Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Vinyl Revisioned: Gang of Four/Entertainment!




Gang of Four's debut 1979 release, Entertainment! is an underground classic that I never tire of hearing. Oddly enough, I only just discovered it a few years ago and for someone that is a huge fanatic for just about every other UK punk, post-punk and new wave band from the same era, I am still shocked that I was not exposed to it much sooner.


Perhaps it was the fact that the Gang of Four lacked a particularly, dynamic or iconic visual element associated with it, compared to a band like the Buzzcocks or the Sex Pistols. Those albums are so ingrained in my mind as the pure forces of that musical era. With that in mind, I set out to tackle a redesign of an underground classic, that was new to me.


Appropriating a contextual cue from the original album artwork, I incorporated both stereotypical imagery of "Cowboys and Indians" and topical information such as newspaper headlines. I have designed a visually dissonant work that echoes with themes of disillusionment and alienation found amongst the content of the lyrics.

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