World Fantastic cassette
by Sky "Sunlight" Saxon/Fire Wall
1988 cassette tape
Label: Skyclad [SKY-17C]
Sky Saxon’s 1988 album World Fantastic was released simultaneously by Skyclad Records as a vinyl LP and a compact cassette tape. The cassette features catalog number SKY-17C to match the LP’s SKY-17.
While the front cover (whose original square art is reproduced on the cassette J-card insert, with the songs listed below) uses the artist name SKY “SUNLIGHT” SAXON AND FIRE WALL, the spine of the cassette uses a slash and double apostrophes around Sunlight instead: SKY ‘‘SUNLIGHT’’ SAXON/FIRE WALL.My copy of this cassette is still sealed so I can’t see the tape housing itself, but my favorite aspect of the World Fantastic cassette that I can see is the back folded-over part of the J-card. The small-text phrase MANUFACTURED AND DISTRIBUTED BY is the large and fanciful script logo reading Skyclad, under which the small text resumes with the lonely, separate phrase Records Inc. I like how the phrase “Skyclad Records” gets broken up just so they can shoehorn the logo in. (It does look nice, I must say.) Few Sky Saxon-related releases make total sense, especially those dating from the 1980s, and this cassette is no exception to that amusing rule of thumb.
Otherwise everything seems normal about this tape. The songs are listed in the same order and on the same sides as the vinyl LP. I assume the cassette inside is in a solid white shell but that’s merely conjecture. If I get really ambitious I might buy an opened copy someday, or even open this one. Who am I trying to impress by keeping it sealed?
