Hardformat

The Advisory Circle – Mind how you go (Revised edition)

Colin — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 22:10:55 +0000

Artist	The Advisory Circle
Title	Mind how you go (Revised edition)
Label	Ghost Box
Year	2010
Designer	Julian House
Music	1970s remembered through a glass darkly
Desktop	Download image
Notes	Ghost Box finally find their true medium (unless you’re of the opinion that they really should be releasing albums on 8 track cartridges that is). Mind how you go is a delight, heavyweight vinyl and squint-inducing test card inner sleeve and all. See also: Ghost Box

Unveiling the Pixies’ Minotaur: video

Colin — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 07:30:09 +0000

Just stumbled across this unboxing video of the Pixies’ Minotaur via photographer Simon Larbalestier’s website. The design is a thing of rare beauty…

Tortoise – Beacons of Ancestorship

Colin — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 20:27:19 +0000

Artist	Tortoise
Title	Beacons of Ancestorship
Label	Thrill Jockey
Year	2009
Designer	Photo clusters by Andrew Payneter
Music	Heartfelt/clever/detailed/fascinating
Desktop	Download image
Notes	Sorry to say that this is a design whose strengths really have to be experienced physically. That’s because part of what makes the sleeve so delicious is the heavyweight cardboard, another part is the heaviness of the vinyl. It’s the vinyl equivalent of a tank and all the more delicious for it. Still, the great big typography spread across the 24″ inner gatefold is great too. See also: Tortoise: A Lazarus Taxon

James Blood [Ulmer] – Tales of Captain Black

Colin — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 18:09:29 +0000

Artist	James Blood
Title	Tales of Captain Black
Label	Artists House
Year	1979
Designer	Album cover and liner art: Shelby McPherson; booklet art: Chief Z.K. Oloruntoba and Sarah Penn; booklet photography: Deborah Feingold; art direction: Carol Friedman
Music	Harmolodic punk jazz
Desktop	Download image
Notes	This record was released on Ornette Coleman’s short-lived Artists House label which also produced Ornette’s Body Meta and Soapsuds, Soapsuds. It’s a rare example of Ornette guesting on someone else’s album. The cartoons reveal an affinity with Parliament/Funkadelic, but also illustrate the influence of UK punk in the guitar-wielding figure on the inner sleeve, blaxploitation, outsider and African art. Captain Black soars away from all the mayhem, beautiful companion on his arm, towards the calm of a future world.

David Sylvian – Secrets of the Beehive

Colin — Sun, 21 Feb 2010 15:36:11 +0000

Artist	David Sylvian
Title	Secrets of the Beehive
Label	Virgin
Year	1987
Designer	Design and typography: Vaughan Oliver, artwork: 23 Envelope, still-life photography: Nigel Grierson, portrait photography: Yuka Fujii
Music	Elegant, acoustic, haunted.
Notes	My original vinyl version of this album thankfully lacks the CD ‘bonus’ track Forbidden Colours, addition of which is an insult to the delicate balance of the original album sequence. More is not always better. Okay, end of rant. Hard Format has featured all too few Vaughan Oliver designs (see also: Scott Walker – The Drift and Scott Walker – Who Shall Go To The Ball? And What Shall Go To The Ball?). It’s a fact we intend to rectify in the hopefully not too distant future. Oliver’s typography and layout is typically lovely here. The record cover doesn’t provide any design acknowledgements, the credits above are gleaned from discogs.com. It’s still not clear who created the delightful illustration on the cover – Vaughan or Sylvian or someone else? It reminds me of the Quay Brothers, Breugel’s Fall of Icarus and autumnal trips to the seaside. It’s a beautiful design for a gorgeous album.

Russell Haswell – Wild Tracks

Colin — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 17:23:54 +0000

Artist	Russell Haswell
Title	Wild Tracks
Label	Editions Mego
Year	2009
Designer	All photographs and design Russell Haswell. Design support Tina Frank
Music	Field recordings
Desktop	Download image
Notes	This design begs the question: why doesn’t more music packaging come with its own carry handle? It’s a kidzbox by the way. Haswell’s design is a thorough, playful pleasure with the fold-out poster chockful of details about the field recordings. Possible highlight: ‘A Horde of Flies Feasting on a Rotting Pheasant Carcass (Extract)’ – which bears the explanatory note “… if anyone in the RSPB [Royal Society for the Protection of Birds] is reading, Haswell did not kill the bird – it was already dead when he found it.” Ah, humour, horror and scary noises all wrapped up in one delightful package. File alongside Chris Morris’s Jam. I advise you to run don’t walk over to either the Editions Mego shop or the Touch shop (the latter’s cheaper for UK readers – only £9.05 + p&p!) Thanks to Sheikh Ahmed over at Fail for the heads up on this one and thanks again to Gabes for modelling.

Money Will Ruin Everything 2

Colin — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 09:24:10 +0000

Artist	Various
Title	Money Will Ruin Everything 2
Label	Rune Grammofon
Year	2008
Designer	Kim Hiorthoy
Music	Rune music, all Norwegian except Skyphone who are Danes
Desktop	Download image
Notes	Money Will Ruin Everything 2 is a lovely object, a book, a double CD album, a poster, a set of reflections, visual essays, photographs and memories. The poster wraps around the outside of the book like a shrunken dust cover, its folds ensnare the two compilation CDs, one in the front, one in the back. The folder is an essay as well. Unlike the long out of print first Money Will Ruin Everything, this edition is still available (for only 399 Norwegian Kronor!) from the Rune Grammofon website. Thanks a lot to Gabes for helping me out. See also: Money Will Ruin Everything (1)

Handmade!

Colin — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 08:59:46 +0000

Galleta Records

Dynamophone

Colin — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 14:47:20 +0000

Artist	Pics 1-5 The Lullaby League, 6-8 The Refractors
Title	Pics 1-3 Filia Melusine, 4-5 Cantus, 6-8 Eight Year Sleep
Label	Dynamophone
Year	2007-9
Designer	Dynamophone
Music	“Euphonic experimental and ambient”
Notes	Gorgeous and hand-made, Dynamophone designs are a real treat. They’re like something you’d make for your lover. Part 2 next week. Confession: we have no idea what the format is of those last three pictures!

Record cover as board game

Colin — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 09:21:46 +0000

Stefan got in touch recently with a rather wonderful design he’d done with his friend Thomas:

It’s based around a gatefold vinyl that doubles as a submarine-themed board game. The cd booklet is a fold-out game board too with a different layout. Rules are on the back of the cd/gatefold and player markers are on promotional postcards or you can make your own.
We did the whole thing as a hand-made stencil painting and invented the rules over a bottle of whiskey one evening.

More pics and a video here: ramastudio.dk/peace%20boat/