The people have spoken: Not only did Fleet Foxes create some of the best music of 2008, they also had the greatest cover art! With 3000 people casting their vote, Fleet Foxes came out on top, followed by Roots Manuva’s “Slime & Reason” and Coldplay’s Viva La Vida.

Like the organizers Art Vinyl points out, they all “display an interesting mix of classical influence as the Fleet Foxes’ cover utilises Pieter the Elder’s Netherlandish Proverbs originally painted in the 17th century, while Roots Manuva’s classical bust is giving a modern twist with the green glow of the ‘slime’ and Coldplay use Eugene Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People to great effect. The complete top 50 below

Previous winners of the award include Hard-Fi’s Stars of CCTV and Thom Yorke’s The Eraser.

From Jan 5th the Best Art Vinyl 2008 winners will be featured in exhibitions at Rough Trade East, London, Snap Galleries in Birmingham, Fishmarket Gallery in Northampton and the Perfect Pad Gallery in Norwich. All of the designs will be displayed in the Play & Display Flip Frame.

New vinyl releases! Here are our picks of the week!

Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion

King Khan & BBQ Show - Animal Party

Low Motion Disco - Keep It Slow

The Raconteurs - Old Enough

Tindersticks - Boobar Come Back To Me Lucky Dog

Made In Mexico - Guerillaton

Colossal Yes - Charlemagne’s Big Thaw

George Coleman - Bongo Joe

Emmylou Harris - All I Intended To Be

Neil Young - Live at Massey Hall

Janek Schaefer has just been named British Composer of the Year for Sonic Art, with his interactive work “Extended Play: Triptych for the child surviors of war and conflict“.

In the installation, different portions of Schaefer’s composition are played on nine retro record players playing at various speeds. Schaefer and collaborator Michael Jennings wrote “Extended Play” for cello, piano and violin. When viewers step in front of the three circles of turntables set atop pages of the musical score, sensors stop the record for five seconds, making viewers part of the exhibit and constantly extending the play of the composition.

“The piece is very layered and deep on life, love and death and how lucky we all are,” Schaefer said, whose composition for “Rapture,”  a world dance tour on the roofs of architect Frank Gehry’s buildings choreographed by Noémie LaFrance, is currently touring. His idea for “Extended Play” was inspired by the sharp distinction between his two-year-old daughter’s relatively comfortable upbringing compared with his mother’s upbringing in 1940’s war-torn Warsaw, Poland. As a new parent, the distinction jarred him.

Click on the image to see Schaefer’s Extended Play Film

Schaefer first fell in love with vinyl after seeing English composer Philip Jeck’s “Vinyl Requiem” installation 12 years ago. The music medium soon became a source of professional and personal inspiration for Schaefer. Its resurgence does not surprise him. Ironically, it is vinyl’s imperfections that can make it more attractive than contemporary media’s compressed perfection. He expects to continue to draw inspiration from the medium.

“It’s like if humans were digital and perfection, we’d be all the same and boring,” he said. “But I think character is about flaws and we all pick up flaws throughout life, whether it’s lines on our face or mistakes we make. Those add to your character and tell us who we are.”

“Extended Play” is on display at the Huddersfield Art Gallery in Great Britain as a striking, two-room installation piece.

The cool-looking retro record players used in the installation Schaefer got from Crosley Radio, a company that thrives in the recent vinyl renaissance and manufactures a wide variety of retro wooden turntables. Check them out here.

New vinyl releases. Here are our picks of the week!

Flaming Lips - Christmas On Mars

Tecumseh - Avalanche & Inundation

Fennesz - June

Lydia Lunch & Suicide - Frankie Teardrops

The Jam - In The City

Simon Bookish - Everything/Everything

The Dead C - Secret Earth

Common - Universal Mind Control

Flying Lotus - LA EP 2

Julian Cope - Preaching Revolution EP

Want to give away something self-made for Christmas this year? What about going to work on your old worn-out records? Shoestring Magazine has a great article out about the possibilities to create great DIY gifts with vintage vinyl.

Their tips includes how to make vinyl record bowls, framed album art, record album trays and vinyl drink coasters & placemats. As their fifth tip they pointed to the new possibilities of ripping vinyl to Mp3 and give away vintage sounding compilations, they also got a quote from us on the compatibility between vinyl and digital music.

Read more here

Many new vinyl releases available through the sellers on Nylvi. Here are our picks of the week!

Fennesz - Black Sea

Cat Power - Dark End Of The Street EP

B. Fleischmann - Angst Is Not A Weltanschauung

Pinch - Underwater dancehall

Helios - Caesura

The Decemberists - Always The Bridesmaid Vol. 3

Various - Kitsune Maison 6

Genghis Tron - Board Up The House Remixes Vol. 4

Ida - Tales of Brave Ida

Dillinger Four - Civil War

A new week, new releases available. Here are a few picks:

DNA - DNA On DNA

SUNN O))) - Dømkirke

Damien Jurado - Caught In The Trees

Blitzen Trapper - Furr

Wilderness - (k)no(w)here

RTX - JJ Got Live RaTX

Julian Koster - The Singing Saw At Christmastime

Anton Pieete - Players

Mount Eerie - Lost Wisdom

Finally, somebody is making stylish handmade dust covers for your turntable!

MeandMyMachine is specializing on handmade corduroy dust covers for Technics 1200. They come in variety of colors and are priced at $24. They can also do custom orders for other types of turntables.

Found thanks to Analog Apartment, who is building a new tool to help you keep your records organized. To participate in their beta sign up here

It’s Monday and a new week has started. The sellers on Nylvi have updated their stocks and a lot of new releases are available, here are a few picks:

Death Vessel - Nothing Is Precious Enough For Us

The Killers - Day & Age

Department Of Eagles - In Ear Park

Kieran Hebden & Steve Reid - NYC

Diplo - Blow Your Head

Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan - Sunday At Devil Dirt

Matthew Dear - Body Language Vol. 7

Castanets - City Of Refuge

The Lost Brothers - Trails of The Lonely (Parts I & III)

Asobi Seksu - Me & Mary

Most people who buy vinyl records do so because they love the large cover art and the charming sound, or they prefer the more physical listening experience. Most of the time the awesome experience of vinyl is within reach at a reasonable price. However, some records can get really valuable, and there are people who are more than willing to pay what it costs to own that special record missing from the collection.

We wrote a post back in August about the world’s 10 most expensive vinyl records and we thought now might be the time to follow up with a new one. This time with a list of the 10 most expensive records listed on Popsike, a service that keeps track of auction prices.

1. SEX PISTOLS - God Save the Queen - GENUINE A&M AMS7284! - 12675 GBP

2. VELVET UNDERGROUND & NICO 1966 Acetate LP ANDY WARHOL - 25200 USD

3. SEX PISTOLS God Save The Queen PUNK PRE A&M - 10766 GBP

4. SEX PISTOLS - God Save the Queen - GENUINE A&M AMS7284! - 10000 GBP

5. SEX PISTOLS - GSTQ - A&M Records - 7600 GBP

6. THE ROLLING STONES US 7″ ST FIGHTING MAN PICTURE SLEEVE  - 15200 USD

7. SEX PISTOLS- Jamie Reid Complete Set LTD Edition Signed - 15000 USD

8. SEX PISTOLS “god save the queen” A&M label. GENUINE ! - 7205 GBP

9. THE MISFITS - PLAN 9 1009 - HORROR BUSINESS - ULTRA RARE - 14301 USD

10. SEX PISTOLS god save the queen A&M label - 6600 GBP

God Save the Queen by the Sex Pistols totally dominates this list, but compared to the “official” top 10 the records on the Popsike list are quite a steal. The full list is available from the Popsike site here. To see the top 10 world’s most expensive records check out the previous post here.