Es geht voran! Die neue deutsche Tanzmusik album art
Rare sampler with NDW hits and related early 1980s German music. Exclusive pressing for Deutscher Schallplattenclub, released on Sonocord as 28477–8 (source).
This pile of band names represents “the essence of 1982 type on a single cover” (Stephen Coles). The most obscure typeface in the mix probably is Neptun (for “Fehlfarben”), originally released in 1900 by AG für Schriftgießerei, Offenbach. I am not aware of a digital version [edit: Peter Wiegel digitized it as Neptune CAT in 2014]. Time Machine is the best digitally available option for the unidentified MICR typeface for “Spliff”.
The title looks like a free interpretation of Kabel Black. “Jawoll” is probably not a font.
Track list
UKW: Sommersprossen
Trio: Da Da Da
Falco: Der Kommissar
ZaZa: Der Zauberstab
Rheingold: FanFanFanatisch
Nickerbocker: Puppe (Du Bist A Moderne Hex’)
Die Doraus & die Marinas: Fred vom Jupiter
Jawoll: Taxi
Neonbabies: Alibi
Neue Heimat: Ich bau dir ein Schloss
Spider Murphy Gang: Skandal im Sperrbezirk
Spliff: Carbonara
Fehlfarben: Ein Jahr (es geht voran)
Extrabreit: Hurra hurra, die Schule brennt
Palais Schaumburg: Wir bauen eine neue Stadt
Nichts: Tango 2000
Kraftwerk: Das Model
Joachim Witt: Der goldene Reiter
Zeitgeist: Anonyme Spieler
Minisex: Mona Lisa
8 Comments on “Es geht voran! Die neue deutsche Tanzmusik album art”
I found the main title face in the Berthold Fototypes catalog. It’s Black Body by Peter Steiner, 1973.
Rafael Nascimento made the digitization of Black Body in August 2020 entitled Volume Dealers.
Thanks for the pointer, Jay! There is also Mekon, drawn by Jonathan Hill and released by The Northern Block Ltd in 2010. Annoyingly Hill doesn’t give credit to Peter Steiner. I’m glad to see that Nascimento discloses his sources.
Volume Dealers takes a few liberties with the model, and incorporates a second source of inspiration: the cover lettering from Black Sabbath’s Vol 4 album (1972). See also Ryan Corey’s VolumeFour (2018) for another fontification of this piece of lettering. Volume Dealers lacks Black Body’s angled terminals in E F T. The numerals are also quite different. Nascimento’s interpretation comes with a number of alternates, but among the two f’s or the three j’s, none matches the original. It covers the monocular a and the respective glyph from the Black Sabbath cover, but not Steiner’s alternate double-storey form. Most curiously, neither Mekon or Volume Dealers offer a match for Black Body’s cute e. The image below shows, from left to right, Black Body, Mekon and Mekon Alt, and the three e’s from Volume Dealers.
Volume Dealers is a welcome addition, and since it comes for free (under the Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike license), I won’t be too picky. I still think there’s room for a straightforward and complete digital revival of Black Body, ideally with Steiner’s blessing!
Talking about Vol 4: Erik Marinovich just announced a new T-shirt design made in cooperation with Invisible Creature, featuring lettering that is inspired by that Black Sabbath cover.
“Spider Murphy Gang” appears to be in AG Book Rounded, which seems to have more weights than Helvetica Rounded. Several distinguishing characteristics shown here include the S and G. I’m probably guessing, but one could probably do a side-by-side comparison to see which one is closer.
Good point, Bryson, thanks! And you’re spot on, it’s definitely AG Book Rounded. Shown below is a comparison of the digital versions.
And “Spliff” is set in G.K.W. Computer; the uppercase F is a big indicator in this case.
That’s the one! When this album cover was posted, we didn’t have an entry for G.K.W. Computer yet. And when we added it, I didn’t recall this unsolved case. It makes sense: this variant of Moore Computer was carried by Berthold Fototypes, just like Black Body and a couple other of the featured typefaces. Thank you.