Rolo Tomassi are one of my favourite bands and not least because of their consistently great artwork. It’s all pretty much down to one guy, Simon Moody aka Lined With Ghosts, a freelance illustrator from somewhere in Nottinghamshire. The artwork for the new Rolo Tomassi re-issue is perhaps my favourite to date. As you can see from the image below the CD packaging folds out to reveal a further four panels of the spiky looking hand drawn mountain range. Officially known as a 10 panel digi-file with foam ‘button’; whilst I haven’t met a foam button yet that can actually hold the CD in place this is still an excellent final product. The mountain range can be seen as a representation of the spiky angular synth-prog-hardcore although I don’t feel this was an intentional metaphor.

Inside the whole image is reproduced in small beneath the CD and additional panels with lyrics and information about Rolo Tomassi are all decorated with an intricate background pattern. Moody seems to hand draw all his illustrations before transferring them to his computer for colouring. The result is a very pleasing effect where the felt pen bleeds in places adding to the roughness of the artwork an effect that is very difficult to fake in paint shop or illustrator.

Of course I could be wrong about certain aspects as I’m currently basing my opinion on the reduced size images within this post. The CD is available for pre-order and will be released towards the end of this month or the beginning of March. Should you want to pick up a copy its available through the Holy Roar Records Store. It’s also available with a t-shirt which has the whole mountain range image emblazoned across the chest. That’s the one I’m plumping for.