- RELEASED: Oct 2009
- FORMAT: CD / CD Promo
- LABEL: NINJA TUNE
- CAT NO.: ZENCD151 / ZENCD151P
- DESIGN: Openmind
- SPOTTERS DELIGHT: spot Dylan in the cover image
- EXTRA ZEN: ninjatune page / BUY
I definitely bit off more than I could chew with this cover (no pun intended). The initial image idea had been to create a mass of intertwined bodies, all covered in latex, gas masks, bondage gear and the like (made for some interesting ‘research’). Whilst putting all this together I came to the conclusion that this needed something more and sitting at the table casually talking with my wife about seemingly unrelated events, I got a vision and knew how I could make the image better. Two outer rings of machines and photos of the Earth from above would encircle the latex bodies like a darker, industrial take on Mati Klarwien’s painting ‘A Grain of Sand’.
Now that this vision had manifest itself in my mind the only thing to do was go back to the drawing board and start adding to the artwork at hand. I often find this happening, something is adequate but a flash of inspiration can make it better or even brilliant and I am helpless to ignore it and go for the easy option. A week later and I’m sitting at the computer at 3am, literally falling asleep at the mouse, with a 1.4GB image file comprised of 180 layers and the machine is seriously struggling to do what I’m asking it. The picture ended up over 220 layers and nearer 1.5 GB – definitely a record for me and not something I’d like to push the computer to too often.
Both Dylan and I were pretty gutted when Ninja said they weren’t going to do a last 12″ single from the album (not a physical one anyway) as we wouldn’t see the cover image any bigger than CD sized. All that effort and work, lost on a format little bigger than a coaster! I’ve taken the step to have them available as a series of desktops and a high quality jpeg of the cover, twice the size of an LP sleeve, at a resolution that you could make a poster from in the download section.