Hr Giger, Godfather Of Rave Artwork, Dies AGED 74

Artist HR Giger, the man who definied the iconic biomechanical aesthetic of the Alien franchise, worked with a number of rock and new wave bands, and inadvertantly inspired a huge body of early rave flyer art, has died aged 74. The Swiss artist died in hospital on Monday after falling down stairs in his Zurich home.

Giger, who studied architecture and industrial design at Zurich college, went on to worldwide acclaim for his futuristic airbrushed artwork, where technology, sexuality, horror and sci fi were united in fleshy, chrome plated fantasies. His most famous work, Xenomorph, was the direct inspiration for Ridley Scott's Alien, with Giger going on to style the '80 sci fi classic, winning an Oscar for Best Visual Effects.

Less well documented is Giger's influence on a generation of rave flyer artists, and in turn on the aesthetic of dance music itself. His fusion of technology and biology chimed with the techno-distopian/utopian obsessions of the early 90s – nights such as the '91 hardcore raves Entropy and Fascination happy to directly lift Giger's artwork:

Whilst  seminal flyers from Dreamscape and Helter Skelter were clearly indebted to Giger's vision:

Giger himself had been embraced by an earlier generation of musicians, providing album art for Debbie Harry, Emerson, Lake & Palmer, and, notoriously, Dead Kennedies, where his insert 'Penis Landscape' led to a failed attempt by US authorities to prosecute the band for distributing indecent material to minors.