Test Centre

I design and art direct packaging for Hackney based Test Centre.

Test Centre’s launch project is a series of spoken word Vinyl 12 inch records beginning with Iain Sinclair, Chris Petit, Stewart Home and Tom McCarthy.

 

Pedigree Mongrel

Pedigree Mongrel is an album by Jonathan Meades composed of specially-recorded readings from his books PompeyMuseum Without Walls and An Encyclopaedia of Myself. Combined with the distinctive soundscapes of Mordant Music, it is both a unique retrospective of Meades’ fictional and essayistic writings, and a new and significant standalone work.

The album is released in an edition of 500 copies, 15 of which include signed and numbered facsimile booklets of extracts from Jonathan Meades’ notebooks, with additional holograph material.

Artist: Jonathan Meades
Album: Pedigree Mongrel
Label: Test Centre

Role: Designer


Proletarian Post-Modernism

Proletarian Post-Modernism is a 12″ LP by Stewart Home composed of an idiosyncratic live performance from 2012 and a studio reading of ‘Cunt Lickers Anonymous’. Side A’s live recording features readings from a broad selection of Home’s repertoire of novels, with extracts from Down & Out in Shoreditch and HoxtonMemphis Underground69 Things to Do with a Dead Princess and Blood Rites of the Bourgeoisie. The last of these was recited by Home while standing on his head and is therefore the sound of upside down! The performance also includes a reading of 6 poems which use found texts, and culminates with Home shredding one of his books. The side provides a full view of Home’s lively and unique shows.

The album is released in a limited edition of 300 copies with a pictorial inner sleeve and lyric sheet. 15 copies contain a signed and numbered pamphlet of Home’s writings from Berlin, specially produced for the record.

Artist: Stewart Home
Album: Proletarian Post-Modernism
Label: Test Centre

Role: Designer


Museum Of Loneliness

Artist: Chris Petit
Album: Museum of Loneliness
Label: Test Centre

Role: Designer

Museum of Loneliness is a 12″ LP by Chris Petit composed of specially-recorded readings from his novels Robinson (1993), The Hard Shoulder (2001) and The Passenger (2006), and from his project The Museum of Loneliness. Backed by field recordings and soundtracks from his films Asylum (2000) and Content (2010), the album was smeared and spored by Mordant Music. 

The album was released on 1st March 2013 in an edition of 600 copies, of which 15 were a special edition (now sold out). The special editions include an insert containing a previously unpublished MoL pamphlet, an exclusive DVD of Content, artwork by Emma Matthews, and a handwritten note by Petit.


Stone Tape Shuffle

Artist: Iain Sinclair
Album: Stone Tape Shuffle
Label: Test Centre

Role: Designer

Stone Tape Shuffle is a 12” LP by Iain Sinclair, released in March 2012. The record consists of readings from Lud HeatSuicide BridgeDownriver and White Chappell Scarlet Tracings, and was recorded in situ on a day-long tour of East London and the City.

The album was released on 1 March 2012 in an edition of 400 copies, of which 26 were a special edition.