Another little glimpse into the most obscure of obscurities: this single came out on French indie-pop label Alienor in the nineties, presumably in a pretty low run. Alienor were one of the many labels I’d regularly buy up new releases from. Back then, the way we’d find out about new things wasn’t the instant hit of the internet, it was through the mail – whenever I sent a letter to an indie-pop contact I’d sling in a bunch of flyers for records and fanzines that other people had sent to me or asked me to pass on the word about. Everybody else did the same. I was very organised about it: a desk containing small piles of flyers which were diligently tidied up and reconfigured as new ones were added and old ones finished with.
If you’re paying attention, you’ll have noticed the catalogue number for this record is ALIEN η – these cheeky French label owners felt the need to number their releases in Greek. I was never sure why. I was neither sure why they’d package their singles in the pseudo-‘company sleeve’ artwork that they used – the simplistic layout and not-too-impressive looking pillars remained on all of their singles, with the band name and a photograph changing each time. I never really liked how they looked.
I do like, however, the see-through yellow vinyl of this record – coloured and interesting-looking vinyl always does it for me – and there’s even a little twelve-page booklet included, containing a brief interview with the (American) band reproduced in both French and English. Vive la différence, or whatever phrase would be suitable here.
By the way, if anybody recognises the movie from which this record’s front cover still is taken, I’d love to know. It looks intriguing…
Amanda By Night were from Bridgeport, CT, they lived on my street. they issued several atonal records in the 90’s.