Back catalogue: All genres

Notes: A book as a milestone, here comes Kito Jempere's genre-unbound, faux-literary debut in publishing. Born after taking a glimpse of some neat word-and-image opus through the window of an art gallery in Istanbul, and thinking 'I want to do that', the seed for 'A Book of Kito' was sowed, and for good. The unique trajectory that's led Kirill Sergeev to this place and time, 38 happy solar rotations reading on the counter, was definitely one that deserved to be told, but the fun way. From his modest beginnings in his home-city of Saint Petersburg, onto becoming a relatively hush-hush driving force of the international house underground with releases for the likes of Jimpster's Freerange Records, Emotional Response, Hell Yeah, Let's Play House, DFA, Bordello a Parigi et al, through busting the frontiers of live music with the crazy circuses of SPDSC and Kito Jempere Band, there's been very few moments of quiet in Kito's gleefully bumpy yet ever soul-fulfilling journey. An oddball and thrillingly witty object spanning the many facets of his intimate self and artistic persona, the win-some/lose-some nature of a DJ's life, as well as the pressure and release coming with exposing yourself to the limelight, but also the joys of being dubbed by your peers and unexpected spits in the face, 'A Book of Kito' is a thoroughly honest portray of a man telling his realities, hopes and anxieties, that huge, infectious smile slapped across the face as an indivisible trademark. A loud-spoken piece of anti-egotistic confession delivered in his own words, friendly and dynamic as his character, with enough humility to cool off the infinity pool of highfalutin leeches that regularly floods that thing called, "The Scene", Kito's anti-memoir has us surfing the good waves and channeling the positive vibes, as it washes the pains and disillusions away in constantly joyful fashion. Stacking as much energy as possible from these countless stories and fun-riddled anecdotes about life and music, fueled by the figures that keep him - and us all - ticking - best half, proud son, loyal friends, Kito Jempere serves up a lighthearted delight of a volume, tender and piquant as it gets. Keeping it fast, so doubt doesn't catch up.

Notes: This stunning encyclopaedic guide covers in great detail rock, pop, beat, R'n'B, folk, psych, prog and more from Australia, New Zealand, Africa (expanded to include 'Afro-rock' music from Sub-Saharan Africa) and, for the first time, Turkey and the Middle East, between 1963 and 1976.

The guide contains detailed discographies, line-up data, bibliographies, comment on their music, compilation appearances, and an up-to-date rarity scale for all album releases between 1963 and 1976, for the artists featured.

Illustrated throughout and includes 12 pages in colour. There is nothing currently in print similar to this!

Notes: Following his critically acclaimed Two Volume Tapestry Of Delights, which has become the definitive encyclopaedic guide to UK rock and pop of the 1963-1976 era, this stunning publication applies exactly the same format used for Tapestry and focuses on the revolution the music business underwent in the UK over the next 10 years and analyses the bands and artists from several exciting new genres that changed the face of music forever.

A Sharp Shock To The System is a numbered, limited edition publication of 1,000 copies containing 1,670 entries across 1,400 profusely illustrated pages plus 12 pages of full colour illustrations. Each entry contains detailed artists discographies and line-up details for the 1976-1986 era, bibliographies and, in most cases, comment and a critique of their music, details of compilation appearances and an up to date rarity scale for all featured artists' album, EP and 45 releases between 1976 and 1986. Where artists continued beyond 1986, bibliographies continue until the present or until the artist ceased performing and/or recording.

There is nothing similar in print covering this era that has the scope and depth of this publication.

Notes: Are you obsessed with John Carpenter's iconic music for the Halloween series? Do you thrill to the unforgettable stabs of the Psycho score, or the pounding synth of Goblin's soundtrack to Suspiria? Do you find yourself being pulled into the hair-raising modern scores for the likes of Get Out, Hereditary, and The Witch?

You're not alone.

Blood on Black Wax is a defining horror soundtrack volume that spotlights iconic franchises such as A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Jaws, The Exorcist, and George A. Romero's Dead films, highlighting both the music and the amazing, often rare artwork that graces the record sleeves. It also tells the stories behind the soundtrack, from the mouths of the musicians who made them, including John Carpenter, Fabio Frizzi, Christopher Young, Harry Manfredini, Charles Bernstein, Pino Donaggio, John Harrison, and more.

Aaron Lupton and Jeff Szpirglas, both of Rue Morgue magazine, have curated Blood on Black Wax to reflect their own passion for the darkest slabs of soundtrack music. Their journey into the fascinating history of horror movie scores contains reviews, release details, and wild stories about both renown and unusual releases everything from the orchestral sounds of Hammer and Universal horror, to the truly experimental albums for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Eraserhead, to the outlandish punk and metal songs of '80s soundtrack albums like The Return of the Living Dead and Shocker.

Go back to your favorite horror films one more time, through the jaw-dropping, spine-tingling music that helped solidify their place in cinematic history!

BRAND NEW & EXPANDED EDITION! Packed with dozens of additional horror titles and containing limited edition enhanced packaging (foil cover elements + guilded foil page edges).

Notes: In this book, the technical explanation of the nature of analog sound creation is followed by the story of its birth and its subsequent development by various designers, manufacturers and performers.

The individual components of analog sound creation are then examined in detail, with step by step examples of sound creation techniques. Then the modern imitative analog instruments are examined, again with detailed instructions for programming and using them. The book is completed with appendices listing the major instrument lines available, hints on values and purchasing, other sources of information and a discography of readily available recordings which give good examples of analog sound synthesis.

The CD which accompanies the book gives many examples of analog sound creation basics as well as more advanced techniques and of the abilities of the individual instruments associated with classical and with imitative analog sound synthesis.

The CD contains a complete history of analog sound in one work, interviews with industry Legends and developers of of analog synthesizers and the demo sounds and tuitional pieces to illustrate the processes discussed in the book.

Notes: Ross Johnson (Panther Burns, Alex Chilton, Jeffrey Evans, etc.) puts it down over 153 pages in his long-awaited memoir. Everything's here - from bagging groceries for the late Al Jackson, Jr., at the Big Star grocery store to his thoughts on the present-day Memphis scene. In between Ross discusses writing for CREEM in its halcyon days, playing on Like Flies on Sherbert, the brilliance of Lesa Aldridge and Jim Dickinson- and that's just the beginning. A must have for fans of Make it Stop! and Memphis music. Limited to 200 copies.

Notes: With the original Beyond Heaven out of stock, Almighty Insane were at a crossroads . But when Mario "Liv It Up" Luna dug up a long-forgotten cache of material, and from that we bring you Beyond Heaven: Volume II. It has the same format as Volume I, but with all new flyers documenting an extended window of history, from early "mobile discos" that reflect roots of the underground movement before the term "house" was even coined, to the emergence of a new generation of house DJs and artists in Chicago inspired by the pioneers of the genre. As with the original, this book reflects a mix of figures and parallel movements that were entangled with the world of house. From dance groups to party crews, alongside promoters, labels, and record stores, both well established and lesser known-all are points of departure to good memories and/or further investigations into one of the greatest eras in the history of Chicago music, with a legacy that is profoundly influential to this day.

96 pages, full color

6 x 9 in | 16 x 23 cm

Notes: Introducing the third and final volume of the trilogy, Beyond Heaven: Volume III. This book reflects a more recent expansion of Mario "Liv It Up" Luna's collection of Chicago house music flyers (a.k.a. pluggers), ranging from the years 1983 to 1992. The selection includes a number of rare and important flyers ranging from parties at the Muzic Box, Medusa's, Sauer's, and the Rainbo with heavy hitters like Ron Hardy, Frankie Knuckles, Mr Fingers, Marshall Jefferson, Steve "Silk" Hurley, Jesse Saunders, Lil Louis, Chip E and various combinations of the WBMX Hot Mix 5, to Luna's own scene of Latino party crews, dance groups, and DJs across the Southside. Sharing the same format as the two previous, this volume once again brings you straight to the source for the who/what/when/where and visual aesthetics of the time when house music was born and took over Chicago!

Published by Almighty & Insane, 96 pgs, 14 × 21 cm, softcover, 2022

Notes: This book catalogues a collection of flyers and other house music related ephemera from the years 1983 to 1989, courtesy of Mario "Liv It Up" Luna, a DJ living in the Pilsen neighbourhood of Chicago during this time. These flyers, also called pluggers, were used for promotional purposes. They would be placed in record stores and passed out at schools and on the street to help get the word out about upcoming house music events. Although by no means encyclopaedic, this collection documents a variety of figures from Chicago's emerging house scene: first generation "kings of house" alongside the WBMX Hot Mix 5 and other lesser-known DJs at a variety of venues.

Also included in the mix are promoters, record stores, labels, and an assortment of party crews and dance groups who contributed to the growth and atmosphere of house music in Chicago. This book offers a taste of what many consider to be the best times of their lives, and for others acts as a gateway to one of greatest eras in the history of Chicago music.

96 pages, 14 × 21 cm, softcover.

Notes: Big, Bad & Heavy is the story of legendary jungle DJ Jumpin Jack Frost; a man who lived his life at the break-neck speed of the music he played.

Raised on the tough south London streets of Brixton, Nigel Thompson was saved from a life of crime and punishment, by music. A pirate DJ on Passion FM, when acid house broke down virtually every cultural boundary in the UK, Frost was right there at the forefront of the British rave revolution. Then, when hardcore splintered into jungle in the early nineties, Frost became one of the figureheads of this uniquely British phenomenon; releasing many of the tunes that defined this scene, on his and fellow DJ Bryan Gee's hugely influential record label V.

V would go on to break artists such as the Mercury-Prize winning Roni Size, a success story that saw Frost travelling the planet on his quest to take jungle global. A life of sex, drugs and drum and bass followed as Frost became established as one of the hardest working DJs on the circuit.

But no matter how hard he tried to evade the criminal lifestyle that had taken many of his friends down, prison, guns and violence were never far away. And when his drug use started to spiral out of control, Frost faced a battle that threatened to take everything he had.

Featuring contributions from Goldie, Roni Size, Congo Natty, Bryan Gee, Jazzie B, DJ Ron, Tipper Irie and many more, Big, Bad & Heavy is the compelling story of one man's bruising journey through the deepest, and darkest, jungle of all...

Notes: The republication in print form of the poems of Art Ensemble of Chicago's founding member breathes new life into a forgotten document of the Black Arts Movement.

In 1977, Art Ensemble of Chicago Publishing Co. published Jarman's Black Case Volume I and II: Return From Exile, a collection of writing conceived across America and Europe between 1960 and 1975. Comprised largely of Jarman's flowing, fiery free verseiinfluenced by Amus Mor, Henry Dumas, Thulani Davis, and Amiri Baraka the book also features a manifesto for "GREAT BLACK MUSIC," notated songs, concert program notes, Jarman's photos, and impressions of a play by Muhal Richard Abrams, the founder of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians of which Jarman was also an original member. Jarman writes poetry of personal revolutionary intent, aimed at routing his audience's consciousness towards growth and communication. He speaks with compassionate urgency of the struggles of growing up on Chicago's South Side, of racist police brutality and profound urban alienation, and of the responsibility he feels as a creative artist to nurture beauty and community through the heliocentric music that he considers the healing force of the universe. A practicing Buddhist and proponent of Aikido since a 1958 awakening saved him from the traumatic mental isolation of his time dropped by the US army into southeast Asia, Jarman sings praise for the self-awareness realization possible through the martial arts. With cosmic breath as its leitmotif, his poetry both encourages and embodies a complete relinquishing of ego. While some of the poems contained within Black Case have already been immortalized via performances on classic records by Jarman and Art Ensemble of Chicago, its republication in print form breathes new life into a forgotten document of the Black Arts Movement.

"Joseph Jarman, a musician of rare poetic gifts, was also a remarkable poet. Black Case, a lost treasure of the Black Arts Movement, combines protest against injustice with heart-breaking introspection and fierce commitment to the Great Black Music tradition to which Jarman contributed with gentle yet mighty force."
-Adam Shatz

"Joseph's recitation of 'Non-Cognitive Aspects of the City' (from Black Case) moved me to set the words of this poem for Baritone Voice and Orchestra and became part of the Art Ensemble of Chicago's standard repertoire. Joseph had a bold and passionate creative spirit. I feel privileged to have shared the stage with him."
-Roscoe Mitchell

"Though in reality all the words are music themselves' is the reality to which all poetry aspires, whether in verse or prose, theory or story, criticism or craft. Joseph Jarman always knew that for black musicians, which is to say black speakers, exile is our public holiday. We live through that. We live through that. Black Case is all and everything in this regard. 'Whats to say,' he says, is that 'we sing because/we love you/because we/love you/because/we love/you.' We are loved beyond judgment by the music, he says, and we say thanks."
-Fred Moten

Notes: Are you obsessed with John Carpenter's iconic music for the Halloween series? Do you thrill to the unforgettable stabs of the Psycho score, or the pounding synth of Goblin's soundtrack to Suspiria? Do you find yourself being pulled into the hair-raising modern scores for the likes of Get Out, Hereditary, and The Witch?

You're not alone.

Blood on Black Wax is a defining horror soundtrack volume that spotlights iconic franchises such as A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th, Jaws, The Exorcist, and George A. Romero's Dead films, highlighting both the music and the amazing, often rare artwork that graces the record sleeves. It also tells the stories behind the soundtrack, from the mouths of the musicians who made them, including John Carpenter, Fabio Frizzi, Christopher Young, Harry Manfredini, Charles Bernstein, Pino Donaggio, John Harrison, and more.

Aaron Lupton and Jeff Szpirglas, both of Rue Morgue magazine, have curated Blood on Black Wax to reflect their own passion for the darkest slabs of soundtrack music. Their journey into the fascinating history of horror movie scores contains reviews, release details, and wild stories about both renown and unusual releases everything from the orchestral sounds of Hammer and Universal horror, to the truly experimental albums for The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Eraserhead, to the outlandish punk and metal songs of '80s soundtrack albums like The Return of the Living Dead and Shocker.

Go back to your favorite horror films one more time, through the jaw-dropping, spine-tingling music that helped solidify their place in cinematic history!

Notes: These lavish, 28cm x 28cm hard-back books from classic Universal artists feature around 100 pages of essays, beautiful photographs and memorabilia. The Jam was the most popular and successful band to rise from the British punk and new wave scene of the late-seventies. 'Direction, Reaction, Creation' is the definitive Jam collection - a stunning set, featuring 117 tracks across five discs. This set presents the band's complete studio recordings in chronological order and includes all the singles and B-sides with many rarities and demo recordings. A lavish book accompanies the set with extensive liner notes, complete gig list, band chronology and discography. Also featuring many rare photos and memorabilia, it is the ultimate gift for any Jam fan.

Notes: Hip-hop is huge, and it's time someone wrote it all down. With more than 25 years of interviews, and virtually every hip-hop single, remix, and album ever recorded at their disposal, the highly respected Ego Trip staff are the ones to do it. Their "Book Of Rap Lists" runs the gamut of hip-hop information, breaking it down into chapters on art, lyrics, production, fashion, names, performances, etc. This is an exhaustive, indispensable and completely irreverent bible of true hip-hip knowledge.

Notes: Showcasing the mastermind behind some of the most iconic rave flyers and record covers of the late eighties and early nineties, Junior Tomlin: Flyer & Cover Art is a comprehensive insight into Junior Tomlin's incredible back catalogue. It is the first time his work has been documented and presented in such a comprehensive, cohesive fashion.

Notes: Paperback: 320 pages

Product Dimensions: 12.9 cm x 19.8 cm x 2.3 cm

Revised reissue of the acclaimed first-ever book-length investigation into French Touch.

Back in print for the first time since 2004.

Updated version features previously unpublished interviews with Daft Punk, Laurent Garnier, Cerrone, Jean Jacques Perrey, Motorbass, Chris Le Friant (aka Bob Sinclar), Air, Etienne de Crecy, La Funk Mob, Cassius, The Micronauts, Stardust, Benjamin Diamond, Modjo, DJ GilbR, i-Cube, DJ Cam and many more...

During the second half of the 1990s, Paris experienced a dance music revolution thanks to groundbreaking artists like Daft Punk, Air, Super Discount, Motorbass, Cassius, Dimitri from Paris, Bob Sinclar and many, many more. It was a scene that became known as French Touch and was heralded throughout the world as the epitome of dance music cool, forever placing Paris on the dance culture map.

Journalist and author Martin James was there right from the start, documenting the scene from its inspirations to its earliest moments and onto its global breakthrough. In the process, he inadvertently provided the French Touch moniker that became adopted throughout the world.

Drawing on a dazzling array of exclusive interviews with the biggest names in French electronic music history, French Connections explores France's significant contribution to dance music culture that paved the way for the French Touch explosion.

"Endlessly informative and thoroughly enjoyable, James manages to bring even the most boring artists (Air) to vibrant life with his energetic prose and rich imagery." Bob Stanley, Mojo

"(James) has a rare, imagistic talent for evoking the unearthly sounds of modern dance music." The Guardian

"Viva Monsieur James! Essential reading for all fans of Gallic grooves." DJ Mag

Notes: Indepth and comprehensive Japan only Straight Jazz Guidebook covering Europe, USA and Japan from late 1950's jazz up to present day labels like Ricky Tick and the Deja Vu with full artist index. Full Japanese text with allbum sleeve pictures and full tracklistings of each album reviewed. An excellent jazz information source with additional Japanese text interviews with Gilles Peterson, Ricky Tick & Paolo Scotti.

Notes: Second edition of the long-out-of-print book which Bun B declared ".... defines Houston hip-hop."

Includes 32 new pages of never before seen photos and text, Northside/Southside Houston maps, and a complete index of the timeline and oral history of the scene.

Houston Rap is an immersion into the everyday life of the Houston hip hop community. The second edition, hardcover 304 page book features the photography of Peter Beste, who spent 9 years documenting the culture alongside writer Lance Scott Walker.

Houston Rap profiles noted artists such as Bun B of UGK, Z-Ro, Big Mike, K-Rino, Willie D of the Geto Boys, Lil' Troy, and Paul Wall, alongside reflections on the lives of departed legends such as DJ Screw, Pimp C, and Big Hawk. The book also features community leaders, rappers, producers, businessmen, and family members, all providing important insight into a great American cultural narrative, and the second edition features even more details into this astonishing and influential scene.

Notes: In the long interview that forms the body of this publication, Eliane Radigue talks about her work, her reflections and underlying research, as well as her historical context. The publication also contains a commented list of works and Radigue's programmatic text on The Mysterious Power of the Infinitesimal.

Eliane Radigue (born 1932 in Paris) is considered one of the most innovative and influential contemporary composers, from her early electronic music through to her acoustic work of the last fifteen years. Influenced by musique concrete and shaped by regular sojourns in the United States, where she discovered analogue synthesisers, her work unfolds an intensity which is at once subtle and monumental. Through her deep reflections on sound and listening, not only her music but also her working methods have come to shape a widely resonating set of new parameters for working with sound as musical material.

Julia Eckhardt is a musician and curator in the field of the sonic arts. She is a founding member and artistic director of Q-O2 workspace in Brussels, for which she conceptualized various thematic research projects. As a performer of composed and improvised music she has collaborated with numerous artists, and extensively with Eliane Radigue. She has performed internationally, and released a number of recordings. She has been lecturing about topics such as sound, gender and public space, and is (co-)author of The Second Sound, Conversation on Gender and Music, Grounds for Possible Music, and The Middle Matter, Sound as Interstice.

Second 2020 edition. English/French.

Notes: A great issue of the Jazz Critique magazine, one that features a wealth of rare records from the Japanese jazz scene of the fifties and sixties. The first part of the issue is done in discographical form at a level that features cover images, song titles, dates, and personnel for dozens of totally great rare grooves from Japan. Text is all in Japanese, as it is in the rest of the magazine, but as with other Japanese discographies, there's plenty here to hip you to some really great records.

Notes: This special edition of the Japanese Jazz Critique journal is a treasure trove of information about the great Blue Note label. The book (which is over 500 pages long!) lists each individual Blue Note album in numerical order, complete with full information on the players, session, titles, and dates - plus a small reproduction of the original cover! The book lists everything, from the early 10" LPs to the 70's ltd series and the rare Japanese-only releases! The book also includes a lot of writing in Japanese, but there's plenty of other visual goodies to make up for what you can't read - like colour photos of the covers, rare photos from sessions, and lots more.

Notes: This book presents a great overview of female jazz vocalists - starting with the classics, but also featuring a wide range of obscure singers as well. The book is set up like a dictionary, with alphabetic sections on each singer. The bigger artists get a full feature, with notes in Japanese, and key album pictured, but the best bits are the smaller artists, revealing hidden treasures for crate diggers.

Notes: Whatever happened to the record shops? Not long ago every town had one. Between 2004 and 2008 independent record shops were closing at a rate of one every three days. 'Last Shop Standing' looked if it was going to be an obituary to these great institutions. This new updated version, featuring lots of new anecdotes, looks at 2009: the year the record store fought back. With initiatives like Record Store Day, which attracted the support of artists all over the world, record shops staged the biggest and best comeback since Ali v Foreman.

New shops started sprouting up everywhere and vinyl sales rose by 33%. Graham Jones' 'Last Shop Standing' tells the story of Record Store Day and also lists all shops that have taken part. 'Last Shop Standing' features messages of support for independent record shops from Paul McCartney, Bruce Springsteen, Peter Gabriel, Joe Satriani, Damon Albarn and Chuck Berry amongst many others. This book champions the great characters that run record shops and explains to the public the problems they have faced. Graham also explains why he believes the record shops who have survived have a real future and why the public must support them.

The author, Graham Jones has worked at the heart of the record industry since the golden 1980s. He was there during the fruitful retail years and has witnessed the tragic decline of a business blighted by corruption and corporate greed. Jones has collected a wealth of entertaining stories that explain why the best are still standing, and how the worst of them blew it.

Featuring a new Introduction by Spencer Hickman (Rough Trade) and an additional chapter written by Michael Kurtz, the founder of Record Store Day.

Notes: The book 'Last Shop Standing: Whatever Happened to Record Shops?' is the story of how the UK went from having over 2000 independent record shops in the 1980's to just 269 by 2009. Graham Jones was in the perfect position to witness their sad decline from the vantage point of a record company salesman who has travelled the length and breadth of the UK to sell stock to these shops. As he watched the tragedy unfold he decided it was important that someone documented their tales before the record shop went the way of the stamp shop, the coin shop and the candlestick maker.

He set off on a tour of the UK to interview 50 record shop owners to see why they had survived whilst a couple of thousand others had closed. These interviews are the basis of the book. Graham thought he was writing the obituary of the record store but Last Shop Standing became a celebration of these great cultural meeting places: a David and Goliath tale of stores managing to keep going despite the immense pressure from downloading and supermarkets.

In 2012 Last Shop Standing was made into a successful film featuring Johnny Marr, Norman Cook, Richard Hawley, Paul Weller, Billy Bragg and lots of record shop owners from the book. The film has been screened all over the world and the DVD was the official film of Record Store Day 2013. Recently, record shops have made an astounding comeback and we now have more record shops than back in 2009. This updated sixth edition of Last Shop Standing plains why. This edition also gives a comprehensive update on the original shops interviewed. Last Shop Standing has become a piece of social history. It is also a damn good laugh.

Notes: Ecstatic Peace Library are thrilled to announce Linger On by Velvets-obsessed music journalist Ignacio Julia. This sumptuous new volume features interviews with Lou Reed, John Cale, Moe Tucker, Doug Yule, Nico and the most in-depth interviews ever granted by Sterling Morrison, as well as never-before-published photographs by James Hamilton.

The book will be launched on the occasion of Sterling Morrison's 80th birthday, this August 29th [2022] inside the historic and legendary Oak Room of The Algonquin Hotel in New York City with an exhibition of James Hamilton's unseen portraits of The Velvet Underground curated by Willis Loughhead with Ecstatic Peace Library.

The author of Linger On is an internationally respected and trusted Velvet Underground chronicler; he is the Barcelona-based rock n roll editor Ignacio Julia, who also published books in Spanish and English on American post-punk band Sonic Youth. When members of The Velvet Underground toured in Spain Ruta 66 journalist Ignacio Julia was usually among their entourage, front row centre at curtain call, backstage after the gig, in attendance of afterparties and sometimes discovered in the band's hotel rooms until lobby call.

Since 1985 Ignacio Julia has obsessively followed the band's career, interviewing and wining and dining the members over the years, and publishing countless articles, intimate profiles and books in Spanish and English on The Velvet Underground. He is known among international Velvets fan clubs as one of the most dedicated chroniclers and archivists of studio bootlegs, live concert recordings, writings and poetry to the extent that even the band's own members refer to his knowledge for fact-checking purposes.

297 (H) x 210 (W) mm Portrait, 244pp + PPC

Notes: "That's my argument against the way punks become so cabaret. It's almost patronising [when bands play all their hits]. Oh, we'd better play 'How Much Longer' because people want that. To me, that's just patronising to the audience. I'd like to feel, and I always have done, that an Alternative TV audience wants us to experiment or to try new things out through that sense of exploration, or that childlike sense of wonder about making music.

That's why I've always wanted to retain that. I haven't always got it right, but that continuing journey to explore new areas of expression has got value, and that's why I think it's worth proceeding in that way. I'm doing that with the new band. I'm trying to instil that with them. This is what ATV is about."

"People have suggested to me that touring with The Pop Group must have been so arty and that we must have all been talking about Kafka at night. Bollocks were we! We were out of our minds most nights on fucking booze!" "I was really full of myself. I thought back then that I've got something to say and must be listened to. You only need to hear some of my stuff to know I was like that at the time, like on 'Alternatives', when I was having a go at people and telling them what to do and all that. Looking back, it's a bit embarrassing, but at the time it was sort of vital. Some people liked that and liked joining in.

So, 'Fellow Sufferer' was part of that. I did feel that because I was saying stuff and was playing music [away from] that punk template I was putting my reputation on the line. You know, [my being the] Sniffin' Glue editor and all that. I was going into what I thought was new ground and, let's face it, a lot of people didn't like it, and because of the way I was that spurred me on to make it even more extreme.

So, when we got on to the Vibing Up the Senile Man material, I decided quite early on that we didn't want to have a drummer and wanted to get back to making a space by getting rid of all the rhythm. I just thought if we get rid of all the rhythm it'll be more experimental [because] we wouldn't be tied to a strict beat. That's why there are no drums, really, on the Vibing Up the Senile Man songs. I played drums on the second Peel session, because we'd got rid of Chris Bennett, though. We'd chucked him out the band."

Mark Perry is a familiar name from the early punk scene in London due to his having published Sniffin' Glue fanzine between July 1976 and August 1977. As he became increasingly disillusioned with punk, however, he at least still remained driven by its impetus and started his group, Alternative TV. With their first release, 'Love Lies Limp', issued as a 7" flexi single with Sniffin' Glue 12, itself the final edition of the fanzine, it was clear that Alternative TV were not going to readily sit comfortably alongside the countless hordes of identikit punk groups forming around the same time.

Sharper yet wrought with frustration, Mark Perry took the group through a more personal space that pre-empted what a short while later became known as post-punk. Whilst sometimes charged with the same energy and anger, the music was more opened out and embraced all manner of different and often disparate areas, from reggae to industrial, improvisation and even brazen pop. Offset by subject matter that likewise often smashed down those borders of expectation, Mark always took his music wherever he felt it should go.

Not given to compromise or always taking the easiest route, even when sometimes handed to him, his approach to songwriting or making records has rarely strayed from an artistic vision which sets him apart from his contemporaries. Lost in Room focusses on the first four years of his musical path, beginning with 'Love Lies Limp' and ending as the first version of the group collapsed soon after 1981's Strange Kicks album and Mark's joining The Reflections.

Along the way are tours with Chelsea, Here & Now and The Pop Group, a huge love of Frank Zappa, a meeting of minds with the late Genesis P-Orridge, the running of Step-Forward Records and working for Miles Copeland's Faulty Products network of labels, plenty of anecdotes about the world he was embroiled in, and the story behind the records themselves.

Broken into two main parts, one concerning the historical development of Alternative TV and Mark's occasional releases outside the group, and the other dedicated to the ideas that informed many of the songs themselves, this book is centred around a conversational approach to a series of weekly interviews conducted via Zoom with Mark between late 2021 and summer 2022.

Deliberately retaining the organic nature of the conversations, replete with tangents that sometimes refer to later work or creep elsewhere completely, Lost in Room is the first book to explore the early years of Mark Perry's having become one of the most interesting and honest voices to have arrived from the cultural shift of the late 1970s.

Notes: Keith Morris is a true punk icon. No one embodies the sound of Southern Californian hardcore the way he does. With his waist-length dreadlocks and snarling vocals, Morris is known the world over for his take-no-prisoners approach on the stage and his integrity off of it. Over the course of his forty-year career with Black Flag, the Circle Jerks and OFF!, he's battled diabetes, drug and alcohol addiction, and the record industry ...and he's still going strong. "My Damage: The Story Of A Punk Rock Survivor" is more than a book about the highs and lows of a punk rock legend. It's a story from the perspective of someone who has shared the stage with just about every major figure in the music industry and has appeared in cult films like The Decline Of Western Civilization and Repo Man. A true Hollywood tale from an LA native, "My Damage: The Story Of A Punk Rock Survivor" reveals the story of Morris's streets, his scene and his music - as only he can tell it. Now available again as a hardback.

Notes: NOFX: The Hepatitis Bathtub And Other Stories is the first tell-all autobiography from one of the world's most influential and controversial punk bands. Fans and non-fans alike will be shocked by the stories of murder, suicide, addiction, counterfeiting, riots, bondage, terminal illness, the Yakuza and drinking pee. Told from the perspective of each of the band's members, this book looks back at more than 30 years of comedy, tragedy and completely inexplicable success.

Notes: For twenty-five years, Nebraska songwriter Simon Joyner has crafted haunting, honest songs about the unsettled dust of lovers and strangers. A pioneer of the Omaha music scene, Joyner has earned the praises of Conor Oberst, Beck, Gillian Welch, John Peel, John Darnielle, and more. As Dennis Callaci explains in his heartfelt foreword, Joyner has spent those years and earned those praises for songs about the "sorrow and southbound turns" of "the put-upon, the tortured, builders of arcs."

Only Love Can Bring You Peace is the first selection of Simon Joyner's lyrics (assembled and edited by Simon and his wife Sara) to appear in book form, showcasing the images and characters of over 15 albums, EPs, and rare releases. It also features two interviews with Joyner (from Aquarium Drunkard [2015] and Circumstantial Evidence [1996]), rare liner notes, and illustrations from over a dozen guest starring friends.

Whether you're new to Joyner's work, or you've had his songs stuck in your head since 1992, this book serves as a sturdy companion to what Callaci calls "the grass, branch and bone of a lifetime."

Notes: Projectile is an artist's book by John Sparagana, Reto Geiser and David Grubbs. The book spirals outward from a single source image: a news photograph of chair-throwing at the conclusion of a cancelled rock concert in the early 1980s. Visual artist John Sparagana has long produced sliced and mixed collage works in which a source image is enlarged, copies of the image sliced vertically into 1/8" strips and then sequenced horizontally, followed by a second stage in which the stretched image is sliced horizontally and sequenced vertically. The resulting works stutter, shimmer, extrapolate, and radiate with all manner of dazzling visual effects. Projectile deepens this engagement, with Geiser drawing from multiple works by Sparagana and a work of short fiction by Grubbsia single 2,100-word sentence that wends its way through the entirety of the book.

Notes: 'Record Map Book of Japan 2009/2010' is a detailed book listing the best record /CD shops you should be digging through in Japan. This book includes detailed info on shops & the types of music they stock.

Notes: To celebrate their 20th Anniversary the Jamaican Recordings label have collaborated with reggae historian and writer, Noel Hawks, in producing a trilogy of books detailing the growth of the Jamaican recording industry told through the various studios where the music was made and manufactured.

This fascinating story has been assembled after exhaustive, extensive research and includes interviews with many of the key players from defining periods in the history of reggae music. 'Jamaican Recordings' is presented in three separate volumes. This is the first volume, outlining the Jamaican recording business from its earliest manifestations in the local mento and the American rhythm & blues styles through to the first identifiable Jamaican creation ska, and the establishment of the Island's most important studio Studio One, owned by Clement "Coxsone" Dodd.

Notes: Writer Ted Fox and artist James Otis Smith bring to life Harlem's legendary theater in this graphic novel adaptation of Fox's definitive, critically acclaimed history of the Apollo.

Since its inception as an African-American theater in 1934, the Apollo, and the thousands of entertainers who performed there, have led the way in the presentation of swing, bebop, rhythm and blues, jazz, gospel, soul, funk and hip-hopialong with the latest in dance and comedy. The Apollo has nurtured and featured thousands of artists, many of whom have become legends. The beauty they have given the world - their art - transcends the hatred, ignorance, and intolerance that often made their lives difficult. Today, the Apollo enjoys an almost mythical status. With its breathtaking art, this graphic novel adaptation of Showtime at the Apollo brings to life the theater's legendary significance in music history, African American history, and to the culture of New York City.

Notes: The first book by Detroit Artist and Photographer Nick Jaskey. Signs of Life is over 200 colour pages perfect bound in an edition of 535. Self-published and printed in Michigan.

Signs of Life is a visual autobiographical journey through the city of Detroit, where Nick Jaskey lives and works. For the past 15 years, Nick has been taking fragmented portraits of the streets where he grew up.

These images capture humour, abstraction, architecture and landscapes that inform the viewer of the narrative that unfold in these neighbourhoods.

The collection of photos in "Signs of Life" are an ode to the beauty and simplicity found in a city that has found alternative ways of communication.

As a result, the hands of many are layered, and involved and full of humanity.

The images collected in here explore the fact that we as humans are a product of our environment, and our environment is a product of us... a civilization gone awry.

-Barry Mcgee