The Liner Note

william_kent

Well-known member
One of my favourite sleeve notes, Brad Osborne bigs up a dub album on his own label (actually one of my top dub albums, highly recommended )

1651272407097.png


DUBWISE, ROCKERS, BASS & DRUMS

Well everyone talks about Dub Music, but some I call sophisticated Dub - or Uptown Dub -

That's a Dub without that Downtown Flavor or Ghetto Style -

Now Rocker's Almighty Dub is much different, the fact that it has some of the hardest Roots Rockers Rhythm
and mixed with Ghetto Dance Style in mind. The result, incredible sound and fantastic effects and
Dubwise Like Dirt. I'm convinced that da Dub ya gone - but why take my word when you can check
it out for yourself. Remember Hearing is Believing, seen.
Love, BRAD
 

martin

----
The inner booklet notes and pics on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th Patti Smith albums are great, in an obsessive’s sort of way. Wouldn’t have worked out the meaning of ‘Broken Flag’ without them.

Wasn’t there an early Stones album where the liner notes said if you can’t afford this album, go out and kick a blind man in the head and steal his money? Then the record label had to put a sticker over it. Anarcho-punk records ruled at this - big fold out sleeves with diatribes, especially the EPs by The Apostles, which was like buying a fanzine with a bonus 7" thrown in.

I love the notes on the back of “Vagabonds of the Western World” by Thin Lizzy and "The Bard of Armagh" by Tommy Makem, even if they’re a bit corny - but they're also great, so fuck you. Also “Original Blackboard Jungle Dub” with a pic of Lee Perry’s wife and her hearty recommendation that you buy this slightly dodgy Jetstar ‘reissue’. Oh and –

With so many record companies putting out pop music under the guise of ‘RAVE’ it’s hard to tell a good compilation from a pile of rubbish these days.

BACK TO THE UNDERGROUND SCENE is what this LP is all about, and only the highest quality UNDERGROUND RAVE is on it.

As with ILLEGAL RAVE I it has no rubbish pop or commercial tunes, just QUALITY RAVE which all TRUE RAVERS will know and love.

If you’re a TRUE RAVER this album should be a priority for your record collection.


- accompanied by a grainy photo of an angry Rottweiler :cool:
 

william_kent

Well-known member
Easy listening / exotica records have some of the best sleeve notes

I love the "Mystic Moods Orchestra" albums, environmental sounds and field recordings married with easy listening do-overs of popular tunes of the time

Mystic Mood Orchestra - One Stormy Night

1651280953363.png

This is not merely an album of recorded music. It is more, much more. Now for the first time, a truly unique listening experience awaits you. an experience that will not only capture your attention, but your emotions. For these are the misty moods of a rainy night, moods that recall a particular rain-swept memory -- a time of soft and glowing sentimentality when the drops tapped out their special message on the window pane. Or perhaps you've witnessed the awe of that rarest of sights - the stars and moon battling the clouds for the supremacy of the sky. The darkening shadows and the flash of lightning as it casts its own fantastic imagery across a landscape. This then is your special album, ready to transport you to a new world of time and space, with the forces of nature blending beautifully with the man-made music of today.

etc., ( err, I'm too lazy to type out the whole essay ), but hopefully you get the gist - this album is special ( according to the liner notes! )

I like this line that opens the second paragraph:
It is no easy task to create a recording that mirrors reality.
 

blissblogger

Well-known member
. Anarcho-punk records ruled at this - big fold out sleeves with diatribes, especially the EPs by The Apostles, which was like buying a fanzine with a bonus 7" thrown in.

I feel like the Crass records almost reverse the relationship between artwork/liner note and the record. They are like fold-out posters + political pamphlets which just happen to have a disc of music wrapped in it. My younger brothers were into anarcho and I definitely got the sense they were buying Gee Vaucher's work more than the music, although "Bloody Revolutions" etc got a lot of play in our household.
 

blissblogger

Well-known member
I love the notes on the back of “Vagabonds of the Western World” by Thin Lizzy

I don't know that one but the one on the back of Jailbreak is like a specific subgenre of liner note, where it's setting up the narrative concept or mise-en-scene of the album

jailbreak close up.jpg

R-398776-1324479611.jpg

What a great group - silly but irresistible

 

blissblogger

Well-known member
1400750_300_secret_12_front_tu.jpg

1400750_300_wish_12_slpA_tu.jpg


1400750_300_wish_12_slpB_tu.jpg


PROPAGANDA NOW. ’Every day our cause becomes clearer and people get smarter’[1]

“One of the most remarkable characteristics of human nature,” writes Lotze, “is, alongside so much selfishness in specific instances, the freedom from envy which the past displays towards the future.” Reflection shows us that our image of happiness is thoroughly coloured by the time to which the course of our own existence has assigned us. The kind of happiness that could arouse envy in us exists only in the air we have breathed, among people we could have talked to, women who could have given themselves to us. In other words, our image of happiness is indissolubly bound up with the image of redemption. The same applies to our view of the past, which is the concern of history. The past carries with it a temporal index by which it is referred to redemption. There is a secret agreement between past generations and the present one. Our coming was expected on earth. Like every generation that preceded us, we have been endowed with a weak Messianic power to which the past has a claim. That claim cannot be settled cheaply. Historical materialists are aware of that.[2]

WITHOUT LOVE BEAUTY AND DANGER IT WOULD ALMOST BE EASY TO LIVE[3]

The news item’s role is probably that of preserving within contemporary society the ambiguity of the rational and the irrational, the comprehensible and unfathomable; and this ambiguity is historically necessary as man still needs signs (which reassure him) but also signs which are uncertain in content (which make him irresponsible…)

This is a twilight condition of consciousness: neither high noon nor tender night. And precisely for this reason our relationship with mass culture is itself interminable. There can be no conclusion or certainty, where the very structure of communication has founded the reign of perplexity, of dissociation, of procrastination ‘The consumers relation with the real world, with politics, history and culture is not one of interest, investment or engaged responsibility — rather, it is one of curiosity … One must try everything: in fact man in consumer society is tormented by the fear of ‘missing’ something, any enjoyment whatsoever … It is no longer desire or even taste or specific inclination that is in play, it is a generalised curiosity motivated by a widespread anxiety’ — the all pervasive anxiety of Riesman’s radar-man, always ready to pick up signals from the outside world and, especially, always uncertain as regards their decipherment. This is no longer the anxiety described in ‘Beyond The Pleasure Principle’, which was motivated by the fear of trauma, that is, by the conviction that the outside world is fundamentally hostile to the individual. It is no longer the state of mind of one who lives in the constant expectation of danger: it is the anxiety of always feeling on the verge of — but only on the verge of — finally grasping the object of desire, the meaning of life, the rules of the game.[4]


COMPOSITIONS

illuminated

Dream Within a Dream


“the most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all it’s contents”[5]

The Murder Of Love

“…the idea of crime is able always to ignite the senses and lead us the lubricity”[6]

DUEL JEWEL

“the imagination is like an engine that can work on many different fuels: but it must be powered, and sex, properly used, is a fuel of high potency”

P MACHINERY

“the dark religions are departed and sweet Science reigns”[7]

Sorry For Laughing

“…always two strangers uniting in the interests of torment”[8]

Dr. Mabuse (The First Life)

“the greater an individual’s power over others, the greater the evil that might possibly originate with him”

The Chase

“reliance on powers of reason does not come easily: it is opposed to our basic animal instinct”

THE LAST WORD

“the comtemplation of the world independently of the principle of reason”[9]

The Strength to Dream

“…so it is”


ZTTIQ 3 Action No. 13 ‘beauty love and danger’

ZTTIQ 3 Action No. 13 ‘repetition plus variation’


Footnotes

Die Religion der Sozialdemokratie by Wilhelm Dietzgen ↩
Theses on the Philosophy of History by Walter Benjamin (1940) ↩
La Nauśse by Albert Camus (1938) ↩
Signs Taken for Wonders: On the Sociology of Literary Forms by Franco Moretti (1983) ↩
The Call of Cthulhu by H.P. Lovecraft (1928) ↩
The 120 Days of Sodom by Marquis de Sade (1904) ↩
Vala, or The Four Zoas by William Blake (1807) ↩
Comment c’est by Samuel Beckett (1961) ↩
Arthur Schopenhauer ↩
 

blissblogger

Well-known member
1400750_300_pmac_7_back_tu.jpg




p:pROPAGANDA

p:MACHINERY



A p:MACHINERY

B FROZEN FACES

“Everywhere — all over Africa and South America, if you visit you see these suburbs springing up. They represent the optimum of what people want. There’s a certain sort of logic leading towards these immaculate suburbs. And they’re terrifying, because they are the death of the soul. And I thought, my god, this is the prison this planet is being turned into.”[1]

J.G.Ballard


VOCAL ON p:MACHINERY CLAUDIA BRÜCKEN

VOICE ON FROZEN FACES SUSANNE FREYTAG

“the dark religions are departed and sweet Science reigns”[2]

p: PARQUE GÜELL, BARCELONA

p: PIONEER

p: PULSE

p: PERMIT

p: PAIN

P: PASSIVE

p: PENETRATE

p: PROPAGANDA

p: MACHINERY

p: PLAYED PROPAGANDA WITH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM DEREK FORBES, MORITZ V. OSWALD, DAVID SYLVIAN AND THE BIG BATH BRASS BOYS.

p: PRODUCED S.J. LIPSON — MIXED AND MATCHED BY LIPSON AND HORN.

p: PACKAGED THE LONDON DESIGN PARTNERSHIP WITH ZANG TUUM TUMB.

p: PHOTOGRAPHY PRACTICAL — TONY LATHAM. PARQUE — JOHN STODDART. JULY 1985.

p: PAINTING ANTON CORBIJN

p: PLACED NUMBER 12 IN THE ACTION

p: PAST P:MACHINERY HAS BEEN CONVERTED FROM TRACK ONE SIDE TWO OF THE ‘SECRET WISH’ L.P.

LABEL: SIDE A

A STEREO

p: PROPAGANDA

p: PERFORM

p: MACHINERY

45 RPM

PROPAGANDA MUSIC WRITTEN BY MERTENS

WORDS WRITTEN BY DORPER WITH ADDITIONAL MUSIC WRITTEN BY BRUCKEN AND FREYTAG

PRODUCED BY S.J. LIPSON


IT SEEMS TO ECHO SOME SECRET RHYTHM IN THE OUTSIDE WORLD, AND PROVOKES A REAL PHYSICAL SHIVER THAT DEFIES THE RATIONAL MIND.”[3]

1400750_300_pmac_7_front_tu.jpg
 

william_kent

Well-known member
The Residents - Eskimo

1651284799945.png

another concept album from the 70s with "interesting" sleeve notes

North of Greenland, well within the Arctic Circle, and on the floating ice continent surrounding the North Pole, lived a nomadic tribe of Mongolian descendants known as the Eskimo.

Their culture was passed down through generations in the form of adventurous tales and ceremonial music. This album attempts to recreate not only the Eskimo ceremonial music, but also a living context for its existence, in the form of Eskimo stories.
Although on the record, the stories are told purely with sound, a written account is provided to aid your appreciation of this unique culture. For maximum enjoyment, this record should be listened to with headphones while reading the enclosed literal accounts of what you hear. The disc should be played in its entirety. A relaxed state of mind is essential. Warm clothing or a blanket should be within easy reach

edit: the Residents need to be cancelled, I'm always telling people off for using the "E" word, if they did their research they should have known that the album should have been called "Inuit" or something a bit less racist at least

edit: I'm probably not doing full justice to this album, as each track has extensive commentary regarding what you are supposedly hearing

1651285739207.png

1651285758006.png

for example, here's the text that accompanies the first track, The Walrus Hunt:

Walrus hunting in kayaks among the floating ice must sometime proceed in the winter darkness or in a condition known as "whiteout" when atmospheric conditions turn the sky into a virtual mirror of the snow and ice below and orientation becomes difficult. At these times, women on shore blow a large horn made from a giant narwhal's hollowed tusk and chant to give directional orientation to the hunters.

Winter had almost arrived, for the wind had a more pronounced bite in itsinsistence. The noonday sun sat momentarily on the horizon before hastening back into the icy waters. Floating on the rising winds, the sounds of the narwhal horn and chanting combined to give assurance to the Eskimo hunters. The paddling of the kayak was smooth and steady. Not much light was left and a sleeping walrus could easily hide in the deep shadowed recesses of the floating icebergs.
But wait! There, on the ice... yes, a walrus! A happy but silent discovery. The sling-like harpoon was removed from its leather container and spun rapidly around over the hunter's head until sufficient speed was reached to send it zooming toward its unsuspecting prey. The walrus was hit. Cheers rang out from the men as they all paddled toward the animal which had plunged into the icy sea; but the water offered no protection as the Eskimo men reached for their whale bone clubs and bludgeoned the creature. The walrus floated quietly in the water and the kayaks moved on in search of other sleeping prey.
 
Last edited:

william_kent

Well-known member
late 90s Underground Resistance channeling cosmic energy from Mars

The Martian - LBH - 2651876

Liner notes by "The Ancient"

1651291635503.png

Martian civilisation is only accessible through vibrational attunement

yeah, fuck you Elon...you will never be "attuned' - your "vibes" * are fucked m8

* vibes are for losers anyway, winners know it is all about "lore"

/s
 
Last edited:

william_kent

Well-known member
I feel like the Crass records almost reverse the relationship between artwork/liner note and the record. They are like fold-out posters + political pamphlets which just happen to have a disc of music wrapped in it. My younger brothers were into anarcho and I definitely got the sense they were buying Gee Vaucher's work more than the music, although "Bloody Revolutions" etc got a lot of play in our household.

my introduction to crass was "Bloody Revolutions" and my first reaction was "Is this the punk GONG?"

which, as it turns out, wasn't a bad guess... just a bunch of hippies dressed in black
 

blissblogger

Well-known member
edit: the Residents need to be cancelled, I'm always telling people off for using the "E" word, if they did their research they should have known that the album should have been called "Inuit" or something a bit less racist at least

That's a great choice. That's almost like the Thin Lizzy mise-en-scene notes but also plugs into the ethnomusicological field recording style of notage

I think the Residents could be forgiven for the E word - I don't think hardly anyone at that time was familiar with the term Inuit and in terms of flagging to listeners and purchasers what the album was about, Eskimo does the job, whereas Inuit would get blank looks

Oddly enough at around the same time as I would have heard Eskimo (a few years after its release, borrowed off David Stubbs), another college friend of mine had this record - a proper actual ethnological record of Inuit music.

inuit.jpg

inuit 2.jpg


Mindblowing stuff, you can hear a later CD expansion of this 1978 LP at Ubuweb

 

blissblogger

Well-known member
Here's another record that mimics - parodies, I think - the Folkways style of earnest and deeply researched liner notes.

nick cave first born.jpg
 

william_kent

Well-known member
Perrey-Kingsley - The In Sound From Way Out ( 1966 )



1651359994330.png

Here are a dozen electronic pop tunes. They are the electrifying good-time music of the coming age, the switched-on dance music that will soon be it. This is the lively answer to a question that puzzles - and who knows, even frightens - people who have heard the serious electronic compositions of recent years and wonder, is this the music of the future? As for the avant-garde wing we say more power to it. But there are other things in the future, such as pleasure.

First paragraph predicts house / techno? Only if you don't listen to the record...

there are other things in the future, such as pleasure
 
Last edited:

william_kent

Well-known member
Originally released on Riverside Records , reissued by Folkways 6 years later, this album features great, informative, and darkly dry humorous sleeve notes by the artist

Paul Clayton - Bloody Ballads ( 1956 )

1651361786344.png

1651361902453.png

1651361707487.png

American nurder ballads have sometimes been criticised as uninspired in text and tune

the older British ballads, mellowed by time, are poetically superior

1651362211443.png

The murderer in this ballad is apparently quite thorough, if we may judge from his actions in both stabbing and drowning his true love

1651362742994.png

And who can blame the young man for killing his father

and who can blame me for removing this album from my father's collection and adding it to mine?
 
Last edited:

blissblogger

Well-known member
Re
"switched-on dance music" of the future, it's totally true that Perrey & Kingsley invented electronic dance music, if not quite techno or house

 
Top