Michael Mayer - Mantasy artwork by Wolfgang Voigt

Link: Kompakt

The long awaited album by, Kompakt boss, Michael Mayer has just been released - a whole eight years since his Touch long-player. The artwork for Mantasy - as it is titled - has been created by Kompakt co-founder Wolfgang Voigt; an individual known for making his own music while operating under guises such as Mike Ink, Centrifugal Force and Gas.

Incorporating collaged vintage details, it relies on the kind of glitchy digital manipulation that was previously seen on Voigt's 'For The Love of God' release. Additionally, two deluxe vinyl editions have been made available that both rework the cover art as a repeat pattern on a 35" x 35" silk scarf. The two available options are 'Golden Cherub' and 'Blue Cherub'. For those less flamboyant fans, it is also available on CD and download.

 

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.

 

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.

18 Years of Rinse - Give Up Art

Leading up to Rinse FM's 18th birthday, a series of videos have been put together with individuals/associates reflecting on their relationship with the radio station (and its record label). This instalment features Give Up Art: the brilliantly inventive studio that has come to define Rinse's visual communication.

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.
 

Illum Sphere - 'Birthday/808ER' sleeve by ARPA/Roger Ballen

Link: Roger Ballen
Link: Illum Sphere
Link: Young Turks
Link: Hoya Hoya

Out today on digital and later this month as just 500 12" copies is the new offering from Illum Sphere a.k.a. Hoya:Hoya's Ryan Hunn. If you happen to live in Manchester, then you might be more aware than most of this producer's long-standing interest in the combination of music and art - given that, prior to his more recent activities, he was found at the helm of its Sketch City nights. This latest work subsequently builds on that plus the Young Turks label's commitment to quality vinyl manufacturing to deliver a sleeve with "interchangeable artwork". Presented in collaboration with ARPA Design and respected South Africa-based photographer Roger Ballen, there is said to be no heirarchy between the two images - reflecting the release's lack of an A or B side. Both, like Hunn's idiosyncratic output, are totally intriguing.
 

Nathan Fake - Steam Days artwork and poster by Jack Featherstone

Link: Jack Featherstone
Link: Border Community

Last week's marathon House Party event on Channel 4 paired up a succession of taste-maker DJs with video artists. However, it seemed to reaffirm that club culture struggles as a spectator sport. Some of the VJing  didn't help with any kind of reassessment either - particularly given that much of the visual work resorted to the tired imagery that's already accompanied at least 44,000 Ibiza-oriented compilations. The dancefloor experience was too easily reduced to some animated gifs of speakers and rotating headphone-clad people.

A notable exception was Jack Featherstone who took an interesting and far less literal approach that did more to illustrate the abstract communicative abilities of sound. Which is unsurprising given his output: the latest of which follows on from the series of 12" singles he prepared for the Border Community label.

Contextualizing Nathan Fake's upcoming Steam Days long-player, Featherstone appears to touch on an area that has previously been visited by Andy Gilmore and Michael Cina: courtesy of the construction of a complex, overlapping geometric image. In this case, though, it has resulted in a hypnotic, vortex-like arrangement of light that is perhaps as dazzling as Fake's productions. Released next week on double vinyl, CD and download, there is also a limited edition A2 print of the artwork that's currently available to pre-order at bleep.com.

Club Cheval & Brodinski - 'Bromance #3' artwork by Viktor Hachmang

Link Viktor Hachmang
Link: Bromance

For the French love-in that is Brodinski and Club Cheval's third release for the former's Bromance label, the artwork depicts similar visual influences to those that have defined the Club Cheval-affliated Marble Music. Created by Holland's Viktor Hachmang - an illustrator whose work can often employ the post-modernist motifs associated with Memphis Group members like George Sowden - this contemporary work is one that owes a debt to Barney Bubbles. In this case its the kind of style used for Bubbles' technical drawing-based sleeve for Ian Dury's 'Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick' and it is one that additionally features what would have been self-reverential details that relate to the graphic designer of the late 1970s and early 1980s. But, while it may be something of a pastiche, it's obviously something with a real fondness for the era it evokes.

Meanwhile, for a more in-depth approximation of Barney Bubbles' output and influence, Paul Gorman's book comes highly recommended. You'll find that available via this link: Reasons to be Cheerful: The Life and Work of Barney Bubbles.

Marc Romboy and Ken Ishii - 'Taiyo' artwork by Hort

Link: Hort 
Link: Systematic Recordings

It may signify a collaboration between two techno heavyweights, but Hort's artwork for Marc Romboy and Ken Ishii avoids all the machine-based visual cliches in favour of something more sensual. The release, on Systematic Recordings, comes with a poster/print that also offsets a stark yellow and black text area with more detailed black and white photography.

Jessie Ware art direction by Kate Moross

Link: Studio Moross
Link: Jessie Ware

Those people thinking that they have the measure of designer Kate Moross after encountering her earliest illustrated text, day-glo colour palettes and geometric patterns might be surprised by her restrained art direction for, singer, Jessie Ware. But then - from Simian Mobile Disco's recurring circle motifs to the art deco aesthetic she devised for Fenech-Soler - Moross is far from being a one trick pony.

This latest campaign (including the singles that preceded, album, Devotion) has been typified by an elegant, balanced approach with some lovely detailing. Meanwhile the creative's playfulness has been demonstrated in new, innovative ways: including the interactive billboard that, while undoubtedly fun, still managed to stay true to Ware's sophisticated image.

M.I.A. - 'Bad Girls' USB

Link: M.I.A.

Picking up on the car theme that was explored on Romain Gavras' astounding video, M.I.A. has put out the remixes of 'Bad Girls' on a limited edition gold-plated key shaped USB. Available only in the US and retailing at $50, they come suspended from a ½” gold colored snake chain. The 2GB capacity includes audio content boasting production by Danja, Switch, and Leo Justi plus guest vocals from Missy Elliott, Azealia Banks and Rye Rye.

The packshots, meanwhile, utilise the culture clashing, almost anti-designer aesthetic that has typified the artist's artwork for almost ten years.