Visual Cover #01: Album Art in a Modern World

When my editor broached the idea of doing a monthly column focusing on the visual aesthetic of cover art, it took me back to my childhood in Philadelphia, when I would save up my dollars and make the pilgrimage to 3rd Street Jazz to score a new Roxy Music or classic Blue Note record. Sonny Clark’s Cool Struttin’ and Roxy’s Country Life were not only records I liked, but provocative and stylish wall art as well.

My personal aesthetic began to bloom around the time that Factory Records and Peter Saville took cover art and poster design to a whole new level. A Certain Ratio’s All Night Party—designed by Saville—featured a repeated image of the late Lenny Bruce rendered through a Warhol prism. On the back, four shots of Psycho star Anthony Perkins stood in for the obligatory band head shots. It was a major score not just as a record, but also as an aesthetic trove.

“Even in a thumbnail on your iPad or phone, the right image can burn itself into your brain.”

But these days, the dissemination and reception of music have changed dramatically. You no longer go through your date’s CD collection while waiting for them; parents have no visual provocation from their kids’ record covers; digital music is part of a larger entertainment and social stream.

Despite the shift away from the physical object toward the stream/cloud, the aesthetic impulse is still there and is certainly important to the labels and the artists that make the music. Even in a thumbnail on your iPad or phone, the right image can burn itself into your brain.

Each month I’ll select eight to 10 covers, with the primary motivation being the aesthetic of the image. It won’t be a record review column, or a dissection of the relation between the image and song. It will just be an appreciation of some strong visual work and, on occasion, a look into the creators behind them and their practice as artists and designers. Enjoy the first selections of Visual Cover.

Marcia Bassett & Samara Lubelski “110 Livingston” (Golden Lab)

Golden Lab is a Manchester-based community of recording and artist studios, so it makes sense that their releases would have a proper visual component. The front cover is a duotoned image of a 16th-century hall or rectory—the slightly vaulted ceiling has ornate inlays, and arched doors and a single, cast-iron lantern echo the room’s formality. However, the image has been turned upside-down; it disorients and allows the weight of the room to be examined in a new way. The back cover has a cropped image of a staircase that is equally suggestive and haunting. This is one of the most evocative and impactful covers I have seen in some time.

Vril “Portal” (Delsin)

Here’s another incredible tonal image; is it a fractal, a manipulated photo, or a drawing? We see a shattered surface, tar paper or slate/glass, planks of support wood, some with dried adhesive—stunning constructivist chaos. It’s the best-laid plans deconstructed, going further in some darkness beyond this plane—a great emblematic image for an LP of this title.

Larossa “Private View” (Wake UP)

Building 101: a banal, modernist facade, glass and cast cement. It could be in Madrid, or Dallas, or Taipei. We cross a walkway to gain entrance, slow tremors in the daylight. The image reminds me of the zone traversed by Isaach De Bankolé’s character in Jim Jarmusch’s Limits of Control, a hypnotic mundane where interior and exterior meld.

CVBox/Micha Freier “Transparency” (Uncanny Valley)

Ohhh, a girl in a red bikini! Um no, this is a collage, agitprop mode. A huge synth is hoisted boombox-style on her shoulders, her cutout placed on an industrial roof, perhaps a stadium. The incongruity of it calls to mind some of Storm Thorgerson’s iconic imagery for Pink Floyd. This strong, provocative collage challenges some habitual receptors.

Dan Shake “Out of Sight” (Black Acre)

This nice, painterly watercolor or ink front suggests a rain-covered window or a painted image being washed away. Three blues, some violet and green, a masking white—these elements combine to present an refreshing, open-ended image recalling some of the work of Lee Krasner or D.C.-area color field giants Kenneth Noland and Helen Frankenthaler. (Oh yeah, the record is a jam as well!)

Albert van Abbe “Ostinato” (Trolldane)

Paging Maurice Sendak: One of your Wild Things has discovered techno and is literally King of the Mountain. This terrifically witty and well-modulated drawing or etching is warm and whimsical—a good contrast for a techno record. It relates well to the rich, atmospheric palette of the EP.

Vercetti Technicolor “Black September” (Giallo Disco)

Looking like a great sound library record from the ‘70s, this contemporary horror disco EP nails the vintage look. A dark duotone image, collage overlays, and bold cinematic fonts create instant Italo mood. Make yourself an espresso, and worry about what shades you are going to wear out tonight.

Gari Romalis “Detroit Rollerskate Disco Part 1” (JD Records)

This is a bit of a cheat, since technically it was released in late 2014, but the vinyl is finally showing up in the States now. This is retro to the fullest, as Rollergirl takes a needed break and checks you checking her. This fun, bouncy EP, with its nice cutout peek-a-boo cover, brings good sunshine vibes for the February blues.

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