OUGD601 - Practical research - Unconventional music design and promotion

To contrast to the visit to HMV I looked into unusual and underground ways of presenting music, with a focus on electronic music.

The first example I looked into was Warp offering up the last remaining copies of the Aphex Twin's Fuji Rock cassette. Anyone could have entered to win the cassette by purchasing a record from Warp at London Independent Label Market. Warp originally sold the tape in a run of 500 copies at Japan's Fuji Rock festival in July 2017 and it's now selling for hundreds of pounds online. What makes this release special is the quantity and rareness of the music as 45 obscure and experimental tracks are contained on the tape. There's currently little information on what the tracks on the tape sound like, comparing this to the music in HMV which is in plain view for the consumer. This cassette is for those in the know, and shows a next level of fandom which makes the cassette a piece of music to cherish. Maybe the music wouldn't work as successfully with its aire of mystery and rareness, if it was packaged differently such as a vinyl or CD. However, as its a tape cassette its more nostalgic and almost obsolete in todays age. I believe the tape adds a charm but also has a story behind it, as Aphex Twin used to record tapes in his early days and hand them out to close friends only for him to never listen to them again.

Another example I looked into was Powell's campaign which turned an email from Steve Albini into a billboard ad for a new single. In the email Steve Albini doesn't praise Powell but instead the ad features his perfectly clear view, that he has very little time for dance music or club culture. It may seem strange to communicate new music in a negative light as Albini's response is very pessimistic. However, the billboard got people talking and its similar to the negative connotations of Kraftwerk's albums yet the irony works to the artists advantage. The design of the campaign is simple with only the email typeset on a large scale billboard, but this is all it needs as the content gets people intrigued about the music and what got Steve Albini so annoyed.

One example I researched is Swiss club culture magazine Zweikmasbien, which can be described as the print equivalent of a techno album. It achieves this by applying simple, radical, raw rules and rejects the corporate identity of a logo most magazines use. Each issue is completely different in terms of size, binding and editorial layout which helps visually echoe the experience of the music that it covers. For research I focused on issue 14 as I have this issue so I was able to inspect it further. What makes the editorial so unique is the use of tags, keywords, and toggled boxes. It reminds me of having multiple windows open on a screen and the awkward visual effect of overlapping content. Furthermore, what makes this issue even more so 'raw' is the staple binding which gives it a delicate feel and the red flexi vinyl that adds a a personable and playful aspect to the magazine. Using a inserted squared flexi piece of plastic for vinyl is unusual, so it gives the magazine a real feel of denial to modernist models in editorial design but also music.