Hardformat

Beautiful work, I particularly like the butterflies. I wonder what the music is that makes them fly like that?

NYT article: Second Lives, seen on BoingBoing.

Artist: Radiohead
Title: Amnesiac
Label: Parlophone
Year: 2001
Designer: Book by Stanley Donwood and Tchocky
Type of music: Experimental rock
Notes: Lovely. I particularly like the library card and the command that “this book is to be hidden.” My only criticism, as with the mum book, is that I’m puzzled by the choice of glossy paper stock for the image pages. Something thinner, matt and textured would have registered the passing of time more pleasingly and would have been more appropriate for this imaginative project.

There’s something about Metallica’s employment of a branding company that’s amusing and slightfuly awful. The article’s well worth a read. The CD packaging design itself is fun and delightfully cheesy which is entirely appropriate to the genre. I almost bought a copy yesterday, but couldn’t quite bring myself to…

Link: Branding Metallica

Artist: Various
Title: Money Will Ruin Everything
Label: Rune Grammofon
Year: 2003
Designer: Kim Hiorthoy
Type of music: Norwegian
Notes: Subtitled “some 30 releases on Rune Grammofon”, this appears to be the 32nd release on the label… one of the first pages states “This book is a record cover”… I love the little shamrock device and the white hairline on the CD sleeves. Money Will Ruin Everything is a tangential, playful delight. I wish Kim Hiorthoy published posters/prints, I’d happily hang his work on my walls. Oh and that’s a strange looking cat!

Innerpartysystem’s new single has been pressed not on vinyl but on 100% edible chocolate. However tempting an “it tastes better than it sounds” review might be, it’s the latest in the music industry’s weird and wonderful line of gimmick formats.

Don’t judge a book by its cover, my mum would often say. But when it comes to music, I love the covers just as much as the music. And I love the formats – increasingly becoming relics of a bygone era – that music has been released on even more.

What’s the sweetest format? | Music | guardian.co.uk

Is this the future of music-related design?

via BoingBoing

Artist: Various including snd, Fennesz, Momus, Ryoji Ikeda, Mika Vanio and Alva Noto
Title: Recovery
Label: Fractured Recordings
Year: 2008
Designer: Graham Dolphin
Type of music: Electronica meets pop in a dark alley with a crowbar

Notes: Who could resist this project? Kamal Ackarie approached 25 premiere electronic artists to cover a song from the past that held personal significance for them. The invitation resulted in (deep breath) Ryoji Ikeda covering Back In Black by AC/DC, Mika Vainio doing Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill, People Like Us and Ergo Phizmiz doing Mull of Kintyre, snd covering Billie Jean and many more. Check the sound samples on the project’s website. Design-wise, the 10 7″ singles are housed in an attractive box, but the charm particularly comes from the vinyl itself and Graham Dolphin’s playful redrawing of the original labels. This is the first release on Fractured Recordings, I’ll be interested to see what they come up with next. It’s a limited edition of 500 copies, so walk don’t run to the Fractured Recordings website to order a copy.

Oh and special mention to whoever did the packing, it’s like a charming, rough and ready version of Apple’s approach, see pics below. Many thanks to Hannah for supplying this review copy.

Via Fact Magazine.

Many years ago I used to make cassette mixtapes for my photographer friend Robin which he’d sing along to in his basement darkroom in Hackney. They began with little drawings on the sleeves alongside the track listings and progressed to 3d collages of all sorts of odd shapes and colours, for instance smashed and glued back together like mini merz objects. This lovely work reminded me of that. Follow the link for another image of delightfully customised cassette tapes.

Link: Evening Tweed | Owen Gildersleeve | Customize Your Music