Does It Matter?

So a band that is often featured on this blog is Touche Amore. That would be for two reasons: they are one of my favourite bands and secondly, I definitely have more Touche records in my collection than any other band. At the moment, I am about as complete on this band as I'm ever likely to get without throwing stupid money on test presses. But less dwelling on that, and a little more on the subject at hand; the Touche Amore // Self Defense Family Collaborative 7'' entitled Self Love. Long story short, both bands got in a room, all plugged in and wrote two songs. Will Yip recorded it, and the whole thing was done in a weekend if I remember right? As both bands contributed to both songs, it breaks the standard format of a split 7'', hence the collaborative tag we're throwing around today. 

Touche Amore // Self Defense Family - Self Love - Deathwish Inc. - First Press - Opaque Light Pink /300 

Both centre labels have text in a circle, and from what I can tell neither are related to the lyrical content of the respective song. This side has the track Circa 95 (you can see up top of the label, Deathwish logo at the bottom); and out of the two this seems to have a bit more of a TA vibe. The variant itself is pretty neat but doesn't photograph too well, as there are a few different shades of pink and a little white in here. This was the standard '1 Per Customer' pre-order colour from Deathwish and it sold super quick. 

Touche Amore // Self Defense Family - Self Love - Deathwish Inc. - First Press - Transparent range /726

As there are a few variants to get through, it makes sense to photograph the A side of some, the B side of the rest right? Saves looking over the same thing too much I guess? Centre labels are a different colour to one another, but more importantly all the information about the recording and the lyrical content is on the back here. No insert included. There are 15 people credited here (14 musicians plus Will Yip - Nick Steinhardt is also credited for Art Direction and Design). On the left is all the lyrics, down below is the Deathwish legal stuff and on the right is all credits and a bardcode.

Touche Amore // Self Defense Family - Self Love - Deathwish Inc. - First Press - Opaque Grey /5320 

I swear that Deathwish pressing numbers get weirder. I'm sure these will all fly over time, the Orange was out of stock for a while, but more must have crept back in when pre-orders went out. The cover art is cool, and Nick really went all out on this design (a little more on that later). There is a similar 'hands in' photo on the back, I'm not sure if it's the same photo or whether it's two sets over two photos but it's a pretty relevant idea I guess? If you can see through the 'disco-sleeve' you can see the inside of the cover is Orange. It's a thing done a little more often with TA stuff nowadays, but every release has something fun and quirky going on design wise. 

Touche Amore // Self Defense Family - Self Love - Deathwish Inc. - First Press - White /200 (Self Defense Family Tour Exclusive) 

I have to admit, I had no clue about this variant. I knew there would be a clear /200 (as that's not yet for sale I am assuming another box set will surface?) but this completely passed me by. Thankfully, the internet is full of great dudes willing to help. A quick Instagram conversation, and a Paypal payment later this was on it's way to me. It arrived super well packed, and the guy wouldn't accept a penny over the cost of the record + postage. So a big thanks to Lyrik for grabbing this for me, and the internet is a cool place once more. 

Design 

Here's the part where I show you all the cool stuff Nick did with this record. We kind of covered the cover art, but the poly sleeve is a whole other thing. The sleeves come printed on both sides and fit over the record to create the full artwork. You can see it best through the centre hole, but one side is printed opposite to the other (solid and wavy are the only ways to describe it really!) with the title in the bottom right. To help differentiate sides, the title is only printed on the A-side of the cover. These sleeves are pretty thick too, I just really hope they're not prone to splitting as they look incredible and complete the art. 

Finally, a poster and flyer set. The flyer came with my order, the poster came from Darren at Dog Knights because he is a swell guy. 

Cheers!