Peter Gabriel - So box set by Marc Bessant

Link: Marc Bessant 
Link: Peter Gabriel 

It seems that anniversary editions and deluxe box sets are everywhere - with many recent cash-ins seemingly testing that definition of "classic". However, Peter Gabriel's fifth studio album (that contained, huge international hit, 'Sledgehammer' and Kate Bush collaboration 'Don't Give Up') has now been remastered as a timely reminder of its enduring qualities.

With its multiple vinyl, CD and download content alongside a 60 page case-bound book, the Marc Bessant-designed So 25 set additionally demonstrates Gabriel's commitment to work that is beautifully realised. And its the attention to detail - particularly the subtle embossed icons - that make this a worthy follow-up to Bessant's sumptuous packaging for the artist's Scratch My Back long-player.

Mala In Cuba artwork by &A&K and Teddy Fitzhugh

Link: &A&K
Link: Teddy Fitzhugh
Link: Brownswood Recordings

Following his exploits on the Talkin' Loud label (where he signed a diverse array of artists including 4Hero, Galliano, Reprazent and Nu Yorican Soul), Gilles Peterson more recently dispatched Digital Mystikz's Mala to Havana so that he could collaborate with a selection of Cuban musicians. This has been documented as Mala In Cuba: a project that, marking its landmark status, will be getting the lavish box set treatment.

A four vinyl release on 180g vinyl (plus download code) will come packaged with artwork designed by &A&K [who previously handled the beautiful sleeve of 2010's Return II Space]. The evocative photography by Teddy Fitzhugh helps give a sense of Mala's journey and capably moves dubstep away from the old gritty aesthetic associated with nocturnal London to something that's a bit more Buena Vista Social Club.
 

DROKK packaging by Marc Bessant

Link: Marc Bessant 
Link: DROKK

The latest project from designer Marc Bessant sees him, once again, working alongside Portishead's Geoff Barrow. Titled DROKK and in collaboration with composer Ben Salisbury, this takes its musical and visual inspiration from Judge Dredd's Mega-City One. The release additionally finds itself spread across a number of formats.

Limited to an edition of 400 is a deluxe box set version consisting of a PiL-evoking metal film cannister containing an industrial-like grey vinyl pressing, circular print, CD and t-shirt. [More images of the various versions can be found at the above links.] The DROKK branding also makes use of a stencil typeface akin to that which might typify industrial signage associated with the dystopian end of the sci-fi genre.

Bessant's discussion of DROKK's development/creative process:

"Taking on a project that already has 35 years of talent associated with it is always daunting, but some things are hard to pass over, as was the case with ‘DROKK -Music inspired by Mega-City One’.

I first heard the demo’s some time ago and they were sounding the right side of edgy then and beginning to tick all the right boxes; Making music for non-existant movies has become quite fashionable of late, but what was different about this one was its creators were old-skool readers of 2000ad and, taking into account that respect for the writers and artists over the years, had a genuine motivation for making it uncompromisingly just-so. I would approach the design in much the same way, I would not (and largely could not) compete with the artists that have brought mega-city one to life for the past three-and-a-half decades, the sleeve design had to be independent of all that and stand on its own, for better or worse.

I wanted to make a sleeve/formats that wouldn’t look out of place within the Mega-Cities themselves, gritty and monochromatic. Early on we (Geoff, Ben and I) met with 2000ad/Rebellion and our work could not have been more positively received, their approval meant a lot to us and from then on it was full steam ahead.  Several formats were undertaken  – Bunker, Visor, LP and Mega-Edition – all various shapes and sizes but with an overall utilitarian and minimal aesthetic throughout. Cover logotype was painted and tracks/names chassis-stamped, all textures from the surfaces of Civil Waste Disposal vehicles, crude but apposite."

Shackleton artwork by Zeke Clough

Link: Zeke Clough
Link: Boomkat 
Link: Juno

Three years since the closure of the Skull Disco logo and Shackleton has issued a lavish new package via his Woe to the Septic Heart label. Long-delayed, it incorporates three 'Drawbar Organ' EPs plus the Music for the Quiet Hour album that are on sale as a box set and also individually. The packaging utilises the unmistakable illustrations of Shackleton collaborator Zeke Clough although, unlike earlier releases that may have been a bit too close to the morbid imagery of death metal, this now appears to involve some more refined (yet still psychedelic) Robert Crumb-like penmanship.

Mute Audio Documents by Adrian Shaughnessy/This Is Real Art

Link: Shaugnessy Works
Link: This Is Real Art

Re-visit of an Adrian Shaughnessy design for a retrospective of the entire output of Mute Records that catalogues distinct periods in the history of the company as documents.

It's posted here as a reminder that Adrian Shaughnessy also has a publishing company, Unit Editions. The latter has a week left on its sale with 50% off selected items including the Supergraphics and Studio Culture books and a number of Wim Crouwel posters.

Link: Unit Editions

Kosmik Kommando - Analogue Android limited edition box set

Link: Machine Codes

With a run of just seven box sets, Kosmik Kommando's Analogue Android album is a proper limited edition. The small number demonstrates how much time and effort has gone into each one with its series of hand-painted labels. The standard vinyl is also a bespoke offering with an airbrushed cover plate and vinyl containing individual messages.

[Thanks to Marc Bessant for pointing this out on Twitter.]

Laura Marling - A Creature I Don't Know by Shynola

A special edition version of Laura Marling's A Creature I Don’t Know album (featured on the video below) comes with illustrations by the Shynola collective. The special edition is limited to 3,000 copies worldwide and is available domestically in the UK and Australia. You can still order the boxed version here (£39.00): A Creature I Don't Know

Alternatively you can order the now standard and boringly non-physical album from the usual download sources (although the iTunes album includes two music videos, lyrics and, an iTunes exclusive track, ‘Flicker And Fail’) plus it's on CD for just £6.99 at Amazon: A Creature I Don't Know

Popol Vuh - The Werner Herzog Soundtracks (Box Set)

The divine music of Popol Vuh is inextricable from the Werner Herzog films it soundtracks. This lavish set includes five seminal film scores: Heart of Glass (1976), Aguirre (1972), Nosferatu (1979), Fitzcarraldo (1982) and Cobra Verde (1987) in one lavish, beautiful box including a 98-page hardback book with rare photos and liner notes.

Scoring Herzog's 'Aguirre', Popol Vuh, lead by Florian Fricke, established a longstanding relationship with the director, providing him with a milestone of electronic music which is still regularly cited as a masterpiece. Fricke's innately moving compositions presaged the electronic ambient and new age genres, incorporating avant-garde classical, religious music, prog and krautrock themes into a substantial, harmonically rich sound.

Over the next fifteen years Fricke's musical evolution was charted by his work for Herzog, weaving increasingly elaborate instrumentation into the electronic fabric of his compositions. Between his captivating choral work for Nosferatu, the operatic classicism of Fitzcarraldo, or the breathtaking lushness of Cobra Verde, Fricke and Popol Vuh inspired a generation and re-defined the art of the soundtrack.

Boomkat link: The Werner Herzog Soundtracks
Amazon link: The Werner Herzog Soundtracks