Reggie Griffin & Technofunk – Mirda Rock 1982

Here is some top quality electro funk from a time when computers were only slaves to scientists and were a threat to the rest of us, even Spider-man.
Reggie Griffin seems to have been a regular synth-funk playing, jheri-curl having, stand-up guy. Playing with and writing for a number of great early 80s soul artists. He released an LP as Griffin in 1984 called “Hot Fingers” which includes a track with the name “No Humans Allowed”. I need this album.

Above is 1982’s “Mirda Rock” (avant-garde spelling for the time) on Sugar Hill imprint Sweet Mountain, complete with quite outstanding company sleeve. The first of the seven minutes is the highlight but the whole groove is nice. Now do what the computer says before it digitizes you.
Sadly it’s been twenty five years and computers still can’t dance as well as humans.

For a few decades it did. It came in the form of 45rpm vinyl records and it came in a company sleeve made of the best god damn paper in the world.

Record labels in the 50s and 60s would print up the occasional picture sleeve for seven inch releases, mostly for EPs but the rest of the time the singles came in generic paper sleeves baring the label’s name. The paper they used for them was most like newspaper. Pulpy and very thin. The ink would bleed a little giving a blurred look to design, especially on the less shiny American sleeves. The label would generally run one design for years, sometimes decades without changing it. Some labels changed their company sleeves all the time and some (especially in the UK) ran adverts for all kinds of crap on the back.

Company sleeves, specifically the pulpy matte ones of the 60s and early 70s are one of my favourite things about collecting records. They often feature great period design and have that indefinable aesthetic magnetism that you feel as a kid for blister packed toys or foil-wrapped chocolate.
Some record collectors are only interested in picture sleeve sevens, many only collect albums but for me the tastiest looking chocolates in the box are always the sevens in their original company sleeves. If I ever get round to releasing records on my own label you can bet I’ll research the paper stock for so long I’ll probably never put the records out.
Here are just a few of my favourites…

Atlantic subsidiary ATCO company sleeve, Late 60s / Early 70s. Gorgeous sleeve.

Casablanca company sleeve, 70s, think Parliament and Donna Summer. The camel turns into a movie camera! This is quite a late sleeve and the paper is too thick but I still like it a lot.

Chess Records company sleeve, mostly 60s, used across all the great Chicago label’s subsidiaries including the great Cadet Concept label, home of the Rotary Connection.

Hi Records company sleeve, early 70s, think Al Green and Ann Peebles.

Oriole company sleeve, early 60s UK sleeve, later became the UK arm of CBS records.

PSO (?) company sleeve, no clue on this one, Eastern european/baltic? I don’t have a record in the sleeve. Just check the closeup…

RCA Records company sleeve, 1971, Elvis came in this Care Bears lookin’ az sleeve?

Scepter Records company sleeve, 60s, think Dionne Warwick and the Shirelles.

Smash Records company sleeve, 60s, think Jerry Lee Lewis, Jimmy Castor and some James Brown.

UNi Records company sleeve, early 70s, home to Bill Cosby, Strawberry Alarm Clock and the Foundations.

I’m gonna do another post soon on some of the big labels that went through multiple sleeve designs cos it’s really nice to see them laid out next to each other. Hope you like these papery sweets as much as I do.