IRM - THE CULT OF THE YOUNG MEN CD

IRM are a renowned power electronics act from Norrköping, Sweden. The group originally consisted of Erik Jarl and Martin Bladh, but they recently began working with a third member, Mikael Oretoft. This layout is for their fourth full length album, which featured both live recordings of previously released material and new studio tracks.





As with the "Study for a Theater of Cruelty" CD, the layout was fairly simple and involved arranging source artwork and text submitted by Martin Bladh into a cohesive visual narrative.




What I find most fascinating about Martin Bladh's visual work is the fact that it seems to be, more often than not, almost solely centered around his own form. In their first appearance on the "Estheticks of Cruelty" double CD compilation, released by the Swedish label Cold Meat Industry eleven years ago, IRM made what was to become — at least for me — a defining statement for their output: "An act of self mutilation is an act of freedom," which is almost always called to my mind when I look at Martin Bladh's art.




It's always a pleasure when I can take something that another artist has given me, and put my own personal touch on it. The rear tray panel of the CD is just a close-up from one of Martin's distressed Polaroids, but I altered the colour balance and brightness/contrast just enough to make it particularly striking. This is not the final version, which has the track listing across the center in a horizontal stripe. Looking at it now, the image by itself might look incredible on a large scale, hanging in a gallery.