ANONYMOUS COLLECTIVE

By the time Emperor Tomato Ketchup rolled around, I was aware of Stereolab's canny design sense. Each album/CD/7" cover is a well-considered depiction of the sounds inside.

The repeated use of the Cliff image in the group's early iconography was an apt reflection of the pop-art cartoon-revolution noise they were making at the time. The fact that he graced a number of covers in different day-glo color schemes was a cool conveyance for the fact that there were but subtle tonal differences from release to release.

They stretched their legs and left Cliff behind, and the covers grew more evocative along with the music.

ETK is a sunrise/sunset moment, with geometric, muted oranges and yellows. A record needle sits on the point of convergence of a white sun and the horizon, and then spirals dizzily out of the range of vision. It is a fractionated Warholian version of the Japanese flag with a flourish of rhythmic gymnastics.

And the genius is that you can take that description of the cover and apply it just as fittingly to the music on ETK...