by Brian on September 8, 2010 filed in Visual Posts
Tacschen is easily one of the best publishers and respected tastemakers in the world of art, design, music, fashion, architecture and popular culture. Their portfolio of books spans everything from their favorite hotels to an encyclopedia of big butts – that’s right, big butts – all presented in a way that’s beautiful, tasteful, and most importantly, interesting. Their most recent record-related book is called Extraordinary Records and is one of the better vinyl books I’ve seen. The book is divided into six sections: monochrome, unusual, multicolored, etched, shaped vinyl as well as picture discs with numerous examples of each. Some really cool and rare vanity pressings are revealed and documented in a way that record collectors, artists and casual readers can all appreciate. And what’s really cool is that you can flip through the entire book online. Of course, nothing beats having the real thing in your lap.
This is a really cool video celebrating Reid Miles’ work for Blue Note records, and his monumental impact on album cover art and graphic design. Seriously, if you flip through the CD bins at your local record store you’ll see how many people his work has influenced. The video was made to promote a series of summer jazz concerts at the Bella Vista Social Pub in Siena, Tuscany.
You can learn more about Miles here and see the side-by-side comparisons of the original cover art with the hi-fi versions.
Miles Cleret, founder of UK-based Soundway Records, is inspired by music from some of the world’s most colorful cultures. From Africa to Latin America to the Caribbean, Cleret has made it his life’s mission to scour the world for sounds on the brink of extinction, in some cases sourcing the artists and learning about the context of the music, all culminating with the re-release on his imprint.
Anyone can put together a comp, but few put the type of thought, depth and presentation that Cleret does into his releases. The liner notes are like text books, going into the history and back-story of every release. You can tell he doesn’t just want you to hear the music, but he wants you to understand it as well.
For more check out this nice interview with Cleret up on Vice Magazine.
Academy Records and Frank at Voodoo Funk will soon be releasing the heavily anticipated CD and 7″ box set for the Psychedelic Aliens, an obscure rock outfit from Ghana that released the obscenely rare EP pictured above. Original copies are pretty much non-existent, and thanks to the dusty fingers and hard work of Frank and Academy, this was really the only way anyone was going to hear it. In my mind, this is what reissues are all about – taking something that literally only a handful of people have heard and bringing it to a wider audience, in effect resurrecting a long deflated music career. I can’t wait.
One of the things that really attracts me to vinyl is the cover art. The large format and tactile quality is something that is completely lost in any other format, plus there’s just something about old cover art that I find far more interesting than most of today’s work.
A friend sent me this blog, Project Thirty-Three, which is dedicated solely to record covers that express themselves through simple shapes and patterns. This is probably one of my favorite graphic aesthetics; simple, clean, colorful, fun. Unfortunately, you don’t see much stuff like this nowadays.
Complex Magazine recently featured Kon & Amir’s 50 greatest hip hop samples of all time, a pretty comprehensive run-down that features audio of the original and a track that sampled it, as well as words from the duo. Like many vinyl heads (myself included) the record thing starts with breaks and samples; trying to find [...]
As 2009 is coming to a close I wanted to do a quick retrospective of my top record finds of the year. I got a lot of great records in 2009, but these seven stand out as the ones that truly marked definitive moments in the year. These are all pretty unique and special recordings, [...]
Sorry there’s been a lack of updates. I’m going to post my top 5 record finds from 2009 sometime next week, but until then you can enjoy some hip hop cover art reinterpreted with Legos. These were posted earlier in the year but I think they deserve a re-post.
Here’s another great Brazilian mix courtesy of DJ Ferrari. I’ve been finding a lot of Brazilian records as of late so I was thinking about getting started on Braziliance Volume 2. Until then, enjoy this killer mix. If you dig, you can download Volume 2 on his site as well as many other mixes. Lots [...]
