The Cure

Ah, The Cure. The hairspray, the lipstick, the refreshingly easy-to-copy guitar lines. I’ve had a soft spot (or, should that be, a soft smudge) for them ever since, as a teenager, a friend played me ‘Dressing Up’ from ‘The Top’. I’ve been revisiting their albums recently, and I’ve made a few new prints in my albums-as-books series. Above is my print for their 1989 album ‘Disintegration’.

Next is ‘Faith’ from 1981 (‘All Cats Are Grey’ from this album is easily one of my Top 5 Cure songs):

And finally, ‘The Head on the Door’ from 1986:

(I don’t know where my vinyl album of this is but, wherever it is, I bet it’s super-thin considering the number of times I played it.)

I could write quite a lot about how and why these are great albums. But the main thing is it’s impressive that almost 30 years after I first played some of them they still give me goosebumps. Well done, Messrs Smith et al!

The prints are now available in my shop.

The Comprehensive School

I have no idea what these boys are cooking up and, frankly, I don’t want to know.

German Perpetual Calendar

I’d love one of these. Via presentandcorrect.com

New Order - Substance 1987

Here’s my latest New Order album-as-books print. It’s their 1987 compilation album ‘Substance’ (or more accurately ‘Substance 1987’), which contains all their great early singles including ‘Blue Monday’, ‘State of the Nation’, ‘Thieves Like Us’ and so on up to ‘True Faith’.

I thought it’d be good to use a compilation of different Penguin and Pelican books for this one (instead of the more ordered look of the ‘Power, Corruption and Lies’ print, which I think will be the model for future New Order ones). It’s kind of to reflect the similarities and differences between the songs - different synths and drum machines, the increasing influence of the 12” single and remix culture on song composition as you go through the album, etc. Fact-fans will note that the title of the single ‘Sub-culture’ is written ‘Subculture’ here - that’s how it’s (mis)labeled on the original vinyl release. In life, as in the tawdry world of music publishing, it’s the little things that make all the difference.

The print’s available in my shop here.

Tom Eckersley

A great, somewhat eerie Tom Eckersley watercolour from 1961 in the National Railway Museum archive. Found via Quad Royal. Lincolnshire looks… empty.

electronicbeats.net

Very excited about this. The lovely people at electronicbeats.net have made my New Order/Power, Corruption & Lies print their Picture Of The Day. Excellent!

Kraftwerk

Here finally is my new set of albums-as-books prints - all seven of Kraftwerk’s main studio albums from ‘Autobahn’ to ‘Tour de France Soundtracks’. They’re now available in my shop (with a special humdinger of an offer where you can get all seven for the price of five).

Here’s the first one - Autobahn:

Next is Radio-Activity:

This is Trans-Europe Express:

Here’s The Man-Machine:

Computer World:

Electric Café:

And finally, Tour de France Soundtracks:

I’ve loved Kraftwerk since the mid-70s, when bits of ‘Autobahn’ were used continually as background music for TV documentaries and even schools programmes. With this set of prints I wanted to replicate some of that feel - simple but complicated, analogue but precise. They demanded something different from the Penguin books I’ve used in my recent Smiths, Joy Division and New Order prints. On a recent book-buying trip I found some shelves full of university mathematics text books and - bingo - an idea was formed.

Just super stuff. Simple, austere, but with something quite cryptically human about them. So I’ve gone for a textbook look on these prints. I made them to work as blocks of colour with subtle tonal variations, like late-50s/early-60s New York abstract painting - and to work together, in pairs or trios or as an entire set.

Yes! Actual Victorian People!

Yes! Actual Victorian People!

Busy, Busy, Busy

With a bit of luck I should be sending some new albums-as-books prints off to the printer for proofing today, and later this week… ta-da!

In the meantime, you can see all my recent book prints here in my shop.

Flavorwire

They like my Smiths prints too. I think I’m on to something here…

Huffington Post UK Comedy

Many thanks to Huffington Post UK’s Comedy section, which has a lovely write-up of my Smiths/Joy Division/New Order prints here.

More Smiths

There’s a nice write-up of my Smiths-albums-as-books on the Polish cultural website booklips.pl here

Retouching

Another find on my recent book-shopping expedition. A brief flick through made me very grateful for the invention of Photoshop. I’ve never used an airbrush that didn’t PHUTTT PHUTT SLUTTTTER at inopportune moments, so the thought of using one to retouch some 1950s film star’s features fills me with dread (and more than a little boredom). We’ve come a long way.