Now almost entirely forgotten, Rote Kapelle were part of the Edinburgh indie scene of the mid 1980s, and shared members with several other bands, including the rather wonderful jangle-pop groups Jesse Garon and the Desperados, The Shop Assistants, and The Fizzbombs. Although some of Rote Kapelle's later recordings would have similarly twee leanings, the four tracks on their debut, The Big Smell Dinosaur E.P, are much harder and noisier, more post-punk than indie-pop. I quite like it. The band took their name from the name given by the Gestapo to an anti-Nazi resistance movement (Die Rote Kapelle - the Red Orchestra) operating in Berlin during WW2. In their short career, the band released three EPs, two 7" singles, and a single album. Their first effort, The Big Smell Dinosaur E.P, was self-released (on 'Big Smell Dinosaur Records' according to the cover) and limited to 500 copies. The band designed and printed the sleeves themselves. The six band members then hand coloured all of them, with each sleeve being unique as a result. The cover is graced by two Brontosaurus, feeding on horsetails, with an erupting volcano on the horizon, and some sauropod footprints in the foreground. A tiny Stegosaurus on the rear cover reminds us that, although it is a 7", the record should be played at 33 rpm. Although one of the tracks is titled Evolution, I must admit that the link between the music and dinosaurs isn't particularly clear to me. The artist is not credited, and I assume that the sauropods are redrawings of some 1970s or early 1980s palaeo-art, but I can't identify them. If anyone has an idea of where they are from, please let me know in the comments. All of the songs on this E.P., King Mob, Evolution, Fergus! The Sheep! and A Gasfire, are available on YouTube, and the original vinyl is available via Discogs.
2 Comments
Andrew Tully
18/2/2020 04:16:35 pm
There’s niche and there’s this blog which lifts my soul. As singer in the band and, for this record only, sleeve designer I hope I can answer some of the points raised. The sleeve came from an old children’s book about dinosaurs picked up in a charity shop and bowdlerised for the purpose. Why we called the record/label Big Smell Dinosaur, I can’t recall. At the time we were in thrall to a lot of bands inspired by Captain Beefheart and the Fall where words with no real connection were juxtaposed so this may explain it as well as perhaps a knee jerk reaction to the ‘Dinosaur’ bands of the 70’s that we railed against. The sleeves were coloured in mainly by the band but also by family and friends including members of the Shop Assistants so there are some collectors items out there! Thanks again for this trip down memory lane and an appreciation of a piece of ephemera that was heartfelt at the time 👍🏼🧐
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Richard Butler
18/2/2020 10:41:16 pm
Thank you so much for reading and commenting Andrew! It's fantastic to read this, and to have the extra first-hand insights into your record! We actually put your record on display as part of our exhibition on dinosaurs and popular culture that was on at Lapworth Museum in Birmingham and the Erasmus Darwin House in Lichfield last year. I really love the record, the cover, and the story behind it.
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