Look At These Tapes #13
7.18.17 by Tabs Out Crew
Look At These Tapes is a monthly roundup of our favorites in recent cassette artwork and packaging, along with short, stream-of-thought blurbs. Whatever pops into our heads when we look at/hold them. Selections by Jesse DeRosa, Mike Haley, and Scott Scholz.
Art by Tiny Little Hammers & Corey Lunn
I personally traced each circuit in this intricate cover art, and I have to warn you that should you be foolish enough to build the machine diagrammed here, you too will be turned into a miniaturized little streetfighter like the hopeless lads being irradiated by the early prototype laptop on this cover. There are some funky images by Corey Lunn worth checking out inside, too, presumably made around the time this raised-from-the-dead album was created in the late oughts. 
Art by Devin Friesen.
My mother-in-law cross stitches the lamest shit, like Cape May style houses and the alphabet. The alphabet is her go to cross stitch itch. Maybe if she worked with a few cool mushrooms like Devin Friesen's grandmother Shirl Crawford did then they would get used for a tape cover instead of hanging on her lily white walls waiting for their final days in a landfill.
Art by Nick Hoffman
While I can't figure out if this artwork is #TooPhallic or #TooScary, I do know that it's executed excellently with it's snake wrapped pillar and lumbering obelisk. Also, I've been training, and think I can beat Link to the top of that ladder and get the Triforce.
Art by ?
Between running both Power Moves franchises (label, library) and the ongoing world-expansive mixtapes of their Excavation Series (now on vol 8 ), I don't know how the brothers Cahill outta Ontario find the time to bring the porch jams to the masses via their stellar acoustic duo, East of the Valley Blues, just sure damn glad they do. Copies of this already-classic seem sold out at Cabin Floor source, but send CFE a nice gift/mixtape/zine/letter in the mail and get on their physical quarterly mailout to be hip to the what's coming down the road a piece.
Art by Raymond C. Scott III
Our stories of alien invasions always involve them doing butt stuff to us, but I think this black and white drawing better represents what our post-invasion guinea pigness will be like. The new overloads will present us with a glass of water and a mountain of cocaine while they watch from behind a wall to see which we pick. I assume those markings at the top say "Once again the human has chosen cocaine. ¯|_(0/0)_|¯ " (that is their version of the shrug emoji thing) 
Art by Justin Wright
Back in '85, fresh on the heels of Spielberg's Gremlins, Empire Pictures rushed to cash in on the mania with Ghoulies. For those unfamiliar - dude inherits house, throws house party, decides it'd be cool to try casting a spell from his late-Father's esoteric library as party trick, accidentally resurrects his father's corpse, has a heart to heart while a legion of little rubber puppets covered in KY terrorize his friends. Fast-forward to 2017, Peter Kris's Cargo Road opens the the gate again, with what I can only assume is an idol from the very same seance ceremony.
Art by Fernando Brito
Portugal's OTA is getting especially daring in the field of multiple covers lately. Following their great German Army tape, Patrick R. Pärk's "Library Sounds" features a set of 50 hand-drawn covers that look amazing together, like a Cold War-era Eastern bloc comic recovered from the past. They're the perfect fit for Park's retrofuturistic leanings, who you may know from his many excellent recordings as Kösmonaut. Each j-card is drawn on "communist paper," a rather thin, slightly glossy material no doubt obtained using a Soviet time machine.
Art by Joseph Bastardo
Bastardo has created the perfect visual counterpart for the watercolor washouts and subtly grimy textures of Colin Blanton's Ant'lrd soundscapes. The "Cherubian" vibes of the album title come through best on the spine, though, with gentle puffy clouds that'll bring you back to this tape repeatedly when you're scanning your shelves. Best spine in the biz.
Art by August Traeger
Analog Minimum, a cousin-label to Bicephalic, is a brand spankin' new August Traeger joint with an inaugural batch hot off the decks. The covers are simple black and white line drawings that Traeger then hand paints, making unique covers for each copy. A straightforward idea with pretty cool results.