Latest good odd special packages

[NO PART OF IT]

not too often to see special packaging on LP

This. Should be more though, would like to see more home made packaging for LPs, but I guess it would be reflected in the price.

I know it's a plug, and it's not brutal enough for most here, but we did this one, and I'm still proud of it:  https://www.discogs.com/Blood-Rhythms-Assembly/master/855370
Ron did 100 copies, and I did over 200 so far, with sheet metal and plexi glass, etc.  Currently the only in print copies come with  marble tile, and prior to that, it came with an anti record that was covered with dried meal worms.  
There are over 200 mispress copies with handmade collages (or sometimes just cardboard and duct tape when I didn't have other materials).  
Side A is drone ambient with brass and wind recorded in a meat locker.  Side B is pretty loud, hammering several layers of brass loops over and over.  

[ConcreteMascara]

I like that sleeve of razor blades [be careful postman!] but wow, that dried meal worm art record looks fucking great! Like really really good. Hats off to you and Ron.

[Euro Trash Bazooka]

I strongly dislike "special packagings." It makes records or tapes impossible to store and messes with my OCD, gathers unusual dust on the shelves, etc. Special packaging means I won't buy the release if the format is too unusual.

[W.K.]

I don't know, prefer good designed artwork or extra flyers above odd packaging. I can appreciate it when someone has taken time for it to make something special for it, that's super cool. And some of it is really good like the Auris Apothecary stuff, or some of the Nil By Mouth releases. But then often it feels redundant and doesn't add anything to the release. A tape with a rusty screw through it's packaging or a fishnet surrounding the cover.....yeah man, I couldn't buy this in the local super market next door. It's more a hindrance to store it than anything else.

But good question, I don't think I've seen a lot of releases coming this way with odd packaging lately except for some personal / private tapes. Maybe that Tenshun 7" with x-ray artwork as cover? Like actual X-rays, and not just photocopies...Although that's neither a recent nor noise release.

   

[APPLE]

The UK label Research Laboratories could be mentioned here, creating unusual objects and releasing conceptual items with handmade packaging and instructions on how to interact with the physical release.

Rams horn attached to lathe
https://www.discogs.com/Evil-Moisture-ACME-Snake-Oil-For-the-Wizard-of-Gore/release/10435750
Sandpaper 7"
https://www.discogs.com/Thomas-LaRoche-Thee-Thomas-Laroche-And-His-Confounded-Instinct-Of-Mediocrity-Orchestra/release/7201494
Tarred & feathered cassette
https://www.discogs.com/Poultry-Breeders-Union-Untitled/release/10400358
Tape inside Bible
https://www.discogs.com/Thomas-LaRoche-Mauvaise-Foi/release/4183263
X ray lathe
https://www.discogs.com/Thomas-LaRoche-Repeat-Prescription-MKII/release/13996730
Candle and incantation materials
https://www.discogs.com/Jonnie-Prey-Black-Candle/release/14994089
Altar cloth
https://www.discogs.com/Thomas-LaRoche-Spiritual-Enlightenment-Through-Inactivity/release/11491702
Homemade instrument
https://www.discogs.com/Eudocimus-Ruber-Yamamachine/release/12409644
Satanic whoopee cushion
https://www.discogs.com/Eudocimus-Ruber-Satanic-Whoopee-Cushion/release/14305816
Packaged with 60 pence 'to call from telephone box when you have reached your Companion Object'
https://www.discogs.com/Poultry-Breeders-Union-Companion-Object/release/11868730

[CannibalRitual]

Another crushed worms packaging...

https://www.discogs.com/Unsignified-Death-Towards-The-Real/release/14903035

[yosef666]

Fusty definitely came to mind immediately as well. My favourite one as of late: https://www.discogs.com/Ahlzagailzehguh-Skin-Graft-Ahlzagailzehguh-Skin-Graft/release/13409015

Absolutely. Jim takes real care with his releases. A favorite of mine is the special edition of the Mania/Deterge split LP:

https://www.discogs.com/Mania-4-Deterge-Lay-Waste-Future-of-Pulse/release/12135585

Jim took metal signs, shot them up with various guns, cut the signs up , numbered them & included them with the LPs. Basically impossible to store anywhere. Lots of great Deterge releases like that, like the tape attached to mousetraps and sawblades or in an abstractly shaped piece of wrought iron.

Another that comes immediately to mind (although at 6 years old is technically outside the scope you asked) would be the first Zyklon SS tape, in a tin full of broken glass & rusty nails. After managing to fish it out, the case was coated in fine glass dust, actually potentially very dangerous to the consumer, so really the epitome of nasty industrial packaging.

Jim has some very interesting packaging for some titles in his new batch. Circuit Wound tape with the case sealed in expanding foam, Chain Rite tape housed in a wooden box filled with dirt, Omarashi tape zip-tied inside a painted piece of vinyl and a couple more.

[ligature impression]

Not just silkscreened or lazer-cut plywood box-set. Not just some folder ordered from chinese factory. Special, in a way that it is distinguished by some unusual quality.

I feel like I've seen a lot of "special editions" or "art editions" that are merely a norelco CS with some fucking amazon-ordered party favors dumped in a bag. Everyone has their vision and if label and artist are both satisfied, whatever. I don't think it's special or good art to tack on trinkets or "merch" to like, give importance to a tape and subsequently double or triple the price and everyone knows not much work went into it. That shit is fine sometimes, but when it's all you got... 

Bitchiness aside, Fusty and Nil by Mouth do an amazing job with doing nice and fucked up packaging when it calls for it, and they're inspired. Favorite recent Fusty one was the Ahlz+Skin Graft c60 with the soldered nail-cage.
Two of my favorite recent packaging tapes are the original Slave Coordination / Erik Nystrand ‎"A Good Birth" C60 with the layers and layers of inserts and broken circuit board AND the Legless c22(?) on Narcolepsia/Nostromo wrapped in bent, stamped sheet metal.