Mark McGuire is back with a gorgeous LP that climbs up and down the desert hills searching for that song that will have you loving him all over again. I remember we’ve had our favorites in the past like Brain Storm (For Erin) or the lo-fi lush Mark that originally brought him to us via Editions Mego or even the noiser Mark that pushed his sound to an almost open and harsher level. This album shows maturity in that sense where things feel like they made in a clear space. The diversity is also there but the expanse within one song reaches new levels for his work which seems to be one of the best routes for his style of music.
Paul Lehr illustrated a ton of work for sci-fi kings like Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, and H.G. Wells. While last week we saw John Berkey’s scientific and technical approach to space craft and space flight, Lehr’s work is certainly more organic in both his subjects and technique. He leans more towards fantasy-like creatures, life forms, and orbs. There is also a recurring scene of numerous people all surrounding an object or life form. I find it interesting when artists have a heavy overarching presence of certain themes in their art; links between separate bodies of work. I was thinking while posting this week’s covers how different one artist’s view of the future can be from the others’. I think that seeing each artist’s different take on the future will be an interesting part of this series.
I’m curious–does anyone has any favorite images from this week or a preference between the styles seen this week or last?
I’ve collected all the remixes i’ve done and put them in one location and easily downloaded as a WAV or MP3 for everyone. Everything other than the Slowdive remix was a remix swap or a remix for a friend, hope you enjoy in your headphones and share it.
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A more than proper label out of London, The Trilogy Tapes has exposed a lot of heavy lo-fi dance producers. They have a focus and character to them that labels can only dream about. Enjoy the playlist and get nosey around in their shop, definitely worth your time if you collect physical music.
One of my first vinyl purchases of 2013 really held up, Umberto has this way with that horror soundtrack sound that doesn’t veer off into its normal vintage pigeon hole. There’s beautiful synth work all the way to the last song, my personal favorite has to be track 2 “Initial Revelation”.
Ducking into used bookstores over weekends and after work, I have become a bit of a sci-fi paperback junky. I love the feeling of rummaging through stacks of forgotten paperbacks and discovering that hidden gem of a cover. There is just something about the idea of the future as illustrated by artists of the past that I find fascinating. If you do enough digging you can come away with some great covers for under a few bucks. Recently I began scanning and cataloguing my finds and this has led me to the idea for a new blog series I will be posting here on Sundays. Every week my post will be inspired by one of the covers I own or a new find. Some of these may be well known while others more obscure. I look at this as a way to learn about and resurrect some of the great cover illustrators and designers of the sci-fi genre. If you have suggestions or your own favorites, leave a comment or contribute to the collection of covers with a nice straight on shot of your find and tag it #Sundayscifi on Instagram. I started the tag off with a few of my own images but I would love everyone to include their finds.
To start the post off, I am featuring one of the better known artists of the sci-fi genre. Most know John Berkey for his illustrations for Star Wars, but he holds a massive catalogue of varying types of work. Beginning in the 1960s, he was commissioned by NASA to further their space program as part of their efforts to travel beyond the Earth’s atmosphere and ultimately to the moon. No matter the type of work, I consistently love his use of color. My personal favorite thing about his work are his spaceships. The details of his images draw you in and you can get lost looking at every tiny detail he includes.
Great shots of this beautiful 1970 Moog prototype. I love the pragmatic minimalism of these early designs. I think Moog Music are doing some great things right now — particularyly with the new Sub 37 Tribute — good to see them shifting their design more back in this direction.
Bob Moog built this drum machine machine for TV Theme / Jingle composer Eric Siday. Moog’s Analog Drum Machine consisted of prototype modules for drum and percussion synthesis.
