I picked their single called--what else, but Blue Monday.  The cover is so frickin’ cool.  It’s die-cut to look like a floppy disk.  Clever!  Designed by graphic designer Peter Saville, a Manchester Polytechnic graduate, who was co-founder along with Tony Wilson of the famous Factory Records label.  By 1979 he was also its art director.  According to the Design Museum, “The images that Peter Saville created for Joy Division, New Order and, later, Suede and Pulp were so compelling that they struck the same emotional resonance with the people who bought those albums and singles as the music. Just as the musicians in those bands wrote and produced their songs as catalogues of their thoughts and feelings, so Saville has conceived his images – for fashion and art projects as well as music – as visual narratives of his life.”  But designing record covers is not all that Peter Saville does.  Here’s a link for more information:  (http://www.designishistory.com/1980/peter-saville/)
 
Go to www.ricsrecordrack.com for more information. My records are in super mint condition and still available, unless specified otherwise. Email if you require a detailed description of the condition of a particular item (ricsrecordrack@yahoo.com)

September 14, 2012
First, in 1968, there was a West German band called Amon Duul.  They lived
together in a radical, political commune.  Not being very ambitious, they jammed together, as most bands do, then released edited recordings of their sessions as albums.  Dissatisfied, some of the members broke away to form a new band calling it Amon Duul II (not very imaginative, was it?).  Anyway, the new set-up consisted of John Weinzierl on guitar, Chris Karrer on bass and Renate Knaup-Kroetenschwanz provided the vocals. Right away they proceeded to work on their first album called Phallus Dei (meaning God’s Penis) which was very well received, specially by the Krautrock or German underground scene.  After that they released a twelve studio albums, a number of live albums and a few singles before breaking up.  
  
I have picked Hawk Meets Penguin as my freaky cover of the day.  The cover has a black and white illustration of a penguin atop a grave in a cemetery with a menacing hawk swooping down towards it.  The overall perception is dark and freaky. As per one music review website, Dave Anderson, who had played on the first albums of Amon Düül II, is the "Hawk" mentioned in the album title and John Weinzierl, the "Penguin".  The website doesn’t really explain why except that they gave it a 4-star review calling it an “excellent addition to any prog-rock collection”.  

Go to www.ricsrecordrack.com for more information. My records are in super mint condition and still available, unless specified otherwise. Email if you require a detailed description of the condition of a particular item (ricsrecordrack@yahoo.com