leei@princeton.UUCP (09/27/83)
Sometime in the summer of last year, I was playing Pat Metheny's "Offramp" and I noticed that I could see 'through' the record to the turntable. I picked it up, held it to the light and sure 'nuff, it was a very dark translucent green. It was so dark in fact that I had thought it was regular vinyl up until that time and I'd had the album for about a month. I thought this was rather and showed it to some of the people that I introduced to PMG, but thought nothing more of it. As soon as the new album "Travels" came out, I went into the record store and bought it. After I took it home, I looked at the disks and, again, noticed that they were also translucent, this time blue. Being a little bit slow to clue in, it wasn't 'til I showed someone else these two 'anomalous' albums and he asked me if all of PMG's albums were like this that I checked them all. They \all/ were. (At least the four I have) If I remember right, they are colored as: New Chautauqua - grey As Falls Wichita ... - reddish (brick) Offramp - green Travels - blue Is this true for all his albums? (which I'm sure I'll eventually get; these guys are really GREAT) Is it true for all ECM pressings? (his are the only ones I've got) [Note: I'm not sure, but I know that at least some of these are Canadian pressings, since I bought "Travels" in B.C., but I can't rightly remember where I got all the others, I'll have to check] It's a very strange effect since all of these are dark enough to pass for 'real' vinyl unless you hold them up to a light! - Lee Iverson ..!princeton!leei
dmmartindale@watcgl.UUCP (Dave Martindale) (10/06/83)
Hmm. I'd never noticed, but you're right about the colours. Perhaps they're somewhat random? My "Offramp" is blue, not green, and "Travels" is blue-violet. I don't have any of the others.
bobt@grkermit.UUCP (Bob Tufts) (10/07/83)
It's not just Pat Metheny albums or ECM .... Try some other albums and see!
smiff@ihu1f.UUCP (10/07/83)
My copy of "...Witchita..." is indeed red, but the others I have
("Pat Metheny Group", "American Garage", "80/81") are all
standard opaque black.
Roy Smith
..!ihnp4!ihu1f!smiffrpk@mit-vax.UUCP (Robert Krajewski) (10/09/83)
I think that people are reporting all these strange colors for records
because it really doesn't make much difference what color the record is,
even though what the record is colored with is inexpensive. That's why
fairly gross variations in color are tolerated, as long as it looks black
under ``normal'' conditions. If you hold up most records to the light you
will see that they are not perfectly opaque.
I am not sure of this, but it seems that the stuff out of which records are
made is clear. Record companies first put out records in interesting colors
as a matter of course, but then they wondrered if people were freaking out
over the difference between the new PVC disks and good ol' black shellac
records. So most are colored dark nowadays, even if they don't have to be.
One of the best-packaged albums to come out this year was ``New Gold Dream''
by Simple Minds -- there was a purple/yellow/missal motif on the cover, the
lyric sheet (sleeve), and the record label, so the record was colored yellow
with purple and red streaks. Really beautiful, and a good record to boot !
--
``Bob'' Robert P. Krajewski ARPA: RpK@MC
MIT Local: RpK@OZ
UUCP: ...!genradbo!mit-eddie!mitvax!rpk