- RELEASED: April 1998
- FORMAT: 3xLP / 2xCD / Promo 12″
- LABEL: NINJA TUNE
- CAT No.: ZEN33/ ZENCD33 / ZEN33P
- DESIGN: Openmind
- PHOTOGRAPHY: Harriet Fuller, Nancy Brown
- SPOTTERS DELIGHT: The Japanese CD version on Toys Factory has exclusive cover artwork
- EXTRA ZEN: ninjatune page / BUY
For some reason when this design was mooted I had the idea of doing a series of Gundam models in primary colours, each dissected at different planes and affixed to boards. I’d just been to Japan for the first time a year or so before and had come back laden with robot models. I built a large Gundam model and then sawed vertically through it as best as I could. After this it was fixed to two bits of wood with plaster covering the uneven joins before the entire thing was painted white save for the hands and a few colour details.
Unfortunately after this I had the bright idea to project the titles and bands’ names onto it which meant blacking out the kitchen of the flat I shared on a sweltering hot day whilst photographer Harriet Fuller attempted to shoot it in low level light. We later discovered that, because it had been suspended, the model was moving slightly all the time and we couldn’t get really good sharp shots of it in the way I envisaged. Another embarrassing case of crossed wires, resulting from my lack of knowledge of photographic terms, meant that the first batch was shot on the wrong kind of film and, oh bugger it, it was all a big mess but we muddled through.
There are some nice pieces in here with the simple palette and the ‘cut’ lines of text as if a scalpel had been through them. Also the text for the title has always been a favourite (later trimmed down and re-used for the KungFusion club nights). The actual package was quite expensive to produce with its gatefold and top opening sleeve plus mini replica version for CD. As with every major Ninja compilation from here on there were a plethora of extras in the form of sticker sheets, record store window ads, promo 12″, T-shirt and the like. As with most jobs there was a cock up, the side A label on the vinyl inexplicably had it’s image missing when the stock arrived so I’ve reinstated it here. I never did do the other robots in the series but I still have the model in two specially made perspex cases hanging in my house.