THE 50 COOLEST SLEEVES
from butts to babies and some art history, we take a look at our favourites
WAX MAGAZINE F
O
R
V
I
N
Y
P
H
I
L
E
S
the eye of the
JACK WHITE
continues to surprise with Lazaretto
QUEEN
in the studio at Montreux OCTOBER 2014
$12.99/6.99
ISSUE 1
the mad genius behind the sleeves of storm thorgerson and his work with pink f loyd
THE INNER SLEEVE
how a local record holds it’s own
THE BEATLES
there’s a new mono record in town
THE DEATH OF THE ALBUM?
OCTOBER 2014
WAX MAGAZINE WAX MAGAZINE was completed as part of the Information Design program at Mount Royal University.
19 QUEEN & MONTREUX
33 THE INNER SLEEVE
30 THE COOLEST SLEEVES, PERIOD.
37 ALBUM OF THE MONTH
The entirety has been compiled and designed by Sarah Lamoureux for completion of the class Document Production I instructed by Ben Kunz during the fall semester of 2014.
6 THE EYE OF THE STORM
9 HIPGNOSIS 11 PINK FLOYD 12 AUBREY POWELL
PHOTO SOURCES CAN BE FOUND IN AN ACCOMPANYING DOCUMENT
29 BEHIND THE SLEEVE 35 TURNTABLE REVIEWS
41 THE BEST OF 2014
31 DEATH OF THE ALBUM 39 BEATLES IN MONO
43 RIP
WAX // 2
// LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
It was a cold and rainy day and I found myself in Victoria, BC. I was 12 years old visiting my grandmother for one of the first times on my own. We were walking through Chinatown and took a detour through the infamous Fan Tan Alley. A couple months earlier my Dad had taken me to a Def Leppard
LETTER FROM THE EDITOR//
concert and the songs, the majestry of their one-armed drummer and the theatricality of the whole thing was still ringing in my ears. My grandmother and I passed The Turntable, a record store specializing in rare and vintage vinyl. Out of the corner of my eye, I could reckognize the sharp, angular letters of the Def Leppard logo so I forced my grandmother to come in with me. I found Def Leppard’s Hysteria poking out from one of the rock and roll sections. I was and still am a pretty impulsive person and my mother wasn’t there to say “do you REALLY need that?” A couple minutes later the album was in a blue plastic bag and we were on our way down the street.
It’s been almost 10 years since that experience, and I still marvel in how much it’s influenced my life since then. Being involved in the record collecting community has introduced me to the most interesting and eccentric people, it’s helped me be closer with my Dad (here’s to our “yearly” Recordland adventures”), and it’s also led me down some very interesting alleyways (no pun intended.) Record collecting has changed in the 21st century. No longer the primary means of music procurement, the “vinylphile” community has branched out into different niches. You have the young enthusiast, a young man who hates being called a hipster and insists that the sound is better than
an electronic download; the nostaligia afficionado, a young woman with rockabilly hair and a who listens to Chuck Berry on a Saturday afternoon; there is also the “dealer,” a man who scours flea markets and thrift stores to find that one album.
greatest album covers of all time, WAX has the story. So what are you waiting for? Put another one on the platter and enjoy the ride. - Sarah Lamoureux
WAX Magazine is for all of these niches and more. It’s for vinylphiles by vinylphiles. It’s for the young enthusiast, the nostalgia afficionado, the dealer and everyone else who appreciates the grooves and sometimes even the smell of the sleeve. WAX contains articles and sections on all components of records, their history and record collecting. From turntable buying advice to a list of the 100
WAX // 4
// THE EYE OF THE STORM
the eye of the
A force to be reckoned with, Storm Thorgerson is known as perhaps the greatest album cover designer of all time. From Led Zeppelin to Alan Parsons and back again, this man would go so far as to move 765 beds onto a beach for a single photograph. He grew up with the boys from Pink Floyd and is the name behind some of the most well known album covers. WORDS: JOHN HARRIS from the Guardian
I LISTEN TO THE MUSIC, READ THE LYRICS, SPEAK TO THE MUSICIANS AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE. I SEE MYSELF AS A KIND OF TRANSLATOR, TRANSLATING AN AUDIO EVENT - THE MUSIC - INTO A VISUAL ONE- THE COVER
e could be inscrutable, grand and archly funny – all qualities that placed him some distance from the music industry's standard mixture of flimsy bonhomie and superficiality. Rather than serving either commercial considerations or following the whims of musicians, the work Storm Thorgerson accomplished as a sleeve designer betrayed a fierce independence, and an obvious belief in art for art's sake. My favourite photo of Thorgerson was taken in 1975, and shows him deep in conversation with David Gilmour and Roger Waters while on tour with Pink Floyd, the group for whom – in partnership with Aubrey “Po” Powell - he came up with his most iconic designs. The foreground is cluttered with glasses and bottles; it would be nice to think that the three of them are discussing Thorg-
erson’s latest neo-surrealist concept. presented the artwork for the Floyd’s Whatever, it is clear from this shot alone 1970 album Atom Heart Mother – a solithat he was no kind of underling: he is tary brown-and-white cow, staring at the holding forth while the other two keep camera in that blank way that cows do – schtum and listen, and they are clearly Dunton and his colleagues were inevitacreative equals. bly less than impressed. “It was: ‘What The environment in which the fuck is this thing?’” Powell later told Thorgeson did much of his work now me. “They had no concept of something seems comically old-fashioned, not just that was so original.” in terms of the glorious canvas provided “Whenever you went in there by the 12-inch vinyl record, but the peowith something,” Powell continued, “Ron ple with whom he had to deal. For the Dunton woul say: what do you call that early part of Pink Floyd’s career, Thorger- then? What’s that? He hated Storm and son and Powell – who traded as Hipgnome. ‘Where’s the lettering? What do you sis – were theoretically answerable to an mean, there isn’t going to be any? Well EMI staff member called Ron Dunton: as I’d better speak to somebody upstairs Powell later recalled, “this big, jolly fat about that.” man who was in charge of the album cover ...THEY HAD NO CONCEPT OF SOMETHING department”. THAT WAS SO ORIGINAL...” When the pair
‘WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS THING?’ WAX // 6
// THE EYE OF THE STORM `Thorgerson and Powell, though had a few trump cards. The two of them had a bond with Pink Floyd that dated back to their early days at Cambridge, where Thorgerson had ended up after an early childhood in Potters Bar, and time spent at the famously utopian Summerhill boarding school in Suffolk. They were employed by the band, not their record label. And at a time when rock was movign away from the cheap thrills of the jukebox era and into the album-led period of FM radio and popular-music-as-art, their work quickly turned out to be a perfect match for the records it adorned: highend, wilfully non-commercial, so of a piece with the music that one digested
typography: to this day, even if album “sleeves” are boiled down to the size of a postage stamp, mucisions usually serve notice of their ambitions by leaving such fripperies of their artwork. Thorgerson and Powell’s work
(and, indeed, the logo of two robot-arms doing the same thing, a perfect illustration of the album’s sense of musicians lost in a cold, mechanised industry). These were the days before Photoshop, when art budgets would easily stretch
for Pink Floyd is now so seared into the popular consciousness as to barely need mentioning: the Atom Heart cow, the wonderfully crisp prism-and-light motif
to prodigious international travel – and everything was done in person, on location, right down to the Egyptian pyramids featured on the posters that were
them both as a sense filling whole. As the Powell quote above suggests, as of the early 1970s, they led the way into a world where the most ambitious groups dispensed with band-portraits, and even
that accompanied – and now denotes – The Dark Side of the Moon, the pig floating over Battersea power station on Animals, the flaming figure shaking hands on the front of Wish You Were Here
tucked inside the Dark Side sleeve. All this reached its apogee in 1987, with the sleeve art for Pink Floyd’s A Momentary Lapse of Reason. Waters had by now left the band, and the music was mostly
WHAT DO YOU CALL THAT THEN? WHAT’S THAT? HE HATED STORM AND ME. ‘WHERE’S THE LETTERING? WHAT DO YOU MEAN, THERE ISN’T GOING TO BE ANY? WELL I’D BETTER SPEAK TO SOMEBODY UPSTAIRS ABOUT THAT.”
Led Zepellin // Houses of the Holy (1977)
Inspired by the ending of Arthur C. Clarke’s novel Childhood’s End. The cover is a collage of several photographs which were taken at the Giant’s Causeway, Northern Ireland, The results of the shoot were less than satisfactory, but some accidental tinting effects in post-production created an unexpectedly striking album cover.
Peter Gabriel // Peter Gabriel (Car) (1977)
second-rate – but the cover image was
Hipgnosis style was easy to parody, and
arguably Thorgerson’s ultimate piece: 800 hospital beds, arranged in perfect lines on Saunton Sands, in Devon. Elsewhere, there are plenty of other examples of the brilliant work Thorgerson did, both with Powell and on his own. His collaborations with Peter Gabriel reflected Gabriel’s restless, discomfiting aesthetic just as well as the Floyd designs had chimed with their music: the artwork for his self-titled third solo album (aka Melt), for example, consisted of a single shot of Gabriel’s face, apparently melting off his skull, something achieved by the simple expedient of smearing a still-developing Polaroid (a technique later known as Krimsography). The cover of the heavy rock band UFO’s 1974 album Phenomenon features a hand-tinted image of a suburban couple apparently faking a UFO sighting, and manages to be both camp and inexplicably unsettling. The Alan Parsons Project’s Pyramid (1978) was fronted by portrait of a solitary figure in a hotel bedroom, riven with a huge abstract, blue blob of interference, as near to an approximation of a migraine as any visual artist has probably ever managed. Not everything, of course, was quite so wonderful. The signature
Thorgerson occasionally did the job himself. The cover art for the Cranberries’ Bury the Hatchet (1999) was an evocation of paranoia – a giant eye bearing down on a crouching figure – that did neither band nor artist many favours; his image for Muse’s Black Holes and Revelations (2006) amounted to a thin revival of his work for the Floyd that, if you were being generous, suggested a wry comment on that band’s unconvincing attempts to revive the excesses of 1970s progressive rock. And his infamous picture of naked female backs adorned by Floyd artwork was a rare surrender to music-biz vulgarity, though he seemed to like it. //
Peter Gabriel // Peter Gabriel (Scratch) (1978)
Peter Gabriel // Peter Gabriel (Melt) (1980)
His collaborations with Peter Gabriel reflected Gabriel’s restless, discomfiting aesthetic just as well as the Floyd designs had chimed with their music: the artwork for his self-titled third solo album (aka Melt), for example, consisted of a single shot of Gabriel’s face, apparently melting off his skull.
WAX // 8
THE EYE OF THE STORM // HIPGNOSIS
STORM and HIPGNOSIS torm Thorgerson met Aubrey Powell while he was studying for his MA in Film and Television at the Royal College of Art. They launched design group Hipgnosis in 1968. During the design group’s heyday in the 1970s, their brand of surreal cinematic narratives was practically de riguer for British rock bands of a progressive persuasion. Their style which skillfully blended large-format photography with George Hardie’s illustrational graphic overlays was, in many ways, a modernist recasting of the ‘60s fantastical illustrative style. Their choice of imagery was very much part of the post-hippy mentality still in evidence in the early ‘70s: psychedelia by other means. The hallucinogenic imagery was often of surrealist derivation, echoing motifs from Dali, Magritte and the like, but its transformation into pin-sharp photographs gave Hipgnosis’ images a unique presence. In a time before digital photography and image manipulation software such as Photoshop, photographic retouching was an absolute requisite of their work, and their retoucher Richard Manning was consummately skilled, ensuring their surreal visions were given the veneer of photographic veracity. Illustrator George Hardie often contributed embellished logos and
graphic overlays of a type which later found favour in the 1980s with design groups such as Assorted Images and Stylorouge. Such was the lure of Hipgnosis’s style that they even stole Yes away from their long association with illustrator Roger Dean for the album Going for the One (1977). vIn the early ‘70s, Hipgnosis was a rarity in Britain: an independent design group specifically focused on designing for the record industry. Although the evolution of independent designers into groups specifically aiming to provide design services for the music world was imperceptibly gathering pace, it was the scale of the entertainment industry
focused on Los Angeles that first encouraged this development, and where design studios, such as Rod Dyer Inc., were being established to service such needs Thorgerson and Powell’s partnership prospered and they were joined by Peter Christopherson in 1974. They also collaborated regularly with designer/illustrator George Hardie. Storm Thorgerson was in many ways the lynchpin of the company. As Peter Gabriel said of him: “It’s always fun when you start meeting with him. He’s got this box of slightly used ideas that he tries to palm you off with. Only the difficult sods get the original creative things, and everyone else gets the stuff that’s been rejected.
David Gilmour David Gilmour (1977) Gabriel’s restless, discomfiting aesthetic just as well as the Floyd designs had chimed with their music: the artwork for his self-titled third solo album (aka Melt), for example, consisted of a single shot of Gabriel’s face, apparently melting off his skull,
Black Sabbath // Never Say Die (1978)
But that’s part of the game and I used to enjoy it as well.” Thorgerson was born in Middlesex, England, in 1944. His childhood had included a spell at A.S. Neill’s “progressive” school Sumerhill, and he had studied for a degree in English and Philosophy at Leicester University before going to the Royal College of Art Hipgnosis’s first album sleeve design was for Pink Floyd’s second album A Saucerful of Secrets (1968). Pink Floyd was formed by Syd Barrett, an art student at Camberwell School of Art, with Regent Street Polytechnic students Roger Waters, Nick Mason and Rick Wright. The band (its name coined by Barrett as a homage to bluesmen Pink Anderson and Floyd Council) quickly established itself as one of the most prominent on the underground scene, playing venues such as the newly opened UFO and Middle Earth clubs. Their long association with design group Hipgnosis allowed them to develop a visual identity which, with its widescreen surrealist motifs, was the perfect compliment to their music. Designing Pink Floyd’s A Saucerful of Secrets album sleeve was the beginning of the design group’s long and fruitful association with the band, although the partnership did not begin to strike an entirely consistent note until their eighth album Dark Side of the Moon which launched them into the international mainstream in 1973. The album is still among the best-selling albums of all time, and the gatefold sleeve features George Hardie’s famous prism image, splitting a beam of white light into its constituent colours only to recombine them in an endless cycle. Succeeding albums Wish You Were Here (1975) and Animals (1977) consolidated their reputation as one of the progressive rock acts on the international circuit. Pink Floyd’s sleeve art is amongst the most coherent and successful campaigns using album covers as a means of projecting a band’s musical identity. The consistency of Pink Floyd’s approach to sleeve design, despite considerable personell changes, allowed Hipgnosis to develop a complex and innovative signature style for the band which can perhaps best be described as “Hollywood Surrealism.”
quently re-established. Although most closely associated with Pink Floyd, Hipgnosis designed record covers for many important rock bands, including Led Zeppelin, Genesis, 10cc and Wishbone Ash. Particularly celebrated are Led Zeppelin’s Houses of the Holy (1977) and Presence (1976) and 10cc’s How Dare You (1976) and Bloody Tourists (1978). In 1983, the writing on the wall for big budget album sleeves, Thorgerson, Powell and Christopherson decided to follow the money and formed Green Back Films with the intention of entering the increasingly important market for the promotional films and videos which were being tied into album releases. The company was disbanded in 1985 due to financial difficulties and artistic differences. Thorgerson continued to make videos for EMI and commercials for Hang Films until 1991, when he began to write art and science documentaries. Thorgerson passed away in 2013. //
WAX // 10
THE EYE OF THE STORM // PINK FLOYD
I NEVER EVEN SMOKED DOPE WHEN I WORKED. Not long before Thorgerson‘s death, Gary Graff from GuitarWorld sat down with him to talk all things Dark Side, Roger and why The Division Bell is actually his favourite album. WORDS: GARY GRAFF o band has trusted Thorgerson more during the past 30 years than Pink Floyd, whose relationship with the designer dates back nearly five decades to Cambridge, England, where Thorgerson grew up with Floyd’s original band leader, Syd Barrett, who was a year behind him in school, and former bassist Roger Waters, who was a year ahead. Thorgerson and Waters played Rugby together. They went their seperate ways in college, but everyone wound up in swinging London during the mid Sixties, as rock and roll culture took over the city. Starting with
1968
a Saucerful of Secrets in 1968, Thorgerson became Pink Floyd’s chief album designer, crafting a series of indelible images - the picture-within-a-picture coer of Ummagumma, the cow of Atom Heart Mother, the prism of Dark Side of the Moon , the Easter Island-style totems of The Division Bell. Beyond the albums, there were videos and concert films, as well as the covers for solo projects by Gilmour and Barrett. With the notable exceptions of The Wall, The Final Cut and a handful of other releases, Thorgerson was responsible for the visual face of Pink Floyd, He’d blanch at any reference to him as the band’s fifth member, but in Floyd’s extra-musical domain, it was Thorgerson’s vision that set the controls for the heart of the sun. “He has been my friend, my conscience, my therapist and of course my artistic advisor...,” Gilmour writes in the forward of Mind Over Matter: The Images of Pink Floyd (Sanctuary Music Library), a 176 page tour of the incredible graphic world Thorgerson had created for the band. “Storm’s ideas are not linked to anyone’s idea of marketing:
1969
How did your association with Pink Floyd begin?
that they are atmospherically linked to the music is a bonus. I consider what he does to be art.” Gilmour also notes with obvious affection that “Storm has always had a big mouth,” an observation confirmed by the designer during a long conversation in his London office, in which he generously shares his thoughts about Floyd, Zeppelin, his myriad other projects and the general state of album art. All this, of course, after he is assured that “the fact that I don’t know anything about guitars doesn’t disqualify me from being in Guitar World, is that right?”
It began with Syd, but also with Roger. Roger’s mum and my mum were best friends. Also with Dave, because he used to hang around with us, even though he was younger. It was just a gang in Cambridge... a group of teenagers who came together, not unlike, I should think, they do in many places in America. Roger was more on the fringes of our peer group; we both chased the same girl ... but he won that one. What were the Floyd guys like as teens? Ordinary, red-blooded young English lads? I think that Roger and Syd were not that ordinary...or the others, for that matter. They have ordinary things they do in their
1970
1972
1971
lives -- they’re absolutely weird as hell -- and they have the usual set of passions. They also make the usual number of mistakes that us normal people do. But they also have drive and talent, obviously. And also, in some cases, great mucisianship. I think Dave lent them a sense of musicianship that helped them to be very successful. What was it like watching the band come together? I didn’t see it. I went off to another university. They came to architectural school in London, and Dave joined later, anyway. I didn’t do the first album; I didn’t do Piper at the Gates of Dawn. I knew them, and I knew they were being nearly successful. But although I knew them as friends,
I didn’t have a particular vew of this, other than it was exciting to know a band that might be successful. I didn’t pay too much attention; I was too preoccupied with myself, as one is when one is younger. When I met them again, they were in the process of losing Syd. So their main creative talent was sort of going off the rails. It’s hard to find the correct way to describe it, really. In Nicholas Schaffner’s book A Saucerful of Secrets, he describes a meeting in your apartment where Syd’s ouster from the band was discussed. What was that like? It’s a bit long ago to remember. [laughs] Because they knew that I knew Syd, and I knew them, they thought maybe I could perhaps
offer some limited advice as to what to do. Rog, who hadn’t spoke to me in quite a bit, I think was interested in talking to me about what I thought was going wrong with Syd, ‘cause he knew that I’d been relatively close to him in Cambridge. But I don’t think that I had much of an idea about what they should do, really. It’s very difficult, even when you’re an adult, to know what to do when a friend goes off the rails. It was very hard for the band; I don’t think there was ever a desire to get rid of him, but they had to function. We talked about it, as chaps do. I couldn’t proffer much direct advice, but we chatted about how horribly difficult it was, what the hell they were going to do. Syd was in such a state at times, you just couldn’t talk to
1979
1975
1973
1973
A Saucerful of Secrets
Ummagumma
Atom Heart Mother
Meddle
Obscured by Clouds
Dark Side of the Moon
Animals
Wish You Were Here
WAX // 12 One of the most powerful relationships in the history of music, this is every album cover that Storm had a hand in creating for Pink Floyd
THE EYE OF THE STORM // PINK FLOYD that maybe they’re important in their own way. Even if they’re not as important as the music, except to people like me.
Thorgerson and a casual game of Backgammon with David Gilmour him. I think I was of the opinion then that it made sense to get rid of him if he really was preventing the band from functioning. He seemed to show clear signs of getting worse rather than better, and also seemed to be unreachable. If a person seems unreachable, or appears to be immune to entreaty, then you have to reluctantly decide to go on without him. I think it’s very sad, really. And they were very sad about it. I think “Shine on You Crazy Diamond” is the most concretized form of their sadness, if you like. I think that song, written eight years later, approximately,
1981
A Collection of Great Dance Songs
is a clear indication that this was something they did not want to happen. So in the midst of this, you wound up doing the art for A Saucerful of Secrets. I think they knew they didn’t want the record company to handle it. This was in the days when the Floyd and the Stones and the Beatles were beginning to take power back to themselves, especially artistic power, away from the record companies -- to literally take more control of their artistic output. I think they realized that, along with the music, sleeves are things that last, and
1987
A Momentary Lapse of Reason
I think they wanted someone they trusted and who knew them to do it rather than some impersonal or third party designer that had no relationship with them. Their music was intimately related; why shouldn’t their cover be related? What kind of working relationship did you fall into with the band? You get used to each other and you chat and you develop some shorthands. And you prick your ears to pick up the bits that are most interesting. Dark Side, for example, came from sort of an aside said by Rick -- not necessarily the most likely source. The back of Ummagumma comes from something Nick Mason did. Meddle comes from God knows
1988
Delicate Sound of Thunder
what. Wish You Were Here comes from conversations with Rog in particular. Animals is actually a Roger thing; although we did the work, it was his idea. A Momentary Lapse in Reason comes from a line of lyric of Dave’s. The Division Bell comes from several things What happens is, in all cases, you still have a sort of communication with the band. That comes and goes. It breaks down sometimes. It’s mostly by talking, by being there -- by going to gigs, particularly, so that you get some sensation of what the music is really like, ‘cause you don’t find that much during recording, since alot of it is done in bits. Is it important to start working on the album at the gestation of the project? It depends on what the gestation was. I didn’t have anything, really, to do with the start of Atom Heart Mother, and when I asked them what it was about, they said they didn’t know themselves. It’s a conglomeration of pieces that weren’t related, or didn’t seem to be at the time. The picture isn’t related either; in fact, it was an attempt to do a picture that was unrelated, consciously unrelated.
It’s a cow! ‘Cause that seemed to be the most unrelate thing it could be.
Also, I think the cow represents, in terms of the Pink Floyd, part of their humor, which I think is often underestimated or just unwritten about. Not that their music is funny, but I think they have good senses of humor. Nick is very droll; he’s got a very good dry sense of humor. And Roger is very sharp. Dave has his own particular sense of humor, as well. I think that’s why they chose the cow. I think they thought it was funny. Any rejections of your work that come readily to mind? Yeah, for Animals in particular. There were two roughs for Animals, one of which was a picture of a young child, age three or four, with a teddy bear, opening the room to his parents, who are on the bed making love, being caught in the act, and appearing to be animals. I thought that was really good, but they didn’t like it. For the same job, I also suggested this idea about ducks. In England, the essence of bad taste is to put plaster ducks on the wal. So I took that idea and put real ducks and nailed them to the wall to suggest that people are really animal in some of their artistic and moral decisions. I think they rejected that not because they didn’t like it -- because I think they did -- but because it was very heavy. These
The Division Bell
So yeah, it happens. For Dark Side of the Moon, we did six or seven complex roughs of all sorts of different things that were eminently suitable. And we were very excited and looking forward to showing these different ideas to the band. At the actual meeting, we gathered around and ... it took about a minute! They looked at all these things and looked at the prism and said, “We’ll have that.” We said, “Oh there’s this and this, have a look at this.” And they said, “No, we’ll have that. Now we’ve got to go back and do our real job.” An they walked out of the room to continue recording. You tell a great story in the book about shooting the pyramids in the middle of the night for the Dark Side poster. I scared myself shitless doing it, too! I hired a taxi at 2 o’clock a.m. to take me out to the pyramids. So there I am, thinking I’ll be fine, and I put the camera on the tripod to do a long time exposure. It’s a wonderful, clear night and the moon is fantastic. So I’m doing it... and then, at like 4 o’clock a.m., these figures come walking across -- soldiers with guns. I thought, this is it. The game is up -- young photographer dies a strange death in a foreign land. I was actually really
2000
1995
1994
were ducks I bought at a poultry place and nailed to a wall.
Pulse
Is There Anybody Out There
scared. Of course, all my fears were unfounded. They were very friendly. They wante d a bit of bakshish, a little bit of money to go away. They kindly pointed out that where I stood was actually a firing range, and that they’d come ot tell me it wasn’t very cool for me to be there. If I was there first thing in the morning, I might get a bullet up my butt. It’s obvious from the book that you’re very fond of Wish You Were Here. Did you feel you had to one-up Dark Side?
Diamond,” Correct? It was particularly to do with “Shine On You Crazy Diamond,” yes. In a way that theme could be expressed by one word: absence. It was absene in terms of relatinoships, absence in terms of previous memebrs of the band. Also, absence in terms of a commitment to a cause or a project. This was the feeling that I think was in the air.
How involved did you get in those inner-band Floyd politics
I think they realized that, along with the music, sleeves are things that last, and that maybe they’re important in their own way.
Not really. Dark Side... I think it’s sort of goodish, good. But I don’t think it’s a moving piece; I don’t think it’s as moving as I would like in terms of their music. So when Wish You Were Here came around, I was quite fueled up for it. In fact, I was even more fueled up for it. And I only suggested one thing to them, as opposed to several to choose from. It was quite nervy, ‘cause normally for the Floyd and other bands I would suggest a few different roughs to choose from. But the one thing that was suggested to the band was what they used. Those images were mostly inspired by “Shine on You Crazy
2001
that started to surface during the mid-seventies? The divorce, you mean? Quite alot on Dave’s side. Roger has not spoken to me since 1980. I was not privy to meetings they
2011
2007
Echoes
Oh By the Way
A Foot in the Door
WAX // 14
THE EYE OF THE STORM // PINK FLOYD
had. I just know that there was a very, very hard time indeed, with a lot of fighting. Did you have a falling out with Roger?
and boxes and fold-outs and Digipaks -- this pack, that pack, see-through trays, embossing, etc., etc. I have obviously indulged myself; I enjoyed greatly doing Pulse for Pink Floyd.
I don’t know whether it was falling out. He didn’t want to use me A spectacular CD package. How did that come about? on The Wall, which is understandable. He was also supposI think it came about for two paredly cross with me for something, ticular reasons, one of which was for a credit I’d given him in a that it was a live album. I wanted book I’d done called Walk Away, the package to be live, so we Renee. An illustration of the Anicame up with a list of things that mals cover appeared in the book, included balls and mazes. We had and Roger didn’t like the credit some that made a noise when you I’d given him. I Thorgerson enjoying a few with the band corrected it on a reprint, so I don’t know whether that was really what upset him.
volvement with the Floyd that you view the current incarnation of the band as legitimate. Yes, because Roger resigned. If you leave a band, I cannot see the moral imperative that would allow you to presume it finished. If you leave, you leave. And presumably a man of Roger’s standing and intelligence left because that’s what he wanted. I think its peculiar because if it’s not what he wanted, why did he do it? Nobody asked him to. Nobody pressured him to. So I presume he wanted to. But there was a lot
How do you feel about doing album art in the CD age? This is a continuing debate. The usual response of graphic designers is that the CD provides you with less of a graphic canvas to work on. But it has its own challenges. Also, designers are, to a great extent, realists; you’ve got to function, you’ve got to work. CDs are here. You’ve got to learn to like them. Obviously though, I would like to have a larger canvas. That’s why I build things big sometimes. For Phish, I built this ball of yarn that is the size of a small house. Part of the challenge seems to be in packaging too, rather than simply designing a cover or a booklet.
Thorgerson and David Gilmour
I think designers are dreven to do that because there’s less of a canvas to work on with just the booklet. So where are they going to get their rocks off? Because it’s smaller, it becomes more touchy, more of a tactile thing so that you can play more with textures
level, this is the picture that I have liked the most. It is the image I’m proudest of -- at the moment. I think it says a lot about the Floyd. I think that it says a lot about past Floyd. I think it says a lot about Roger. I think that it says something about the layers of meaning, the elegance...the ghost, the spirit of Floyd. It says something about their ambiguities. It says all those things. It most particularly says something about departed friends. And from your vantage point, do you think there is any truth to the rumours that Roger and the rest of the Floyd will be playing together in the future? [laughs] I’ve heard that. It sounds like bull to me. Although, I think it would be quite interesting and dynamic
I think it says a lot about the Floyd. I think that it says a lot about past Floyd. I think it says a lot about Roger. I think that it says something about the layers of meaning, the elegance... the ghost, the spirit of Floyd.
opened it, squeaked at you, some that smelled, others that you could see in the dark. And this one that had a flashing light thing, which reflected the heartbeat in Dark Side. And also it was a light, which is really handy ‘cause obviously the Floyd have a really good light show. The other thing that I was also fed up with having to squint at spine details. I thought, I’m going to make something that I know where it is when I want it. It was about a spine that was completely and utterly unique and recognizable, that says: “Here I am. You want to play me? I’m over here.” I think it works really well. Mine still blinks. I take it from your continued in-
of fighting afterward, so you have to presume that something went astray. You chose the cover of The Division Bell to be the cover of your book. What’s the special significance this piece has for you? Obviously we were tempted to chose Dark Side because of its success, but we eschewed that choice in favour of art. I hope it doesn’t sound over-pretentious to say that. On a more simple
if it did occur. I think you’re talking about two huge talents here. And as much as there may have been friction, there’s mileaage to be made out of friction. But if you ask me if I think it’s a reality -- I don’t think it’s a reality. But, then of course, that’s relay and what’s not with the Floyd? //
WAX // 16
STORM THORGERSON FEATURE // // STORM THORGERSON Alan Parsons Try Anything Once 1970 10cc – Look Here (1980) Alan Parsons Try Anything Once 1969 Black Sabbath Technical Ecstacy 1969
1.
2.
STORM ELVIN THORGERSON
4.
1944 - 2013 Aubrey Powell remembers his partner and mentor.
3.
IN HIS WORDS excerpts from Taken By Storm: the Album Art of Storm Thorgerson
1. Alan Parsons Try Anything Once (1993) ‘The title suggested something a touch reckless, perhaps, or at least a departure from normal behaviour. We joined this thought with the image of a bungie jump from a high bridge on television – wondering what on earth people would do for a thrill.’
5. 2. 10cc Look Hear? (1980) This picture of a sheep on a psychoanalytic couch was designed as a poster insert for 10cc’s 1980 album, Look Here. The band asked for ‘something different’. I never really have a clear idea of what that expression means ... I thought it was more engaging to ask a question and between us we came up with ‘are you normal?’ Anyway, the question led to the idea of normality and what could be more normal than a sheep, all of whom tend to follow each other. But to be normal you’d need a lengthy dose of psychotherapy.’
3. The Cranberries Wake Up and Smell the Coffee (2001) Sad really, but the Cranberries self-combusted like many before them. From the Beatles down, implosion seems to be a recurring nightmare for bands. For this album, I imagined little granules of coffee floating through the air, up the stairs, floating into one’s bedroom...’ 4. Led Zeppelin Presence I was greatly impressed that the mighty Led Zeppelin could take this low-key, off-the-wall, domestic semikitsch, partially retro design ...
so obscure really. Impressed and delighted because I always felt that the understatement adds to the power of the image.’ 5. Black Sabbath Technical Ecstacy (1976) Here is a design taken unequivocally from the title. I don’t think I heard the music, I’m sorry to confess, but the title was so evocative and promising that it wasn’t necessary
torm Thorgerson’s pictures created
a world of illusions, visual puns,
was my mentor, showing me the many skills
In the beginning at Hipgnosis, he
than not, the images he produced were unrelated to the original brief, and so it became a
conundrums and strange narratives,
of photographic design, such as perspective,
marathon task to interpret what came out of
often set in a surreal landscape
composition, collage and montage, darkroom
Storm’s head. His slogan was “a good idea is
occupied by people and objects carefully
techniques and, most importantly, how to use
a good idea”. In other words, a good image
composed in seemingly impossible situations.
a camera. Even though we were both young
will sell anything on its own merit. It was tried
and inexperienced, it seemed effortless for
and tested on many a rock star. Some hated
realism were everything to Storm. Observe
Impossible? Not so, as scale and
him to conjure up an endless stream of ideas,
it, Paul McCartney for one. Others played
a man by the sea pulling a 20ft-high ball of
plundering and pillaging his subconscious.
along, like Peter Gabriel, who enjoyed the
string, or a giant eye peering ominously over
Whereas I had a vision to build a company,
mind games and the banter. For the most
a naked shoulder in some parched badland.
he had the intelligence to
Thirty telegraph poles in a straight line with
create an art house.
a person sitting cross-legged on the top of
each one, hundreds of hospital beds spread
company and Hipgnosis
across a beach, or red footballs in the dunes
quietly ceased operations, Storm continued
part, having been put to the test and lived to
of the Sahara desert. An underwater ballet,
on at what he liked to do best – playing the
enjoy the resulting artwork, clients remained
performed in a corporation swimming pool,
creator of images – and so a new outfit ap-
steadfastly attached to Storm.
or two elegant ladies wearing cerise onions
peared with a fresh bunch of loyal and willing
for ball gowns. For sheer enormity, try two
hands running different aspects of Storm Stu-
full of quips, some not always appreciated; far
huge stone statues the size of Easter Island
dios. A team of artisans helped him discover
too clever for his own good, but with a crazily
figures facing each other, yet divided in the
new and wonderful horizons. Storm’s output
gifted mind; rarely compromising, always
distance by Ely Cathedral. Storm’s ideas were
never ceased to amaze.
fighting to the end, and wearing obstruction
extraordinary, but the execution even more
down in the belief of his own work, Storm
so. He insisted on creating real sculptures
Storm’s clients. He was a lateral and fearless
for each of his projects. Everything had to
thinker for whom the presentation of ideas
be built and photographed in situ to a size
was like a game of intellectual charades, with
determined by the idea. No fakery, no Photo-
a few clues as to the meaning of the work
shop, or no deal.
thrown in every now and again. More often
When we parted
IT SEEMED EFFORTLESS FOR HIM TO CONJURE UP AN ENDLESS STREAM OF IDEAS, PLUNDERING AND PILLAGING HIS SUBCONSCIOUS.
Things were never made easy for
Always late, nearly always forgiven;
rarely lost his way. The boy done good.//
WAX // 18
IN THE STUDIO // QUEEN IN MONTREUX
THE SHOW MUST GO ON
For him the studio was an oasis, a place where life was just the same as it always had been. He loved making music, he lived for it.” Tucked away on the Lake Geneva shoreline in Montreux, Switzerland, Mountain Studios offered a refuge for some of music’s greatest names. This is where Queen spent their final days with Freddie Mercury, recording masterpieces like “Under Pressure” and “The Miracle.” This is an inside look of Freddie’s oasis, Queen’s home-away-fromhome...
WORDS by COLE MORTON
WAX // 20
IN THE STUDIO // QUEEN IN MONTREUX
he music drops out and the voice of Freddie Mercury is left alone to soar in the speakers. This is the last recording the Queen singer made and is the sound of a man railing against the sickness that would soon kill him. I’m listening to his raw, untreated vocal while standing on the spot where he sang, in a studio on the shores of Lake Geneva. It is electrifying. “We all knew there wasn’t much time left,” says Brian May, the Queen guitarist who was at that session in May 1991. “Freddie wanted his life to be as normal as possible. He obviously was in a lot of pain and discomfort. For him the studio was an oasis, a place where life was just the same as it always had been. He loved making music, he lived for it.” Now the studio in Montreux, Switzerland, where that final recording was made is being opened to the public for the first time, with a launch tomorrow to coincide with World Aids Day. Entrance to the Queen Studio Experience is free but fans will be asked for a donation
to the Mercury Phoenix Trust, the charity set up in the singer’s name after he died of bronchial pneumonia brought on by Aids in November 1991. They will be able to see his extravagant stage outfits, read the lyrics he wrote in a scrawling hand on scraps of paper and use a replica of the old control desk to remix his last song as they choose – including the ability to strip back everything else so it sounds as if Freddie is in the room. “I was surprised at how moving it was to come back in here and listen to him again as he was,” says Justin ShirleySmith, the assistant engineer for those last sessions. “This is hard to explain to people, but it wasn’t sad, it was very happy. He was one of the funniest people I ever encountered. I was laughing most of the time, with him. Freddie was saying [of
his illness] ‘---- that. I’m not going to think about it, I’m going to do this.’ We all were.” For years, fans have argued about which was Freddie’s last song, with members of the band and studio engineers contradicting each other. Now, The Telegraph can disclose, the mystery has been solved. The dates were not always written down, but after searching through the labels on old boxes of reel to reel tape, Mr ShirleySmith says it was definitely Mother Love, recorded between May 13 and 16 1991. The song expresses a longing to be cared for and protected. “I can’t take it if you see me cry,” sings Mercury. “I long for peace before I die.” Brian May says that is why the ailing singer bought a flat by the lake in Montreux. “Particularly towards the end of his life he was pursued by the press and curious people. He just wanted peace and quiet, to be able to get on with what he did. It was very convenient in Montreux because people got used to the sight of us and nobody made a fuss.” The studio is surprisingly small, tucked away around the back of the Casino de Montreux. Queen owned it from 1979 until the early Nineties, but May and the drummer Roger Taylor have
now collaborated to restore the old control room, with the same stone-clad walls and intimate atmosphere. This was where the band recorded Under Pressure with David Bowie, as well as many other songs including A Kind of Magic, Who Wants To Live Forever? and One Vision. The four members of Queen sold more than 300 million albums and had 18 number one singles – but in the spring of 1991, they knew their frontman was facing the end. The rest of the band put themselves on standby in the Swiss town, ready to record when the singer felt able to come in, for an hour or two at a time. May says: “He just kept saying. ‘Write me more. Write me stuff. I want to just sing this and do it and when I am gone you can finish it off.’ He had no fear, really.” Mercury was walking with a cane by then and could not stand for long. He chose to sing in the control room, with his closest friends. That afternoon he sang a verse at a time, with three attempts at each. His vocal is surprisingly strong at times. “I don’t know where he found the energy,” says May. “Probably from vodka. He would get in the mood, do a little warm up then say, ‘Give me my shot.’ He’d swig it down ice cold.
“He said, ‘I’m not feeling that great, I think I should call it a day now. I’ll finish it when I come back, next time.’ But, of course, he didn’t ever come back to the studio after that.” Stolichnaya, usually. Then he would say, ‘Roll the tape’. “He still had astonishing power in his lungs at that point, I really don’t know where it came from. “The song starts low and gentle, but Mercury chose to push himself and go higher. We looked at each other and knew there was a mountain to climb. “That’s when the vodka really went down. He said, ‘I will hit these notes.’ And he did. It was a wonderful performance.” When the lead vocal is isolated in the studio you can hear his vulnerability. “I don’t want pity,” he sings, “Just a safe place to hide.” Mercury was exhausted by the effort, adds May. “We got as far as the penultimate verse and he said, ‘I’m not feeling that great, I think I should call it a day now. I’ll finish it when I come back, next time.’ But, of course, he didn’t ever come back to the studio after that.”
The other members of the band worked on while Mercury rested in his apartment. “We always ate together. That was lovely. Then the day came when he said, ‘Look, I’m going back to London for a while.’ It was always ‘a while’. Nothing was ever ‘the end’.” He went back to London for the last time in early November 1991 and died at his home in Kensington on the 24th. May was in London when he heard the news, along with the rest of Queen. “We were all wondering if it was an illusion, and he was going to be cured. You can’t really take these things in properly. “Then we got the phone call. It was surreal. Even though we had been preparing for such a long time, it still didn’t feel possible,” says May. “We all got together and talked and had a drink and then saw it announced on the TV. Strangely enough, that was when it seemed real for
the first time. You thought, ‘Oh my God, he really has gone and everybody knows now. It can’t be taken back’.” Later, the recordings Mercury had left were pieced together for the posthumous album Made In Heaven, one of Queen’s biggest sellers. “A lot of the time it feels as if Freddie is still with us, even though physically he is not,” says May, who is working with Roger Taylor on a new film about the band. Sacha Baron Cohen was due to play Mercury, but that association ended over the summer. “We had a great meeting the other day. We seem to have our director and I think an announcement will be made any day. We think we have our Freddie, and he’s great. “We’ve seen the screen tests. I’m not going to tell you who he is, but I think everybody is guessing.” Reports suggest it may be Ben Whishaw, who will have
big boots (but tiny Lycra trousers) to fill. There’s a bronze statue of the singer by the lake in Montreux, where fans leave gifts and candles. A few steps away, back in the studio, the voice of Freddie Mercury disappears and is replaced by that of Brian May, finishing the song on behalf of his friend. “My body’s aching but I can’t sleep, I’m coming home to my sweet mother love.”//
WAX // 22
LIST // THE BEST SLEEVES
BUTTS. NO SERIOUSLY, BUTTS. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN BORN IN THE USA 1984 The quintessential American image for the quintessential American artist, the cover for Born in the USA did exactly what it said on the tin. The American flag as the backdrop and the uniform of blue jeans, white shirt and red cap of the American blue-collar worker which The Boss celebrated in his lyrics. Shots were taken of Springsteen facing the camera but this one made the cut; Springsteen remarking, “The picture of my ass looked better than the picture of my face, so that’s what went on the cover.”
AN OMINOUS PORTRAIT JOHNNY CASH AMERICAN IV: THE MAN COMES AROUND 2002 All five of the covers for Johnny Cash’s last era of recordings, the American series are fantastic, with the big, simple typeface utilizing the strength of the legend’s name. However, the coolest is for IV: The Man Comes Around, as it juxtaposes that strength with the visible weakness of the Man In Black himself: nearing death and reflecting on his life he looks downward and prepares to fade to black himself.
MILES DAVIS TUTU
1986
Miles Davis was, of course, a true musical pioneer: a multi faceted performer and songwriter, and capable of alternating between subtle beauty and extroverted flamboyance. But this superb cover image captures the man behind the music simply, and starkly. Unbelievably cool.
JOHN COLTRANE BLUE TRAIN 1957
An iconic image of a true jazz great, the cover of Coltrane’s Blue Train was supposedly inspired by Picasso’s Blue Period. The photo, taken by Francis Wolff, certainly captures the sax legend in a pensive, thoughtful and well, blue mood; basically looking like the super-cool legend he was.
BJORK HOMOGENIC 1997 Björk has always looked to push the envelope musically, and that adventurousness has also extended into her approach to album art. Alexander McQueen ran with the theme of Björk as a ‘warrior of love’, creating this incredible image. The hair alone weight 10 kilos – sometimes one has to literally suffer for art.
on the noti linked to ly ot b n a y ic b n inextr cool or ays bee unding ou lw o y s a s s l, a a o y h o tl c music ing exac looking o e d b d t Popular a n a r th g else Whethe ll three. t anythin of cool. s been a fig abou a h g it in , y s fl e m ct, giving a . Someti ous obje ery cool) amorph d , are n please (v re a s fo u re a spurio ere, the e h b u n o y e ubt. r ft an o ave fo ? No do e cool c hat we h us claim W o . ti n king re c And whil u te la d n n e. A co seriously ments e of all tim ction is s e some ele ll m o u c lb 3 a oolest ord/MP the 50 c your rec ure you, s s cords. a re e 0 w But t these 5 u o h it w in kudos
COPYCATS ELVIS PRESLEY ELVIS PRESLEY 1956 The album that changed everything, and a photograph that captured Elvis on the cusp of greatness. It doesn’t come much cooler than that. The photograph was taken at the Fort Homer Hesterly Armory in Tampa, Florida, on July 31, 1955, with Elvis aged just 20. He was towards the bottom of the bill, but he wouldn’t be there for long as this album, and the accompanying cover - arguably the world’s first tangible image of a rock ‘n’ roll star - propelled him to immortality.
THE CLASH LONDON CALLING 1956 It remains a fact of rock ‘n’ roll that there is nothing cooler than a) smashing your guitar, b) being able to afford to smash your guitar or best of all c) not being able to afford to smash your guitar but doing it anyway. The Clash went one better by d) smashing a bass. That thing weighs a lot. Pennie Smith’s shot captured that essential sense of abandonment and loss of control, and Lowry’s design, paying homage to the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll, Elvis’s self-titled album, hammered home the point further. Often imitated, never bettered.
LED ZEPPELIN HOUSES OF THE HOLY 1973
AZINE
IST MAG
RT L om SHO ORDS fr
W
LINES AND LETTERS AN COLOURS OH MY! THE SEX PISTOLS NEVERMIND THE BOLLOCKS 1977 Designer Jamie Reed had no interest in putting the band on the cover of the Sex Pistol’s only record – “They were ugly anyway” – so he used what he termed “cheap hype”, using ransomnote style lettering, brash colours and simplicity that anyone could recreate; the perfect representation of the DIY punk aesthetic. Utterly unforgettable and utterly cool.
PET SHOP BOYS INTROSPECTIVE 1988 Mark Farrow has been the Pets’ image man for most of their long career, with an incredible body of striking work to complement their carefully cultivated image and style. We’ve opted for the cover of Introspective as the coolest of them all. Whereas the art for Please and Actually was stark minimalism, on Introspective he ironically, given the title - opted for a bold and attention-grabbing set of columns, which looked stunning in its original 12 inch form.
Storm Thorgerson appears once more in this list, but few can deny the validity and coolness of this effort, for the mighty Led Zeppelin. Location? The natural wonder of the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland. What’s on those basalt columns? A series of spooky looking golden-haired children (actually created using multipleexposure shots of just two actors) crawling up towards a distant light. Alleged inspiration? The novel Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke, where children climb off the end of the world. Sinister, wrapped in mythology and very, very cool - yep, that’s the Zep.
GRACE JONES ISLAND LIFE
1985
Grace Jones has created a series of truly incredible cover images in her career, but this one just about takes it for us. Created by her then-partner Jean-Paul Goude, the arabesque is, in fact, a montage of separate images. Such is the incredible power, beauty and, well, Grace of Jones’ body that it’s eminently believable that it is a real body position - but it is in fact anatomically impossible. Seriously cool.
THE STROKES IS THIS IT 2001 When the Strokes emerged, everything about them was cool. The music, the haircuts, the names and, of course, the album cover, which instantly became an all-time class. The ‘photo-shoot’ was apparently spontaneous, and featured photographer Colin Lane’s then-girlfriend, who had just come out of the shower, and a glove that had been left in their apartment by a stylist. “There was no real inspiration, I was just trying to take a sexy picture” said Lane. He certainly did the job.
WAX // 24
LIST // THE BEST SLEEVES
ART HISTORY 101 NEW ORDER POWER, CORRUPTION AND LIES 1983
LESS IS MORE AC/DC BACK IN BLACK
This seminal work from Peter Saville was part of a series of incredible cover designs. Power, Corruption and Lies was the ‘keystone’, with the decoder for the colourbased code found in the top-right corner, representing the title and band name, being found on the back cover of the album. The same code then appeared on the iconic floppy-disc cover for Blue Monday and also Confusion. The cover is a reproduction of the painting “A Basket of Roses” by French artist Henri Fantin-Latour with Saville explaining that they “suggested the means by which power, corruption and lies infiltrate our lives. They’re seductive.” A masterpiece of graphic design and undeniably cool.
1980
AC/DC’s first album following the death of lead singer Bon Scott had a cover that was appropriately sparse, dark and powerful. A simple outline of the band’s iconic logo together with the title in plain typography, it perfectly complemented the music itself: simple, heavy, no-nonsense, and brutally effective.
BECK THE INFORMATION 1980 How cool is this album sleeve? Well, it’s as cool as you want it to be. Beck created a stir in 2006 when his album The Information was released with a cover consisting of a simple sheet of graph paper, and a set of stickers that the listener could arrange as they wished. It was declared to be ‘anti-packaging’ but paradoxically resulted in an infinite amount of different designs being available. Seriously cool.
JUSTICE
2007 Justice were the coolest French duo since Daft Punk when they emerged in the mid-2000s, and their adoption of the cross as their symbol was appropriate, given the quasi-religious following they obtained as they built through the underground. The cover for their long-awaited debut † did not disappoint, with the colour scheme referencing TRex’s Electric Warrior. C’est cool, c’est Justice.
JOY DIVISION UNKNOWN PLEASURES
1979
Everything about this cover is cool, from the decision for a new band to not have the album title or band name on the cover, to the use of such an abstract image as the centerpiece of the design. That image is not a mountain range, or a series of waves, but a set of successive pulses from the first pulsar discovered, PSR B1919+21. Joy Division drummer Stephen Morris apparently suggested it after seeing it in the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Astronomy in 1977 and the image was lifted wholesale; thus the much-imitated image is effectively copyright-free.
FRANK ZAPPA SHIP ARRIVING TOO LATE TO SAVE A DROWNING WITCH 1982 Only Frank Zappa would utilise a ‘droodle’ (a combination of doodle, drawing and riddle) - a form of humorous cartoon popular in the 1950s and 1960s - as both the artwork and title of an album, but then Zappa never really was one for following the rules; after all, this was a man who named two of his children Moon Unit and Diva Thin Muffin Pigeen. An alternative title for this droodle was ‘Mother Pyramid Feeding Her Baby’. Amazing.
SOULWAX NITE VERSIONS 2005 Multi-talented artist and musician Trevor Jackson (of Playgroup, amongst others) produced this beautiful piece of Peter Savilleesque graphic design for this Soulwax remix album. Eye-catching, yet subtle, it is very cool indeed.
PINK FLOYD DARK SIDE OF THE MOON 1973 Roger Waters, Pink Floyd’s bassist and singer suggested to designer Storm Thorderson that perhaps for the cover of Dark Side of the Moon, he might not use a photograph. He replied, “What do you mean? That’s what I do. Pictures...I don’t do graphics.” Thankfully, for the history of album cover design, he embraced the challenge laid down to him. Using twin inspirations of Floyd’s live light show and a triangle - a symbol of thought and ambition - he created this cover and a piece of musical and art history.
THE VELVET UNDERGROUND & NICO THE VELVET UNDERGROUND & NICO 1967 It helped that the album itself would become a cult classic and hugely influential, but that Andy Warhol banana print could have been the cover of Jedward’s debut album and still been considered an iconic sleeve image. Early copies of the album had the invitation to “Peel slowly and see” enabling the owner to peel back the banana skin to reveal a flesh-coloured banana underneath. Fruity indeed.
THE STONE ROSES THE STONE ROSES 1989 This iconic artwork was created by John Squire, a man hugely influenced by influential abstract expressionist painter Jackson Pollock (so much so that he was also referenced in the lyrics to earlier song Going Down). Entitled Bye, Bye Badman (also the name of a song on the album), the piece referred to the May 1968 Parisian Riots - hence the coloured daubings of the French tricolore on the left (the lemons were a nod to the fact that they could be used as an antidote to tear gas). An image which has adorned countless students’ bedroom walls, and is still amazingly cool today.
THE SMALL FACES OGDEN’S NUT GONE FLAKE 1968 One of the very first album covers to think outside the box literally - this record was originally released on vinyl in a giant tobacco tin, modelled on the Victorian-style containers such as Ogdens’ Nut-Brown Flake, a brand of tobacco that had been produced in Liverpool since 1899. The tin opened to reveal the record along with a poster consisting of five interconnected paper circles, each one bearing the image of a band member. One Direction eat your heart out.
THE HUMAN CONNECTION BOB DYLAN THE FREEWHEELIN’ BOB DYLAN 1963 A cover where less is more, and is all the cooler for it. A casual photograph of Dylan with his then-muse Suze Rotolo, taken in the West Village, New York City, it was unusual at the time for being unstaged and unposed. Critic Janet Maslin described it perfectly as “a photograph that inspired countless young men to hunch their shoulders, look distant, and let the girl do the clinging”.
PINK FLOYD WISH YOU WERE HERE 1983 How do you follow Dark Side of the Moon’s iconic artwork? Set a man on fire, that’s how. For the overall concept, Storm Thorgerson had centred on the idea of absence, with the album shrink-wrapped in a dark colour to hide the artwork was so cool – with the gesture of a handshake between the two men being inspired by Welcome to the Machine and Have a Cigar and by the idea that people hide their true feelings (the shrinkwrap) for fear of ‘getting burned’ (the cover) underneath. EMI were initially unhappy with the ‘non-cover’ but, says Storm, “after we stuck a cow on the front of Atom Heart Mother they knew that anything to do with Pink Floyd was difficult.
“a photograph that inspired countless young men to hunch their shoulders, look distant, and let the girl do the clinging” WAX // 26
LIST // THE BEST SLEEVES
PARTY OF FOUR QUEEN QUEEN II 1974 Queen enlisted Mick Rock to capture the photograph for the cover of their second record, eager for some of the glam rock kudos that he had – following work for David Bowie, Lou Reed and Iggy Pop – to rub off on them, after their debut album failed to take off as they had hoped. They initially thought the shot too pretentious, but Rock persuaded them to go with it – “It made them look like much bigger a deal then they were at the time, but it was a true reflection of their music” – and, of course, Rock was proven 100% correct, with the array of faces becoming truly iconic when used in the video for breakthrough opus Bohemian Rhapsody a year later.
THE RAMONES THE RAMONES 1974 Roberta Bayley remarked that getting The Ramones to pose for a photo was ‘like pulling teeth’, but the world would like to thank her for persisting, as the results formed one of the most enduring and cool rock ‘n’ roll images of all time. The monochrome image of the ultimate punk pioneers would be replicated by countless young hopefuls over the coming years, and immortalise Johnny, Tommy, Joey and Dee Dee forever.
THE BEATLES ABBEY ROAD 1969 Quite simply, an utterly iconic image, with the Fab Four themselves at their coolest: John resplendent in a white suit, Paul barefoot. Perfectly in harmony, and utterly British. The crossing itself was given Grade II listed status in 2010 – there aren’t many traffic artifacts that can boast that.
KRAFTWERK THE MAN MACHINE 1978 The defining image of the German electronic pioneers - this perfectly captures the essence of Kraftwerk. Inspired by the 1930s Modernist movement, particularly El Lissitzky, the strict red and black colour scheme, arrangement of the band members in quasi-robotic fashion and translation of the title into various languages all adds up to a seriously cool album cover. Sehr guht, sehr cool.
“Quite simply, an utterly iconic image, with the Fab Four themselves at their coolest: John resplendent in a white suit, Paul barefoot.”
EPIC ARTWORK IRON MAIDEN THE NUMBER OF THE BEAST 1982 No gallery of cool album covers would be complete without an appearance from Eddie, Iron Maiden’s mascot and constant companion. Everything Derek Riggs has ever done has been incredible but we’ve opted for Number of the Beast. Originally the cover was designed for a single called Purgatory so Riggs opted for a heaven and hell design, which the band liked so much that they used it for the album. Amazingly the call for the artwork came on a Friday and Riggs submitted it the following Monday in time for their deadline – he now claims “I wish I had more time to paint it, I could have done a better job”, but it still looks pretty great to us.
MEAT LOAF BAT OUT OF HELL
BABIES NIRVANA NEVERMIND 2002
LETHAL ABSTRACTION AUTECHRE DRAFT 7.30 2003 Matching the music of the famously obtuse and forwardthinking electronic band, Alex Rutterford created this piece, entitled “Theme of Sudden Roundabout”. This is suitably abstract and unpredictable, yet compelling and beautiful; a cool, modern classic.
HAPPY MONDAYS PILLS ‘N’ THRILLS & BELLYACHES 1990 A fantastic cover, following on from Central Station’s brilliant work on Bummed and the Madchester Rave On EP, they hit top form with this. The cover was a perfect representation of the band’s sound: an eclectic and colourful cut ‘n’ paste collage of various influences thrown together but somehow creating something brilliant, exciting and cool.
2009
A crazy, yet brilliant cover befitting a crazy, yet album, Jim Steinman, the genius songwriter behind Bat Out of Hell, devised the cover’s concept. Naturally, it had a motorcycle erupting out of a graveyard with a giant bat looming over the tombstones in the background. Subtlety never was Meat’s thing.
Sometimes, the simplest things are the coolest, and this cover image for It’s Blitz! is immediate, eye-catching and intriguing. You could say it’s an egg-cellent cover. Yep, we went there.
A prolific comic book writer and artist, Milo Manera was approached by the-then cult band Biffy Clyro to provide the artwork for their second album, The Vertigo of Bliss. As befitting a band who were wilfully obtuse - see the nonsensical name, and song titles including Toys, Toys, Toys, Choke, Toys, Toys, Toys - this erotic and controversial cover only endeared them more to the small, but loyal fanbase they were beginning to cultivate.
SIGUR ROS AGAETIS BYRJUN 1999 The distinctive ‘Alien Angel Foetus’ design was created, remarkably, by Gotti Bernhöft using a Bic ballpoint pen but, using just this simple tool, he created the perfect visual representation of Sigur Rós unique sound: otherworldly, eerily beautiful and delicate.
VAN HALEN 1984
1984
A very naughty baby angel, with a mischievous look and a cig in hand. Proof that Rock ‘n’ Roll can corrupt anyone of anything. The Devil’s got the best tunes, but this Angel’s got Jump and Hot for Teacher underneath its cover.
YEAH YEAH YEAHS IT’S BLITZ
1977
BIFFY CLYRO THE VERTIGO OF BLISS 2003
The iconic image of an innocent baby swimming towards a dollar bill on a fishhook is one of the most instantly recognisable in musical history, worthy of the enormously influential breakthrough album that was Nevermind. Kurt Cobain reportedly conceived the idea after watching a TV program on water births, and a photographer was duly dispatched, with the dollar bill being added afterwards. The meaning behind the image has never been revealed, and never will be, adding to the intrigue, and coolness of the sleeve.
“Kurt Cobain reportedly conceived the idea after watching a TV program on water births, and a photographer was duly dispatched,”
RAMMSTEIN MUTTER
2001
For people who weren’t sure what to make of Rammstein, and who viewed them as something of a joke – with their pyrotechnic live shows and their insistence on singing in their native German – Mutter [Mutter] was the album where people were forced to take them seriously. Epic, haunting music and production, and an equally haunting cover photograph of an unborn foetus taken by Daniel and Geo Fuchs.
WAX // 28
REVIEWS // BEHIND THE SLEEVE
WHIZ KIDS THE WHO WHO’S NEXT
released 14 August 1971 art direction John Kosh photographer Ethan Russel location Easington Colliery, England SOMETIMES YOU CAN’T GO WHEN YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO or at least that’s what Ethan Russell found out when he shot the cover for the Who’s eponymous Who’s Next. The cover features the band turning a way from a large cement block seeming to of just urinated on it. Fitting enough, most of the members were unable to urinate, so rainwater was tipped from an empty film canister to create the effect. The large protruding cement block is often seen as a reference to the monolith discovered on the moon in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 Space Odyssey which came out three years earlier. Kubrick had turned down the direction of Tommy so this is could be the Who’s gigantic middle finger response to the famous director. Earlier versions of the cover design included photographs of obese nude women and one that featured Keith Moon dressed in black lingerie, holding a wip and wearing a brown wig. The alternate cover using Moon was later used for the inside art for the 1995 and 2003 CD releases. Some of the photographs taken during these sessions were also later used as part of Decca’s United States promotion of the album.
Ever the performer, Moon could of been the replacement, whip and all.
Who’s Next sees the band finally moving away from the traditional sixties boy band photograph (My Generation) and charicatured illustrations (The Who Sell Out and A Quick One) found in their previous albums. Future albums like Quadrophenia and Who Are You were another step in this direction. //
allmusic review Much of Who’s Next derives from LifeStephen Thomas Erlewine house, an ambitious sci-fi rock opera
Pete Townshend abandoned after suffering a nervous breakdown, caused in part from working on the sequel to Tommy. There’s no discernable theme behind these songs, yet this album is stronger than Tommy, falling just behind Who Sell Out as the finest record the Who ever
cut. Townshend developed an infatuation with synthesizers during the recording of the album, and they’re all over this album, adding texture where needed and amplifying the force, which is already at a fever pitch. Apart from Live at Leeds, the Who have never sounded as LOUD and unhinged as they do here, yet that’s balanced by ballads, both lovely (“The Song
Is Over”) and scathing (“Behind Blue Eyes”). That’s the key to Who’s Next -there’s anger and sorrow, humor and regret, passion and tumult, all wrapped up in a blistering package where the rage is as affecting as the heartbreak. This is a retreat from the ‘60s, as Townshend declares the “Song Is Over,” scorns the teenage wasteland, and bitterly declares
that we “Won’t Get Fooled Again.” For all the sorrow and heartbreak that runs beneath the surface, this is an invigorating record, not just because Keith Moon runs rampant or because Roger Daltrey has never sung better or because John Entwistle spins out manic basslines that are as captivating as his “My Wife” is funny. This is invigorating because it has
all of that, plus Townshend laying his soul bare in ways that are funny, painful, and utterly life-affirming. That is what the Who was about, not the rock operas, and that’s why Who’s Next is truer than Tommy or the abandoned Lifehouse. Those were art -- this, even with its pretensions, is rock & roll.//
WAX // 30
OPINION // DEATH OF THE ALBUM
“I don’t think people really listen to albums completely from track one to 12. People now curate their own playlists, so I think it’s clever to beat them to it and say, ‘Here it is, done for you.’” Since the advent of digital more than a decade ago, album sales have been falling steadily. There were 30m fewer albums sold in the UK last year than in 2009. Released last month, Lana Del Ray’s third studio album, Ultraviolence, topped the charts in its first week with sales of just 48,000. Overall UK album sales for the same week did not even hit a million.
THE DEATH OF THE
ALBUM Is the digital age killing the future of records? WORDS
HANNAH ELLIS-PETERSON
“Make no mistake,” declared George Ergatoudis, head of music at BBC Radio 1 and Radio 1Xtra, this month. “With very few exceptions, albums are edging closer to extinction.” It was enough for musicians and fans alike to take to social media in their droves to jump to the defence of a format that has dominated the music industry for half a century. Yet Ergatoudis has the facts on his side. The statistics for album sales and revenue from online streaming services show consumers are bypassing the traditional constraints of the LP and listening to a cherrypicked selection of hits. The playlist is now in the ascendant.
But the streaming figures for singles are buoyant. UK fans streamed an estimated 7.4bn songs in 2013, and there are 1.5bn playlists on Spotify compared with about 1.4m albums. Even the much-heralded success of the recent album X by Ed Sheeran (pictured second right) does not confirm the continued resilience of the LP format. While the album sold more than 367,000 copies in the UK in its first four weeks, the lead track, Sing, was streamed more than 2m times by Britons in half that time. Playlists, in essence just a collection of hand-selected songs, are taking on a power of their own and the most popular playlist on Spotify, the Spotify Top 100, has more than 2 million subscribers. The playlists are often grouped by genre, activity, mood, popularity or even put together by musicians themselves. Everyone from Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood to Snoop Dogg have
created Spotify playlists offering insight into their own music tastes, while One Direction put together a playlist that featured songs the group liked to listen to while practising at Harry Styles’s house. Ergatoudis said: “The reality is, if you are looking at albums in pure sale volumes, it is shrinking away very rapidly. If you are talking about consumer behaviour on the streaming services, most people are not listening to albums. They are flicking through playlists … particularly if you are talking about the mass-market artists, we are now in a singlesbased culture. “We are nearing a point where some artists will more than likely break away from feeling like they have to deliver an album as their definitive piece of work and they will be happy with that. But I think the vast majority of musicians at the moment don’t want to hear it. You can see how to suddenly to be told, ‘Well, you can record an album but, bar a small fanbase, most people are only ever going to hear one track, and if you don’t write that one hit track that is going to rise above the parapet, you may never get heard’, is going to be a tough time for artists. But I think a new generation will emerge who will have less of a problem with that. Slowly, artists are going to have to let go of the album. The digital revolution is transforming the industry and that is
unstoppable, whether we like it is irrelevant.” The making and listening to albums, Ergatoudis added, would soon become a “minority sport” and a culture of curated playlists was the future.
power of choice and that power has suddenly made people realise they didn’t always want to have complete albums. That trend during the 1980s and particularly the 1990s where labels started to fill every one of the minutes on a CD with filler tracks
the trend for poor albums sales – 21 by Adele and Sam Smith’s recent debut, In the Lonely Hour – said he believed the LP would remain resilient and relevant owing to a select few artists. He said: “The figures speak for themselves in terms of the rise
The playlist is now the target of multimillionpound investment. It is believed to have driven Apple’s purchase of the headphone brand Beats from Dr Dre, and with it Beats music – a streaming service whose chief selling point is playlists curated by music experts, as well as Google’s recent purchase of the Songza app, which makes customised playlists of recommended songs for users. Ergatoudis said in terms of “creativity and musical statement” albums still had relevance and merit, but making a living out of music would be harder as streaming goes mass market. Mark Mulligan, a music industry analyst, said: “The death of the album is not something that’s happened overnight … it’s something that’s happened over a good 10 years ever since we first had Napster allowing people to consume music on their own terms. Ever since then, everything that’s happened in digital has really given consumers the
and fodder, meant a very large amount of poorer music was being released.” The digital transformation and a world of competing media, Mulligan added, had created an appetite for “post-album artists” who release their music as a continuous series of singles, a format more suited to the “shortattention-span generation”. But Fraser T Smith, the Grammywinning producer behind tracks on two albums that have bucked
of streaming and how album sales are decreasing but from the creative point of view, what I take away from all of this is that great albums are still selling. The top tier of artists are still selling bucketloads, millions of albums, from Ed Sheeran to Adele to Sam Smith.” The producer, who has also worked with Lily Allen, Ellie Goulding and Cee-Lo Green, added: “But I do think the future of the industry is that there is going to be this divide between artists who produce albums and those who don’t, it’s no longer
going to become this uniform thing. “ While some musicians have been resistant to the decline of the album, others have begun to recognise and accept the changing tide. Tinie Tempah recently said his next album would most likely be his last. “This is a Spotify/iTunes/ shuffle generation,” he said. “I don’t think people really listen to albums completely from track one to 12. People now curate their own playlists, so I think it’s clever to beat them to it and say, ‘Here it is, done for you.’ A third album will emerge some time, but I think another after that is uncertain.” Ian Astbury from rock band the Cult echoed his sentiments. He said: “We won’t be making a new album – probably never again. Albums are dead, the format is dead. iTunes has destroyed the whole idea of an album. It was a crucial part of the music industry between the 1970s and the 1990s, but it’s been over for years now. It’s simply an old format, it’s just not up to date – and that’s that.”//
WAX // 32
INTERVIEW // THE INNER SLEEVE
BARKING WITH THE BIG DOGS Wax sits down with Marilyn Hall, the owner of one of our favourite independent record stores in Calgary, Alberta. INTERVIEW by SARAH LAMOUREUX
You can get your fill of crate digging at the Inner Sleeve: 3411 20 Street Southwest, Calgary, AB T2T 4Z6
What made you decide to open up a record store?
Do you remember the first record that you ever bought?
What do you like most about the independent store experience?
With the rise of digital downloads, do you
Well, back 10 and a half years ago, I was a chemical technologist and I decided I was done with that so I opened up in the small space next door. It was mostly a bookstore, with a little bit of CDS and records. It became apparent very quickly that the music people were coming all the time and the book people not so much. So we got rid of the books and expanded the music.
The first one that I bought personally was gary, AB T2T 4Z6 L.A. Guns.
I like, it’s a place people can go without feeling intimidated, it’s a welcoming atmosphere and that’s what we try to make it. We know a lot of our customers by first name and what they’re looking for. We know if something comes in that “oh this person would probably like that.”
No, definitely not, more and more people are going back to the physical format. And they are realizing the importance of having, or the relationship between oneself and the physical format. Realizing that it’s much better sound quality and you’re actually collecting something and you have something to show for it.
Did you have any favorite record stores growing up that you would go to? Yeah, back when I was a teenager, I found the best stuff either at the Attic or at Hot Wax.
3411 20 Street Southwest, Cal-
Do you think there’s a viable future for independent record stores in North America? Definitely, I think we play a very important part in the whole music industry. Independent record stores have the ability to respond to what our customers are looking for. We don’t have corporate telling us what to order so we can order what we want and what our customers ask for. I think we’re more in touch with what people are looking for because we actually interact with our customers.
What is your most treasured vinyl? That is so hard [laughs] that’s a really hard question. It varies really. Some days it’s my “Simmerip” [sic] album that I can’t live without, some days it might be a Miles Davis album. It’s hard to pick a favourite.
think the concept of the “album” is dying?
You bought the entirety of the CBC Calgary collection a couple of years ago. How has that been? Have you found any hidden terasures? Oh yeah, for sure. It is a very complete collection. Both the vinyl and the CDs, the CDs are very complete as well. We still have a lot of it in storage, some of it still hasn’t been out yet.
Yeah that was back in 2012. 40,000 CDs and 30,000 records so it takes a while to go through it [laughs] What makes you feel like you’ve had a good day at the store? You know, people come in and either say to us “oh I can’t believe I found this” or we’ll here them talking to one another. We get some really good collections in, we have people that are finding records that they have been looking for, for 20 to 30 years. It’s just awesome If you weren’t in the music business, would you do anything else? Hmm [laughs] no, right now I don’t know what else I do. It’s a pretty great place to come every day.//
WAX // 34
REVIEWS // TURNTABLES
THE SWISS HAVE IT THE BEGINNER PRO-JECT ELEMENTAL
THE HUMBLE GIANT REGA RP6
THE WORKHORSE LENCO L-175
This deck is about as plug and play a record player as we’ve come across. It comes with the arm and cartridge attached and pre-adjusted, right down to having the bias force and tracking weight set. There isn’t any means of levelling the deck, and it doesn’t have suspension to isolate it from external vibrations, so you’ll need an appropriately set up, lowresonance support. After that, just fit the drive belt, plug it in and off you go.
Get it right and the RP6 shines. It’s fast and agile, with bags of detail. There are obvious gains in transparency and definition over the cheaper RP3, though the sonic character of the two is consistent.
So, the Lenco L-175. Initial impressions are good – it’s a smart-looking deck. The glass-topped plinth helps create a mildly executive vibe, although it will be covered in fingerprints if your digits go anywhere near it.
While this record player isn’t going to stun with authority or outright punch, in each area we think it delivers enough to satisfy with the kind of equipment it’s likely to be partnered with. Those who want a good-quality record player at an entry-level price should start here. They won’t be disappointed.
This is a magnificently engaging turntable that’s as happy charging along to REM’s Automatic For The People as it is with Beethoven’s Symphony No.5. Factor-in the RP6’s excellent build quality and easy set-up and it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that it’s a superb proposition. Don’t buy another turntable at this price without hearing this one first. Don’t let its simple style fool you – this is a brilliant performer
Nonetheless, it’s solidly put together, with low levels of play in the tonearm bearing. Elsewhere, you’ll find directdrive and electronic speed change (33 and 45rpm). Dynamics are definitely lacking. The treble felt a bit fizzy and splashy. Switch to a dedicated phono stage, such as the Rega Fono Mini A2D, and the results are a clear improvement. If recording to your computer is a must, and you’d rather focus on ease of use, then this may be worth considering. In terms of sound quality, however, we find ourselves disappointed.
$270.00 www.project-audio.com
$1,495.00 www.rega.com
$600.00 www.lenco.com
THORENS TD 235
Matej Isak,
There is a special place in each of us that secretly or openly admire the tradition and fine craftsmanship of Swiss manufacturers. Over the past 150 years many companies established legendary status with their approach from watchmaking, precision micro machinery and non the less excellent product finishing. Swiss quality represent a synonym for a quality and long term lasting products. There are few audio enthusiasts, at least I hope so, that didn’t hear about Thorens. Their turntables set the standard for well thought, quality and precision vinyl playback machines over the years. Numerous analog playback lovers from all over the world still hold in their possession one of the legendary TD models. Many of models, like for example TD-124 can still be refurbished and even upgraded with new components. It makes you think. Few decades old audio playback machine, that not only works, but can stand up to the contemporary rivals. I wonder how many decks will be still functional or even part replaceable after some 30-40 years. Few i guess...
Make no mistake, though. The TD235 and TD240-2 are as close to classic Thorens (or even Dual) designs as you’re likely to get for under $1000. They may not be quite as elaborate as the models of the early 80s but these two models are genuine Thorens. We can always go back and forth with dynamic, sound-stage, bass and other worn out descriptions. These words can be all just plain terms that might help (or not) describing a pureness of expected via-medium playback machine conveying the music as best as possible. What I expect from reviews and trying to describe myself in my own, is how well music speak back to us. Do you feel the music? Not in the matter of words, but natural feeling and vibe. Many components lacks this and fortunately Thorens TD-235 isn’t one of them. At this price point it’s a stable performer, an entry level turntable from legendary company with enough Thorens DNA and music reproduction capabilities, that makes it more than just interesting among other rivals on the market. TD-235 wasn’t
designed as a high-end player, but it’s an open door to more complex and refined Thorens family. Thorens TD-235 will give you enough insights into analog universe and that special, unmistakable natural character that distinguished vinyl instantly against compact disc or digital media playback. This turntable delivers, its great quality, works flawlessly and the wood finish option I went for is really high quality. Thoroughly recommended.//
$949.00 www.thorens.com
WAX // 36
REVIEWS // ALBUM OF THE MONTH
With cynics harkening the “death of the album,” Jack White has done the impossible and made vinyl history WORDS: Sarah Lamoureux PHOTOS: Third Man Records
Jack White’s sophomore solo album, Lazaretto takes us to the brink of vinyl manufacturing and then hurls us over.
JACK
OF ALL
TRADES “Over the past 5 years, Third Man Records has brought to life many ideas that are new to the century-old vinyl format. So, when it came time for the creative hive to discuss the vision for the pressing of Jack White’s Lazaretto, we were keenly aware of what it would take to produce a piece of wax worthy of the music it would contain... No single innovation would suffice. We needed to go big. We needed to go bold. We needed to produce an ULTRA LP.” - Third Man Records
Inspired by short stories and plays written by White when he was 19, Lazaretto is another chronicle of his ability to master nearly any style or genre. Similar to 2012’s Blunderbuss, a hint of blues, a heavy dose of Rock and Roll and a sprinkling of country, with White’s guitar mastery to accompany you for the entire ride. After 14 years as a White Stripe or a Raconteur (to name a few), both of White’s solo albums have shown his fans just what he can do with unfettered creativity. Blunderbuss was a relatively shaky (no pun intended) step into the life as a solo artist, Lazaretto is a giant leap towards his natural eccentricity and genius as a mucisian. Lazaretto begins with the psychadelic and bluesy “Three Women”, while the title track “Lazaretto” seems
heavily influenced by 1960’s garage bands and his time as part of the Dead Weather. Two of the most profound tracks on the album come in the form of the heart-breaking tale of love in “Would You Fight for My Love” and the epic instrumental of “High Ball Stepper.” To sum it up, Lazaretto begins with three women, takes a break with just one rink and ends with a little wanting and able. The cherry on top of this thumping rock and blues masterpiece is the format of the vinyl itself. Third Man Records, White’s own record label has partnered with their pressing plant and Infinity Light Science to pack more features into a piece of vinyl than has ever been seen before. In an awkward and cringeworthy video released on the Third Man Records website, White and
Ben Blackwell describe the jam-packed record. Some features include locked grooves on both sides, vinylonly tracks hidden underneath the label and much, much more. The ULTRA LP as sold over 62,000 copies since it’s release and has been identified by Billboard as the biggest selling vinyl record of the year as well as the biggest selling vinyl record in 20 years since Pearl Jam’s Vitalogy in 1994. One thing is for sure, and that is Jack White may have even more up his sleeve to bring vinyl back to glory. //
THE GUTS 180 gram vinyl 2 vinyl-only hidden tracks, hidden underneath the labels 1 hidden track plays at 78 RPM, another at 45 RPM Side A plays from the inside out dual groove technology that plays two different intros to “Just One Drink” matte finish on Side B giving it the appearance of an unplayed 78RPM record
WAX // 1
both sides end in a locked groove Side A contains a hand-etched hologram by Tristan Duke of Infinity Light Science
WAX // 38
REVIEWS // THE BEATLES IN MONO
Apple Corps Ltd.
The latest round of Beatles LPs are pure, unadulterated analog -- and sound better for it! WORDS by STEVE GUTTENBERG
By now, three-fourths of the way through The Beatles’ sort-of-official 50th-anniversary year, Fab Four fatigue is understandable. The past eight months alone have seen the Emmy-nominated Night That Changed America TV special (based on the 50th anniversary of the group’s landmark Ed Sullivan appearances), the reissue of the American album catalog, an ongoing flood of increasingly repetitive books, and the indefatigable 72-year-old Paul McCartney continuing his more-or-less dozenyear tour. o put some perspective on why I’m making a big deal about this, almost all new LPs by today’s bands are mastered from digital sources, even when they were originally analog recordings! Digital is cheaper and faster technology. Analog tapes are delicate, locating an analog tape machine in tip top condition isn’t easy, and mastering all-analog LPs can be a big hassle. Generations of engineers have grown up with digital -- they don’t always have the skill set required to get the best out of analog tapes. That’s why the latest Beatles mastering job was performed at
Abbey Road Studios by engineer Sean Magee and mastering supervisor and all-around nice guy Steve Berkowitz. “The Beatles in Mono” CD boxed set released in 2009 was created from digital masters. For this vinyl project Magee and Berkowitz cut the records with the original analog tape masters, and no digital converters were used. Magee and Berkowitz worked in the same room at Abbey Road where most of The Beatles’ albums were cut in the 1960s, guided by the sound of the first-generation albums and detailed transfer notes made by the original cutting engineers. Their hard work paid off -- the new LPs are the quietest pressings I’ve ever played, with nary a pop or click. The quality control issues I experienced with the 2012 stereo LP remasters are thankfully not repeated with the mono LPs. The LPs for all markets are being manufactured in Germany. I own a ton of stereo British and American pressed Beatles albums, but just two original mono British pressings, “Rubber Soul “ and “Revolver.” Both of
these are in excellent condition so they were called into service for comparison listening tests. My old LPs sounded a tad more compressed and less clear, the 2014 versions were more threedimensional. Obviously, they were much quieter, and there was more depth and body to the sound of voices and instruments. I felt like I was listening back through time and tapping into more of the Beatles’ energy. Vocals are more present and, for lack of a better word, complete. I know some Beatles fans prefer the sound of the mono versions of the albums -- possibly because the mono mixes were supervised and approved by The Beatles back in the day -- the stereo mixes were not. Even so, the mono versions never really connected with me -- but there’s something about the sound of the 2014 LPs that’s turning me around. The more direct quality of the sound, compared with the stereo versions, is addicting. The orchestral climax on “A Day in the Life” sounds more dramatic on the mono “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” LP. I’ve heard
the tune a zillion times before, and now it’s changed for me. That’s monumental. The box set’s 12-by-12-inch hardcover book features new essays and a detailed history of the mastering process. The book is beautifully illustrated with studio photos of The Beatles, fascinating archive documents, and articles and advertisements sourced from 1960s publications. The quality of the printing is superb; the large storage box for the LPs and book is nicely done. For the mono-curious, I’d recommend starting with “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band,” but any album from “Rubber Soul” forward would do; The 14-disc “The Beatles in Mono” box set would make a terrific gift for any Beatle fan with a high-end turntable. The last three Beatles albums, “Yellow Submarine,” “Let It Be,” and “Abbey Road” were stereo only and never released in mono, so they’re not included in this new series.//
WAX // 40
11.
REVIEWS // THE BEST
8.
7.
3.
1.
14.
5.
13.
10. 4.
2.
THE BEST OF 2014
THEVINYLFACTORY.COM
In terms of new vinyl releases, 2014 has been typically diverse, with a number of more heavyweight releases threatening to overshadow what has been another strong year for smaller independents turning to vinyl as a more flexible way to release music.
1. Miles Davis Enigma BLUE NOTE
The inclusion of this four track EP of previously unreleased Miles Davis material on limited 10” is a bit of a no brainer. Marking the end of Blue Note’s 75th anniversary year, which has also seen the label begin reissuing 100 classics on vinyl, Enigma taps their vaults for some of Miles’ earliest re-
cordings with a host of young hard bop heads like Art Blakey, Jackie Maclean and Kenny Clarke. Essential pre-Birth Of the Cool material, released exclusive to Record Store Day.
2. David Bowie
Sue (Or in a Season of Crime PARLOPHONE What’s this? A limited Bowie 10”? The slender maverick returns with his first new sin-
9.
6. gle since 2013’s The Next Day, and it’s a noir-ish orchestral murder ballad that only he could pull off. In truth he does more than that, as ‘Sue’ rises like steam from a wrought iron grill in the pavement, becoming ever more fraught, paranoid and operatic. Cat nip for collectors, it’s an easy sell, but one which won’t disappoint. Parlophone’s legacy sleeve only adds to the mood.
Columbia released a beautiful limited vinyl, featuring an embossed gatefold sleeve (satin on the outside, glossy on the inside). And because it’s a ‘visual’ album, the monster package includes a DVD plus a 28 page 12”x12” booklet of with loads of great Bey snaps.
3. Beyoncé
The 5xLP box set from the unabridged recording of LCD Soundsystem’s almost four-hour farewell gig at Madison Square Gardens was subject to a whole exhibition at Rough Trade’s NYC outpost when it was released in April. And to the delight of James Murphy’s disciples, DFA opted to repress one of this year’s Record Store Day highlights.
Beyoncé COLUMBIA When Beyoncé’s new album first appeared this time last year, it came like a thief in the night. A digital thief that broke the internet, or iTunes at least. It then cropped up as a dubious vinyl, initially masquerading as a Columbia release, later confirmed as a bootleg. All the fuss probably alerted Bey to the ‘vinyl revival’, because shortly after
4.LCD Soundsystem
The Long Goodbye DFA/WARNER BROS.
5.Erykah Badu Mama’s Gun
MUSIC ON VINYL
Recorded simultaneously with D’Angelo’s Voodoo and Common’s Like Water For Chocolate over a series of seminal neo-soul sessions, Erykah Badu’s Mama’s Gun found its way back to vinyl this year for the first time and provided a timely reminder of just how beautiful and important this record is. Pivoting around the six track run from ‘Didn’t Cha Know’ (with Andres on congas!) to ‘Booty’, Mama’s Gun is at once tender and funky as hell. The finale ‘Green Eyes’ is worth the entry fee alone.
6. Mogwai Rave Tapes
ROCK ACTION
These crazy Glasgow kids blasted back in to action after 2011′s ‘Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will’
with their best album to date – ‘Rave Tapes’. Recorded at their own Castle Of Doom studio it’s got everything you would expect from the ‘Gwai but they seem to have expanded their sound with even more texture, emotion and atmosphere.
7. Deadbeat & Paul St. Hilaire Infinity Dub Sessions BLKRTZ
Not since the glory days of Moritz, Mark and their Basic Channel empire have we been treated to dub techno so rich, dense and refined. Canada’s Deadbeat excels himself on this LP, forging ahead into an undiscovered frontier of dub space to blend rolling beats, cool subs and scattering hats into the perfect accompaniment for Tikiman’s evergreen vocals.
12.
8.Grace Jones Me! I Disconnect from You ISLAND
This previously unreleased offcut from Grace Jones’ Nightclubbing sessions made it to vinyl for the first time this year, showing off her love for the cover version with a sassy rework of Tubeway Army’s original. Her fierce vocal rides a buoyant dubwise groove courtesy of Sly, Robbie and the rest of the Compass Point All Stars, and transforms Gary Numan’s icy synth pop into a weird and wonderful reggae disco bubbler. Long awaited and hotly debated by ardent fans, the 12” was one of this year’s most worthwhile Record Store Day specials
9.Caribou Our Love
MERGE
More than a few reviews talked about Caribou’s Our Love as Snaith’s most
personal record to date, and while that may be the case, it’s an album which revels in its role as the soundtrack to shared experience, whether that’s building on Swim-era festival fodder with lead track ‘Can’t Do Without You’ or tantalizing all involved on the infuriatingly short ‘Julia Brightly’, probably the albums standout track at just over 2 minutes. Exerting a strong sense of nostalgia for a time not yet experienced, Our Love already feels like an elegy to 2014, so imagine what it’ll do to you when you dig this out in 20 years and remember where you where when it made your night.
10. Aphex Twin Syro
WARP
Lest anyone had forgotten that Richard D James sat right at the top of the electronic music pyramid, the Cornish producer set
the cat amongst the pigeons with his first album in 13 years. Presented as a triple vinyl LP in an irresistible triptych sleeve, Syro sees the producer cover slouching funk, frenzied acid, braindance and breaks in inimitable Aphex style.
11. Kassem Mosse Workshop 19 WORKSHOP
It’s not often you can say this but earlier this year Kassem Mosse did a Beyoncé. Out of the blue, he dropped his first ‘proper’ LP with no real press release and minimal fuss. In typical Mosse fashion, the release is generically catalogued with a number and like the Workshop EPs before it, the sound is leftfied, murky, hypnotic but all the while groovy. The only difference: across 2×12″ discs we receive Mosse’s most complete offering to date.
12. St. Vincent St. Vincent
LOMA VISTA/CAROLINE
You could say this is St Vincent’s (aka Annie Clark) most direct and commercial album to date. It’s full to the brim with distorted guitars, synthesisers, catchy rhythms and bombastic percussion that all weld to her amazing vocals. She’s like PJ Harvey covered in christmas lights and tinsel, whirling around on the dance floor going mental.
13. The War on Drugs Lost in a Dream
SECRETLEY CANADIAN
Talk about taking people by surprise. On paper, combining Dire Straits, Don Henley, Chris Rea, Bryan Adams and Bruce Springsteen into one band seems like madness, yet somehow, Adam Granduciel has taken the drugged out
15. ghosts of them all and made one of the most unique and astounding albums of the year. You really can hear all those artists in there yet this is far, far cooler than any of them ever will be (well maybe not the boss!). Honestly – this is the shit.
14. Andrew Ashong
Andrew Ashong EP WHICH WAY
Faced with the unenviable task of following his sublime debut ‘Flowers’, Peckham’s got down to business and graced us with a heartbreaking EP of the most intimate soul around. Blessed with the same timeless combination of emotional depth and underplayed groove as classic Mayfield, Womack and Hutch, this sophomore EP stood head and shoulders above its competition this year.
15. Róisín Murphy Mi Senti
THE VINYL VACTORY
A love letter to the work of Italy’s great pop vocalists, former Moloko singer-songwriter Róisín Murphy charged classic tracks like Mina’a ‘Ancora Ancora Ancora’ and Patty Pravo’s ‘Pensiero Stupendo’ with an icy glamour. Two follow-up remix packages were released with reinterpretations from the likes of Danielle Baldelli, Psychemagik, Horse Meat Disco, Optimo’s JD Twitch and more.//
WAX // 42
RIP // TOMMY RAMONE
FROM L to R: Joey Ramone (1951-2001), Tommy Ramone (1952-2014), Dee Dee Ramone (1951-2002), Johnny Ramone (1948-2004)
“Tom died yesterday, July 11, at 12:15 p.m. at his home in Ridgewood, Queens,” Andy Schwartz, publisher of New York Rocker magazine, said on behalf of Ramone’s family. “He was in hospice care following treatment for cancer of the bile duct.” (Schwartz also confirmed Ramone’s age as 65.) Ramone was a founding member of the family of “brothers” who helped invent punk rock in New York’s frenetic 1970s music scene. Harnessing a powerful combination of short, propulsive threechord singalongs with playful lyrics on themes of adolescent angst, the Ramones created a durable sound in songs like “Beat on the Brat,” “I Wanna Be Sedated,” “Blitzkrieg Bop” and “Sheena Is a Punk Rocker” that would go on to influence countless later bands.
pets before Tommy moved on to study recording engineering, finding work at the famed Record Plant studios. In 1974, Erdelyi and Cummings joined together with two fellow Forest Hills compatriots, singer Jeffrey Hyman (Joey) and bassist Douglas Colvin (Dee Dee), and began playing simple, rapid-fire punk under a common surname. The band found a home and an audience at New York’s CBGB and released their debut album, Ramones, in 1976. “Our music is an answer to the early Seventies when artsy people with big egos would do vocal harmonies and play long guitar solos and get called geniuses,” Tommy, who was the main writer on many of the band’s early hits, told Rolling Stone in a feature on the Ramones that year. “That was bullshit. We play rock & roll. We don’t do solos. Our only harmonics are in the overtones from the guitar chords.”
“WOW, ALL THAT WAS WORTH IT. WE WEREN’T KIDDING OURSELVES.”
Born Erdelyi Tamas in Budapest in 1949, Ramone emigrated to America in 1957. He grew up in Forest Hills, Queens, where he began playing music with John Cummings (a.k.a. Johnny Ramone) while he was in high school. The two formed a garage band called the Tangerine Pup-
Tommy began his career in the Ramones as the band’s manager, but soon took on drumming duty so Joey could concentrate on vo-
cals. He played on the Ramones’ first three studio albums, Ramones and 1977’s Leave Home and Rocket to Russia, as well as the band’s 1979 live record, It’s Alive. Tommy left the Ramones in 1978 to concentrate on studio work. He had co-produced four albums for the band and would go on to co-produce their 1984 record Too Tough To Die. The following year, he produced the Replacements’ major label debut album, Tim, and in 1987, he produced L.A. punks Redd Kross’ album Neurotica. More recently, he formed the bluegrass and country band Uncle Monk with his longtime partner Claudia Tienan. The duo released a self-titled album in 2006 on their own label, Airday. The Ramones officially disbanded in 1996 after releasing 21 studio, live and compilation albums. In 2001, Joey Ramone announced that he had been diagnosed with lymphoma and died later that year. Dee Dee followed him the following year with a drug overdose and Johnny Ramone died in 2004 of prostate cancer. “After Joey’s passing, everything became just a shock,” Tommy Ramone told Rolling Stone in 2009. “Dee Dee’s was totally un-
expected. After that, I was numb. Johnny, once he started getting really sick, we started to anticipate it. It was a long mourning, really. I compartmentalized the whole situation.” In March of 2002, in the midst of those tumultuous times, the Ramones were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. “When we were inducted in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, it meant a lot to us,” Ramone told Rolling Stone. “As contradictory as it may sound for a punk group to be getting an award like that, it mattered a lot to us because we knew we were good for the past 25 years or whatever. But it was hard to tell because we never got that much promotion and the records weren’t getting in the stores. We were kinda confused about how good we actually were. We thought we were good, but we could have been deluded. But the fact that we were inducted on the first ballot seemed to say, ‘Oh, wow, it was real. We were as good as we thought we were.’ It meant a lot to us. ‘Wow, all that was worth it. We weren’t kidding ourselves.’ It meant something in that way.”//
WORDS by MIRIAM COLEMANN
THERE’S NOBODY AS GOOD AS THE RAMONES, NEVER WILL BE. I MEAN EVERYBODY’S JUST EMULATED US AND NOW EVERYBODY JUST KINDA TAKES OUR SOUND AS THEIR FOUNDATIONS. WAX SAYS THANK YOU AND GOOD-NIGHT TO THE LAST SURVIVING ORIGINAL MEMBER OF THE RAMONES, TOMMY RAMONE
1949 - 2014
WAX // 44
KEEP ON SPINNING
THANK YOU FOR READING WAX