Janszoon

I like a lot of classical and especially medieval artwork actually, but a cropped bit of an old painting with a bunch of poorly handled typography slapped above and on top of it does not make for a quality piece of design. I mean, hell, even the cropping of the painting is poorly done.

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A Night in the Life of the Invisible Man

Time & Place

25 Albums You Should Hear Before the Moon Crashes into the Earth and We All Die

last.fm

Mirrorball95

When i see the album cover if it looks classy then I will be interested but I always do a quick scan on Wiki. I used to just buy albums willy nilly and ended up getting loads of ****e i didnt like but now I am into so much more genres and bands that I know pretty much 9/10 most of the time whether Ill like them or not.
But thats the whole point of the cover art its just a marketing technique. But people who buy albums just because of the cover are wasting their money (IMO). Also I sometimes try to use the cover art to try and get an idea of what the music would be like but it is pretty tough.
One example is The Good The Bad & The Queen (were a one off band with Damon Albarn, Pete Tong(from The Verve) & Paul Simonon (The Clash).
I originally thought from the cover that the theme was ancient london but after reading on wiki it was actually about modern london and damon albarn described it as "a song cycle that's also a mystery play about London".

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4ZZZ

I was having a joke mate but you gave me a sensible reply

I don't disagree with what you have written per se. I am aware of the Graphic Design industry due to my line of work and would have been interesting to know what the brief was by the Artiste. I found the cover oddly attractive I guess but then I see a lot of design, not record covers, that I am not keen on either but see the client have orgasms. Aesthetic values! Who the hell understands them. Stuffed if I do.

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Stone Birds

http://stonebirds.synthasite.com/artwork.php

This is the album cover for my next album. what do ya think?

4ZZZ

I have no opinion to be honest. It does not grab me nor do I reject it. If I was trawling a blog it may grab my attention depending on how it is presented within the blog. But I am not here to judge individual works of art presented to me.

Best of luck with your album. If you send me a copy I will listen to it.

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Janszoon

Heh. I think my post came off more serious than I intended. Anyway, I'm a graphic designer myself so I guess I kind of focus on design a lot. I totally know what you mean though about bizarre aesthetic opinions of clients. I used to work for a guy who loved teal so much he though any old piece of crap that was teal in color was a fabulous piece of design. Strange stuff.

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A Night in the Life of the Invisible Man

Time & Place

25 Albums You Should Hear Before the Moon Crashes into the Earth and We All Die

last.fm

4ZZZ

Corporate (and not so corporate colours) ouch! Lucky it was not Reflex Blue Janszoon. Printers have a deep dislike of that colour when put onto matt stocks.

Having worked with Graphic Designers I have always got on rather well with them as they are usually music lovers.

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4ZZZ

Saltillo - Ganglion 2006


01 A Necessary End 5:57
02 Giving In 5:22
03 Remember Me? 3:25
04 A Simple Test 5:29
05 A Hair on the Head of John the Baptist 7:32
06 Blood and Milk 3:21
07 The Opening 2:49
08 Backyard Pond 3:00
09 Grafting 4:45
10 Praise 4:12
11 I’m on the Wrong Side 2:29
12 002 F#m 3:45

Just a floating violin over what looks like a blurred wintry day. I like the look of a violin and I also like the look of a winters day. To see a busker with a violin on a cold day is one of the pleasures of travelling away from these hot climes. But the title of the album. Ganglion! Why? A medical condition but we get a violin and the perception of winter. Ganglion are removed. Remove winter? Not likely. I had high expectations of the music and was looking for a strings oriented album with bleak or sparse sounds. Not to be. To be frank this is not a bad album but it does have some issues.

First the surprise. The opening track was immediately familiar and very good. I had heard it before and in fact it was the opening song in the April MB comp and supplied by the ever reliable Demonoid. Well met sir! What a great start. A wonderful piece of string based Trip Hop. The 2nd track, Giving In, is very pleasant with vocals by a Sarah Mathews whom I have never heard of. This song could easily be on say a Moorcheba album.

Unfortunately there are few highlights to follow. It is not due to poor songs but the fact that they are far too overproduced. I am of the opinion that if the songs where stripped back and allowed to flow, cut out the far to many samples, allowed the drums to be of a more organic and softer nature, the album could have shone. A prime example of this is the potentially brilliant A Hair on the Head of John the Baptist. The Shakespearian quotes are just too much. They are too forward and wear thin when the chanting of the name of the title, in what sounds to me like blues gospel sample, is perfect. I can give many more examples but will not.

If it seems that I have made this out to be a poor album I apologise. It is not poor. In fact I suggest that those that like their Trip Hop full of samples and fully layered will get a good deal of pleasure out of this album. I would just have preferred it all touch sparser and minimalist in fact I would have preferred the strings to be more to the forefront with sparse bleak and wintry sounds in the background. Just like the cover.

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4ZZZ

Matthew Robert Cooper - Miniatures 2008


01 Miniature 1
02 Miniature 2
03 Miniature 3
04 Miniature 4
05 Miniature 5
06 Miniature 6
07 Miniature 7
08 Miniature 8
09 Miniature 9

What a wonderful cover. The simplicity of the black border and the sepia photograph. So old and so ancient seem the individuals as they look at the waterfall. But here not. They are forever their age. I want to listen to the music that is inside and see if that simplicity can relate to the sounds. All is black outside but inside we are standing there dressed in our finest and the waterfall is bright and attractive.

In the end it is a wonderful mix and match and Matthew Robert Cooper of the superb Eluvium fame has given me an album of piano and organ soundscapes that are peaceful and non-confronting. This is that late night album that mixes ambience and minimalist composition. I could imagine great modern Classical composers such as Glass and Nyman putting this album out if they decided to add subtle electronic synth washes to their sound.

Like all of these style of recordings they are mood pieces. Late night while relaxing with not much happening. Ideal. As to the cover matching the music Miniature 2 is a nice short 1:29 piano piece that just has me looking at the cover. Just right I think. Miniature 5 though just throws one of in a different direction. Pure organ that sounds Bach like to me. At 2:43 I still look at the cover and find it perfect. For the ambient minimalist I suspect that you will not be disappointed with this little gem of an album.

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Fruitonica

This is a great idea for a thread. It gives you a great focal point to work your reviews around, and the back and forth comparison and analysis works excellently.