• RELEASED: Sept 2005
• FORMAT: 12″ Promo
• LABEL: NINJA TUNE
• CAT No.: ZEN12172P
• DESIGN: Openmind / Matt Black
• PHOTOGRAPHY: n/a
• EXTRA ZEN: ninjatune page / BUY

Oh, this could have been so beautiful. At the beginning stages of promoting Coldcut’s ‘Sound Mirrors’ album it was decided to do a one-sided 12″ promo with an etching which was to be limited with the bulk of the copies being exported to Japan. It featured the track ‘Mr Nichols’ with Saul Williams, an excellent slow burner which wasn’t exactly chart single material but deserved a space to shine. My brief was to make it ‘a desirable object, something people would really notice and want to own’ – presumably to create a buzz about both the music and Coldcut’s return after years without a major release. Bear in mind this was the first instance of a new Coldcut product so I was starting with a completely clean slate, trying to give shape and direction to something that would turn into a giant behemoth of a project by the time the DVD was released after four singles and the album.

I originally wanted to do clear vinyl with the lyrics reversed so that they could be read through the grooves but that wasn’t to be, I wanted a black rubber sleeve with embossed a Coldcut logo, no again. Eventually Matt hand wrote the lyrics into a fresh metal plate but I still have a test pressing of my version with the reversed lettering.