This has probably been rinsed to death by now but I dig this project so much had to get it up here. Plus Nick Kyrgios is currently in the fight of a lifetime, so no sport fan in Australia is going to bed anytime soon.
Taking the elements that made up those beautiful jazz LP sleeves of the fiftes and sixties, Brazilian designer Rafa Melandi has reimagined the designs of some of the best known known metal sleeves of all time.
Any music fan growing up would be familiar with the look and style of Master Of Puppets, Ace Of Spades and the general aggressive, dark and/or witchery vibe of doom that blessed the likes of Black Sabbath and Pantera; they’ve embedded themselves so far in to popular culture that it’s rare that you actually look past what you know.
When you do start to examine them you’re often rewarded with some form of hidden meaning. You might spot a skeleton with a sword goblet in the back seat of an Iron Maiden hell feast or something similar. The detail and meaning is always incredible.
Conversely, you’ve got the little celebrate but stylistically stunning, smooth pantones of the better known jazz and funk albums of the genre’s breakthrough era. The first time I noticed these was in Jazzman Gerald’s trove of treasures, and then when Wax Poetics started releasing the Cover Story books it really came through how distinctive this style was. By the time Ricky-Tick Records started coming around I was noticing and appreciating the throwback style that graced the sleeves of Five Corners Quintet and the like.
Never thought the two would collide, but Melandi has done an inspiring job on this, the end results really highlighting the much overlooked aesthetic of jazz LPs of the era. The touches range from breaking up photos with flattened colors to illustrating the imagery to complete reworking of a concept of an eye. One of my favourite bits of this is that he’s even put in detail to make them look battered and old, like something you’d find at a record fair. Brilliant stuff.
