First off I’d like to apologise to Studio Parris Wakefield for taking my sweet time to get this post together. But at least I’ve timed this post with the day of it’s release.

If you have a Joy Division fan in your life then this release has been perfectly timed with Xmas gift time. Oh and the 20th Anniversary of Ian Curtis’ death.

The Deluxe edition (limited to 500 copies) is SOLD OUT but you can still order the standard edition which is limited to 5,000 copies.

There is some insight into the design process from SPW on their blog. Used here with permission.

We have been working on the design of the new Joy Division box set ‘+-’. Now we are able to share
with you the story behind the imagery.

In Peter Saville’s book ‘Estate 1-27′ Michael Bracewell describes Saville’s work with Factory Records and in particular Joy Division as the ‘…muniments of a crematorium in deep space.’ Thus inspiring Saville to look towards the infinite qualities of the universe to capture the essence of a collection of Joy Division singles.

Tasked with the brief of ‘deep space and nebulae’, Howard Wakefield researched through the collection of Nasa imagery at SpaceImages. While tempted with a nebula called Factory, its name was too good to be true, for it didn’t compare with the more expansive deep blue nebula of Hubble NGC 346 SMC. Peter Saville was keen to see how it could be transformed from being purely documentary, so suggested an inverted, monochrome version.

The Factory Nebula. This image was not used.

The actual NASA space image used aptly named Hubble NGC 346 SMC. Check out the official NASA press release of this image from 2005.

In addition to the compilations cover SPW were also tasked with recreating the covers of the 10 singles. But this was not as simple as it seems.

Of the 10 Joy Division singles, only 3 were ever released on 7 inch vinyl. There were 3 EPS, a flexi disc, a booklet, a 12 inch and even an LP. Compounding this, the artworks didn’t exist in a state that could be used anymore, so the only option was to scan the sleeves.

However, scanning was not possible as each sleeve would need to be cropped to allow for printer’s ‘bleed’, so Saville suggested a border. At which point Wakefield saw the potential of portraying the singles as, not only important musically, but important in the history of music design. The design was as influential as the music and they should be both represented as such. The design concept was agreed – they should be portrayed as pieces in a gallery.

The sleeves were photographed and presented as moments in music and design history, backed with caption-style text on the reverse, allowing the music and the original sleeves to be the stars…

Here are the 10 covers. I think the photography presentation of them actually makes them look better.

SPW also blogged about the origin of the + – (or Plus Minus if you are trying to Google it) which in itself reveals an interesting story about Teenbeat and their lawsuit/PR stunt against the record label.

Where did the title + – come from? What was the influence? In 1988, Factory Records released the Joy Division single ‘Atmosphere’ from the compilation ‘Substance’ – the inner sleeve showed a detail of ‘Plus en Min’ by Jan van Munster.

Naturally, in 2010, during the discussions over titling the forthcoming Joy Division compilation, we were drawn to the 1988 release as inspiration. Calling it ‘Substance’ was too close a title to the original release, however, titling it ‘+ -’ was an acknowledgement to the 1988 release as the newly remastered track list was the same.

As part of the Deluxe box set, Peter Saville was asked to create a piece for inclusion. Originally there was a notion that a new ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’ metal plate be created, but the cost was too prohibitive. However a perspex interpretation of the + – was more appropriate as the glow edge referenced the + – image from 1988.

To replicate the orange glow, a choice of two colours were available – Lava Orange or Mars Red. For cost and timing issues, Mars Red was selected.

Regarding the recent Pitchfork story about Teenbeat (the label) and +- (the band) who are suing for trademark infringement and plagiarism. We find this very strange, as the band admit to being influenced by Joy Division. Yet they are comparing their artwork (2002 album +-) which clearly appears to be influenced by the 1988 Joy Division imagery. Is this a stunt? Enough said.

Sadly this is the + – cover is only available when you buy the deluxe edition.

And this is the cover from + – from Teen Beat records.

So Lava Orange is more expensive than Mars Red? Budget is something I think Jan van Munster has never had to worry about. His work is amazing while his website sucks. The + – motive is spread across a lot of his work. I really like the “Brainwave” series with the wobbly neon lights. This could have almost been a cover itself.

And lastly SPW also designed a poster for an event at Rough Trade this week. More info here.

Here is a promo video from Rhino on the compilation.

The entire package itself is an impressive piece although the standard of compilation packs/limited edition runs these days is very high. I’m reminded of the Pet Shop Boys “Yes” packaging. At least this one is only $100 and not $450!

Take a look at SPW’s other musical design work and take in just how influential they have been. It also doesn’t hurt that Peter Saville is so closely connected to them also.

Is it just me or is all the innovative cover art being done for the least likely bands. Does being popular dictate that you must be safe? Beck would be the only mainstream artists who are doing anything innovative. Moldover, Menomena, ALB, Bright Eyes, Beck and Pine Bender all have innovative covers and yet they would be the bands you’d think would have little budget to do anything but a standard 4 colour jewel case.

Zinplaat’s 4th album Mooi Besoedeling is another innovative album cover. The cover and back are printed with scratch off ink. Like an instant scratchy. The cover appears to be a very simple design and yet hides a very different cover under the ink.

The designers at Fanakalo gave me this brief overview of the covers design.

Zinkplaat is an Afrikaans pop-rock-blues-fusion band from South Africa. The name Zinkplaat is the Afrikaans word for corrugated metal. This, their fourth album comes shrink-wrapped with a scratch-off ink layer on the front and back, as well as a guitar pick to scratch the ink off with. The album’s name ‘Mooi Besoedeling’ translates to ‘Beautiful Pollution’. Their brief was to create a universal artwork that didn’t form one central image, plastered on the front, which serves as a metaphor for the album title.

We responded by creating a colourful collage that represents the band’s various diverse influences coming together to create something new. The silver scratch-off ink resembles corrugated metal and we also designed the actual disc to have the unpressed silver form part of the design. We believe this is a very good functional solution to the fact that a simplistic clean cd cover design stands out most from all the clutter on a store shelf, yet is very boring once bought. We leave the concept open to interpretation, as it can be read as the silver layer being pollution or the fact that by scratching off the ink you ‘damage’ your packaging. However one wants to read the album as a concept, at least it’s very interactive seeing as people seem to love the scratch-off ink…

I have a copy of the album with me (I requested it ASAP after seeing the video below) but now I’m too precious to scratch it off. Luckily there’s already a good set of photos. I prefer the half scratched off look personally. The random montage of images works best when revealed through frantic scratching. I bet anyone seeing this half scratched cover on my desk at work could not resist having a scratch.

I’d love to get a poster made of this scratch off ink.

The back cover also got the same ink treatment.

I asked Rohan at Fanakalo if the printing was expensive, which for a small band not doing hundreds of thousand copies might be a major issue. Also was it was tough to convince the band to go forward with it?

The band signed off on it immediately because they briefed us wanting something ‘never done before’. We printed through an agent (hybrid media solutions) who outsourced the printing to Asia, so the cost wasn’t ridiculously expensive.

I guess it’s the band are willing to spend the extra money on the final product. When not looking solely at profit, you have the vision to think about the package as a whole (experience and the music) rather than just the $$$.

I also asked what the response has been in South Africa and record shops.

South Africa’s music industry is very small and monopolised (there’s only 2 big stores/franchises) – and the other thing is that Zinkplaat is an Afrikaans band, which makes it even harder for them to get shelf space because they compete directly with international albums. But after printing and selling the first batch the record store ordered an extra batch about 3 weeks after the album was launched, which is quite a feat in SA. Normally the record store doesn’t request music from local artists.

I asked about the language, as this is the first Afrikaans band I have been exposed to. Why not sign in English or is it like Rammstein?

In a country where we know Afrikaans and English we love having music that is only Afrikaans and only we can understand. Afrikaans is also a very beautiful language which is often much more descriptive and poetic than English.

Some bands from south africa worth checking out:
dear reader
aking
new holland
thieve
die heuwels fantasties

All credit to the band for putting the album together but you have to give credit to the designers for creating something which gives the band a point of difference.

I also like the inside band photo by Mark Reitz. I can’t help but think of The Hangover when I see this.

We were also sent some work in progress artwork for what the cover could have been. Rohan said;

the two montages was the direction we went first and realised it was too ‘picture’ – so we went more abstract and got to the final design. the montages sort of ended up being mood boards

And the designers also made a wine label (for the launch party and merch) and T-Shirt design from the cover.

Seeing the wine label gave me an idea, only to find that it had already been done with Wines That Rock. To make it worse the company only launched in October this year. Damn! I should ask for a freebie for pimping it here :)

You can check out more on Zinkplaat on their Facebook page or Myspace page.

It’s the interactivity of the cover that I like. Like all the covers I mentioned at the top of the post, they all give you something to do with the packaging once you hold it in your hands. It’s not just an elaborate packaging job whose sole purpose is to not fit in your CD holder (do people still have CD holders?) This is something you can’t experience just by looking at it. Even the best piece of typography can be experienced by looking at a jpeg however these need to be held, opened and played with.

I was thinking today about how it’s better to be #2. The #2 person tries harder and has a goal beat the #1 person, where as #1 can get complacent. And I think the same thing happens with independents musicians. They just have to try harder. That’s what I thought when I saw this post on Moldover’s debut album which contains a working Theremin. It also thought “WTF is a Theremin” that I realised when I checked Wikipedia that I should pretend like I already knew as those things are pretty damn cool and I want a real one too. (More info on my Theremin binge below)

I’ve ordered my Awesome Edition but rather than wait I’ll let the man himself explain the “Awesome Edition cover”

His official press release sums it up in a more sales type way.

A champion of do‐it‐yourself music making, Moldover would never hog all the fun for himself. That’s why he designed his album’s intricately beautiful, circuit board CD artwork to be a first‐of‐its kind light theremin. Moldover fans can not only enjoy his tunes passively, but actually create their own warped‐out swoops and
blorps, just by tapping the CD case.

The album comes in 3 editions with the one featured above $50 delivered or $60 for international people like me. Good to think the majority of that will go right to the artist.

I normally comment on the bands website on how it relates to the album artwork but the less said about Moldovers’s site the better. It’s functional at least.

I do like that he has put some real effort into putting videos on Youtube.

Here’s an album preview from over a year ago.

Here’s Moldover explaining his technique. Check out his Youtube channel for even more.

I love the DIY feel of this and just like my Night Vision Googles I ordered for CODMW2 I’m a sucker for unique and cool gadgets. This is much better than a well designed, yet unoriginal, booklet. Engagent commented saying “Sure it sounds a bit like you’re squeezing air through a pinched balloon and it costs $50 ($10 for CD-only or $25 for a Pocket Edition), but hey, give this guy some credit for innovation.” And I agree. Moldover, without the aid of a record label has created a news worthy album innovation and will hopefully get attention for an album that would have otherwise gone unnoticed to those not already fans.

I did enjoy listening to Moldover’s music although I should try and sample it at time other than midnight though as my brain enjoys more Boards of Canada during these late hours.

Side Note:It’s probably just me but Moldover looks to me like the love child of Trent Reznor, Screech from Saved by the Bell and Criss Angel.

Theremin’s Suck?
So still not sold on how cool Theremins are? Maybe these videos will convince you. I’m breaking one out at the next Xmas party.

How about the Mario Bros Theme

Seriously though what person would not smile if you broke out the Mario Bros theme. It’d have to be at a funeral not to get a smile and a WTF! out of everyone in the place.

Too geeky? How about Gnarles Barkey’s Crazy on a Theremin? You’d be crazy not to love this one!

Just how cool do you have to be to play the Theremin? This cool…

You could also just make your own but that looks like more work than doing the dishes so I’d rather just buy one

Now I just need to scrape the $500+ to buy an official Moog Theremin. and start pissing the neighbours off.

Are there any other albums with a working instrument as part of the packaging? The White Stripe’s Triple Inchphones don’t count.

The most notable thing about Mos Def’s fourth solo album is that it’s available as a t-shirt. He’s become the first artist to endorse The Original Music Tee™, a concept that’s pretty damn clever. Basically, you buy the t-shirt with the cover art on the front and the tracklist on the back and it comes with a hangtag featuring a unique code that allows you to download the album in MP3 format.

This makes a lot of sense to me. The idea of being able to express your support for an artists’ new album by literally wearing the cover kind of works. You get to make an addition to your wardrobe and your iTunes at the same time. This combination of music and fashion might even serve to put an emphasis back on the importance of cover art design. If people are meant to wear it, designers won’t be able to dial it in.

It works for girls too, because they can slip one on and look just like this.

My only problem with the proposed format is that the t-shirt costs twice the price of simply downloading the album, which kind of defeats the purpose. After all, it’s always been possible to buy the album and then buy the official t-shirt – if they want to change music-buying behaviour they’ll probably need to offer better value rather than rely on novelty.

And while The Original Music Tee™ could hypothetically re-introduce the importance of cover art design, then it could also change it forever. After all, cover art has always been defined by the limitations of a square CD or record cover. T-shirt design is something else entirely.

The cover for The Ecstatic, which is also available through iTunes, sticks with tradition. The image is taken from the film Killer of Sheep, an underground cinema masterpiece set in an LA ghetto in the late seventies. Shot on less than $10,000, it’s gritty realism and low budget meant that it never gained a wide release.

Nonetheless, most who saw it became passionate advocates and, after it’s initial release in 1977, it went on the win the 1981 Berlin International Film Festival. In 2007 it was re-released in art cinemas and on DVD to mark its thirtieth anniversary.

When trying to think up how best to describe this cover for Portishead’s “Third” I found an interview with the designer which summed it up perfectly. Which makes sense as he designed it. Marc Bessant said;

“after the ten year gap from the last record I knew the only visual which had stuck in the public eye had been the ‘P’ character, it was an established brand which I wanted to not only reintroduce but reinforce. We were keen to avoid anything ‘conceptual’, no puns or noir imagery, that was all dead to us, I wanted to present a box, which simply holds the music, with the least amount of information on it which would ultimately say everything – essential minimalism – which I felt captured the eastern block coldness of some of the music I was hearing in the studio.”

I think that perfectly describes this cover.

The statement above shows the importance of having a strong brand to your band. If you were to disappear for 10 years what would people remember about you? Do you have a strong visual mark to identify yourself?

The subtle texture and rough painted lines are a nice touch. If this was done in a vector program it would have lost a lot of its charm.

There was a limited edition box set which contained all the usual goodies but also a “P” USB stick with pre-loaded videos. This rocks but at 1GB you’ll end up just keeping it in the bookshelf to show off to friends as 1GB is like giving someone a Moleskine with 10 pages. Nice but useless.

Marc did the modeling in MODO. Which I’d never heard of before.

Here’s the box set description from the actual box.

Here’s the limited print by animator Nick Uff. Scan from Luke’s flickr. Not my cup of tea but you can’t please everyone. I’m not sure if every print was different or there was a selection or prints as the one in the image above is different from this scan below. Here’s an interesting interview with Nick Uff. His Youtube channel is pretty sparce.

Here’s a clip for “We Carry On” that was on the USB stick.

For some reason Island & Universal disable embedding on their Youtube video. (WHY!?) So see the video for “The Rip” here in terrible Youtube quality.

Here’s one of his personal animations. It’s certainly different.

ruff toot from howies on Vimeo.

You’ll notice it says “ongoing online content” as part of the box set. One part of that is this live video of a gig from the Mayan Theatre.

One element I am disappointed with on the Third album is the lack of continuity. That beautiful simplicity of the P3 is then wasted on the “Machine Gun” and “The Rip” singles.

Machine Gun (below) looks like a NIN cover and carry no resemblance to the Third cover.

It does match the film clip however. Directed by John Minton

I found this version of the cover while researching. I don’t think it’s official though (As pointed out by JT in the comments the font is wrong)

Check out John’s other Portishead clips such as the P3 logo reel below

and the “The truly spectacular Universal conference film”.

Check out the Portishead Youtube channel for a few more videos.

That’s probably the only song I think I could fake myself as a drummer on :)

Here is “The Rip” which features artwork by Nick Uff etched into the vinyl.

Could the simple blue painted letters have become old quickly? Maybe, but these other designs just seem so disjointed that you lose the synergy of having a album and single being part of a pack.

There was a poster for the album created which is just the cover with a date. It would have been nice to see if this P3 simple idea could have been explored further.

if you want more info on the designer Marc Bessant, he has a site, a blog and a Behance portfolio. I have noticed recently that most of my designer searches are showing up with Behance portfolios so I guess this site is becoming popular.

What amazed me was that Marc was the director of the “All Mine” promo video seen below. I remember originally seeing this and thinking WTF!?

Now I look at it again and love it. Marc posts about this on his blog here.

“I remember the shocked faces at a trendy Soho film suite when asking that they keep bumping down the original film to VHS tape and then back again so as to get a proper degraded feel to it, as opposed to a computer filter added after. To me it looks just the right side of ropey but alas the TV powers that be weren’t so keen so the film was rarely played. The italian subtitle mid-way through the promo reads ‘We apologise for the poor quality of sound’ – an obvious pun when the sound is really the only thing of true quality.”

He also designed and shot the cover for their self titled album “Portishead”. So 11 years later he’s back on the job. Here’s to keeping an updated phone book :)

I wonder if he was also responsible for the “P” which became their logo? As their previous covers did not feature it. The Portishead website is just a bunch of P’s so it looks like they’ll be sticking with it for a while.

For those that want to know the data rate of the tracks on the USB stick and any other minute details check out Discogs.

For those wanting to know when a new post arrives either subscribe to our RSS feed or follow me on Twitter @100ftzombie.

Limited to 1000 copies and sold out in 12hrs means that if you forgot to check your email that day you would have missed out. Or maybe you were sick with the flu and missed out and are now trawling eBay (only 1 listing) for a chance to get your hands on this limited edition steel case for Autechre’s 9th album.

The design is by The Designers Republic and I don’t there is another company that could sell this design into a client or another band like Autechre that would buy it. Looking at the cover and then being told it’s a TDR piece you say “oh yeah I can see that”. Not knocking their work (big balls to do that) but it fits their M.O if you know what I mean.

If I had to describe the cover to a blind person I’d say “it’s as if a chronic stutterer were in court and the court reporter was transcribing their testimony verbatim with white san serif type on a flat blue background.”

But enough talk from me lets look at some photos courtesy of Martin Dixon Thanks for the use of the photos Martin.

Here’s two more photos from Alex Young

The album was intended to be a digital release (and was a full 6 weeks before a physical release) but in a Clash Music feature Sean Booth was quoted;

“The actual product is the FLAC file – but I don’t object to those who want to own something that they can hold”

As dumb as this sounds it’s the first time I have heard of FLAC. But I’m going to start using that term to seem even more elite. MP3s!! pffttt… I only listen to FLAC and in HD 24/96 too.

The actual Clash Music feature is a good read. This quote from them on the brief to TDR is great

“Our brief was really, really specific” he explained “the idea was to be type based, neat and producty. We knew if we went to our normal designer he’d take the piss as he’s just so creative he’d cut it right down. Designers Republic understood us immediately and the result is stunning”

Can’t wait until I receive a brief with the word “producty”.

The whole limited edition sold direct to fans is something NIN did well recently and for me is the future for many bands. Once you build a critcal mass of followers and you treat them well you can basically use them as a cash generating machine. A free digital album here, a few over priced tickets there and a limited edition USB stick for xmas. Everyone’s happy.

The standard cover is essentially the same design but in blue. Although you lose the complete sexiness of the laser etched steel it still is a nice, if very designy cover.

The poster and other collateral (website, Myspace) all followed the same design style. Here’s a poster (photos by Japanese Forms)

On a final note: Here’s a review from an eager Youtube Vlogger. Try this: Press play and close your eyes. Then half way through open them and see if the guy talking matches his voice. He has a good “radio voice” and I mean that in a good sense. He just looks so young.

For those looking for an actual album review check out Pitchfork or this one on Amazon

Do you think bands will have a future selling “limited edition” physical copies of 100% digitally released albums?

Q: I initially read somewhere about where and how this laser etched cover was produced but now I have lost the link. Can anyone help?

People who bought the standard CD version of the album also got this awesome Limited Edition Autechre hat!

Not really I just found this in the office and it reminded me of the album :)

Update: thanks to Mark for his info on the Quadrange EP.AE. I forgot about this when posting.

Each track released as FLAC (lossless audio) had minimalist artwork associated with it, so in iTunes it will change per song. Oh I love this big white square song :)

I have shrunk these down here but you can grab them from Discogs. Is this what you get from TDR if you’re budget is really small. But hey it fits the theme of the other artwork and it ties in with the name. Quadrangle is one of the few shapes I remember from school. I don’t know a rhombus from a trapezoid though.

They must charge per right angle :)

JAN 23, 2009 UPDATE: tDR is no longer. After 23 years they have closed shop. See article in CR here.

I was told about this album from someone I had just met via email. I dropped into the conversation that I ran Sleevage and he mentioned this was his favourite album sleeve. I should add Sleevage to my email footer as crowd sourcing sleeves to post about is much easier than real research.
I was happy enough that the sleeve was constructed out of sandpaper as that seems both impractical and expensive. However to find out it was a Factory Records design and actually assembled by Ian Curtis of Joy Division (who needed the extra cash) while the rest of the band watched porn in the same room. (source) made the sleeve even more interesting. Even if this last story is untrue it shows that an album with a story is much more interesting that one without.

Here’s the back cover which is also devoid of information.

FACT 14 refers to the Factory records number system which you can read about here. There were two FACT 14s the other being Martin Hannett’s “Testcard”.

The first edition on sandpaper was limited 2000. The sandpaper sleeve comes in various editions: Some with spray-painted FACT 14 in black or in white, some without spray-paint. This makes for a very rare collectors item. Sadly The Durutti Column isn’t as “cult” as Joy Division so don’t expect to pay off the mortgage with it.

If you were to buy the album from Amazon now sadly this is what you’ll get. An ugly interpretation of the sandpaper.

The official TDC site has this on the album’s page. I’m not sure if this is a photo of a limited edition re-packaging or the album itself was a photo. Anyone know for certain?

The credit for designer was hard to track down. Each site I went to credited different people. Discogs has Steve Horsfall, while Wikipedia has Peter Saville and Tony Wilson and the official The Durutti Column site has the designers as Dave Rowbotham and Anthony Wilson credited with the sandpaper sleeve concept.

So Peter if you’re reading this please set the records straight. For now I won’t credit anyone individually until I hear otherwise.

The one thing we do know for certain is that the cover was inspired by the 1959 bookMémoires by Guy Debord a Marxist theorist, French writer, filmmaker, hypergraphist and founding member of the groups Lettrist International and Situationist International. Cover is below.

With a Wikipedia entry like that you can imagine what kind of dinner conversation Guy would have had. You don’t see ideas like hypergraphist or Psychogeography being theorised any more. I understand these concepts properly you could say Tomato’s work fits into this nicely. Especially projects like mmm… Skyscraper I Love You.

Compare this to a double page spread from Mémoires.

While I like to think my music knowledge as expansive, I’d be lying if I said I knew of The Durutti Column before this. It seems I say the same thing for almost every album that get reviewed here :) I’ve sampled some tunes on the official Myspace page and a fan page and it’s nothing like I expected. It’s quite chilled. I’m not sure if this is the same sound as they had 30 years ago though.

What I love about the cover and the idea behind the original Memoires is that the sleeve would leave it’s mark and potentially ruin other albums it sits next to. Like Stick Fingers, with the zipper that ruined the record, these impractical design solutions were created back in a period where experimentation in music and design for music was encouraged instead of feared.

Final Useless Fact: The Durruti Column was the most famous column of anarchist fighters during the Spanish Civil War. The band intentionally spelt it incorrectly.

Thanks Jon for the info on the sleeve.

It’s been a while since i’ve seen any album covers that spins my wheels enough that i feel like talking about it. But when Jason Noto, from the very talented and creative Morning Breath Inc sent us the latest QOSTA cover and all the accompanying artwork, i decided i oughta pull my finger out.

I think it’s worth mentioning that QOTSA’s previous album ‘Lullabies To Paralyze’, although a great album, had one of the worst covers i’ve ever laid eyes on. It looked like someone’s friend had a friend, and that friend had a cousin who did “design”,who took a flaccid stab at it.

So it was a relief to see such a badass cover created for ‘Era Vulagaris’. It’s the kind of cover that you’d want on vinyl, even if you didn’t have an LP player, just so you could look at it in a larger format. The font it perfect, the illustrations remind me of 50′s-60′s drive-in food intermission characters (like the ones playing on the screen behind Danny in ‘Grease’ while he’s banging on about that chick Sandy, who he ain’t banging), except these characters are a pair of skeezy burnout hoods bathed in hot pants pink.

Jason was kind enough to fill us in on the how the cover design came about.

“So here’s a little back story of the QOTSA Era Vulgaris package. We have had a working relationship with their management for some time, working with some of the other artist, etc. The groups manager thought we would be a good match for Josh’s mindset and wanted to get us on board with the Era artwork. We sent them samples of some of our more personal work so the band could vibe off of. Their was a page in our book “The Early Bird” that struck a chord with Josh, it was an illustration of a retro advertising style of beer and cigarette characters.”

“It was at this point that we could share the same appreciation of nostalgia in art, and a sense of fucked up humor. Josh was really into the idea of that bizarre retro vibe and the idea of cute characters that have that underlying purpose of enticing kids to get into fucked up habits. Josh threw a few ideas our way of characters he’d like to see, and we just ran with it. This may be one of the first packages we’ve done that had a true taste of the kind of artwork we love to produce.”

Album back cover and vinyl singles.

Inside Packing Poster

Single covers and inserts.

Massaged fun holes everyone!

As a huge fan of the original, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that Stones Throw have just released a reworking of the classic hip-hop album Madvillainy (2004) with a special box of goodies, or as they much more eloquently put it:

“a big ass box full of cool ass shit that you won’t be able to get anywhere else.”

Here’s a look at what’s inside (reposted images). A 7 inch of a lost Madlib track recently found:

A cassette tape of the original unfinished demo tape that was infamously leaked:

A Madvillain tee:

A comic book continuing on from the All Caps video:

And of course the cd (yawn):

Jeff Jank, art director for Stones Throw, designed the artwork and packaging. I asked him for some more photos hoping to get more of a peek inside, but even he is yet to get his hands on the complete package which is currently being manufactured. You can get the details here and pre-order here.

Here is the cover of the original Madvillainy album:

On a complete tangent, but related note, J.J. Abrams talks about the power of the ‘mystery box’ which I found appropriate here.

It’s good to see labels on the right track producing quality packaging and offering extras true fans crave for.

I initially though the packaging for ALB’s album was of a retro sandwhich iron. Yum! I love toasted sandwhiches but Charlie from Discograph informed me it was actually a retro 45 record player called a “Univox Mange-Disque” manufactured from 1975-1980. This made a lot more sense than having the CD package based of a toaster.

Note: Understanding the French language will help you get the most out of this post.

The best part of running Sleevage is finding out about new bands. I’ve become a music encylopedia with ALB being added to the A chapter. For those that don’t know the band here’s a snippet from their bio.

“Oubliez la jeune scène rock parisienne et ses baby rockers clonés, la french touch post Justice, ou encore cette satanée new rave, ALB sont de jeunes musiciens français mais ne s’inscrivent dans aucune de ces modes. Ni aucune autre d’ailleurs. Leur premier album, Mange-Disque sort sous forme de mange-disque orange, avec livret-notice, et autocollants de fausses pochettes 45t, un travail d’orfèvre mais aussi de grands enfants passionnés qui n’en font qu’à leurs têtes.”

Whoops that was the French bio :)

One thing I took fromt he full bio was that the band are big retro gaming nuts. This would explain the classic gaming feel to some of the tunes.

The artwork was designed by the bands lead signer Clément Daquin and his girlfriend/designer Emilie Vast.

“She made the photos for the 12″ covers and the booklet graphism, and i designed/3D modeled the box, and the 12″ covers’s graphism. Everything is home-made, from the conception to the “put in da box”.”

I asked Charlie if the special pack was expensive and did it make a difference having that point of difference.

“The cost per disc is low and yes I do think that the packaging helped generate interest in both press & TV. ” by “The cost per disc is quite high but Rise Recording’s strategy was to have a price in store lower than most CDs. It worked efficiently. Yes I do think that the packaging helped generate nterest in both press & TV. “

Here’s the case sans hand.

Here’s a couple of photo of what a real “Mange-Disque” looks like. I’m too young to have really got into records. I only had a handful that were handed down to me so I don’t think I’ve ever had or touched a 45rpm record. I vaguely remember a switch on my record player which made the records play fast and thats it.

You can actually buy the last one on Ebay here.

Check this gallery for some even wilder mini players. Snakeskin never goes out of fashion.

Rather than explain the packaging I thought I’d let this attratice French TV host do it for me. I don’t speak French but she seems to explain the full pack fairly well.

The only thing she failed to mention was the really cool black CD (Just like a Playstation disc). It’s even printed with thick ink to give it grooves.

The album has 12 tracks and also have a mini album cover for each song. I’m not sure of the reason for this but it’s nice anyway. I asked Clem about the idea behind these.

“The 12″ covers are the beginning of the work. We started by design a cover for each song, like if our first album was a kind of “best of”, a coolection of our best 12inches aronds the years… Some are inspired from cliché-covers, typical from the decade we want to insert our songs in. Then we designed the box as the object missing between these covers.”

Here’s an animated gif from the bands Myspace page which sums it all up.

They have also released a remix album which is download only I believe. The cover for this reflects the album’s design.

Also there is a flat designed cover for online stores. As the 3D object doesn’t work as a tiny thumbnail that well.

Here’s the first video for the first single “CV-209″ from the album and it’s quite a catchy tune.

The band even volunteered to put the special packs together.

You can spot a limited edition blue prototype version of the cover in the bottom photo.If you spot one of these snap it up as there’s only a handful around.

The bands label Rise Recordings has a few other interesting French bands under their wing. ALB being one of their latest signings.

Useless Fact: An Alb is one of the liturgical vestments of the Roman Catholic, Anglican and many Protestant churches. Source

ALB is also the stock market code for the Albemarle company. Manufacturer of polymers and fine chemicals, including additives and intermediates used in agricultural and cleaning products and drilling compounds. WOW!

P.S: Also is it just me or is France pumping out a lot of great music lately?

Here’s another nominee for a Grammy in “Category 89: Best Boxed Or Special Limited Edition Package”. The album was released as limited edition USB
drives, each of the 6,666 produced (3,333 of Meg & 3,333 of Jack) containing the full album in Apple Lossless format. More info here about the bands obsession with the number 3.

With the other nominees in this category being elaborate box sets I hope this one wins purely based on originality.

The album is still available on their store along with a plethora of other branded items. Even kilts for those so inclined.

The Jack & Meg sticks remind me of the Star Wars USB drives from Mimobot. I’d certainly take Darth & Boba Fett over Jack & Meg any day.

You have to hand it to The White Stripes, they have cultivated their “brand” to the point where soon they can stop making music and just sell merchandise.

That’s the cynical part of me speaking. It seems that Jack and Meg are just crazy record collectors too. They seem to rejoice in the fact their fans will have to go to extraordinary lengths to collect their works. Check the Wiki entry on them for the story about the secret album they recorded and then hid in 100 pieces of furniture. None of which have been found to date!

I’m almost tempted to get the limited edition Jack Holga or Meg Diana camera. Those sneaky marketers almost tricked me :) For more info on these camera check here.

While I’m on the topic of limited editions and collectors items. The one thing that’s sure to fetch a good price on eBay is this “Triple Inchphones” (3″ vinyl players) are limited to 400 and only available for sale at live shows. These are by far the “IT” item for collectors.
I saw one recently on eBay for $380 USD! but they have gone for as much as $1,000 Ouch!

We were going to showcase the entire “Icky Thump” artwork but with the 20+ different pieces out there we are still in the process of collating & photographing these. Check the official site which has a very detailed listing of all artwork.

I wonder if this USB drive format will take off?

All photos of the USB sticks taken from 12MC great blog and their Flickr set.

Oh look it’s another cover which features photos in a natural history museum. This time the Durban Museum. Don’t worry this one’s different and while not having as polished photos as the others it’s still an interesting cover. Also it has an interesting title.

The bound book digi pack features four Polaroids of the band.

I think Garett in red is the only one who nailed the stunned look.

Richard Hart from Disturbance Design gave me the idea behind the design direction. “The band are from our own hometown in South Africa but Garrett, the lead singer was planning on moving to Seattle and taking the album with him in the hopes of getting a record deal. Thus we were briefed to demonstrate through the album art that they were an African band. We figured shooting them down at the local museum gave the whole African thing a humourous spin.”

Attack of the Monkeys
The photo on the CD of the monkey with huge teeth it’s pretty freaky. I always imagined our simian friends as friendly creatures but this and Ground Components cover is a reminder to never get into a bar fight with a ape or monkey of any kind.

Stuffed Animals:
With all the comments generated about Interpol’s latest album it’s interesting to note that Superhotjoy released this limited edition album a month before “Our love to admire” was released. I think Richard says it best here “Luckily by then most of the 500 copies had already been sold and we and the band managed to avoid looking like we’d done a cheap knock-off.”

See for yourself. Note: the Superhotjoy photo was not used for the cover though and they actually have some reason (if small) to use animals in their concept.

Here’s the lead singer telling an antelope (or Springbok) all about the cover fiasco.

If you want to see more of Disturbance’s work check their Flickr page. Or, like me, if you want to look at photos of their office with envy check here.

I think we can now officially say that any type of stuffed animal museum is off limits to all bands for at least a decade. Spread the word.

If ever there was a limited edition packaging that was never meant to be heard it’s this one. Spiritualized’s “Ladies and Gentlemen We are Floating in Space” came presented in a prescription medicine box with 12 mini CD’s in blister packs. The problem would be actually listing to the album. Changing the CD 12 times (back before MP3′s become the norm) would have been a pain in the ass.

As a collectors item though it’s brilliant. You can’t listen to the CD’s without ruining the packaging. So you’d have to buy two copies.

The pack has been created to resemble drug packaging in every way. This kind of special pack would send a shiver down the spine of a cost conscious label manager today. But I guess so would commissioning one of the UK’s top design houses Farrow. If buying in bulk, to the level of drug companies, it might be cost efficient but with a limited run of around 5,000 you’re looking at a steep cost. But aside from the blister packs every other park of the pack is cheap to produce.

Here’s another show with it all spread out.

What I love about this pack is every facet has been though of. Dosage instructions replaces the album notes which are presented below. Just scroll the frame to read it all.

A 2xLP was released with shiny silver slip cases.

There was also a limited edition CD version which came in a blister pack.

Here’s a promo photo showing them packing the boxes for shipping. It again enforces the concept of the album.

The analogy that music is like a drug and makes you float in space is an obvious one.The band themselves were probably high while making the record too.

Even though this album is now 10 years old the official Spiritualized website still carries the medical theme as does a lot of their merchandise.

I have nothing but love for Extreme Music’s “Directors Cuts” series. Not only is it some of the best production music you can buy it and makes even the simplest thing come alive it also comes in the funkiest packaging around.

We use the the “Directors Cuts” on websites and games we produce as Soap Creative. And while Extreme offer a wide variety of production music it’s this series that makes you feel like Michael Bay or Jerry Bruckheimer.

It’s actually a joint venture between Extreme Music and Hans Zimmer’s (famous music composer who’s probably be the only guy to call Danny Elfman out in composer showdown) company Remote Control Productions. Well technically it was his previous company Media Ventures but they hit a little legal trouble.
Note: Money and friends don’t mix.
Here’s an article from 2001 about the venture.

A few examples of how we’ve used it can be found here and here. This last audio touch is what makes these projects for me.

It’s funny as I know quite a few of the “fantasy adventure” tracks now and I hear them from time to time in trailers for movies and other websites.

If you’re like me and like to browse the entire catalogue looking for that right track you can also get the DVD version. It comes in a jumbo case as seen below.

The CD’s are shipped to companies for free and you only pay for what you use. At $125 per 30 seconds it can get expensive but cheaper and faster than commissioning custom music. Although if you have the time and budget custom music can be a better solution.

We commissioned a sound designer to create custom sound tracks for a site we did last year for Foxtel called “see something. feel something.” The music is amazing and would have been impossible to find on a production CD.

The fact they ship the CD’s for free and that their website is also quite easy to use you’d think expensive packaging like this would be unnecessary. But there is stiff competition in this field and any way to stand out is worth the expense. Spend money to make money I guess.

Sleevage I Didn’t Know That: Hans Zimmer was a member of “The Buggles”. No shit!

You’re probably like me in the fact you’d never heard of Yatha Sidhra let alone this album. But I’ve seen this around and finally got some good artwork to show it off.

The use of the die cut works perfectly. A die cut would have to be one of the cheapest and more effective “tricks” up a designers sleeves. The artwork below is reveal when you open the record cover.

Here is my best attempt to patch up the artwork. All versions of the image had the type removed as seen above.

The only downside to this would have to be the back cover. It’s like they forgot they needed a back until they sent it to the printer. And then let the printer hack something together.

The music itself which I previewed from here, sounds like Boards of Canada meets Jesus Camp soundtrack, while mixed down by Peter Gabriel with the world music dial set on India. This might explain the Indian motif to the artwork.

The genre of music is termed Krautrock. A generic name for the experimental music scene that appeared in Germany in the late 1960s and gained popularity throughout the 1970s, especially in Britain. Not to be mistaken for the Crocodile Rock :)

After seeing this I remembered Mika’s “Relax” single which uses a similar concept.

Question: Does anyone have any info on the artwork featured on the cover. Was it a custom job or an appropriation of a classical piece?