Anne Clark - Our Darkness, 1984

Eighties techno punk classic by experimental English poet and musician Anne Clark - hence the wonderfully dark spoken word lyrics - together with keyboardist David Harrow, whose fascination with keyboards, synths and sampling effects led them to create songs that would provide a blueprint for the electronic and techno movement; an interesting British new wave counterpoint to the sound evolving in Detroit around the same time.

Pretty pumped to have just found this version for only $4, which I believe is a Razormaid edit that subtly strips away a saxophone break in the middle. Razormaid! Records is a pretty interesting entity in itself, being a subscription based remix service for working dj’s started in San Fransisco in the mid 80’s. Their catalog is nothing less than prolific, having released hundreds of limited-run (1000 vinyl copies each) special version edits of some of the most cutting edge stuff out there - Cabaret Voltaire, D.A.F., Depeche Mode, Kraftwerk, New Order, OMD… They also exclusively used die cut jackets with full color printed sleeves and colored vinyl for every release. Each jacket, sleeve and vinyl pressing were designed with matching colors and each sleeve (once inserted into the die cut jacket) spelled out a letter of the word RAZORMAID in their cataloging scheme, with issue numbers such as R1, A2, Z3, O4, R5, M6, A7, I8, D9, and !10. Pretty cool.