the Metro Music album cover was designed by Peter Saville whose work feels like it could have influenced a lot of this, although I can't think of any other covers by him that specifically feature maps or cartography, but that whole thing of repurposed industrial and functional design, and a cool, cold inhuman aesthetic.
a lot of new wave stuff had this exotic, orientalist vibe, stuff like Japan's Still Life In Mobile Homes or Taking Islands In Africa suggest languid aristocratic colonisers travelling through exotic landscapes, I think that's part of it as well
― soref, Tuesday, 20 December 2022 20:07 (one year ago) link
the orientalist thing was maybe part of the fact that the UK new wave rejected American aesthetics, pretending to American feels very old wave, trying to imagine a rock/pop music that's not about American imagery and landscapes, so you get europhilia and also orientalism
― soref, Tuesday, 20 December 2022 20:10 (one year ago) link
inner sleeve of Dazzle Ships by OMD
https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1f15cBZn0dU/WpT8jKfhgNI/AAAAAAAAecI/UVGONuejrxQNRm3d3dCqQcjAFzSbvKMagCEwYBhgL/s1600/OMD_Dazzle%2BShips_Styrous_5016.jpg
― soref, Tuesday, 20 December 2022 20:16 (one year ago) link
This aesthetic also spills over into Peter Greenaway and Terry Gilliam movies, and is probably partly inspired by the general 80s appreciation of grids, which shows up in kitchen tiles and garment fabrics and so on.
― bendy, Tuesday, 20 December 2022 20:21 (one year ago) link
But yeah, in the context of music, it seems very much a reaction to prog and funk fantasy dreamscapes. We are giving you the facts!
― bendy, Tuesday, 20 December 2022 20:23 (one year ago) link
Technically outside the scope since it's from 1978, the back cover of More Songs About Buildings and Food:
https://i.redd.it/k9hdeyhmzrj01.jpg
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Tuesday, 20 December 2022 20:26 (one year ago) link
Vaughan Oliver's designs are also connected I think, especially the sleeves for the Cocteau Twins, although they're obviously ambiguous in their scale. But they're at least suggestive of landcapes, but as a sensual, almost dreamt thing, a quasi-mystical contrast to the scientific imagery of gridlines, theodolites, measurements and calculation in a lot of the sleeves above.
Thanks for your posts late great, I think you're definitely on to something there. What is October?
― o shit the sheriff (NickB), Tuesday, 20 December 2022 20:26 (one year ago) link
Yeah, I thought of the Cocteaus' covers. They have this aesthetic, even though none of them are maps/cartography.
― immodesty blaise (jimbeaux), Tuesday, 20 December 2022 20:27 (one year ago) link
And soref yes, there is that hint of nostalgia for the days of empire in some of this stuff
― o shit the sheriff (NickB), Tuesday, 20 December 2022 20:28 (one year ago) link
Inside sleeve for Armed Forces by Elvis Costello and the Attractions
https://c3.staticflickr.com/9/8672/30209060610_8ffbaf4ee9_z.jpg
― soref, Tuesday, 20 December 2022 20:29 (one year ago) link
maybe also negativland
(back cover of Escape From Noise)
https://i.discogs.com/z6SKgZv9ZJzLs6b0J2IKihmNd4zEeRmgKtm9HA3W9ig/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:599/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTc5MTcz/LTEzMzM4NjE4MjQu/anBlZw.jpeg
― Elvis Telecom, Tuesday, 20 December 2022 20:32 (one year ago) link
Fragile disqualified due to lack of 80's release date
Inner sleeve of Tormato (1978 though) a better fit anyway.
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0287/0434/2095/products/1329918-435507456204b771dc2dc6204b771dc2dd16444762736204b771dc2e1.jpg
― Elvis Telecom, Tuesday, 20 December 2022 20:34 (one year ago) link
https://i.discogs.com/KEbVXN-pKzfZfy29IpuqplQvBQUWjz4VzmXbMG2g3AU/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:544/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTk3MTg0/MzEtMTQ4NTI3NTI3/My0yNjQ0LmpwZWc.jpeg
https://i.discogs.com/2jTDH-e9zw5NSF_hXTxDZ_W72MX6y_x6HfLg0ScIHs4/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:553/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTk3MTg0/MzEtMTQ4NTI3NTI4/Mi02MDU5LmpwZWc.jpeg
― soref, Tuesday, 20 December 2022 20:34 (one year ago) link
ooh yes that 1978 Yes sleeve is it, they always adapted well
― sleeve, Tuesday, 20 December 2022 20:35 (one year ago) link
Pink Floyd 1987 tour merch got into this
https://tshirtslayer.com/files-tshirt/styles/shirtview/public/user-1211/PinkFloyd_Tour87_M_01.JPG
― Elvis Telecom, Tuesday, 20 December 2022 20:37 (one year ago) link
https://i.discogs.com/999SjD9LvQFh-nU6a5MWWjoV7xmmRP_Pwh0ZDgBY-lo/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:584/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTExNTE2/MzQtMTU5NTIwNjc0/OC0xOTA2LmpwZWc.jpeg
― fetter, Tuesday, 20 December 2022 20:40 (one year ago) link
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-jJ54vcqlzsc/VOb2TosikcI/AAAAAAAAJFU/qAbxBY4yOJY/s1600/COVER%2BBACK.jpghttps://images.45worlds.com/f/ab/various-artists-fix-planet-3-ab.jpgFix Planet!, an international (so yeah) compilation on German electronic experimentalists Der Plan’s Ata Tak label, released in 1981
― the shaker intro bit the shaker outro in the tail, hard (breastcrawl), Tuesday, 20 December 2022 20:42 (one year ago) link
― o shit the sheriff (NickB)
the big art theory journal of the day
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_(journal)
― the late great, Tuesday, 20 December 2022 21:03 (one year ago) link
thanks! pretty sure the likes of peter saville and neville brody wouldve been keeping up with that stuff, so that makes a good deal of sense.
brody did the cabaret voltaire 'crackdown' sleeve in the first post, but he also did this one in 1979 which seems relevant:
https://i.ibb.co/YBm63c9/brody1.jpg
― o shit the sheriff (NickB), Tuesday, 20 December 2022 21:12 (one year ago) link
https://thevinylfactory.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Danzindan%E2%80%8B-%E2%80%8BPojidon-Inoyamaland-vinyl.jpg
― o shit the sheriff (NickB), Tuesday, 20 December 2022 21:13 (one year ago) link
^ that's a Hosono record from 1983, Inoyama Land – Danzindan-Pojidon
― o shit the sheriff (NickB), Tuesday, 20 December 2022 21:14 (one year ago) link
http://i.discogs.com/QhUSJbc10y5_Ize7DUE6bmpg4_CD5OvzktTH4lh-C4g/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:598/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTExMjY4/NTUtMTE5NDE5Nzc4/Ny5qcGVn.jpeg
― city worker, Tuesday, 20 December 2022 21:22 (one year ago) link
Colin Newman, "A-Z"
https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0238/8053/products/COLIN_NEWMAN_A-Z.jpg
― Kiss Me, Dudley (Tom D.), Tuesday, 20 December 2022 21:33 (one year ago) link
My favorite album from 1999 was
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/61ND3bWEd5L.jpg
― Cirque de Soleil Moon Frye (Ye Mad Puffin), Tuesday, 20 December 2022 21:50 (one year ago) link
Cool thread!
I want to claim, without even close to enough thought about it, that it has something to do with the popularity of Foucault (particularly *The Order of Things*) and, particularly, Deleuze & Guattari - *Anti-Oedipus* and especially *A Thousand Plateaus*.
― Shard-borne Beatles with their drowsy hums (Chinaski), Tuesday, 20 December 2022 22:17 (one year ago) link
More title than cover art, but I feel like "Demolition Plot J-7" belongs in this thread somewhere? https://www.dragcity.com/uploads/products/284/images/258/large_DC2.jpg
― goodoldneon, Tuesday, 20 December 2022 22:25 (one year ago) link
?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mu-O-qYYNvM
― budo jeru, Wednesday, 21 December 2022 00:11 (one year ago) link
http://i.discogs.com/M2ADlmPP3MELMJyIn8QzYtI2h9-NtVUYHInP47dvO_U/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:596/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTEzMzQ4/My0xMzc5MTgzNDAw/LTk3NzQuanBlZw.jpeg
― city worker, Wednesday, 21 December 2022 03:11 (one year ago) link
https://www.harmonies.com/releases/cover/14018.jpg
― no lime tangier, Wednesday, 21 December 2022 03:12 (one year ago) link