May 20, 2011

Top 5 Album Covers by The Vinyl Factory

Massive Attack, ‘Splitting The Atom’
Pet Shop Boys, ‘Yes’
The xx, ‘A Sculpture of the Album’
Grace Jones, ‘Hurricane’
Monkey Journey To The West

Creative director of music enterprise, ‘The Vinyl Factory’ and editor of FACT magazine, Sean Bidder selects his top 5 vinyl covers of all time. Sean explains, “Music and art aren’t just natural bedfellows, they’re life-partners, intertwined at the hip, vying for our attention, combining to make a whole that’s greater than the sum of its parts. So many iconic record covers, outlandish performance artists, amazing videos and ingenious creative collaborations that could easily form the greatest contemporary pop art exhibition the Tate Modern has never had, yet. Championing the physical over the ephemeral, at The Vinyl Factory we bring together musicians and artists to create bespoke limited vinyl editions that celebrate the fact that, as ever, the best music is art…”

‘Music is art’ an exhibition of vinyl artwork curate by the folk behind The Vinyl Factory is open in the Front Room of the St Martins Hotel until May 29th 2011.

Text Sean Bidder

thevinylfactory.com

Massive Attack, ‘Splitting The Atom’

Simply stunning: a foiled treatment of a painting by Massive’s Robert del Naja adorned the cover, with the band’s first new music for seven years pressed on 200-gram super heavyweight vinyl inside. Limited to 1,000 copies, originally priced at £20, now changes hands for up to £150.

Pet Shop Boys, ‘Yes’

Designed by PSB’s long standing art director Mark Farrow and hand-crafted by The Vinyl Factory, these iconic smoked black perspex boxes with gold-plated metal ticks contained 11 records and a signed print, sold out in 72 hours and have since been installed in The Design Museum and given ‘Best in Book’ by Creative Review.

The xx, ‘A Sculpture of the Album’

Limited to just 500 copies, we produced this edition in conjunction with a pop-up exhibition at The Vinyl Factory’s Soho gallery. Featuring a double vinyl album with exclusive etching and remix, and three art prints, signed by the band. Quite the collection.

Grace Jones, ‘Hurricane’

The world’s greatest performance artist (sorry Gaga) signed an exclusive print in every one of this gatefold vinyl edition’s 500 copies, featuring a screen-printed pink fluoro image of Grace on the cover.

Monkey Journey To The West

Featuring four beautiful Giclée prints of Jamie Hewlett’s pop art genius, plus a hardback book, two vinyl records, an etching and a gold-foiled cloth bound box, this was the only way to experience Hewlett and Albarn’s pop-opera.

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