Greg Sage 'Straight Ahead'
Another Luxury Products job where I had to recreate packaging with only scraps of the originals.
Arriving two years after the release of Wipers’ seminal Over The Edge LP, Straight Ahead was Sage’s first proper release of new material since signing to a major label – a statement itself in an era where “selling-out” was a looming concern in the DIY community. Despite this, Sage’s first solo album remains even more insulated from the outside world than the Wipers – a quality exacerbated by the stripped-down instrumentation and themes of alienation. Today, some might call it “death folk” but in 1985 there were few precedents for the spectral, echo-laden folk-punk of Straight Ahead.
Arriving two years after the release of Wipers’ seminal Over The Edge LP, Straight Ahead was Sage’s first proper release of new material since signing to a major label – a statement itself in an era where “selling-out” was a looming concern in the DIY community. Despite this, Sage’s first solo album remains even more insulated from the outside world than the Wipers – a quality exacerbated by the stripped-down instrumentation and themes of alienation. Today, some might call it “death folk” but in 1985 there were few precedents for the spectral, echo-laden folk-punk of Straight Ahead.
