Dinos Chapman - Luftbobler design by FUEL

Link: Fuel Design
Link: The Vinyl Factory 

Limited Edition details:

• Four plate copper etching by Dinos Chapman, hand coloured on 300gsm Somerset Velvet soft white paper
• Five colour screen printed artwork across four panels of cloth-bound bespoke board
• Two 180-gram heavyweight hand etched records, containing the album's 13 tracks, pressed on the EMI 1400 in Hayes, Middlesex
• Limited to 300 copies worldwide, each hand signed and numbered by the artist
• One in every 10 copies contains an exclusive bonus track, pressed on an additional one-sided 12"
• Mastered for vinyl by Noel Summerville at 3345 Mastering
• Music written and produced by Dinos Chapman
• Original etching by Dinos Chapman
• Design by FUEL

One in every 10 copies also contains an additional one-sided 12" vinyl pressing of an exclusive bonus track, which will never be subsequently released on any format.

This limited edition is available to pre-order now. The Vinyl Factory will release 'Luftbobler' on gatefold vinyl, CD and digital formats on 25 February 2013. An accompanying, site-specific audio-visual installation will take place at The Vinyl Factory in Soho, London from 28 February to 3 March 2013.

Pricing:

• The first 100 copies of this edition will be priced at £200
• The next 100 copies of this edition will be priced at £250
• The last 100 copies of this edition will be priced at £300

Karenn/The Analogue Cops - 'Studio 3/OCPLX1' by Give Up Art and Shaun Bloodworth

Link: Give Up Art
Link: Shaun Bloodworth
Link: The Green Series
Link: Bleep.com

Following up 2009's North/South/East/West project, Bleep.com has again collaborated with the formidable team of, design company, Give Up Art and, photographer, Shaun Bloodworth. Again fusing artwork and music, 'The Green Series' has made its pre-order debut with a split techno-oriented single from Karenn (a.k.a. producers Pariah and Blawan) and The Analogue Cops (Marieu and Lucretio).

The standard version for this release is already pretty special - with its die-cut sleeve, embossing and hand-stamped details - yet there is additionally a numbered deluxe edition that additionally comes with two high quality art prints signed by Bloodworth. Both versions include MP3 versions that will be delivered on, release date, 19th November. Neither are going to be around for long: the pressing is limited to 100 copies of the deluxe vinyl available and a further 500 of the standard version.

Trevino - 'Tactical Manoeuvre EP' by Jeroen Erosie

Link: Erosie
Link: 3024
Link: Marcus Intalex/Trevino

The latest on Martyn and Erosie's 3024 label features another wonderful sleeve from the latter. Trevino's new EP actually boasts an aesthetic that is both a continuation of earlier releases on the label (with its glimpses of Jacques Greene's 'Ready EP') and also a break from earlier imagery (with that more angular composition).

Trevino, by the way, is Manchester-based producer/DJ Marcus Intalex: a man better known for his drum & bass exploits who employs this alter ego for his techno-oriented output. Assumedly then delivering the kind of recordings that require a sharp-edged visualization.

 

Hampshire University Records releases by Julian Montague

Link: Montague Projects

A collection of faux record covers imagined as listening materials for a character within Secondary Occupants: an exhibition by, artist, Julian Montague. In addition to his book and poster designs, each audio item picks up on some of the niche interests of the described collector whilst, in the case of the featured field recordings/Library Music offerings, inadvertently highlights the demand for this type of vintage esoterica.

For The Record #4: Timothy Saccenti

Link: Timothy SaccentiLink: Skam Records
Link: Boards of Canada

Award-winning video maker and photographer Timothy Saccenti has been responsible for some great music imagery. The New York-based talent counts album art for Flying Lotus' Los Angeles and the upcoming Man Made Machine by Motor amongst his beautifully evocative output. That said, his lens has additionally captured the likes of Pharrell Williams, Erykah Badu, LCD Soundsystem, Animal Collective, Tricky, Arctic Monkeys and Usher. Asked to select a sleeve that he admires, Saccenti chose a 1996 release from Boards of Canada.

"The mysterious sleeves of the mid 1990’s still fascinate me," he says. "An all time favourite would be the Skam issue of the the 'Hi Scores EP'. I think that was a perfect match of the intentions of the artist being represented by the sleeve. Putting the music first, the simple text, the immediately identifiable turquoise colour scheme and also the genius move of having the information being printed as Braille left me baffled and excited. It made the listening process all the more intense. A prefect mix of mystery and emotion. Oh, and the music was fairly mind-blinding as well. Which never hurts."

Hubro releases by Yokoland

Link: Hubro
Link: Yokoland
Link: Grappa Musikkforlag


I first spotted the releases of Norway's Hubro label when Australian designer Heath Killen included them in a blog post. You can find that here.

Anmyway, largely photographic - using found images or those taken by Aslak Gurholt Rønsen and Thomas Nordby of art directors/designers Yokoland - there's now a series of lovingly crafted physical releases for the kind of Scandinavian jazz and improvised music that has come to typify the Hubro aesthetic. Actually a sub-label of Grappa Musikkforlag - Norway's leading independent - each album is linked through the use of hand-written text plus an illustration of the Eagle Owl. (Or, as that bird is known in Norwegian, the "Hubro".)

The Fool's Gold Artist Series presents Haze

Link: Haze
Link: Fool's Gold

The third event in the Dust La Rock curated Fool's Gold Artist Series boasts Eric Haze.

Responsible for the iconic logos used by Public Enemy, Stussy, EPMD, LL Cool J and the Beastie Boys, Haze now brings new imagery including limited edition t-shirts and prints to the Fool's Gold label's store at 536 Metropolitan Ave, Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It all happens 27th January.

Gonjasufi - MU.ZZ.LE mini album

Link: Gonjasufi
Link: Warp
Link: MR. IMD

Gonjasufi's new mini-album, MU.ZZ.LE, is released 23rd January 2012 across four physical formats. Choose from a screenprinted A2 poster that's limited to a hand numbered run of just 500, the CD version, double 10" vinyl or a bundle featuring the latter plus one of the posters. MP3s are included with all purchases.

Great stereoscopic artwork by MR. IMD throughout.

Artwork by Optigram

Link: Optigram

Optigram is the design company operated by Manuel Sepulveda whose commissions include sleeves for Steve 'Kode9' Goodman's Hyperdub plus the similarly lauded Warp, Planet Mu and Citinite labels.

Some of the work involves tessellated shapes akin to Andy Gilmore's art whilst a few of Sepulveda's Terror Danjah sleeves have a 1980's-ish retro-futuristic feel complete with the kind of geometric monoliths not a million miles away from La Boca's work for The Emperor Machine. Much of the Optigram output is playful in its use of colour, but I'm also liking these moodier monochromatic offerings including the imagery that adorned Ikonika's album.

Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs - 'Garden' by Big Active

Link: Big Active
Link: Maurizio Anzeri

A track that has really done the rounds having previously been released in different forms on Greco-Roman and Play It Down, Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs' 'Garden' has cropped up all over the place including its re-emergence as the soundtrack to the latest Nokia advert. This may be due to a major label push/its re-issue through Polydor.

Artwork for the latter incarnation (top image) is by Big Active with the art direction and design handled by Mat Maitland, photography by Stephanie Sian Smith and embroidery added by Susie Cowie. I haven't seen any mention of Maurizio Anzeri as being attached to the concept despite the artist's embroidered photographs (bottom image) being what could only be described as "rather similar".

Creating music samples with vinyl records by Ishac Bertran

From: Ishback

Analog Vinyl Sampling from Ishac Bertran on Vimeo.

"Music sampling has been done for years using different techniques. Currently samplers (either as a piece of hardware or as software) is the most extended tool for playing samples that can come from digital formatted music, live recording, vinyls or tapes. One of the most old techniques for sampling was cut&paste the audio tape. I love this video from Delia Derbyshire using reel-to-reel recording, creating loops by cut&pasting the audio tape, and sync the samples to create music.

Driven by my devotion for vinyls and analog processes (perhaps a bit of Dj wannabe too), and emulating the audio tape cut&paste technique, I tried to make the vinyl sampling a bit more analog – literally cut and paste pieces of vinyl to create samples.

I bought some second hand vinyl records, different music styles: Supertramp, Wagner, Paul Anka, Chicago, Lil Jon and some random ones to make the first tests. I spend a couple of hours browsing and listening to old records – I remember thinking “all projects should start like this”."

Full details of the project at the above link.

Need For Mirrors - 'Alabama/Erotic Relapse'

New vinyl from drum & bass duo Need For Mirrors that's also the debut release on their Zoltar label. Limited to 400 copies, it comes in a silver die-cut sleeve revealing a hand-drawn inner: a nice touch that is likely to be repeated via subsequent releases.

"There seems to be a lack of visual expression with the way music is packaged and branded, often it's very difficult to add imagery to music and it's better to leave it faceless and let the music play. But with Zoltar we wanted the action to be visually led. Also by creating a physical product which will stand up as much as the music and add a another dimension to our experience."

Mark Bradford - Pinocchio is on Fire

From: White Cube
Link: Pinocchio is on Fire

'Pinocchio Is On Fire' is a limited edition, vinyl LP that features a recording of the artist speaking in the guise of a quick-witted performer who is being interviewed for a fictional radio programme.

Interspersed with a funk/soul soundtrack, Bradford’s entertainer is a combination of Pinocchio and Teddy Pendergrass, the legendary soul singer of the 1970s, whose stage persona was one of exaggerated heterosexuality. His image was destabilised after he was involved in a car accident with his passenger, who was a transsexual model. Bradford conflates the narratives of Pinocchio and Teddy, and introduces aspects of his own autobiography to create a third character, at the heart of which is a social, ethnic and cultural absence, which Bradford compares to ‘that moment of finding the Wizard of Oz behind the curtain’.

2010
Edition of 150
Vinyl Record
Ø 12 in. (Ø 30.5 cm), 26.13 mins

£ 200.00 +VAT

The Stepkids - 'Shadows On Behalf' vinyl by Jeff Jank

Link: Stones Throw

Another great package from art director Jeff Jank for the Stones Throw label. The Stepkids' 'Shadows On Behalf' 12" is limited to 1,000 copies and comes with a print-free embossed sleeve and marbled translucent vinyl. The music's great too.

Josef Albers for Command Records

Bauhaus-associated artist, educator, typographer, poet and writer Josef Albers also created a number of album sleeves for Command Records between 1959 and 1961. They include these beautiful examples: