In addition to laying down guitar riffs and vocals, Turner is an accomplished visual artist, responsible for cover art, layout, and package design for numerous bands. This unique knack for the aural and visual aspects of music inspired us to ask Turner about his favorite fellow double threats.

My Favorite Musicians/Artists/Designers
by Aaron Turner

Album art is and always has been an extremely crucial component of the experience of an album for me. Though there certainly have been records I've loved that have had terrible cover art, most of those that have left an indelible footprint in my mind have been those with a visual presentation of power equal to that of the music.

When I think back on the records that have shaped my ideas about what it means to make music, I usually have a tangible feeling that comes with that recollection, a sense of the atmosphere that the record created for me and how that atmosphere was accentuated or more clearly defined by the accompanying sleeve art. As that has been true in the past for me, so it is now; when checking out new records, I'm consistently drawn to those with compelling covers that draw me in and make me what to know what's going on inside.

In the last 10 years or so, I've become particularly interested in musicians who are also active participants in designing or creating artwork for the albums that they make. It seems logical to me that those people would have the best understanding of what the music is about and the clearest idea of how to communicate that visually. Some of my favorite album covers now are those that have been made wholly or in part by the musicians who also have created the music itself.

Below is a list of people who reside in that category of musician/designer/artist and who have excelled at both aspects of making memorable albums.

1. Fangs Anal Satan (Boris)

Boris has made some tremendous albums over the years, and the music has always been matched by the equally excellent illustration and design. Like the band, which has mutated through a series of different incarnations (in sound rather than personnel), so too have the visuals, without ever dropping in consistency of quality.

From album to album, numerous tactics have been employed: rigid restraint bordering on minimalism, unorthodox packaging materials (colored foam, die-cut cardboard, hand-painted boxes containing dried flowers, etc.), psychedelic fantasy scenes paying homage to '70s album artist Roger Dean, parodies of classic metal logos (Venom), extensive and beautifully arranged LP-sized photo books.  Each release is a special artifact in its own right and as such warrants even further focus towards the music and the packaging from the listener/viewer.

2. Faith Coloccia

Though many attempt to create interesting record sleeves by making handmade packaging, most simply content themselves with the fact that the packaging is handmade rather than actually thinking about the meaning of the materials being used, their relation to the music, or the end result of how the release will actually look.

Coloccia's work is quite the opposite: each element used is carefully selected specifically because of its direct connection to the music as well as how it looks visually — black ashes retrieved from a fire made on tour, fragments of materials used in live performances, yellowed paper inherited from dead relatives or discovered at sites used by the band members for varying purposes.

The emotionally driven and deeply personal sounds are reflected in the packaging, which clearly has been crafted by the same hands that made the music. Even in the instances where a more mass-produced printing method has been employed, the humanity of the creators still is clearly evident in the form of the expressive brush stroke, the age of the paper upon which it was laid, or the intimacy of handwriting used to draw out the text. In an age where computers have corroded the spirit of both album sleeves and the music that they encompass, this is a truly vital approach that is clearly more about artistry than marketing.

3. Stephen O'Malley

As a founding member of Sunn O))), Khanate, Burning Witch, and KTL, as well as the defining visual voice of Southern Lord Recordings, O'Malley has been a major driving force in forward-thinking metal-oriented music and visuals. One of the few operatives comfortable straddling the lines of fine art, doom metal, and experimental music of various forms, Stephen uses type as an image to largely define the sleeves for his own bands as well as those for others.

From the caustic appropriation of heavy metal's favored blackletter fonts to the vector-based sculptural abstractions of classic Helvetica, he creates visual worlds in which letters and images are mangled and twisted beyond recognition as are the musical formations they are intended to represent. Not content to make music that is quickly absorbed and quickly forgotten, O'Malley also favors packaging of a complex and elaborate nature, which, like the above-mentioned people, requires more effort to decipher and digest than most of the albums passed off as "heavy" and/or "experimental."

4. Andrew Chalk

One of the more elusive characters in this group, Chalk has made his mark as a solo artist as well as a member of drone-oriented projects such as Mirror, Ora, and as a contributor to David Jackman's Organum. Aside from having made sleeve art for the majority of his albums on other labels, he now has his own Faraway Press imprint for which he also does the most of the visual work.

Like the music he makes, his imagery is often abstract in nature, though not in an evasively vague way but in a clearly focused and deliberate manner. His art and his music seem to be based on the intersection of improvisation/chance and controlled manipulation, though I can only assume that this is the case due to the lack of information available on him. The results of his efforts are something that allows for multiple interpretations by the viewer/listener and provide for an ever-changing interaction with the works over time and subsequent inspection.

By favoring small editions of his releases, Chalk is able to expend extra and individual attention on his album covers, utilizing various processes of printmaking, drawing, and painting, thereby creating editions wherein no two copies of a given release are alike, allowing for an even more intimate connection between artist and audience.

Mark McGuire: Living with Yourself (Editions Mego, 10/12/10)

Mark McGuire: "Clouds Rolling In"

Hajduch: Living with Yourself is the most recent solo-guitar release of Mark McGuire, who also plays guitar in Emeralds. Much like Emeralds, McGuire's music spins a gradual yarn over a combination of picked arpeggios and buzzing drones, delayed and looped and layered into a hypnotic tapestry that has become impossible to ignore.

This is McGuire's first solo release for Editions Mego (which also released Emeralds' breakout Does It Look Like I'm Here?), meaning that it should make it into more hands than his usual cassette-only or limited-run vinyl releases. It's also his best, tightening up the song structure and adding audio from tapes of family conversations with his father and brother (and, briefly, dog) over the past decade.

Morrow: Also, we should clarify that this is not the über-'roided baseball slugger who desecrated the MLB home-run records.  Though that dude is multi-talented (at hitting baseballs as well as clamming up before Congress), I don't think that he creates swirling guitar loops that cascade from melodies to fuzz and back again.  But I could be wrong.

I'm relatively new to the Emeralds experience, so I don't have a long memory for comparing that to McGuire's solo stuff.  Both are complex yet ambient, and naturally, the Emeralds material presents other timbres (decades-old synth sounds, predominantly) thanks to the two other members.  And both McGuire and Emeralds release oodles of songs.

Parts of Living with Yourself, however, are structured much more as accessible guitar instrumentals.  Tracks such as "Around the Old Neighbourhood" and "Clear the Cobwebs" feel much closer to The Appleseed Cast or other late-'90s Deep Elm bands.

Hajduch: Both McGuire and Emeralds have followed similar progressions recently: away from long-form hiss and fuzz and towards straightforward, much more accessible melodic composition.  (McGuire's Tidings and Amethyst Waves tapes were both recently reissued — four tracks, each improvised and the length of a cassette side — and though it's noisy and buzzy and difficult, the material is absolutely gorgeous.)

There's great material on either side of the divide, but I think that the move towards simplicity suits McGuire well on this album.  The guitar melodies and the vocal samples from old home videos create a cozy, autumnal vibe.  Mark McGuire signed to an experimental label so that he could make a total "Cosby sweater" album, and it's phenomenal.

I'd hate to take away from the surprise, but the last track features drums, and it really, truly rocks, which most Emeralds/McGuire material doesn't really get around to doing.  His thick, multi-tracked guitar sounds more than a little like Mogwai, which I'm not usually a fan of, but here it works out great.

Morrow: Indeed, much like the last album that we covered, the final two tracks are my favorites — "Clear the Cobwebs" and "Brothers (for Matt)."

On a side note, I was glad yet unsurprised to find that Living with Yourself was mastered by James Plotkin, who also worked on the Tidings / Amethyst Waves combined reissue and who seems to be involved with every musical recording under the sun.  He just helped produce the Sailors with Wax Wings and White Moth albums by R. Loren that are out this month.  And I still need to get my hands on the Jodis album that he did with Aaron Turner (Isis) and Tim Wyskida (Khanate).  That guy needs to keep making music, period.

Anyway, fans of Emeralds should really dig McGuire's latest, but don't let a lack of familiarity with his main band prevent you from checking this out.  It sounds like we both strongly recommend this one.

Bongripper: Satan Worshipping Doom 2xLP (August 13, 2010)

Bongripper: "Hail"

Morrow: Chicago's Bongripper makes the type of music that you might glean from its name — bleak, crushing doom metal that's built on stoner riffs and down-tuned guitars.  I will preface this by saying that I'm not a huge fan of the genre, but the band already has two strikes in my book for the lame pot-related name and the (presumably tongue-in-cheek) Satanism.

Hajduch: A decidedly juvenile aesthetic (bong name, crazy metal titty-demon artwork, hailing Satan at every opportunity) may not be Morrow's bag, but it's hard to fault a band who does instrumental stoner/doom metal in such a solid fashion.

The four tracks — yes, they are titled "Hail," Satan," "Worship," and "Doom" — each take up an entire side of a lovingly crafted two-LP set.  Each gradually spans styles, from bluesy riffs to down-tuned sludge stomp, with occasional flourishes of synthesizer and even a little bit of blast-y black metal.  It's ridiculously effective, and you can't stop head-banging, ever, and then you seriously wind up worshipping Satan.

Morrow: Ha! Well, unfortunately, this album only makes me want to rip off a mean nap.  There just isn't enough to sustain these songs, let alone for 11–13 minutes each.  The riffs are dull — often just 2-3 notes — and it's just minutes and minutes of the same thing.  I know that's the point of doom metal, but they don't add other layers or anything.  It's just the usual metal-band instrumentation.

I was into it for the first few minutes, but as is often the case with the genre, it got stale.  There are bands who do similar things well – Sunn O))), Khanate, Bloody Panda, even “lighter” bands like Cavity and Torche – and Bongripper, to me, isn’t doing anything different or better.

Hajduch: Khanate are cool if you like feedback, and Sunn are interesting if you think it's cool that a dude who played on the hottest Herbie Hancock records contributed (Julian Priester, trombone on Hancock's Mwandishi trilogy and bandleader for the insanely great 1973 album Love, Love).  But too much stoner metal went up its own ass listening to My Bloody Valentine and died there.

It's cool to hear a band that just wants to crush you with riffs.  I hear you that metal-band instrumentation could use a little fresh polish (KTL deserves to be a household name), but I think that years of horrifyingly dour and terrible orchestral metal (how can you be so gaudy and so boring?!) has scared everybody back to guitar/bass/drums monotony.  Nobody criticized this formula when Pelican rode it all the way to the top, and their drummer didn't even know how to play.

Morrow: For the record, I criticized Pelican!  (And I will defend orchestral metal — at least something like Sigh, not Metallica playing with a symphony.)  Also, yes, it’s awesome that Julian Priester and people like Eyvind Kang (Secret Chiefs 3, Bill Frisell) are all over the last Sunn album.  They called in the proverbial big guns, and it paid off.

Digressing, I’m all about riffs – big, massive riffs – but I don’t think that these are very good.  And though I’m glad that they didn’t add vocals just for the sake of it, having something else would have been nice.  The second track, “Satan,” is a nice tempo change from the opener, but at more than 11 minutes, it’s still way too long.

Hajduch: I think this album is a lot more well thought out than prior Bongripper releases, and I have no complaints. I could see why somebody else might find this type of stuff repetitive, but I don't, and I'm sure that there's plenty of people out there like me who like basic bread-and-butter doom metal.

The first-press vinyl was limited to 300, and the upcoming colored stock is sure to be gone after they add the sticker onto the front with Morrow's glowing praise ("big, massive riffs…very good…a nice tempo change!" – Scott Morrow, ALARM).

Morrow: Normally, the Morrow seal of approval is a kiss of death, but I'm willing to suspend disbelief and guarantee them a good 5-6 sales.  Besides, it's better than your press quote ("I have…complaints." – Patrick Hajduch, ALARM).

Fast-forward to present day Queens and one will find that not much has really changed. Yes, the shops and styles may be different. The roads are wider and the air is dirtier. The “cacophony of rebellion,” as it was described in the 1940s, still looms in the air, albeit often without brass and woodwinds.

“I am not so knowledgeable about the world of jazz,” admits Colin Marston, guitarist for the black-metal band Krallice. “I grew up listening to King Crimson a lot.” Despite the lack of fervor for the music of old Queens, Marston — along with bandmates Mick Barr (vocals/guitar), Nick McMaster (bass), and Lev Weinstein (drums) — has sure-footed knowledge about where the band’s singular sounds have originated.“Classical music, especially 20th Century, which is another influence on how I think about music," he says. "A lot of ambient music, especially ambient guitar music, has been important to me.”

Krallice’s self-titled debut album quickly shot the band to the apex of what has become the US black-metal sound, combining classic blast beats with ethereal atmospherics. This wildfire can be mostly attributed to word of mouth, a staple in the metal world via messages and music trading. For Krallice, this was especially important because the band rarely tours or plays shows outside the New York area.

“[We put] less of an emphasis on playing out and touring than most other bands," Marston says. "It is just not a priority for Krallice. We are playing a few shows for the record… five days or something, all around New York.”

But a question undoubtedly comes to the foreground. With the members’ roots and influences in non-black-metal bands (members are and have been in such acts as math-metal trio Dysrhythmia, punk-jazz act The Flying Luttenbachers, progressive death-metal band Astomatous, and melodic death-metal group Solecism), was the self-titled debut a one-off? Something to do for the hell of it? With the band’s second full-length, Dimensional Bleedthrough (Profound Lore, 2009), any and all doubts have been put to rest.

Dimensional Bleedthrough takes the power and atmosphere of Krallice’s debut and pushes it further, louder, and longer. The opening title track lays the foundation for this sprawling, violent collection with its unflinching power and sweeping crescendos from movement to movement. Barr’s vocals are at times in your face and other times seemingly part of the entire atmosphere.

The production, both a seamless blend of clarity and a blinding fog of rage, can be attributed to Marston’s other endeavor: he owns and operates the Thousand Caves recording studio in Queens. Along with Krallice, Marston has recorded electro-grind masters Genghis Tron, avant-garde artist Jarboe, and the scarier-than-hell, now-defunct Khanate.

Though New York City accepts all kinds of art, both outsider and mainstream, Marston feels that the city is not a metal town. “I’ve gone through periods where I think that New York has a decent metal community,” he says. “I go back and forth, though. I mean, there are some pretty influential death-metal bands like Suffocation and Immolation, but they’re really from Yonkers and Long Island, I believe. As far as from Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, and so on, there aren’t that many that I can think of.

"There is a lot of experimental music here, which can be exciting even though it is not in the traditional sense [for] a metal band. But, really, I can’t think of a single American city where there are five awesome bands coming out at the same time. When I think of a scene, I always think of the [1980s] Bay Area thrash scene where a lot of bands came from this one area all at once.”

Even though the reemergence of black metal has generated a buzz, just as when any genre becomes more popular, an underground still lurks away from the Internet. Marston says, “I’m not sure I’m convinced of any more interest in extreme metal now than there has been in the past. It seems to me that that just happens every now and then [when] there’s a band from a more extreme-metal background that ends up on a major label. That’s fairly common.”

Safe in the spoken-word world of friends and critics alike, Krallice has achieved a notable following around the world based solely on its two-album catalog. Krallice may very well, and unintentionally, bring the American style of black metal to a wider audience and continue the legacy that the jazz greats of yesteryear did before them without big money or big business, and only with a big heart for what its members love to do: play music.

The debut self-titled album is due for release on September 28, via Angel Oven Records, and the project has premiered the song "And Clash and Clash of Hoof and Heel"with accompanying video.

In the works since June of 2009, this Stephen Crane-inspired project was co-produced and mixed by Colin Marston, and mastered by seasoned guitarist / electro maestro James Plotkin (Khanate, Phantomsmasher, OLD).  The playfully batik-esque cover art was done by David Tibet of Current 93, while design/layout was charged by Faith Coloccia of Mamiffer.

The track list:

1.  “Soft Gardens Near The Sun, Keep Your Distant Beauty”
2. “There Came a Drooping Maid With Violets”
3. “If I Should Cast Off This Tattered Coat”
4. “And Clash and Clash of Hoof and Heel”
5. “Yes, I Have a Thousand Tongues, and Nine and Ninety-Nine Lie”
6. “God Fashioned the Ship of The World Carefully”
7. “There Was One Who Sought a New Road”
8. “Strange That I Should Have Grown So Suddenly Blind”

The artists:

R. Loren- vocals / textures
J. Leah- vocals
Ted Parsons (Swans, Jesu, Godflesh) – drums
Simon Scott (Slowdive) – electronics
Aidan Baker (Nadja) – guitar
Colin Marston (Krallice) – guitar
Vern Rumsey (Unwound) – bass
Prurient (Dominick Fernow of Hospital Productions, Cold Cave, etc.) – noise / electronics
James Blackshaw (Young God Records solo artist, Current 93) – piano
Hildur Gudnadottir (Touch Records) – cello
Aaron Stainthorpe (My Dying Bride) – vocals
Jonas Renkse (Katatonia) – vocals
Marissa Nadler (Kemado Records solo artist, appears on Xasthur’s latest record) – vocals
David Tibet (Current 93) – cover art
Faith Coloccia (Mamiffer) – design, layout, painting, collage

Perhaps the poster group for its genre, Sunn has spent the past 10 years experimenting in epic, doomy sound and noise.

Now, with Monoliths & Dimensions, the core duo of Stephen O'Malley and Greg Anderson teams with guests galore to create, in the words of the group, "the most musical piece we've done."  Guest musicians Eyvind Kang (John Zorn, Bill Frisell), Jessika Kenney (Eyvind Kang, Asva), Oren Ambarchi (Burial Chamber Trio), Dylan Carlson (Earth), Julian Priester (Sun Ra, John Coltrane) and others help make that so, while retaining the creeping, end-of-the-world vibe that persists thoughout Sunn's work.

Khanate: Clean Hands Go Foul (Hydra Head)

As the belated swan song for the super-group collaboration between Stephen O'Malley (Sunn O)))), James Plotkin (Phantomsmasher), Alan Dubin (OLD), and Tim Wyskida (Blind Idiot God), Clean Hands Go Foul is a fitting endgame for Khanate's aural presentation of desolation and despair.  Evil ambience crests and falls, working with ominous chords and soul-shredding screams; naturally, fans of O'Malley's other work will love this.

Khanate: "Wings from Spine" (excerpt)
Khanate: \"Wings from Spine\" (excerpt)

Grizzly Bear: Veckatimest (Warp)

Unconventional indie darlings Grizzly Bear have pushed three years since their last full-length release, and the passage of time hasn't diminished the band's creative stroke.

On Veckatimest, Grizzly Bear's trademark vocal harmonies and layered orchestrations are still present, but the album features a slightly heavier touch of electronics and chamber elements.  By and large, however, this is the same Grizzly Bear, and preexisting fans won't feel alienated by this disc.

Sir Richard Bishop: The Freak of Araby (Drag City)

In his solo creations and many collaborative endeavors, ex-Sun City Girls guitarist Richard Bishop weaves through Arabic, Indian, flamenco, African, and Gypsy influences in both composed and improvised settings.

With his new album, he employs a clean, reverberated electric guitar in place of his usual acoustic sound, and he adds a bit of percussive assistance. For spring and summer tour dates, Bishop will perform with a full ensemble, which should make his ethnic creations even more compelling.

Master Musicians of Bukkake: Totem One (Conspiracy)

Milky and Don McGreevy of Earth, producer extraordinaire Randall Dunn (Secret Chiefs 3, Sunn O)))), Bill Horist of Ghidra, and other noted Northwest musicians comprise this collective that designs psychedelic, ethnically inspired folk freak-outs.

With Totem One, the group begins a musical trilogy while expanding and maturing its expansive sound.  The album's guests include Alan Bishop of Sun City Girls and Timb Harris of Estradasphere and Secret Chiefs 3.

Vieux Farka Touré: Fondo (Six Degrees)

The son of musical Malian icon Ali Farka Touré, guitarist/singer Vieux Farka Touré has garnered international distinction since the release of his self-titled debut album, issued the year after his famous father’s death.

That disc, which was remixed later in the same year, featured kora virtuoso Toumani Diabate on a pair of tracks and combined Mande and Sonrai folk styles with pop and a touch of reggae.  Diabate is back to help with Fondo, which finds Vieux taking more of a distinctive direction while improving his songwriting chops.