another great cover by S.R.G.: Netwerk Sound Sampler (compilation)

Like I said yesterday, there are just so many incredibly iconic and mesmerizing album covers designed by Steven R. Gilmour (SRG), and I had to showcase one which was quite evocative and in this case, representative. In fact I may go so far as to say (but I can not be held entirely accounteable as this is not information that is etched in stone or anything of the sort) that this album cover right here may possibly be the one which has influenced me the most and on which I pretty much "ripped-off" most of my own early album covers for the pre-Wreck Age Half-Trak cassettes (and maybe even earlier than that with the Tôme IV material). More below....

This compilation was meant to offer a glimpse into some of Netwerk's bands at the time, and it featured mostly "accoustic" bands on side A (except for an edited version of Tear Garden's "Ophélia" and Moev's better version of "Wanting", whereas side B featured their more electronic and industrial bands. Anyway, the album design is Something which I have always found myself very attracted to, and as I said, I often tried to copy the general design motif on my own album covers, except on real-sized cassette formats. And yes, this is another one of those that if I could find dirt cheap I would most deffinately frame and display somewhere.

great album covers: Severed Heads "Come Visit The Big Bigot"

How could I do great album covers without at least one nod to one of my favorite album cover artists of the 80s, the wonderful Steven R. Gilmour? He designed most of those earlier Netwerk label bands' covers, and most were quite striking in their own righ, and so many have become iconic and are permanently etched in our subconscious. Therefore trying to chose one was difficult, but I always returned to this one: the north american (re)release of Severed Heads' "The Big Bigot" (as "Come Visit The Big Bigot"). The main difference between the original autralian release and the north american release was the replacement of one song for another, and of course the cover artwork. I know what some may say; out of all the SRG (Steven R. Gilmour) covers I could have chosen, why this one in particular? Well as I said, all too many of this works from the mid-80s up until the early-mid-90s was incredible and deserved to be noticed, but this one spoke to me on several levels, principally the inclusion of a "Thunderbirds" still dummy/puppet as central figure on the cover, as well as the image texture itself which seems to be as though it was a photograph taken off of a TV set. I will admit the bomb design below the band name looks a bit thrown in there and out of place, but still, as a 12" vinyl record cover, this is another one I would hunt down for dirt cheap just to frame and display it. Oh hold on until tomorrow, I'll do another SRG cover for you...

great album covers: YAZOO "Upstairs At Eric's"

I guess we are going to play this game of "one album cover leads to another by association". This time around it is Vince Clark's post Depeche Mode band Yazoo which gets a nod to a great design, with the band's debut album "Upstairs At Eric's". I do believe that in the 80s we started to see the decline of trying to come up with decent and visually stimulating record covers, soon to pave the way towards what we began to see in this decade and moving towards the 90s and subsequently into the digital age where album covers would be literally the size of a thumbprint on a small tactile screen. In essence, album designs become adapted to the actual format on which they are released (I'll get to that later with french band Niagara). Anyway, although I am not a real fan of Yazoo at all, this album cover was another great looking concept which also beld into the back cover, Something the art designers of the time took care in doing, creating a follow-though with their artwork. It's a great album cover which had both 70s sensibilities as well as that emerging "Miami Vice" type of loose fitting opaque colors 80s.

great album covers: Depeche Mode "A Broken Frame" (& "Some Great Reward")

In my last great album covers post, I mentionned this album, and it reminded of the great visual motif Depeche Mode had with their earlier album covers and designs, from their debut with Vince Clark "Speak And Spell" up to "Music For The Masses". Visually speaking they were quite striking in terms of covers and one could immediately identify them strictly on their powerful visuals. Most of the albums up until "Violator" had amazing covers and I was hard to pick a favorite, so I included two contenders: their second LP (as a trio) "A Broken Frame", and their fourth LP "Some Great Reward".

I decided to include both because I really could not decide between the two as they both were just too darn close in terms of personnaly emotive. However in the end, "A Broken Frame" may have had that "0.05%" little almost invisible speck which made it just a bit more evocative than "Some Great Reward", which for all our present purpouses is an equally fantastic cover design. I think it is the lighting in "A Broken Frame" which seems more "natural" whereas "Some Great Reward" does seem to be more cold and mechanical in a way. Anyhow, I included both because they easily are amongst the better album covers out there.

Great album covers: 10CC "Deceptive Bends" (by Hipgnosis)

Let's get this right off the bat: I am NOT nor have ever been a fan of the bands 10CC. As a matter of fact I am certain I could only name you one song I know of them and that would be the limit of my knowledge of them, except that Godley & Cream left the band just before the release of this album, "Deceptive Bends". Although I am no fan of the band, the album cover is iconic and resonates with me. This version here is from a German edition of the album, and thus the background cover is a bit more "purple"/"mauve" than the usual "orange"/"tan-brown", but it could be an error in scanning. In any case...


I really think this is a wonderful album cover. Obviously one must attribute it to the wonderful art team known as Hipgnosis which consisted mainly of Storm Thorgerson, Aubrey Powell, and then joined by a pre-Coil pre-Throbbing Gristel Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson. "Deceptive Bends" was an album quite important the remaining members of the band, and they really wanted to make it clear they could go on when two members left the band (a similar situation to Depeche Mode and their second album "A Broken Frame"... Hey, now there's a bunch of great album covers!). It's just a damn real nice album cover this one, and if I could ever find a dirt cheap but in good condition of the vinyl LP, I would actually put it in a frame and display it in my home or studio, surely to spark many people into thinking I was a 10CC fan... which I am not, of course. Seriously, I make it a point to try to listen to stuff which I would not normally do (I went through a few earlier albums by E.L.O. and Chicago for exxample, just to be able to form some kind of opinion), but 10CC really doesn't seem to appeal to any of my sensibilities. Although since I have included this one in my "great album covers" series, then I should at the very least attempt to listen to the album...

review: Record: ASH International Sampler

This little promo item was actually sold to me back in the late 90s or so by my then music "pusher".

With very little to go on as it were, and without the knowledge or musical database now available on the interweb (the late 90s were still generally primitive for online researches, especially for less-than-well-known musical outputs), I always thought this 78 minute album to be a compilation featuring sniplets and morcels donated by all the artists involved, and then mixed into one mamoth of a monster track as a whole new piece. It wasn't until I discovered info about this release online that I realized that this speciality disc was designed as a promo for the label Ash International, featuring mostly pre-released material but re-edited and re-designed as one big piece. In any case or whichever you want to cut the pie into (??!?!?) this is still quite an intriguing feat to saw the least. The piece works as one endless flow into different areas of the dark grey spectrum, at times very field recording and almost musique concrete, at others almost a soothing drone atmosphere, and featuring many elements such as Scanner's..., well Scanner's scanner (!), other diembodied voices, found sound, very light rhythmic elements, and so forth. Due to it's considerable length and lack of track indexing, it is very hard to actually sit through until the very end, unless you are equipped with a CD player that can remember when you last stopped the playback. Anyway, I always found this a rather interesting release, worthy of at the very least one serious investigation, if not numerous returns for additional scavenging!


Some of the artists who contributed to this are: Daren Seymour, Adi Newton, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Lem Tuggle, Mark Va Hoen, Professor Roger Coghill, Robin Rimbaud, The Halfler Trio, and many "The Unknown Artist", amongst others.

great album covers - The 6 Organs Of Admittance/Azul : "Six Organs Of Admittance / Azul"

Let me be the first to say I know Nothing about this album, and Nothing about the artists involved. I just saw the album cover and thought it was quite a fantastic piece in itself and had to share it here online. As I write this I am listening to the first cut off this split release between Six Organs Of Admittance / Azul, called "The Furnace And The Mountian, The Flood And The Hissing Blade", and it really isn't bad at all; it does remind me a bit of stuff Andreas Heemann would possibly do, up until about the 4:45 minute mark when it slowly begins to take a more cohesive shape. Anyway, since it is but my first listen and I know Nothing at all about this release, I thought I would simply leave it at that. It is a great cover, isn't it?