Discussions about album artwork are often limited to classic rock or pop album covers, but electronic music has its fair share of mesmerising art too.
These are eight of the best album covers from genres under the electronic umbrella.
1. Kraftwerk – Computer World [Kling Klang/Warner Brothers, 1981]
Kraftwerk’s album covers all deserve to make this list. The group always manages to blur the line between man and machine in their artwork, just as they do in their music.
Computer World’s cover is stark and attention grabbing, and then thought provoking when examined alongside the album’s title. Are the members of Kraftwerk as computer generated as their music? Is the whole world?
2. DJ Shadow – Endtroducing [Mo’ Wax, 1996]
DJ Shadow’s Endtroducing is famously packed full of obscure samples pulled from the producer’s substantial vinyl collection. The collection was no doubt acquired through years of diligent crate digging, not unlike that which is depicted on this cover.
The cover shows one crate digger in motion and one in still contemplation, representing the two sides of the process.
3. Hercules and Love Affair – Hercules and Love Affair [DFA, 2008]
Hercules and Love Affair’s debut album contained some great dance music production, but it was Nomi Ruiz’s vocal contributions that really made it a standout.
The cover is a mixture of the old and the new. The Ancient Greek iconography is rendered in bright colours, hinting at the group’s attempt to create iconic music that loses none of its sense of fun.
4. Matronix – The Album
A straightforward cover and a straightforward title, but Mantronix’s music is far from simple. The cover may not be beautiful, but its bluntness and uncompromising design accurately reflect Kurtis Mantronik’s take no prisoners production style.
5. Claude Vonstroke – Urban Animal [Dirtybird, 2013]
The Dirtybird label head’s third album is full of his signature heavy bass. The cover is as much a treat for the eyes as the music is is a treat for the ears.
Images of buildings and urban paraphernalia are assembled into one giant dirty bird, suggesting Vonstroke’s music is the ultimate soundtrack to the lives of us urban animals.
6. A Guy Called Gerald – Hot Lemonade [Rham!, 1989]
A Guy Called Gerald is no stranger to minimalist artwork as 808 State’s album covers show. In comparison, Hot Lemonade’s cover is fairly complicated.
Depicting what appears to be a molecular structure (is this the genetic makeup of Lemonade?) it is the cover’s smooth pastilles that soothe the eyes.
7. Moby – Play [V2/EMI, 1998]
Moby’s breakthrough album was also a breakthrough album for the entire genre. Play opened up the world of electronic music to many uninitiated music fans, and the couldn’t have done it without this energetic cover.
Moby is captured at the peak of a leap with a gritted look of determination on his face. Though he does not appear to be mid performance or production, this is the kind of pose listeners can imagine him pulling as he recorded Play’s tracks.
8. Daft Punk – Homework [Soma/Virgin, 1997]
The cover of Daft Punk’s first album was so good the duo barely changed the design for their next two lp releases. Homework introduced the French producers to the masses, complete with an expertly branded logo.
Though it says nothing more than the group’s name on what appears to be a sew on patch of some kind, this album cover is imprinted on the brains of many electronic music fans and general fans of music alike.