I’m loving the new Phoenix album and the artwork really jumps out. The simple minds is an interesting effort from an older band given how crappy the depeche mode stuff was recently. The Neu album is a particuarly forward thinking affair and the Grizzly Bear album just looks straight up cool.
See Grizzly Bear, Neu Tribute album and the Simple Minds album covers...
Great albums – Great Artwork out 25/05/09
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RichWhite Rabbits – Percussion Gun music video
I’m currently loving this music video. Directed by Andrew Droz Palermo for White Rabbits. The set design is fabulous and so simple; an impressive idea all round. It’s proof that if you take time in the set-up great ideas can be fully realised.
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Rich
Great albums – Great Artwork out 18/05/09
A couple of big albums out today and they actually have pretty good artwork for a change! The Eminem album features a picture of the rapper made up of pills – the album itself sounds like a load of old twat and so doesn’t make it to the list. The Manic Street Preachers on the other hand have produced an excellent album with artwork done by Holy Bible artist Jenny Saville. It’s caused a load of controversy in the UK because supermarkets are covering it up under the pretence that the tortured face of a child with the pox some how looks more like the kid has been beaten and that he’s covered in blood. I suspect they just don’t want to put shoppers off their microwave meals.
More from Iron & Wine, Passion Pit, Au Revoir Simone and Hawk and A Hacksaw...
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Rich
Great albums – Great Artwork out 11/05/09
Really liking the Crystal Method – Divided by Night cover (up top). There’s something surprisingly beautiful about a speaker woofer especially when its white and creating a sphere of sound with its little woofer and tweeter buddies.
Maximo Park, Tiga and Chet Baker Quartet after the jump...
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Rich
Vega – Well Known Pleasures Artwork
I was going to post about Vogue College Records being a label that oozed style but then it kinda dawned on me that this is their only release to date and although the aesthetic they have going on with their logo etc certainly seems like they’re heading in the right direction it would be a bit premature to claim that they “oozed” style at all really.
Instead I’ll focus on Vega’s first release with them. Big Stereo referred to this release as “nu-hammer, dreamwave or whatever” which typically means someone is trying to find a genre to wedge this track into without just saying “it sounds like an updated 80s because as soon as anyone says “80s electro” we’re all thinking Jan Hammer or Harold Faltermeyer and doing a disservice to what Vega is actually all about (not that Bigstereo are trying to make up genres to fit him into hence the whatever). Besides to my money he’s got more in common with the type of tracks daft punk used to sample (obscure italo disco) but brought thoroughly up to date, by way of late 90s french house, cutting up and looping his own vocals to create the massive throbbing hook thats at the centre of “No Reasons”.
Where I actually get to talking about the Vega Artwork...
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Rich
Portugal. The Man – The Satanic Satanist.
Portugal. The Mans’ new artwork is a labour of love and it shows. Designed by Austin Sellers and cut from a single sheet of card.
This artwork came together much the same as the album, lots of hard work and lots of fun. It was really great sitting down with Austin again and getting his thoughts on where the illustrations should go and seeing what he would do with the colors in the end. He really ran with this project and as we speak is still running with it as far as vinyl package and posters and stickers go. He did a truly amazing job in making sure things lined up and worked with every fold. I remember our initial talk and the initial sketch of what would become the package. Austin’s response was something along the lines of “There is no way they will let us do this.” and “You’re going to make me do all this work just to get turned down!”. It took a lot of thought to bring this together as smoothly as it has come. Austin did some really great work with this layout and color placement, there is no way it could have worked without him.
The idea was to make a package out of one solid cut, no plastic. More than anything we wanted to give the buyer something more substantial, a package that could double as a piece of art and not just be a marketable image ready to be tossed upon transfer of music to computer to MP3 player or internet for download (please share once you buy, that is how us little bands grow and how the bigger bands get bigger still.). You may not be able to see it from these rough, ROUGH small scale, handcut package photos but the CD, once transferred to computer to MP3 or internet for download, is also a part of the artwork. The sun. The template is meant to be a mountain that folds down into smaller mountains, much like the mountains that run around our home state and the illustrations are meant to represent the years of my childhood that the album was written through, 1987-93. The years my family moved around the state the most as well as the years I was introduced to films like Lightyears, Fantastic Planet, Fire and Ice and Wizards. Safe bet that those films may have ruined my growing mind.
This outlook is very refreshing in an industry that so often treats the artwork as just another cost in the marketing campaign. Creating a product that cannot be downloaded is also a key way of insuring that fans buy your product and don’t just steal it.
Click to see the Portugal. The Man artwork unfolded...
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RichNyle – Let The Beat Build Music Video
What happens when you go to school with a lot of very talented musicians, singers et al and someone comes up with a great concept for a video? The result is displayed above. The video was shot in a single take but even more impressively the audio was recorded at the same time; its not a sync. The record quality itself is amazing using a special RED camera which always seems to produce great results but this video represents something more: talented and creative people. The video has gone completely viral (244k plays and counting) and I’m certainly not the first to talk about it but I felt that when something is this good everybody has to see it so I’m just doing my bit.
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RichViva Machine – New Website (by me) and Video (not by me).
Exciting times yesterday as a site I’ve been working on for a-pop-alyptic rockers Viva Machine was launched to co-inside with the premiere of their video for Earthquakers and Loveshakers. The video is truly excellent and features the band in their dressing room whilst an earthquake rages around them. It was directed by Adam Linzey (Panjabi MC, XO Man, Kinny) for New Treatment in what I believe was his first non “urban” video production. The video was shot in an old old peoples home which is about to be turned into apartments.
Whilst we’re still populating the website with content it’s pretty much in its completed form and can be viewed by heading here. If you have any feedback or spot a mistake let me know in the comments below. You can pre-order the album and get a free mp3 by going here.
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Rich
Great albums – Great Artwork out 04/05/09
Bank holidays and laziness means that I’m only just bring a very small hand-full of albums to the fore.
Maccabees and Horrors album covers...
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adminMoray McLaren – We Got Time Music Video
Directed and illustrated by the very talented David Wilson this music video shows the cyclical nature of life through the spinning of an animation printed onto a record. It really is all kinds of awesome. The making of video is a much watch as well because that’s when you realise just how much effort this project took. There’s no computer trickery ehre just amazing creativity, patience and nifty camera angles.
Click to see the making of Moray McLaren's We Got Time Music video
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Rich
