For The Record #6: Kate Moross

Link: Kate Moross
Link: Studio Moross
Link: Stiff Records
Link: Design Manchester 13
Link: Paul Gorman's Reasons to be Cheerful book


Ahead of her talk at Design Manchester 13 tomorrow (alongside Malcolm Garrett, Peter Saville and Mark Farrow, no less), Kate Moross selects the Kandinsky-inspired 1977 work by Barney Bubbles for The Damned's Music For Pleasure as her personal favourite sleeve.

"I didn't know what it was when I first found it but I loved it immediately," she says. "Some people will obviously know about Barney Bubbles but I still don't think he's had the recognition that he deserves. Not when you consider the amount of great work he did.

"I've got to know Bubbles' biographer Paul Gorman and he's said that he sees some of him in me. Not necessarily in terms of our styles... but it's a huge compliment."

Kate Moross' own book, Make Your Own Luck, is published by Prestel April 2014.

Manchester Confidential also has a feature on Design Manchester 13.

For The Record #5: Jeroen Erosie

Link: Jeroen Erosie
Link: 3024world
Link: The Designers Republic
Link: Autechre 

Co-running the brilliant 3024 label with Martyn, Jeroen Erosie also maintains a career as a lauded street artist. Recently bringing the two together through a series of beautifully chaotic collage-like sleeves for the likes of Mosca, Redshape, Julio Bashmore, Addison Groove and Jon Convex, he reveals that his own favourite record cover is the minimal/maximal solution by The Designers Republic for Autechre's Tri Repetae.

"Plain from the outside," he observes, "visually linked to the music on the inside: it made a big impression when I first saw and heard this. And still does. It seems it all came from the same weird planet, so consistent and subtle."

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."

For The Record #3: Optigram

Link: Optigram
Link: Bob Hickson


Asked to cite an example of music artwork that has made a huge personal impression, Optigram - a.k.a. Manuel Sepulveda - selected the sleeve for 1977's eponymous Mandré long-player. And seemingly without hesitation.

Alongside that amazing logo, the airbrushed illustration came courtesy of Bob Hickson [who additionally completed similarly iconic work for ELO] while the Motown release's tuxedo-wearing robot has been discussed in recent years for allegedly providing a blueprint for Daft Punk's cyborg reinvention. In any case, the cover offered an arresting representation for the masked alter ego of space-funk pioneer Andre Lewis: a visionary figure that passed away just four weeks ago.

Mandré's retro-futurism influence lives on today and may be evident when assessing some of the work designed by Optigram for labels like Hyperdub, Citinite, Planet Mu and Warp [check his science-fiction sleevescapes devised for Terror Danjah, for example].

"Great concept," says Optigram, "for me the coolest album cover of all time. One of those records you want to buy for the cover alone."

For The Record #2: Nitzan Hermon

Link: Nitzan
Link: Edit by Edit
Link: Fine Art Recordings
Link: Sebastian Onufszak

Already involved in some very inventive music packaging through his Fine Art label, Designer Nitzan Hermon recently received a massive amount of internet love due to his coordination of a stunning series of music genre-themed screenprints. After the dedication he's demonstrated for that point where music and art collide, I was keen to know what his favourite sleeve was.

Almost an impossible task, Nitzan agreed to pick just one of the sleeves he has been impressed by: the RGB solution for Michael Fakesch's Exchange - as prescribed by Polish-German illustrator, designer and art director Sebastian Onufszak.

For The Record #1: Lone

Link: Lone
Link: Boards of Canada
Link: Magic Wire Recordings

Lone is Matt Cutler - a production talent whose deep and tripped-out electronic compositions have found their way out via labels like Actress' Werk Discs.

Asked to select his favourite artwork for Plastic Circles, he has opted for Music Has The Right To Children by Boards of Canada. Cutler has repeatedly cited this duo as a major musical influence, yet this design [by Boards of Canada themselves for release on Skam and, latterly, Warp] also appears to have a visual connection to, his own current long-player, Emerald Fantasy Tracks. The similar use of the hazy holiday snaps perhaps then being an ideal accompaniment for a sound that audibly reconfigures past memories into something that is simultaneously strange and familiar.