Hipsquare: Vinyl Playlist #5 - SPLATTER UP!

Let’s get fireworky!

Nine tracks curated from my limited-edition vinyl collection, for your listening pleasure and enlightenment. This time… splatter!

Here are the gorgeous splatter vinyl albums from which the tracks come from: (all photos by me from the original media)

Hitting 2023 with a big, fat SPLAT!

Vinyl

Well, here we go. The first foray into more creative wax pressings after a couple of teasers in Playlist #4. Aren’t these just beautiful? And even more so ‘in the flesh’ so you’ll have to go out and grab your own to experience that. The pink on Panic Shack almost hurts it’s so bright.

I’m not sure whether I prefer the opaque versions of the mix, like Sigrid, or ones that have colours run through a clear base. Each has its own merits. Shire T probably my favourite opaque and Beabadoobee on clear.

As with all my albums, none are acquired where I don’t like the music. Obvs. So have a listen and make up your own mind on that. This chat is all about the physicality of the medium.

Covers

Bit of a naive, scribbly vibe with a number of these. Perhaps the reason why splatter is the chosen colourway.

But what about the Shire T artwork? Nothing scribbly about that one, unlike Beabadoobee which is too far off the scale for me. Cracking vinyl through.

Bucking the trend are Baba Ali and Dream Wife where a strong B&W photo takes the lead. The latter a cool photo only, no words. Proper Hipsquare 🟧

Bonus

Good crop of signed covers here 6/9 (Dream Wife + limited signed Zine).

Feel free to throw a comment or question on these below or follow and interact on the Hipsquare Instagram for vinyl content and my unique photography for album covers.

Check out Hipsquare: Music Photography Gallery for your next album

See all the Hipsquare Vinyl Playlists (new window).

Hipsquare: Vinyl Playlist #4 - Brrr...Feeling Blue

More About Hipsquare Playlist #4

Read more about Hipsquare: Music Media Photography by Shaun Armstrong

See all the Hipsquare Vinyl Playlists - nine tunes drawn from my limited-edition vinyl collection, curated by a theme for your visual and listening pleasure here (new window)

Here are the blue vinyl albums from which the tracks come from: (all photos from the original media)

Have you warmed up yet?

What did you discover, like or not so much?

Vinyl

Cool mix of blue-tones, including a lovely marble on Hop Up by Orlando Weeks and the very limited blue/white blend for the Wolf Alice album Blue Weekend (obvs). Although they could have easily swapped wax for a better fit with the album cover. Just saying.

The Infancy vinyl by excellent The Ninth Wave (now on hiatus doing solo projects) is Part 2 of a two-album release, Part 1 being red. Part 1 came in the gatefold cover and then Part 2, released later, slotted into the other part of the cover. Not seen that before or since.

Time Bend and Break The Bower by Sinead O‘Brien is a Dinked Edition pressing of her debut album. So good to see after I saw her as a “plus” artist on the Dry Cleaning tour of 2021 before they blew up. File under genre-breaking.

This playlist features the first and maybe last inclusion of a retro vinyl, the quite limited early blue pressing of Outlandos D’Amour by The Police in 1978. I have everything they released on collectable vinyl but Masoka Tanga is such a quintessential but lesser-known Police track, with all their early hallmarks turned up to 11; Sting’s jazzy bass and falsetto vocal, Summer’s choppy angular guitar and Copeland’s reggae backbeat, cymbal work and a smattering of octobans.

Covers

This set brings photo-art forward, single images taken to another level in terms of cropping and pattern, something I like/prefer rather than photoshop montages. Couple of straight artworks, Hope Up is on a beautiful matt (not reverse) board and the inside of the cover (not seen this before) is red to match the dot. Quality.

The Wolf Alice cover is lenticular and flicks between band poses; aficionados will note this image shows the to-camera rather than the default away from.

Bonus

Artist-signed copies of Hop Up and Time Bend and Break The Bower as is Phantom Isle bought at the album launch event at The Black Prince in Northampton in 2022.

Feel free to throw a comment or question on these below or follow and interact on the Hipsquare Instagram for vinyl content and my unique photography for album covers.

Hipsquare: Vinyl Playlist #3 -“You Know When You’ve Been Tango’d”

Autumn Colours No.3 - a 9-track Digital Album curated from my limited-edition collectable orange vinyl records.

Learn more about Hipsquare: Music Media Photography by Shaun Armstrong

Welcome to my next Hipsquare: Vinyl Playlist! (Warning: Explicit Lyrics)

Nine tunes drawn from my limited-edition vinyl collection, collected by a theme for your visual and listening pleasure (more about this here - new window)

Here are the orange vinyl albums from which the tracks come from: (all photos from the original media)

So, what did you think?

A few spitty lyrics and some jazzy, afrobeat, psych-funk flavours after the earlier lightness.

Vinyl

Orange seems to bring less variability than some colours, favourites being the clear Lucozade tones of Sleaford Mods limited edition Spare Ribs and the Claude Cooper Myriad Sounds is straight off the Dynorod dayglo palette. Pic doesn't do it justice.

Covers

Mainly graphic art here, but again Sleaford Mods Spare Ribs hits a great balance between the two (less is more) and the first here with a reversible cutout to the inner, should you get fed up with Jason Williamson. Who would?

Pip Blom’s Welcome Break also has a reversible cut-out with this cover version and lovely matte board too. And stickers!

Warm Digits Flight Of Ideas (Dinked Edition) is mirror-board. Thanks to Adobe Perspective Correction for getting me around that photo.

Bonus

Our Girl’s Our Girl is signed as is Pip Blom’s Welcome Break on the reverse to avoid spoiling the artwork. Nice chat with the band as they sat on the verge outside Esquires in Bedford earlier this year (2022) at Ceremony 2 all-dayer.

Feel free to throw a comment or question on these below or follow and interact on the Hipsquare Instagram for vinyl content and my unique photography for album covers.

Hipsquare: Vinyl Playlist #2 -“It’s not easy…”

Autumn Colours No2 - a 9-track Digital Album curated from my limited-edition collectable green vinyl records.

Learn more about Hipsquare: Music Media Photography by Shaun Armstrong

Welcome to my next Hipsquare: Vinyl Playlist!

Nine tunes drawn from my limited-edition vinyl collection, collected by a theme for your visual and listening pleasure (more about this here - new window)

So, in the words of Kermit the Frog…

It's not easy being green
It seems you blend in with so many other ordinary things
And people tend to pass you over
'Cause you're not standing out
Like flashy sparkles in the water
Or stars in the sky

But green's the colour of spring
And green can be cool and friendly-like
And green can be big like an ocean
Or important like a river
Or tall like a tree

Wise words from everyone’s favourite amphibian.

Here are the green vinyl albums from which the tracks come from: (all photos from the original media)

So, what did you think?

A few bigger hitters here than my usual more under-the-radar, indie finds but Taylor and Billie are supreme songwriters and these albums are strong.

Some great colours across the green spectrum from deep translucents to light opaque tones.

All of these are single edition colourways (rather than the current convention of picking a range of colours from the album artwork for a range of versions) except for Gaz Coombes World’s Strongest Man where this is the lesser-spotted water-green version to the vibrant title-pink. And which other album..?

A nice mix of cover art too. This is Taylor Swift’s Stolen Lullabies version of Folklore where she did 8 different cover combos to go with the various vinyl variants. And 8 different CD’s 💰

In terms of added interest, Peaness World Full of Worry is a signed version as is Liz Lawrence’s Avalanche. The inner is shown through a hole in the front sleeve and she kindly signed the back of that which you see when you take the inner out :)

Feel free to throw a comment or question on these below or follow and interact on the Hipsquare Instagram for vinyl content and my unique photography for album covers.

Hipsquare: Vinyl Playlist #1 -“Hello Yellow”

Autumn Colours No.1 - a 9-track Digital Album curated from my limited-edition collectable yellow vinyl records.

Learn more about Hipsquare: Music Media Photography by Shaun Armstrong

Welcome to my first Hipsquare: Vinyl Playlist!

Nine tunes drawn from my limited-edition vinyl collection, collected by a theme for your visual and listening pleasure.

This is the first of three autumnal-themed playlists being launched together to start this thing off - next up green and orange (obvs) - more sexy splatters, splits and marbled to follow! You can find all of them together here...

When I run out of vinyl colourway options I’ll get creative with album artwork, record-label or other randomness.

Here are the yellow vinyl albums from which the tracks come from: (all photos from the original media)

So, what did you think? Any bands/artists new to you?

Did you like the progression from more ethereal to dancing-trousers territory?

Nice variation of translucents and opaque tones in the pressings. I think I prefer the more solid colours; the mustard one of Sheafs Happy Medium works well with the album cover as does the brightness of the Selecter’s Daylight.

Steady cover game here, with powerful abstracts (Liela Moss / WMC) but the photo ones a little too staged for my liking, except Geese which is bonkers. Gawd knows what Billie Martin was thinking though…

In terms of added interest, a few signed copies in this batch including the hardback photobook/signed artcard version of Dua Lipa’s, Future Nostalgia, plus Liela Moss's Atoms in Me came with a separate signed art print of the cover. Nice. I also have Working Men’s Club in the hyper-limited ‘RAW’ format and Resident Records blue. More about that on another occasion..!

Feel free to throw a comment or question on these below or follow and interact on the Hipsquare Instagram for vinyl content and my unique photography for album covers.