Jon Hopkins: Immunity (Domino, 6/4/13)
Intersecting planes of existence? Neatly arranged bleach streaks? Shards of glass under a microscope?
Noxious Foxes: Epochalypso (Broth IRA, 6/4/13)
This is what came out of MC Escher’s party popper at a 1983 New Year’s party in Miami.
Rogue Wave: Nightingale Floors (Vagrant, 6/4/13)
The crude perspective and hand-drawn lines of this bridge-destroying kraken make us miss being bored in class and doodling in the margins.
Deafheaven: Sunbather (Deathwish, 6/11/13)
Undoubtedly the album cover of the year for typography geeks everywhere. Dat stroke weight.
Gold Panda: Half of Where You Live (Ghostly, 6/11/13)
Andy Gilmore created this amazing cover, which looks like a geometric blueprint of the sun at dusk. (Gilmore is featured in Chromatic, ALARM’s book about artists and musicians exploring the intersection of color and music. Get in there.)
Whether real or doctored (gotta be the latter, right?), this image somehow manages to be both apocalyptic and soothing.
Bosnian Rainbows: s/t (Sargent House, 6/25/13)
This cheerful and abstract image could pass as either an extreme closeup of something tie-dyed or a satellite-captured geological survey of a strange alien world.
David Yow: Tonight You Look Like a Spider (Joyful Noise, 6/25/13)
The look of raw concrete comes close to the weighty sound of this raucous album, although the deluxe edition, which was encased in actual concrete, is probably closer.
µ-Ziq: Chewed Corners (Planet Mu, 6/25/13)
In the glitch art movement, this effect is called an “RGB shift.” Elsewhere in the world, it’s called “whoa, dude.”
Honorable mention
The Andreas Kapsalis & Goran Ivanovic Guitar Duo: Blackmail (6/4/13)
Honorable mention
John Vanderslice: Dagger Beach (Tiny Telephone, 6/11/13)
Honorable mention
BoySetsFire: While a Nation Sleeps (Bridge Nine, 6/11/13)