Artist: Portishead
Title: The Rip
Label: Island
Year: 2008
Designer: Marc Bessant, original drawings: Nick Uff
Type of music: Pained
Notes: Vinyl art, literally. I like the innocently smiling skull on the lower right. What’s s/he got to smile so good naturedly about?
someone should try to make the textured area actual grooves, so when you put it on, the needle meanders around and plays random samples…. you could run a leader around the edge of record so the needle doesnt fall off and you could put a throw somewhere on it to propel the needle in a direction if it hits the edge.
that would be neat!
Nice idea. I have a Chris Bowden 12″ where one side has three different grooves so you never know which track is going to play. The final track on Heaven 17’s Penthouse and Pavement had a locked groove which repeated the line “We’re going to live for a very long time” until the needle was lifted off.
thats great! i wish people would experiment more with the medium. im sure people have and i havent heard of it, but if a big band did it, that would be cool on a creative and logistical level.
I recall Godspeed You! Black Emperor using a locked groove at the end of F#A#[Infinity]. The album’s title comes from the A side starting on the note of F#, the B side starting on A# and the [Infinity] due to the locked groove which plays the last 2 seconds on repeat.
i remember the locked grooves of that one.
the recent spoon album had a fun locked groove, when i loaned it to a friend it too him about 10 minutes to realize the album was over. he later told me that he thought it was the beginning to some killer krautrock groove!
its funny that due to record playing being such a physical process there isnt more interactivity experimented with. i love the idea of that Bowden one. bringing the shuffle feature to vinyl…
Wolf Eyes did a 12″ with regular grooves on one side and a SEVERE but playable etching on the other. You would never dare to play the etching as it would undoubtedly destroy a good needle (or, for that matter, a bad one).
thank you forest, you are kind man with stiff acumen. what did the wolf eyes sound like? wolf eyes, perhaps?
Haysi Fantayzee’s LP Battle Hymns For Children Singing has a locked groove at the end of side two too. The track’s called Here Comes The Beast and it repeats: Here.. fetch a priest. Great!