Various Artists ‘ColdKrushCuts’ – Coldcut & DJ Food Fight

Reissued Beat Delete 3xLP version
Original CD cover
Toys Factory original Japanese LP version
Promo poster
Posters x3 to show joining up text
Original book bound CD version (Coldcut side)
Original book bound CD version (Krush side)
  • RELEASED: Feb 1997
  • FORMAT: 2xCD / 2xLP
  • LABEL: NINJA TUNE / Toys Factory
  • CAT No.: ZENCD26 / ZENCD26Ltd
  • DESIGN: Openmind
  • PHOTOGRAPHY: Nancy Brown
  • SPOTTERS DELIGHT: Limited edition hardback book version, double LP vinyl editions for Japan through Toys Factory
  • EXTRA ZEN: ninjatune page / BUY

This was originally a mix CD project for Japan only, pairing Coldcut with DJ Krush in a meeting of East versus West. PC and I were called in to do the business as Coldcut were in the final stages of completing their ‘Let Us Play’ album. I can’t remember much about the thinking for the artwork, only that I wanted to use my friend Nancy Brown‘s photographs of leaves and twigs as the main image (probably still on my big V23 kick at the time).

The hand images on the back were just my hand laid straight on the scanner and meant to symbolise the hands at work on the decks and the two covers were meant to be able to be laid side by side so that the ‘v’ and ‘s’ joined up to make ‘vs’. Matt Black came up with the ‘ColdKrushCuts’ name when we were struggling to work out how to bill the two comps under one title without giving one artist preference over the other,

The CD was originally done as a limited edition hardback book edition (for some reason I still can’t remember) and, although this looked nice, I was never happy with the booklet design inside, it’s a bit of a mess I’m afraid. All the photos of us were taken from shots I had taken in Japan on our first tour, just for the sake of authenticity, you can see Manhattan Records in Shibuya behind PC in one of the photos.

In 2013 Ninja’s reissue label, Beat Delete, pressed the mix onto three vinyl discs and I had the chance to revisit the artwork and tidy up / improve the layout a bit. It’ll never be a great design but it’s a bit more restrained now.