Fade Tapes

This is definitely up there with my favourite demo releases of 2013. Finally, over a year after being around it is finally seeing a vinyl release courtesy of Rich at Speedowax. But today we're not talking about the vinyl copies (they're on their way though). We're going back to good ol' fashioned demo tapes. 

3 separate presses - all self released. I think the pressing goes: 

Red Cover /50

Blue Cover /30

Green Cover /50 

But I could be wrong. 

Red was the 1st colour released, making it the 1st press I guess. Clear shells with stickered sides. 

Side B // Back Cover. The J-Card is printed on both sides. The back outside panel has the track-listing and the inside has lyrics, personnel and credits. 

I bought this along with an End of a Year test press and Cursed 7'' from a guy on Facebook of all places. 

Blue was the 2nd press /30. Again, clear shells with stickered sides. This time however, the font on the stickers is slightly different and in lower case. The cassette shell is also slightly different, suggesting they were either made at different plants or dubbed in house using whatever was available? Either way, it's cool by me. 

Side B // Back Cover. Not a terrible amount of difference here between the 3 pressings. The inside panel of the J-Card stays identical through the 3 pressings, so we'll get on to that a little later. 

Bought this from a label's Bigcartel. They were selling off personal tapes to fund a release, and this was in there so I figured I would grab it. 

Green was the 3rd and final press of this tape, and landed for sale some time in early December 2013 through the band's Bigcartel. I got into the band a couple of months before and there was no physical copy of this around at the time; so when this went up for sale I made sure to get a copy early. Similar stickered sides as the 2nd press, however I think the cover art is printed under the text, it's super faint though. The tape mechanism is different for a 3rd time. 

Side B // Back Cover. 

I have been listening to this an awful lot over the past year or so, and with the demo up for pre-order on vinyl and their new 7'' up for pre-order too through Neutral Words Records I'm glad I made the jump early and grabbed up the tape variants. Although everything else is still at pre-order stage, I am up to date including tests of everything. I guess you can add this as band number 4 that I am now a full variant geek for. I really hope these guys don't end up creeping over to a US label any time soon, trying to negotiate test presses and postage costs across the pond is a real drag at times. 

When the 3rd press arrived through the door, it came with this note. I write for a blog weekly (jivetalk.co.uk) and I did a post on Fade that someone must've caught of which is cool; suppose it means someone is taking notice somewhere down the line. 

Inside of the J-Card. I like the lettering printed over a faded version of the cover, it's the same on all pressings and is just a little more thought out than most demo tapes. Plus, I'm a sucker for changing covers as opposed to variants etc. for some things. Anyone remember the label colour change on 'The Sun Isn't Getting Any Brighter'? It started off the idea (for me) that changing variants can go way beyond the norm of changing a shell or record colour. More realistically, this way is probably cheaper too. 

And finally; group shot. I hope I can keep this collection up. I'll keep you all posted. 

Cheers!