Robert Beatty

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AuHr
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Robert Beatty

Post by AuHr »

Since he has multiple visual credits for Inferno, maybe deserves some more credit and his own thread? He was unknown to me before someone shared the marketing poster sent to a retailer. https://recordcorner.co.uk/products/boa ... da-inferno
Image
Image
I spent some time today just starting to dig into his bio and creative work. I won't add any unrelated content right now, in the spirit of keeping things BOC-centric, but I'll say it was fun. What a task and honor it must be to visually tease >this< album and pair images to this music!
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DXcR_QPFW0I/
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Twoist
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Re: Robert Beatty

Post by Twoist »

What a brief from Warp that must have been. Neil Krug got the TH gig partially because of his own fan video creations. I've no idea if Beatty is a fan of their work. If not he's obviously done the due diligence and gets their aesthetic and lore - and much of that would have been via bocpages, no doubt at all.
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Sherbet Head
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Re: Robert Beatty

Post by Sherbet Head »

I've been a fan of Robert's work ever since he created the art for Magic OPN.

Admittedly, he wouldn't have been the first name I'd pair with the brothers, as his style seems heavily illustrative... but he clearly has an understanding of their tone and aesthetic, as the teaser video is quintessential Boards. The guy gets it.
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Altruizine
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Re: Robert Beatty

Post by Altruizine »

Prediction: teaser cuts off with a frame of the inside of a church flashing briefly. That's the beginning of the music video we're getting soon directed by him (May 1st). If the track was "Introit" the music video might be for the next track "Prophecy at 1420 MHz", which is the official single.

Sorry if this turns out to be a shitpost but I'm unfamiliar with him and will wait to see the video. Then we'll talk.
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Re: Robert Beatty

Post by cstalin »

Robert Beatty while his stuff is ok I think he is like a copy of a copy without understanding the source... It seems that Warp are more in control of the rollout/visuals for this album then the brothers.... If the brothers didnt wanna do the art themselves it would have been better if could have gotten someone that at least understands the asthetics and history of the psychedelic/nature/horror 70s and how it was inspired by experimental 60s work from the likes of Stan Brakhage (who also did industrials for Colorado). Panos Cosmatos prob would have been a better choice the Robert Beatty. Even though some of Panos works can be considered style over substance he def understands the references and history.
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Den
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Re: Robert Beatty

Post by Den »

I do not know anything about him but I imagine the band approves everything. His Wikipedia page says he grew up on a tobacco farm in Kentucky loving Warp so it clicks in that sense.
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Re: Robert Beatty

Post by Soul_Slip »

cstalin wrote:Robert Beatty while his stuff is ok I think he is like a copy of a copy without understanding the source... It seems that Warp are more in control of the rollout/visuals for this album then the brothers.... If the brothers didnt wanna do the art themselves it would have been better if could have gotten someone that at least understands the asthetics and history of the psychedelic/nature/horror 70s and how it was inspired by experimental 60s work from the likes of Stan Brakhage (who also did industrials for Colorado). Panos Cosmatos prob would have been a better choice the Robert Beatty. Even though some of Panos works can be considered style over substance he def understands the references and history.
I don’t think they’d outsource their creativity like that….
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Re: Robert Beatty

Post by cstalin »

Sure they do... They did it with the last album rollout. Warp was the one that did all the promos and got everything together for Tomorrows Harvest. I could be wrong on this but many things point to Peter Ian cambell probalby having a lot to do with the Cosmic Crofter site stuff. Also from a bunch of the early Twoism copies that get sold every now and again it looks like Twoism didnt have any kind of cover and was just hand written until copies were sold on the old Usenet groups where there were stickers then attached to the white sleave. If you look at all the old SKRAM label stuff and the cassettes they did they didnt have very good graphic design skills until the Cosmic Crafter "early albums" stuff popped up. It just looks like they had their friends designing stuff for them up until this release where they fully let Warp kinda point them in this direction.
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Den
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Re: Robert Beatty

Post by Den »

cstalin wrote:Sure they do... They did it with the last album rollout. Warp was the one that did all the promos and got everything together for Tomorrows Harvest. I could be wrong on this but many things point to Peter Ian cambell probalby having a lot to do with the Cosmic Crofter site stuff. Also from a bunch of the early Twoism copies that get sold every now and again it looks like Twoism didnt have any kind of cover and was just hand written until copies were sold on the old Usenet groups where there were stickers then attached to the white sleave. If you look at all the old SKRAM label stuff and the cassettes they did they didnt have very good graphic design skills until the Cosmic Crafter "early albums" stuff popped up. It just looks like they had their friends designing stuff for them up until this release where they fully let Warp kinda point them in this direction.
Just adding that Twoism now says “art by Mike.” And that in an interview for Tomorrow’s Harvest they stated that they art directed the campaign and helped devise some of the ideas. When it comes to the visual production of the album’s release they’re using Warp and another artist for sure. On Campfire Headphase for example, it says art by BOC and Natasha Morton.
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Re: Robert Beatty

Post by pepsichallenged »

Here's a Robert Beatty piece used for the June '24 grand opening of Torn Light Records when they moved from Cincinnati to Chicago. The track chosen was made by me & my best friends. I hadn't thought much about this since it happened, obviously, until the last week and a half. It is these kinds of connective threads that truly bring pause.

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Re: Robert Beatty

Post by Soul_Slip »

cstalin wrote:Sure they do... They did it with the last album rollout. Warp was the one that did all the promos and got everything together for Tomorrows Harvest. I could be wrong on this but many things point to Peter Ian cambell probalby having a lot to do with the Cosmic Crofter site stuff. Also from a bunch of the early Twoism copies that get sold every now and again it looks like Twoism didnt have any kind of cover and was just hand written until copies were sold on the old Usenet groups where there were stickers then attached to the white sleave. If you look at all the old SKRAM label stuff and the cassettes they did they didnt have very good graphic design skills until the Cosmic Crafter "early albums" stuff popped up. It just looks like they had their friends designing stuff for them up until this release where they fully let Warp kinda point them in this direction.
I am positive the bros chose the artwork direction themselves and don’t believe someone else selected the direction and art itself.
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outhudd
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Re: Robert Beatty

Post by outhudd »

They did outsource the art direction to Neil Krug on the last album, he made it and then BoC were happy with the result: https://www.twoism.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=15199

Surely it's the same here, where Robert Beatty is responsible for it, and BoC & Warp are just approving it in the end. I imagine them giving a concept and then the director has license to work around that.
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Den
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Re: Robert Beatty

Post by Den »

BOC are the art directors - they direct artists like Neil Krug and Robert Beatty who then produce the visual art. They wouldn’t know where to begin without having their sails set by the band.
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Re: Robert Beatty

Post by Altruizine »

Altruizine wrote:Prediction: teaser cuts off with a frame of the inside of a church flashing briefly. That's the beginning of the music video we're getting soon directed by him (May 1st). If the track was "Introit" the music video might be for the next track "Prophecy at 1420 MHz", which is the official single.

Sorry if this turns out to be a shitpost but I'm unfamiliar with him and will wait to see the video. Then we'll talk.
Well it was a shitpost and this belonged in a speculation thread anyway or perhaps the teaser one but not here. I don't know what got into me. Everyone's making predictions man.

Beatty seems alright for BoC. He made Tame Impala Currents cover art... and Neil Krug did the art for his next record. Interesting how these musicians rotate the same visual artists. Seems he uses old media and practical effects a lot, in the teaser when the "Inferno" text warps it looks like a practical effect where maybe a screen was filmed with some reflective material in front of the lens.
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Re: Robert Beatty

Post by outhudd »

From Robert Beatty's Instagram stories today:

"I've been credited a few places with doing the artwork for the Boards of Canada album- wanted to clarify I didn't do the album artwork or the VHS, just the trailer and the “Introit/Prophecy At 1420 MHz” video (so far...)"
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Re: Robert Beatty

Post by Sherbet Head »

outhudd wrote:From Robert Beatty's Instagram stories today:

"I've been credited a few places with doing the artwork for the Boards of Canada album- wanted to clarify I didn't do the album artwork or the VHS, just the trailer and the “Introit/Prophecy At 1420 MHz” video (so far...)"
I kind of assumed that, but the 'so far' is interesting! :twisted:
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Re: Robert Beatty

Post by Ottomatik »

Sherbet Head wrote:
outhudd wrote:From Robert Beatty's Instagram stories today:

"I've been credited a few places with doing the artwork for the Boards of Canada album- wanted to clarify I didn't do the album artwork or the VHS, just the trailer and the “Introit/Prophecy At 1420 MHz” video (so far...)"
I kind of assumed that, but the 'so far' is interesting! :twisted:
What's also interesting is that when asked who made the Tape 05 vid, his reply was a two heads emoji...
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Re: Robert Beatty

Post by MindElevation »

Super cool that the bros made tape 05 (at least that's what Robert's answer seems to suggest)
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davey0110
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Re: Robert Beatty

Post by davey0110 »

He did a poster for Phish once! It’s a good one too, you can find it on his instagram. I hope his cheeky reply means he’s done a lot more content for this album, the video was awesome.
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Re: Robert Beatty

Post by 747Music »

cstalin wrote:Robert Beatty while his stuff is ok I think he is like a copy of a copy without understanding the source... It seems that Warp are more in control of the rollout/visuals for this album then the brothers.... If the brothers didnt wanna do the art themselves it would have been better if could have gotten someone that at least understands the asthetics and history of the psychedelic/nature/horror 70s and how it was inspired by experimental 60s work from the likes of Stan Brakhage (who also did industrials for Colorado). Panos Cosmatos prob would have been a better choice the Robert Beatty. Even though some of Panos works can be considered style over substance he def understands the references and history.
I don't understand. What are you basing this on? I'm referring to your claim of Beatty's supposed lack of understanding of the source, history, and aesthetic.

I think BoC is VERY selective in something like this and he fit their bill with his cool video tape and equipment experiments. Perhaps they looked into his work more than you did. I very much think BoC worked very closely with him in describing what they want done in the visuals and then Beatty made it happen. It certainly wasn't the case of "We don't wanna to the visual art ourselves. Give some other guy the music and let him have at it." Beatty is a brilliantly effective and skilled conduit.
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