Design | the mehallo blog. beta.

Best album covers of the decade

Selected by the always incredible Paste Magazine. See all of em here.

Click on images for jump/description.

Tags: cool finds, design, design history, music by steve
1 comment . . .

Minx

‘My new band and our first CD cover. yay!
note: we have no members or songs at this time.’

Design by Victoria Arriaga.

Tags: cool finds, design, illustration, music by steve
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‘Will recorded music survive the 2010s?’

Packaging for The Skull Defekts by designer Thomas Ekelund

Will recorded music survive the next ten years? Article at CNET.

My take: Sounds a bit like the font industry. Passions fuel incredible work; what the article misses: It’s not always about the money.

Though without decent income, things can scale back drastically.

How much one is willing to starve for their art has great relevance right now.

Article found via theSTART’s Jamie Miller;
Ekelund’s work found via Hardformat

Tags: design, music, thoughts by steve
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‘The Swedish rock band Bob Hund released their single Fantastiskt (fantastic) as a one copy vinyl record that only allows 30 playings. The record was placed on a turntable with the lyrics etched on the turntable lid. It sold on eBay for US $3,650 and became the most expensive record ever sold in Sweden.’ –Lovely Package

Listen to the single below:

Bob Hund: Fantastiskt

Design by Martin Kann; found via Ashley Simko

Tags: cool finds, design, music by steve
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Tower

Video for Peter Gabriel’s The Tower that Ate People, from the film Red Planet (2000).

Tags: cool finds, design, music, photography by steve
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Holst’s The Planets

Gustav Holst (1874-1934) composed The Planets suite sometime between 1914 and 16. It’s become the ‘go to’ source for motion pictures ever since John Williams did some creative borrowing for Star Wars (1977).

Above, a very odd album cover for a 1978 recording of The Planets by Sir Adrian Boult. A remastered Boult recording can be found here.

And a 1976 moog/synthesizer version by Isao Tomita can be snagged here.

One of the most beautiful interpretations of The Planets is by John Eliot Gardiner, recorded in 1994. NPR review here. Album here. Track below:

Gustav Holst: Mars, The Bringer of War

some trivia
The Planets was also creatively borrowed for Cliff Eidelman’s haunting score used in Star Trek VI (1991). Paramount had tried to license the actual suite for the film, but the price was too high – so Eidelman crafted his own take.

Holst wrote different movements for each of the planets – but Pluto and Earth didn’t make it into the suite; since the themes were based on astrology/Roman gods instead of the actual planets. And Pluto wasn’t discovered until 1930.

Tho, as of 2006, Pluto is no longer a planet anyway.