Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Shanachie (1985)


A bit of dissonance here, in terms of the stylistic matrimony of music and label design. The Shanachie label design reeks of Americana, with echoes of Currier and Ives in the idyllic little homestead and a cartoonish font that someone's grandfather would probably call “snappy.” That Shanachie featured early releases from Clannad and the Chieftans that may have borne this design seems odd enough, but that the American release of The Indestructible Beat of Soweto bore this label just feels downright weird. Shanachie mixed it up before and after (a platter by Robert Crumb and his Cheap Suit Serenaders sure didn't look like this) but kept things conservative here, emblazoning one of the first domestically available documents of modern South African music with a label that'd be more appropriate on a tin of Christmas cookies.

1 comment:

  1. You forgot to mention that this post is timely. You know, The CUP and all that.

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