Look At These Tapes #6
11.22.16 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 Zoltán Czakó, Jakub and Anna Juhás
I haven't had the focus, energy, or interest to write about tapes since the Presidential election. Then I saw this tape and it reminded me - I really need to start working on my coffin. With any luck, I'll have a death-box a quarter as nice as the packaging here. Maggots are gonna be like "ooh, la la! Check out these digs." But that's just wishful thinking! We wont need coffins in the post-apocalyptic, nuclear-zombie-Nazi thunderdome! Don't be a silly face!
Art by Luke Owen
As someone who's sherpa'ed dozens of folks through their first psychedelic gleams, Ms. Sabina here does not strike me as someone who's ever had to say "Mike, let go of my leg." or "Seriously, Mike Haley, stop grabbing my leg." or even "Mike, I'm just going to let the woods monsters get you if you don't let go of my leg." Then again, I never uncontrollably busted into traditional folk songs of my people either, so what do I know?
Art by Rob Jacobs
Wei Zhongle's latest EP features a deceptively simple illustration by bandleader Rob Jacobs. You have sort of an alien or frog mask that seems to cover the lower half of a sunglasses-at-night sort of fellow, detached hands hanging languidly below to form a perfect triangle. Or maybe you have Roy Orbison with especially rosy cheeks, duck-lips pointed just away from the audience, settling into the perfect Palmolive position. Either way, I can't stop looking, or listening. Madge, I soaked in it!
Art by Karolina Pietrzyk & Oliver Spieker
I'd like to think that one day I'll be held captive in a cold, dark room (possibly underground) and grilled by a General Buck Turgidson type and two people in lab coats. They will ask me questions about a series of abstract pictures and photos of diseased animals. When they get to this image, one lab-coated person will say "please tell us which box is shaded." I'll say "the top one", they'll look at each other in horror, and pull a syringe out of a medical bag. Until then, I'll enjoy it on this Jcard.
Art by Weekend Graphics
Geology Records has done a lot of tapes with dashing slipcases lately, and though this might be the simplest of Mr. Kreuger's slipcase designs, it really hits home. A lovely font acts as a window into the photo on the j-card beneath, almost like a die-cut effect, and the toasty reds and yellows vibe perfectly with this extended summer/fall global warming landscape that's keeping our hells from freezing over.
Art by CLUT
Remember that book you bought in high school because you thought you were going to get interested in some far out pseudoscience and say fantastically interesting things at parties (to people who definitely aren't rolling their eyes) about how we are actually balls of energy living inside of a dog's butt's dream or whatever. Well, someone remade the artwork from that book in cassette form and it's amazing!
Art by Alyssa White
There's something really compelling about understated album art, especially when it imparts another layer of meaning with the music inside. Simple praying hands in soft focus, overcast skies, and a platinotype kind of look all speak to the pensive, meditative soundscapes scattered throughout this solo project of Reuben Sawyer. But then the beats arrive, and perhaps these hands are captured mid-riot, clapping the clouds away.
Art by Larissa Blau
This German power trio is conceptually focused on the idea of disappointment: letdowns, failures, shortcomings. And they walk the walk. Look how uncomfortable they are in their royal frockery. That one dude's beard is weak, and that one other dude doesn't even have a beard. And to top it off, their music is compositionally inspiring and flawlessly played and not disappointing at all. Way to go not being disappointing after all, Grimény.
Art by Eeli and lxtxcx.info
Barcelona's always-bizarre Nyapster solves the ever-present "who chooses the art for a split tape" problem by simply including two covers. Vacillate between a somewhat menacing Etch-A-Sketch session, or what must be the next evolution in vaporwave-related art, as nostalgia meets the orthodontist. Choose your own adventure.BR>
Art by Joe McKay
Look At These Tapes would not be doing it's job if it didn't tell you to look at these tapes from Dinzu Artefacts' inaugural batch. This offshoot of Spring Break Tapes is tackling design with clinical precision, opting for winter-is-coming style covers, hygienic layouts, and a logo that made me punch an eagle square in it's beak. To be clear - they nailed it.
Art by Zoltán Czakó, Jakub and Anna Juhás
I haven't had the focus, energy, or interest to write about tapes since the Presidential election. Then I saw this tape and it reminded me - I really need to start working on my coffin. With any luck, I'll have a death-box a quarter as nice as the packaging here. Maggots are gonna be like "ooh, la la! Check out these digs." But that's just wishful thinking! We wont need coffins in the post-apocalyptic, nuclear-zombie-Nazi thunderdome! Don't be a silly face!
Art by Luke Owen
As someone who's sherpa'ed dozens of folks through their first psychedelic gleams, Ms. Sabina here does not strike me as someone who's ever had to say "Mike, let go of my leg." or "Seriously, Mike Haley, stop grabbing my leg." or even "Mike, I'm just going to let the woods monsters get you if you don't let go of my leg." Then again, I never uncontrollably busted into traditional folk songs of my people either, so what do I know?
Art by Rob Jacobs
Wei Zhongle's latest EP features a deceptively simple illustration by bandleader Rob Jacobs. You have sort of an alien or frog mask that seems to cover the lower half of a sunglasses-at-night sort of fellow, detached hands hanging languidly below to form a perfect triangle. Or maybe you have Roy Orbison with especially rosy cheeks, duck-lips pointed just away from the audience, settling into the perfect Palmolive position. Either way, I can't stop looking, or listening. Madge, I soaked in it!
Art by Karolina Pietrzyk & Oliver Spieker
I'd like to think that one day I'll be held captive in a cold, dark room (possibly underground) and grilled by a General Buck Turgidson type and two people in lab coats. They will ask me questions about a series of abstract pictures and photos of diseased animals. When they get to this image, one lab-coated person will say "please tell us which box is shaded." I'll say "the top one", they'll look at each other in horror, and pull a syringe out of a medical bag. Until then, I'll enjoy it on this Jcard.
Art by Weekend Graphics
Geology Records has done a lot of tapes with dashing slipcases lately, and though this might be the simplest of Mr. Kreuger's slipcase designs, it really hits home. A lovely font acts as a window into the photo on the j-card beneath, almost like a die-cut effect, and the toasty reds and yellows vibe perfectly with this extended summer/fall global warming landscape that's keeping our hells from freezing over.
Art by CLUT
Remember that book you bought in high school because you thought you were going to get interested in some far out pseudoscience and say fantastically interesting things at parties (to people who definitely aren't rolling their eyes) about how we are actually balls of energy living inside of a dog's butt's dream or whatever. Well, someone remade the artwork from that book in cassette form and it's amazing!
Art by Alyssa White
There's something really compelling about understated album art, especially when it imparts another layer of meaning with the music inside. Simple praying hands in soft focus, overcast skies, and a platinotype kind of look all speak to the pensive, meditative soundscapes scattered throughout this solo project of Reuben Sawyer. But then the beats arrive, and perhaps these hands are captured mid-riot, clapping the clouds away.
Art by Larissa Blau
This German power trio is conceptually focused on the idea of disappointment: letdowns, failures, shortcomings. And they walk the walk. Look how uncomfortable they are in their royal frockery. That one dude's beard is weak, and that one other dude doesn't even have a beard. And to top it off, their music is compositionally inspiring and flawlessly played and not disappointing at all. Way to go not being disappointing after all, Grimény.
Art by Eeli and lxtxcx.info
Barcelona's always-bizarre Nyapster solves the ever-present "who chooses the art for a split tape" problem by simply including two covers. Vacillate between a somewhat menacing Etch-A-Sketch session, or what must be the next evolution in vaporwave-related art, as nostalgia meets the orthodontist. Choose your own adventure.BR>
Art by Joe McKay
Look At These Tapes would not be doing it's job if it didn't tell you to look at these tapes from Dinzu Artefacts' inaugural batch. This offshoot of Spring Break Tapes is tackling design with clinical precision, opting for winter-is-coming style covers, hygienic layouts, and a logo that made me punch an eagle square in it's beak. To be clear - they nailed it.
