Lead Into Gold – Low & Slow

This EP was recorded in 1989 and slated for release in 1990. The financial restructuring of Wax Trax! Records occurred and the record shelved while in mid production. Twenty five years later and Wax Trax! Records is up and running again. and the record finally saw the light of day.

A sleeve for the record was designed back in the 80’s by Brian Shanley. All that remained of the original design were some art boards, two film negs for a duo tone (two color) jacket and the print of Paul Barker that is on the back. There were no digital files to draw on and there was no front cover image outside of what was on the art boards and the films. Luckily the Earle Duff rendering that is the cover is physically owned by Paul Barker. He arranged the image capture. The jacket ended up being printed CMYK with a fluorescent orange for the titles. The jacket is also embossed on both sides.

The motorcycle on the inner sleeve is Paul’s personal ride. He took a series of photos of the bike that were used for the. The inner sleeve is printed with metallic silver ink on the outside and the same fluorescent orange that is used on the jacket is used on the inside of the inner sleeve. The lyrics, recording information and notes are printed on the inside of the innersleeve. Jason Duerr cut open his, you can see the images here.

During production of the art we were mindful of the graphic techniques and limitations of the time. The die cut 1/1 spot color inner sleeve while extravagant was still possible in the early 90’s but just not done at the time, that I know of.

Three editions were pressed. A standard black vinyl, a limited Coke bottle green and small very limited run of gold vinyl.