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Quote from: Manhog_84 on October 18, 2025, 02:07:59 PMAt Harsh Ways Fest III, one fine gentleman slipped me a purple ski mask with a note "DON'T TALK, TAKE ACTION". It contained Dreamcatcher's Liberal Cunt tape, limited to 15 copies. In addition to the mask, it came in a plastic case with a badge. Overkill for a one-sided C5, but fits perfectly with the hateful/bizarre/hilarious artwork.
Have seen a couple releases made like this lately, a-la
'Pro-printed CD in an A5 case including a poster and a shirt. VERY LIMITED' for an EP or even a single. So I'm intrigued to hear what's the most absurd amount of work put in packaging a contrastingly effortless release you've seen?
I love Hospital Productions, I have the utmost respect for Dom and his work/legacy...But this is the definitive answer: https://hospitalproductions.net/collections/rarities-ephemera-related-releases/products/meat-locker-the-andalusian-dog-special-edition
I just received a new 1/1 tape from Inarticulate that was very fucked. Tons of metal, tape and smashed up CDs bound together by Flex Seal. I opened it up in a surprisingly efficient manner though, as not much of anything spilled from the part that held the tape as it was allegedly intended to.
I have also made plenty of stupid packages that made sense at the time of making them. I don't like keeping them around because of shelf space. Let that be someone else's problem.
Quote from: prolapsedlielack on October 22, 2025, 09:50:33 PMI love Hospital Productions, I have the utmost respect for Dom and his work/legacy...But this is the definitive answer: https://hospitalproductions.net/collections/rarities-ephemera-related-releases/products/meat-locker-the-andalusian-dog-special-edition
haha.. well, I suppose there is the line where "packaging" is actually... sculpture. Even if I would not be buying it, like with most of sculptures, I appreciate that it exists!
So that odd metal sculpture that comes with noise is fine with me. Overkill - maybe, but unnecessary maybe not!
I am more annoyed with things that appears to serve no purpose at all, being oversized and odd shaped, shitty looking and in all ways. Even more the oversized ones that seem to have no purpose being so. Like norelco case tape and packaged in sleeve with A4 print that has nothing that really required such thing. Wondering how I storage this while it sits in mail-order, or where I put it if it is in my own shelves? Do I just fold this damn thing.. once? Twice? One useless addition that makes it worse than something that would be overkill in terms of album cover, but works as piece of art.
I've always wanted to try to obtain a copy of Con-Dom's Control Domination CD released by Armed & Loaded Recordings. It comes packaged in two big pieces of slate with screws attaching it together. I've read via discogs that many of the CDs were defective for whatever reason. I don't know if it was something due to the rough nature of the packaging or what, but probably should get a proper reissue!
Quote from: Cranial Blast on October 27, 2025, 03:55:00 AMIt comes packaged in two big pieces of slate with screws attaching it together
Sounds very much like some of the Knurl packages as well as Aube I think. Overall this type of packaging doesn't seem extremely scarce so I'd guess the defect was not caused by the packaging itself, perhaps the material had something to do with it? Maybe just a pressing error
IIRC (its been a while, obviously), the issue with Control Domination was a blemish towards the end of the disc that caused the final few minutes of the last track to glitch or not play entirely. And that last track is awesome, so its understandable why its not pleasing to people.
I think the cause might have been that the way the disc was placed, it ended up being too close to one of the points where the fastening screws were inserted, so the screw ended up scuffing the disk. But it could have been just a manufacturing issue as well. I remember a lot of chatter about it on the Malignant Tumorlist, but I don't think anybody ever definitely answered what happened.
There is a slight blemish on my copy towards the end, and I feel like I did notice at the time that it was close to where one of the screws had been sealed, but again, the decades may be misleading me. I'm lucky, though, in that my copy's always played fine.
To the point of the thread, I think I mentioned it the playlist thread somewhere, but this Broken Diode (pre-Human Larvae project) release, was the most infuriating packaging I've ever encountered: https://www.discogs.com/release/961607-Broken-Diode-Screaming-On-The-Inside
It wasn't even that it was all that unusual in the extreme packaging department (screwing a CD in between two pieces of metal), its that the damn bolt on the screw WOULD...NOT...COME...OFF.
And it never truly did, either.
Over the course of multiple hours and having to deploy several tools, I managed to twist everything enough so that I could pull the CDR out. And that damn bolt is still there taunting me all those years later...
Thankfully, the disc wasn't damaged and its a pretty good slice of noise, but I'd prefer not to have take three week classes at Home Depot to open my music in the future.
Reading this thread, I am struck by the possibility that there was never such a thing as "overkill" or "unnecessary" packaging---just noise that fails to live up to the presentation!
Quote from: Balor/SS1535 on October 28, 2025, 05:08:54 PMjust noise that fails to live up to the presentation
Yeah, pretty much. However it seems that some releases could actually benefit from having a simpler, less
grand presentation (as I suppose the case is with the Meat Locker tape mentioned ITT).
Quote from: Cranial Blast on October 27, 2025, 03:55:00 AMI've always wanted to try to obtain a copy of Con-Dom's Control Domination CD released by Armed & Loaded Recordings. It comes packaged in two big pieces of slate with screws attaching it together. I've read via discogs that many of the CDs were defective for whatever reason. I don't know if it was something due to the rough nature of the packaging or what, but probably should get a proper reissue!
I found one of these at Amoeba years ago and bought it. It just sits on a shelf as I don't feel like dealing with the cumbersome packaging and just listen to it digitally. I have no idea if the disc is even playable, it's definitely more of an art piece at this point.
Quote from: excruciation on November 05, 2025, 11:57:07 PMQuote from: Cranial Blast on October 27, 2025, 03:55:00 AMI've always wanted to try to obtain a copy of Con-Dom's Control Domination CD released by Armed & Loaded Recordings. It comes packaged in two big pieces of slate with screws attaching it together. I've read via discogs that many of the CDs were defective for whatever reason. I don't know if it was something due to the rough nature of the packaging or what, but probably should get a proper reissue!
I found one of these at Amoeba years ago and bought it. It just sits on a shelf as I don't feel like dealing with the cumbersome packaging and just listen to it digitally. I have no idea if the disc is even playable, it's definitely more of an art piece at this point.
I haven't been to Amoeba in a very long time. That's a nice place to search for media. I've only been to the Los Angeles location. My Grey Wolves -Incaceration CDr has pretty much become the same thing. That CDr will no longer play at all though!
Quote from: excruciation on November 05, 2025, 11:57:07 PMIt just sits on a shelf as I don't feel like dealing with the cumbersome packaging and just listen to it digitally. I have no idea if the disc is even playable, it's definitely more of an art piece at this point.
In such pain-in-the-ass-to-access cases, or even more 'easy' like CDs in a book/zine or if i think packaging would hurt the CD/R in the long term, i just put them in a jewel case separately. It starts placing them near, it ends seeing a non-labeled CDR and wondering what the fuck is this now.