Deciphering Linear A
mhz 103 - 7" vinyl + 3" CD combo: $6 - buy
Never intended as a taster for any album, this single is just a bit of magic that happened when no one was looking. "What If Everyone Got What They Wanted," The Hepburns' whimsical ode to letting it slip through your fingers, is pure A-side, a song that begged to be released on its own. A single, a song heard in isolation, the kind of tune that justifies the pause between songs to stop the turntable and flip the record. Matt Jones claims to have recorded the song in all of 10 minutes but the resulting first take is timeless (and could never be duplicated on subsequent trips to the studio). The flipside features two manic slices of jaunty, quirky guitar pop as only the errant Hepburns know how.
Another packaging splurge, this time in the form of a glossy, full color gatefold sleeve featuring a stunning meditation in lines, halftones and moires on "substance and nothingness (by way of Venice)" by designer Bügelfrei. More liner notes by Jones (plus Japanese translations by Jun Kurihara). Oh, and did we forget to mention that the package includes both 7" vinyl and 3" CD? All tracks non-album.
B2. Sierra Alpha One Five
This single was the subject of a PR/customer service battle between Radio Khartoum and GZ Digital, the plant originally chosen to do the manufacturing. It should be kept in mind that vinyl production is more art than science, and things go wrong sometimes. Which is what happened in this case. Regrettably, we had to appeal to the court of public opinion (by way of some carefully placed webpages—which is how you got to this page) in order to shame GZ into setting things right. Which they ultimately did. They even promised us a free pressing in the future to make amends. We'd like to point out that GZ's vinyl production is usually quite satisfactory, and we particularly like the fact that their printed work (sleeves, etc.) is very nice and exceptionally reasonably priced. Things went very wrong on the vinyl this time around, but you have to remember that all factories screw up from time to time. We hope that GZ's customer service team learned from the public beating they took over this job, and that they will resolve future problems in a much smoother way. For those who are interested, MHZ103 was ultimately manufactured in the US using the following companies: 22 Feb 2005 Update: Just received the free 7" pressing (MHZ305) which GZ promised as a goodwill gesture after the MHZ103 debacle. Things went smoothly this time, in fact, the customer service rep they put on the job was so attentive that she even caught a mistake on our artwork films...in time for us to fix it. For which we can only be thankful. Click here to go to the regular Radio Khartoum website. |