William Orbit

Strange Cargo (No Speak 004)

.  William Orbit reached a certain level of fame after the demise of the No Speak label by working with Madonna.  Because of that fame, his albums were re-released, so there are two different versions out there.

For Strange Cargo 1, there are two primary releases.  The first, original release has the proper catalog number, IRSD-42098, which oddly puts it before Stewart Copeland.  The later release has a product code of 0777 7 13195 25 (useless, right?).  The original also has different credit text for mastering, manufacturing and distribution from the second release.  Finally, the disc artwork and booklet are different.  unfortunately, you can’t tell the difference from the front cover – they are the same for both.  Back, spine, disc, and booklet back are all identifiable as one or the other.

The re-release has a different disc artwork, copying the artist logo style from Strange Cargo 2, which came in the 3rd design motif where the design was relaxed between releases.  The booklet loses one page in the re-release, since there is no need to promote the first 4 series albums, like the original release did.  instead, where the No Speak label promo text was, a promo box with "Also available on IRS No Speak" lists other albums from the series.  12 albums are listed going all the way to the last in the series, indicating when the Strange Cargo re-release came out.  The albums not included in the list, and presumed OOP at the time are: Billy Currie, Robbie Krieger, Jimmy Z, and Wishbone Ash.  None of the catalog numbers in listed albums use IRSD-.  They are all X2-, suggesting the post-dissolution of the No Speak label.

Strange Cargo 2 (No Speak 012)

Strange Cargo 2 came out in the 3rd wave of releases, the 12th in the series.  The CD does not have the previously-used IRSD- catalog prefix.  The liner notes promote 11 different No Speak albums, highlighting two Guitar Speak albums.  The album catalog numbers are a mix of IRSD- and X- prefixes.  At the time of this release, Darryl Way and Ronnie Montrose didn’t have their albums out and Guitar Speak III wasn’t out yet, either.  Otherwise, everyone’s albums were mentioned.  That is, every album except for Strange Cargo 1, which was also not mentioned in the previous release of the series.

Strange Cargo 2’s design, being in the 3rd motif, was done by C-Soar, not The Leisure Process.