The Greatest Record Cover Auteurs

[Woebot]

while i've been indulging in discogs listmania i've put these together selections of some of my fave record sleeve auteurs

of course these catalogues are searchable by Name>Artwork BUT because of the way Discogs is

1) you get lots of stuff that is more like design bread-and-butter work - the selection is wider but weaker and less distinctive
2) the thumbnails are tiny

so i have pulled together selektions of

Limonious

Limonious' Illustrated Record Covers by WOEBOT | Discogs Lists

Explore the Limonious' Illustrated Record Covers list by WOEBOT on Discogs. Create your own list of music and share it with the world.

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House

Julian House Selected Record Covers by WOEBOT | Discogs Lists

Explore the Julian House Selected Record Covers list by WOEBOT on Discogs. Create your own list of music and share it with the world.

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Trevor Jackson's 8-bit sleeves (very small sadly)

Trevor Jackson's 8-bit Record Covers by WOEBOT | Discogs Lists

Explore the Trevor Jackson's 8-bit Record Covers list by WOEBOT on Discogs. Create your own list of music and share it with the world.

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Dave Nodz

Dave Nodz Record Covers by WOEBOT | Discogs Lists

Explore the Dave Nodz Record Covers list by WOEBOT on Discogs. Create your own list of music and share it with the world.

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i am working on one for Barney Bubbles [which i will post in due course]

who else belongs in this hallowed company?

Pedro Bell probably but he has a perfectly tidy page someone has made for him

Pedro Bell

Copyright holder for Pedro Bell's artwork

www.discogs.com

i always thought the Warners Art Director Ed Thrasher (https://www.discogs.com/artist/452823-Ed-Thrasher) had a style but something quite difficult to pin down

 

[catalog]

Hipgnosis deserve a mention https://wimwords.com/the-hipgnosis-album-cover-gallery/ altho a lot of it looks a bit wack now. I still like a few of them though, including the pink floyd one where they had to remove one of the spectrum colours https://rockpopgallery.typepad.com/rockpop_gallery_news/2007/05/cover_story_dar.html

 

[Woebot]

Hipgnosis deserve a mention https://wimwords.com/the-hipgnosis-album-cover-gallery/ altho a lot of it looks a bit wack now. I still like a few of them though, including the pink floyd one where they had to remove one of the spectrum colours https://rockpopgallery.typepad.com/rockpop_gallery_news/2007/05/cover_story_dar.html

yes they do. but i suppose as a company (not just storm) they aren't auteurs as such. but i don't think we should we disqualify them. welcome aboard hipgnosis HAZZAH i say.

 

[catalog]

Marcio Matos for Principe

Done loads of posts in the principle thread about him eg

Principe Discos/batida/tarraxinha

Version invented archiving

www.dissensus.com

But this screenshot from their bandcamp illustrates his style pretty well

 

[catalog]

Matt Earle from Ozzie noise label Breakdance the dawn

 

[Mr. Tea]

Marcio Matos for Principe

Done loads of posts in the principle thread about him eg

Principe Discos/batida/tarraxinha

Version invented archiving

www.dissensus.com

But this screenshot from their bandcamp illustrates his style pretty well

These remind me a bit of your drawings, actually.

@Matthew - it's always twisted my melon that Sleazy was one of the key creative partners at Hypnosis - designing record covers for all these mega-selling stadium rock acts like Pink Floyd, Zeppelin, Sabbath, while at the same time being in TG and Coil, known what I mean?

 

[catalog]

Yeah marcio Matos is incredible, when I first saw his pieces I was well into them and they've definitely influenced me.

 

[Murphy]

The glut of mid 80’s thrash and crossover lp’s had some ridiculous ones, eg Noise International and Earache. Phil Lawvere did a bunch on NI





Carcass, can’t seem to find the artist credit so it might be self-made collage





layout attributed to Dig, but that could be an engineering credit





Going at it hard. Mick Harris should be given the keys to Britain

 

[IdleRich]

Luke Insect?

 

[catalog]

The glut of mid 80’s thrash and crossover lp’s had some ridiculous ones, eg Noise International and Earache. Phil Lawvere did a bunch on NI

View attachment 6596

View attachment 6595

Carcass, can’t seem to find the artist credit so it might be self-made collage

View attachment 6597

View attachment 6598

layout attributed to Dig, but that could be an engineering credit

View attachment 6599

View attachment 6600

Going at it hard. Mick Harris should be given the keys to Britain

View attachment 6601

Mick Harris did those napalm death covers? Didn't know that. He's doing a Scorn special at the white hotel in October. Don't think I've ever seen him live.

Mick Harris Presents SCORN Live at The White Hotel

Mick Harris returns to his seminal SCORN project for a special gig at TWH.

www.skiddle.com

 

[catalog]

SAVWO /John Powell-Jones who does the designs for Reel Torque, which I suppose is Boomkats in house tape label, sort of.

He's an artist based in Islington Mill, I missed an exhibition he did last year. He's one of those who does loads of stuff.

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Sort of reminds me of Cameron Jamie a bit.

Here's some of the good covers

This one above is the slackk golden era grime tape, excellent tape, which I've got somewhere

 

[catalog]

Collin Fletcher who did a lot of Rabit's covers and people like Yves Tumor...

https://rateyourmusic.com/artist/collin-fletcher/credits/

Also does posters, did one for a Croww night

 

[catalog]

If you're gonna allow Hipgnosis, you have to include Peter Saville for Factory

and Ian Anderson / Designers Republic for warp.

Good interview here

Reasonable Person: An interview with Ian Anderson - News - WARP

warp.net

 

[Woebot]

peter saville definitely. i worked with him once and he lives round the corner. very cool fellow.

lots of other nice ones here @catalog thank you very much.

someone had already done a very good bubbles page at discogs

Sleeve Artists: Barney Bubbles by swagski | Discogs Lists

Explore the Sleeve Artists: Barney Bubbles list by swagski on Discogs. Create your own list of music and share it with the world.

www.discogs.com

and the same person has a good ed thrasher page

Sleeve Artists: Ed Thrasher by swagski | Discogs Lists

Explore the Sleeve Artists: Ed Thrasher list by swagski on Discogs. Create your own list of music and share it with the world.

www.discogs.com

 

[Mr. Tea]

Yeah marcio Matos is incredible, when I first saw his pieces I was well into them and they've definitely influenced me.

I like that they're sort of 'naif', but not in an affected or twee way, which that sort of art can easily be.

It's just occurred to me that 'naif' is only one letter away from 'naff'...

 

[catalog]

i mean there's p[ossibly an element of trying to be "naif" going on, but yeah, they straddle that line quite well i think... this side of "right" for me

 

[catalog]

Dean Blunt has gotta go in...

Taking that found object thing and pushing it to a limit...

His explanation of the "Proibito" one:

''The worst art to me seems so intentional, I just like to project the things I find interesting. I'll give you one example. On the Narcissist II, the front cover says: Proibito. Now, anybody from this city who grew up in a certain area knew that you went to Proibito, a fashion shop in Central London, on boxing day, to buy anything just so you could get a Proibito bag to put your schoolbooks in – just so you could look as if you bought something at Proibito as a form of aspiration and walking around. So certain people, when they saw that cover knew exactly what it meant and why it meant something. That wasn't intentionally coded but it definitely made the world a little bigger for me.''

This one seems a lift from otis g johnson / durer?

This one for babyfather got a lot of notice

Another babyfather one

Early hype williams one

Blue Iverson

Zushi

 

[Mr. Tea]

This one for babyfather got a lot of notice

This must be the third or fourth time I've seen this image on Dissensus. Like it's cursed or something. What even is it? Some kind of vehicle, right?

 

[catalog]

do they not have them in devon? they were all the rage a few years ago, now we've got scooters. Segways?

 

[Mr. Tea]

do they not have them in devon? they were all the rage a few years ago, now we've got scooters. Segways?

I vaguely remember people using them in London when I lived there years ago, now you mention it, but I assumed they'd died out due to being fucking stupid.