Black Sabbath – Technical Ecstasy(1976)

Biography
Black Sabbath were an English rock band, formed in Birmingham in 1968, by guitarist and main songwriter Tony Iommi, bassist and main lyricist Geezer Butler, singer Ozzy Osbourne, and drummer Bill Ward. Black Sabbath are often cited as pioneers of heavy metal music. The band helped define the genre with releases such as Black Sabbath (1970), Paranoid (1970) and Master of Reality (1971). The band had multiple line-up changes, with Iommi being the only constant member throughout its history. Formed in 1968 as the Polka Tulk Blues Band, a blues rock band, the group went through line up changes, renamed themselves as Earth, broke up and reformed. By 1969, they had named themselves Black Sabbath after the film Black Sabbath starring Boris Karloff, and began incorporating occult themes with horror-inspired lyrics and tuned-down guitars. The band’s first show as Black Sabbath took place on 30 August 1969, in Workington. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Sabbath

Album & Cover
Robotic love at first sight – Technical Ecstasy is the seventh studio album by English rock band Black Sabbath, produced by guitarist Tony Iommi and released in September 1976. After the frustrating legal battles that accompanied the recording of their 1975 album Sabotage, Black Sabbath chose Miami’s Criteria Studios for the making of Technical Ecstasy, which continued the band’s separation from its signature doom and darkness that had been a trademark of the sound of their earlier albums. Writing in the July 2001 issue of Guitar World Dan Epstein noted, “The sessions proved extremely relaxing for everyone except Iommi, who was left to oversee the production while the others sunned themselves on the beach.” Iommi explained to Guitar World in 1992, “We recorded the album in Miami, and nobody would take responsibility for the production. No one wanted to bring in an outside person for help, and no one wanted the whole band to produce it. So they left it all to me! The album was certified Gold on 19 June 1997 and peaked at number 51 on the Billboard 200 Album chart.

The cover was described by Ozzy Osbourne as “two robots screwing on an escalator”. Hipgnosis’ Storm Thorgerson, who had been assisted by graphic designer George Hardie, discussed the cover with Zoom magazine in 1979: “We’re very fond of that cover. From the title of the piece, Technical Ecstasy, I thought of something ecstatic rather than something technical, and I immediately thought of ecstasy in sexual terms: some sort of mechanical copulation, which would be tricky to do. I then thought of ecstasy as falling in love, perhaps during a brief encounter on an escalator – and, since it was ‘technical’, I thought of two robots … It’s really quite simple – he’s just done curves for the female and hard, angular, macho lines for the male. It’s really quite sexist, actually – stereotyped. Anyway, it’s love at first sight, but I felt robots wouldn’t do it like humans would do it, so instead they’re squirting lubricating fluid at one another.” The UK release had a two-sided insert of lyrics and credits. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_Ecstasy

Richard Manning explains the process: I received a Dye Transfer of the escalators that had glass sides, along with a trace and position guide of the Robots, obviously male and female, designed by George Hardie. I traced the Robot shapes onto the Dye and masked off all but the glass sides. I bleached them to white and then, having mixed the yellow ochre-ish colour in Photo Dye, with a swab of very wet cotton wool, soaked the exposed area, then with another piece of cotton wool soaked in the dye, proceded to wash in the colour, watery cotton wool in one hand and watery dye cotton wool in the other keeping the washing motion going to achieve an even tone as the colour gradually soaked in. Once I was happy with the colour I airbrushed a darker tone in the bottom right and then airbrushed the soft cast shadow in front of the male Robot. The shadow cast by the female Robot onto the side of the escalator was achieved by holding a curved shape slightly raised from the print, and airbrushed to achieve a soft edge. And the same process for the male Robot, but obviously not with a curved shape. The blue stripes were masked and washed in and a darker brush rule added to give depth. The handrails masked and red dye washed in onto the existing image with no bleaching. Each segment of the female Robot was masked separately and airbrushed with a colour mixed in Photo dyes, the stronger highlights on the left side were in some cases masked and carefully washed out. The red areas, again masked and bright red dye washed in to give an even colour, and the Sable brush with weak red and black mixed for any modelling. Read more at http://www.richardmanning.co.uk/hipgnosis-album-cover-art/black-sabbath-technical-ecstacy–1976/8

Cover Location: Hipgnosis Studio, London, UK
Who Did What: Robots Design – G. Hardie. Robots Illustration – R. Manning. Graphics G. Hardie.
Label: Warner Bros. BS2969(US), Vertigo 9102(UK)
Source: Vinyl. Album. Cover. Art, The Complete Hipgnosis Catalogue: Aubrey Powell

Tracklist

Credits
Ozzy Osbourne – lead vocals
Tony Iommi – guitar
Geezer Butler – bass guitar
Bill Ward – drums, lead vocals on “It’s Alright”
Engineer – Robin Black
Engineer [Assistant] – Spock Wall
Producer – Black Sabbath