Records

Boards of Canada mystery 12″s and codes

In case you haven’t been in the loop for the last few days it seems that Boards of Canada are finally coming out of hibernation with what appears to be a set of coded records placed anonymously in record stores around the world. Two have been found in New York and London with 20 second pieces of music and a code number that seems to be part of something bigger. Another code cropped up in a YouTube video on the Hell Interface channel (old BOC alias) and another was played on Zane Lowe‘s radio show. Naturally BOC fans being what they are, theories have gone off the scale online and the updates seem to be coming daily at the moment. Keep an eye on the 2020k site for the latest updates, the best of which is that a close friend of the band has confirmed an album release for June this year – great news! :)

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RIP Storm Thorgerson

Things have been so manic this weekend that I’ve only just found time to write something about Storm Thorgerson who passed away last Thursday. As part of the design group Hipgnosis, alongside Aubrey Powell and Peter Christopherson (also no longer with us), they pretty much defined the look of the rock album sleeve in the late sixties, seventies and beyond. You will know their work even if you don’t realise it; Pink Floyd‘s ‘Dark Side Of The Moon’ being the most famous if not their best (as Storm used to admit). 10cc, Genesis, Led Zeppelin, Scorpions, Peter Gabriel, The Who, Black Sabbath, Yes, ELO, AC/DC, Paul McCartney and many more… without their work it’s doubtful magazines like Mojo and Record Collector would have much to fill their pages with these days :).

Seriously though, it’s hard to think of anyone else who dominated sleeve design more in the seventies with such a distinctive brand of photographic surrealism, all made pre-computer, on budgets most designers could only dream of these days. It was the age of the gatefold sleeve, Led Zeppelin led the way in deluxe packaging and the sleeve as canvas was in its heyday. Even though Hipgnosis disbanded in 1983 Thorgerson made the transition out of the rock seventies and into the flasher, poppier eighties, still designing for Pink Floyd but adding XTC, Def Leppard, The Cult and more to his portfolio. After Hipgnosis he moved into video direction before returning to sleeve design in the nineties and noughties for bands like Biffy Clyro, The Mars Volta, Muse and Dream Theatre, all wanting some of that retro record sleeve surrealism.

Pick up any book of album cover art and it’s a sure bet that he or Hipgnosis will feature, in some cases heavily although he did co-author the 6 Record Cover Album books in the 80’s so that’s no surprise. His sleeves for Peter Gabriel and The Scorpions used to freak me out as a kid first visiting record shops and I absolutely loved the tribal mask constructions on the Ellis, Beggs and Howard ‘Homelands’ LP sleeve. He’ll probably best be remembered for his work with Pink Floyd and I get the sense that he was at his most relaxed and playful with them, especially is the various compilations and re-imaginings of his past work he was called upon to do, the best being the ‘Echoes’ compilation imagery.

These days the art of the record sleeve is getting reduced to a thumbnail, hidden away, then forgotten, in pdf ‘booklets’ attached to download packages and lower resolutions for the web. When budgets are so tight that album design duties are relegated to online competitions for fans to enter, it’s important to remember and recognise how important the work of Storm is and was. He and others like him shaped the visual language of parts of the music industry and showed that artwork can be as important, controversial and powerful as the music it surrounds. * Special mention for the excellent Hipgnosis Covers blog too, I could spend all day there.


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Record Store Day 2013 ‘The Search Engine’ 4×12″ repress

It’s Record Store Day again and Ninja Tune release a four disc vinyl repress of the EPs that made up my album, ‘The Search Engine’. These are straight represses of the original three EPs (One Man’s Weird…, The Shape of Things… and Magpies, Maps & Moons) plus the Amorphous Androgynous remix 12″ from last years’ RSD (on black vinyl this time though).

The first three 12″s have been out of print for some time now and contain extra tracks plus some different mixes to the CD album, with some tracks also being full length versions. If your bought these the first time round there’s nothing new musically here I’m afraid. The poster covers are replaced by an eight panel foldout sleeve though, with remixed artwork of which you can see more images here.

In the spirit of the title, and to add a little something for RSD, I’ve had ten unique pieces of artwork inserted randomly into the first 600 copies of the album. Six high quality prints of zoetropes that I made for the exhibitions last year and four unique collages as seen in this post. All are 12″x12″ in size, signed, stamped and protected by a transparent sleeve.
If any readers of this blog find one, please let me know, I will post a photo of you here with your find and it will be nice to see how far they go out into the world. Everyone going to a store has a chance to find one of the inserts, they’re completely random and could go out to whoever orders them at stores participating in RSD. Even if you manage to get a regular copy I’d appreciate photos and locations and will post the best ones like last year.

The Ninja Tune online shop will have another 400 or so copies for sale the Monday after RSD so don’t worry if you can’t get to a store.

Posted in DJ Food, Ninja Tune, Openmind designs, Packaging, Records. | 1 Comment |

Secret 7″s project for Record Store Day

It’s that time of year again, Record Store Day looms this Saturday and the Secret 7″ project is back for another year. Initiated by Universal Records, it presents artists and designers with the chance to create a one-off cover for one of seven different releases, both old and new.

This year’s artists are Public Enemy, Elton John, Laura Marling, Nas, Haim, Jessie Ware and Nick Drake. Over 700 sleeves have been created and each will be available on April 20th at Mother, 10 Redchurch St, London, E2 7DD at the price of £40 each with the money raised going to the charity Art Against Knives.

You won’t know who has designed which sleeve or what song you’re buying (although you can take an educated guess) until you buy it, when all will be revealed. I bought three last year and it was one of the most exciting purchases I made in recent memory.

The sleeves were on view to the public last weekend and I managed to catch the last few minutes and snap some favourites before they closed the doors, which reopen at 10am on Saturday. I spotted work by Pete Fowler, Jonathan Edwards and Felt Mistress among them but Gilbert & George have contributed this year somewhere too.

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Demdike Stare – Test Pressing #1


The new Demdike Stare 12″ has a nice twist to the packaging and design. It comes in a paper sleeve, housed in a second thin PVC protective cover with an A4 insert and labels that are either black or white for sides A and B. On the front are instructions that customers would see if they had ordered their own set of test pressings to approve before a release.

For those that don’t know, once a record is finished it goes to a cutting house where they make a master ‘lacquer’ of the disc on a large lathe in real time. That lacquer is then sent off to the pressing plant and a small number of ‘test’ pressings are made, usually called ‘white labels’ due to the fact that a white label is pressed onto the centre where the regular label would go. These are then sent to the artist or record label to check that ‘the cut’ was OK and that everything sounds fine before proceeding with the full run of the pressing. It would be foolish to go through such a delicate and variable process without checking a sample copy before pressing hundreds or thousands of discs only for them to all be defective.

The new release is the first in a series of ‘Test Pressings’ by the duo and the cover sets out the various steps you should take when getting such a pressing yourself. Only the catalogue number appears on the front, no titles or even the group’s name (that’s on the insert) and the same thing is repeated in German on the reverse of the sleeve. I think this is their best release in a while, dark and sinister as usual but more beat-orientated this time around, in an industrial meets jungle kind of way.


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Rat Records poster for RSD by David Vallade

Record Store Day is only 3 weeks away and, as usual, my local used record store, Rat Records in Camberwell, will be celebrating. I had great fun playing there last year and, as is traditional, my good friend David Vallade has out done himself this year with his poster for the event. They have six separate in stores this year, lord knows where they will fit everyone!

Rat doesn’t have any of the usual RSD releases as they are a used store but they have new stock every Saturday and will be stockpiling specials for April 20th I’m sure. If you’re South of the river and don’t fancy joining the scrum uptown but want to just rummage in the unknown and support a local business in the celebration of vinyl then this is a good place to start.

They are just off Camberwell Green, nearest tube is Oval, nearest overground is Denmark Hill and there are plenty of buses from Oval or Elephant that go straight there.

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The Search Engine – 4×12″ repress for RSD 2013


On Record Store Day this year (April 20th) Ninja Tune will release a four disc vinyl repress of the EPs that made up my album ‘The Search Engine’. These are straight represses of the original three EPs (One Man’s Weird…, The Shape of Things… and Magpies, Maps & Moons) plus the Amorphous Androgynous remix 12″ from last years’ RSD (on black vinyl this time though).

The first three 12″s have been out of print for some time now and contain extra tracks and some different mixes to the CD album, with some tracks also being full length versions. If your bought these the first time round there’s nothing new here I’m afraid except the poster covers are replaced by an eight panel foldout sleeve, similar to the original limited edition ‘Paul’s Boutique’ LP.

Each disc has its own sleeve and the spine measures a tasty 13 mm in width, easy to find in the rack for sure.
In the spirit of the title and to add a little something for RSD I’ve had ten unique pieces of artwork inserted into random copies of the album. Six high quality prints of zoetropes that I made for the exhibitions last year and four unique collages as seen below.
All are 12″x12″ in size, signed, stamped and protected by a transparent sleeve. If any readers of this blog find one, please let me know, it will be nice to see how far they go out into the world. I’m sure the Ninja Tune online shop will have copies the Monday after RSD so don’t worry if you can’t get to a store, everyone has a chance to find one of the inserts, they’re completely random and could go out to whoever orders them, not just stores participating in RSD.

Posted in DJ Food, Ninja Tune, Openmind designs, Packaging, Records. | 11 Comments |

A Psyche For Sore Eyes compilation

Getting a copy of this little release has been a mission, by the time I found out about it it was sold out on pre-order. I put it on my Piccadilly Records wishlist and hoped, badgered the label to repress it but they couldn’t afford to. Eyed up copies on eBay but didn’t want to give the flippers the satisfaction but finally succumbed when the label – Sonic Catherdral – put up one  of their final copies to raise money for Red Nose Day a couple of weeks back. I think it was the most I’d ever paid for a 7″ (two actually) but it’s going to a good cause so fuck it.

‘A Psyche For Sore Eyes’ is a beautifully realised package, designed by Heretic, to house two coloured 45s, a pair of 3D glasses and a whole heap of psychedelic imagery. The paper engineering is particularly clever in the way it accommodates each component and the glasses aren’t just a gimmick. Rather than have ‘look I can touch it’ 3D the red/green balance works more in an op-art sense, similar to the 3D underground comix designs I posted two years back.

Musically I wouldn’t call it ‘psyche’ as such, – it’s a compilation that swings from indie rock to shoegazing drones to electron-noise. Lead track, ‘The Correspondent’ by Hookworms, is so reminiscent of ‘A Storm In Heaven’-era Verve that it’s hard not to imagine ‘mad’ Richard Ashcroft on vocals. The Vacant Lots have been worshipping at the alter of Suicide but in a good way and the fuzz bass and reverb of Lorelle meets the Obsolete reminds me of both the 60’s and the 90’s simultaneously (see ’60, see ’90, go! anyone?*). Even though it’s hard to find in stores you can listen and buy digitally.


*(bad Bow Wow Wow joke – sorry)

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Kate Bush zoetrope picture disc

Another zoetrope picture disc – this time for Kate Bush‘s Record Store Day release of ‘Running Up That Hill’ (2012 remix). This will be on a 10″ but it’s not known yet how many copies will be pressed or how you’ll actually see this animate on the turntable. The design was put together by Peacock who also did the same for her last year – and check out the lovely homepage for Kate’s site here.

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Shogun Kunitoki ‘Vinonaamakasio’ LP pic disc / zoetrope


I’ve been meaning to post this for ages, it’s quite an old record now, being released in 2009 on Fonal Records. Shogun Kunitoki make epic organ-led instrumental space rock and their second album came as a picture disc which also doubles as a zoetrope. They even went so far as to issue a ‘Mystical Shogun Kunitoki Strobe Light’ with which to view the animated designs. The first edition is sold out but they have a few here, unfortunately the record is sold out though. Watch a clip of how it works and steps to build your own here. The Amorphous Androgynous included a track on one of their Monstrous Psychedelic Bubble mixes way back and you can check them out on iTunes.

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Machine Drum 10″ VIP release on Astrophonica

Astrophonica end their trilogy of VIP 10″s with Machine Drum‘s take on ‘Jungle Juke’. It works a treat and sits alongside the other two rather nicely. Each sleeve is screen-printed in two colours, hand stamped and the whole run is limited to 300 of each disc. Fracture and Om Unit head up the first two releases and they can be bought from here.

In other news, Machine Drum just signed to Ninja Tune! :)

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Electronic Movements/Sound Patterns 10″ on Trunk

The Trunk reissue 10″ of Tom Dissvelt and Kid Baltan‘s ‘Electronic Movements’ single with my original Philips 7″ version of the same. The reverse of the Trunk release has Daphne Oram‘s ‘Electronic Sound Patterns’, which I don’t have an original of so you get the reverse of the Philips 45. As usual with Trunk, this is pretty limited and available from the website now. Also there’s an excellent 8 page overview of everything Trunk in this months (Feb 2013) Record Collector magazine.

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New ‘Art of ZTT’ blog online

I’d like to bring your attention to a new blog I’ve set up about the Art of ZTT Records (or ‘Who’s Afraid of the Art of Zang Tuum Tumb’ to give it its full title).

For years I’ve been collecting everything I can find from the early 80’s incarnation of this label and tracking down the designers and photographers responsible for some of the artwork. It’s a constant work in progress, starting off as a possible magazine article then progressing to a book idea and now, finally, I’ve decided to make it a website.

Inspired by Paul Gorman‘s rehabilitation of Barney Bubbles‘ work into today’s design community I hope the same can happen for the work of ZTT as it was hugely influential on my own desire to design for the music industry. XL, Accident and The London Design Partnership aren’t exactly household names in the same way as Vaughn Oliver and Peter Saville are but I think that the work they produced for the label in their golden age is at least an equal of the Factory and 4AD portfolios.

The site will eventually feature sleeves, promo posters, print ads, photos, exclusive interviews and associated ephemera connected with the label, its artists and designers. At the very least it should be an exhaustive gallery of an innovative label with a host of rare and forgotten imagery.

Posted in Design, Photography, Poster / flyer, Records. | 4 Comments |

Rutherford Chang – We Buy White Albums

Over on the Dust & Grooves website (which really is a must if you like vinyl collections of each and every kind) there’s a fascinating feature on Rutherford Chang‘s exhibition of his collection of The Beatles’ ‘White’ album.
Similarly to Christian Marclay‘s appropriation and customisation of the same album many years ago, Chang has taken it to the next level. He has nearly 700 numbered copies now, all filed in order of issue, and is exhibiting until March at the Recess gallery in New York.

What I love about this is the cultural anthropology side of vinyl collecting, much like Jive Time Records‘ Deface Value or the Bargain Bin Blasphemy blog each sleeve has been customised, sometimes unintentionally, by the previous owner. Vinyl-lovers always talk about the sleeve as a large canvas for artwork and no album is more that than ‘The Beatles’. We’ll never know the hows or whys, only that each copy has now found a new home amongst some of its siblings 45 years later.

For more beautiful images, an interview and a recording of 100 copies of side one of the album playing simultaneously go to Dust & Grooves.

For more on the exhibition:
We Buy White Albums
January 8 – March 9, 2013
Recess, 41 Grand Street, New York

http://www.recessart.org/activities/6753
http://rutherfordchang.com/

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Themes For Great Cities

After visiting Dusseldorf last month and being introduced to the Themes For Great Cities vinyl-only label from the city I can’t get enough of certain releases from them. Wolf Muller produces the kind of afro-centric beat driven electronica I’m sure exists but never seem to find. His ‘Lagerfeuer Tanz EP’ is a fantastic 4 track trip into an undiscovered land where shamanic drum rituals have been picking up broadcasts of minimal techno mixtapes and weaving them into their own groove.

The multi-artist ‘Mogul 2’ 12″ has a motorik mix of retro electronica courtesy of four different bands and comes in a striking Neu! 2-homaging sleeve. A mysterious 10″ under the title ‘Edits Des Amateurs’ features three rhythm tracks oozing pure funk but never much deviating from their mission to stay in the pocket until they reach their destination.

The sleeves are screen-printed and stamped in collaboration with the local Slowboy record store, which has one of the finest collections of music old and new I’ve ever seen. Check out some of the releases below and visit their Soundcloud for more.


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Drums of Death ‘Waves’ series cover art

Op-Art seems to be back in a big way in 2013. After seeing the odd example over the years (Trevor Jackson‘s Soulwax sleeves spring to mind) the floodgates seemed to open last year. Chris & Cosey‘s ‘Transcend’ sleeve was the one in all the end of year lists and I think I’ve featured more op art in the last year than ever before.

Drums of Death was one of them and his Waves trilogy of EPs (red, blue and black) are getting the remix treatment on the Civil Music label. Above are the cover of the remixed versions of red and blue with the original blue and black below. Whilst the music isn’t all my bag I can highly recommend ‘Bang The Drum’ from the Red Waves EP. The Blue Waves Remixed 12″ is released on March 4th.

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