書籍

Notes: Jim Ottewill's exploration of UK club culture and the urban landscapes that have housed it returns in a newly remixed form. This extended version features a new chapter exploring hidden histories and untold stories within Birmingham's nocturnal scene to provide more insights into the past, present and future of electronic music culture.

Notes: BBE Music is thrilled to present J Jazz: Free and Modern Jazz From Japan 1954-1988, a remarkable large-format book covering some of the deepest, rarest, and most innovative jazz music released anywhere in the post-war era. Compiled by Tony Higgins and Mike Peden, co-curators of BBE Music’s acclaimed J Jazz Masterclass Series, the book also features a foreword by Japanese jazz icon, Terumasa Hino.

This is the first time a book of this type has been has been published outside of Japan and the first anywhere of this size and scale. It is a unique collection of over 500 albums of free and modern jazz recorded and released in Japan during a period of radical transformation and constant reinvention. An era that saw Japan return from the ravages of World War Two to become a global economic power and emerge as both a technological leader and an international cultural force.

Through a unique gallery of albums, J Jazz charts the development of jazz in Japan from the first stirrings of the modern jazz scene in the mid to late 1950s and on through the hard bop and modal jazz of the 1960s. It steers the reader into the radical directions of the 1970s when free jazz, fusion, post-bop, and jazz-funk opened up a growing number of Japanese jazz artists to a new global audience before consolidating in the mid to late 1980s with a musical scene that laid the path for the contemporary jazz generation to follow.

Over 500 full-colour sleeves from many of the leading names in Japanese jazz sit alongside rare and private pressings that tell a story of constant change and musical exploration. J Jazz includes profiles of several leading record labels such as East Wind, Frasco, King Records, and Nippon Columbia as well as critical independents such as Three Blind Mice, ALM, and Aketa’s Disk. J Jazz includes interviews with celebrated jazz photographer Tadayuki Naito, and pianist Tohru Aizawa, bandleader on the totemic spiritual jazz album, Tachibana Vol 1, as well as free-jazz record collector and jazz musician Mats Gustafsson.

The book also features a chapter on albums by non-Japanese artists that only received a Japanese release, with collectible, rare, and obscure releases by figures such as Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis, Mal Waldron, Steve Lacy, and Art Blakey. J Jazz includes Japanese jazz charts from some of the world’s leading jazz DJs including Gilles Peterson, Toshio Matsuura, Paul Murphy, and Shuya and Yoshihiro Okino. Among the specialist content is a feature on obi strips by record dealer and Japanese jazz expert, Yusuke Ogawa, plus a special article on Japanese Blue Note albums.

Across its 300-plus pages, J Jazz includes a detailed introduction contextualising the music, tracing the story of Japan’s fascination with jazz back before the war. It also features biographical information on many of the key artists involved in shaping the post- war Japanese jazz scene including Sadao Watanabe, Toshiko Akiyoshi, Masabumi Kikuchi, Masahiko Togashi, Terumasa Hino, Yosuke Yamashita, Fumio Itabashi, Masayuki Takayanagi, Takeo Moriyama, Isao Suzuki, and many more.

Notes: "Matinee: All Ages On The Bowery" was created during the early 1980s when New York City was embroiled in debt and crime, and as the middle class continued to evaporate, the city confronted one of the most trying periods in its history.

Paradoxically, its underground music scene was teeming with vitality like never before. Still staggering from the violent outset and eventual deterioration of punk rock, hundreds of disenfranchised kids living in the city and outlying boroughs began forming their own groups to rail against the everyday trials and prejudices of urban existence. As a result, New York City became a hub for a flourishing hardcore scene; a cultural phenomenon that used punk rock as a platform for a politically charged, inherently regional catharsis.

Between 1983 and 1985, local photographer Drew Carola began photographing the patrons of the now infamous hardcore matinees that were going on at the seminal underground music club, CBGB. During the week, Carolan was working as an assistant to legendary portrait photographer Richard Avedon, and on weekends he set up a makeshift studio across the street from CBGB and intercepted kids on their way to the all-ages afternoon shows. The result is a collection of photographs capturing the beauty, vulnerability, and the unbridled energy of youth during the height of the Reagan years.

Now more than thirty years later, all of that has disappeared and a copacetic, prosperous, and gentrified element has taken its place. While the hardcore punk scene still thrives today, these photographs capture a time and place in history that no longer exists.

Notes: The book project "M_Dokumente" focuses on the explicitly female perspective of the all-female bands Mania D., Malaria! and Matador on the West Berlin music and art scene from the late 1970s on.

The three bands around Bartel, Koster and Gut played concerts, released records and toured around the world in different formations from 1979 on. What stood out and was new was the self-determined appearance of the musicians, which was reflected in their music and lyrics as well as in their unique style and the genre-crossing approach of "more art in the music, more music in the art". To this day, the three M_Bands are considered visionary, they shaped a new image of women in pop culture and are pioneers and role models for important and necessary emancipatory movements in the music industry.

With oral history documentary by and with Beate Bartel, Gudrun Gut and Bettina Koster as well as contributions by Nick Cave, Diedrich Diederichsen, Christine Hahn, Peter Bommels, Mark Reeder, Scumeck Sabottka, and Annett Scheffel.

In German and English.

Notes: We continue to learn about the Drexciyans and their first leader, Drexaha. 5 stories just like the Book of Drexciya, Volume One.

Notes: These are the first and last sentences from Charbel Haber's latest offering, A Common Misunderstanding of the Speed of Light: a multi-media musing on the chronic and the chronological, the subversive nature of time. This combination of a record and book observes the slow passing of life and the illusion of retrogradation in his every day. Simply by documenting - via image, text and tune - Haber assigns value to everything that is cast in amber by this project. There's an acceptance and appreciation of the destitution he witnesses, it is an homage given in overlapping forms.

ACMOTSOL has two parts. The book, paperback in an embossed orange, features photographs and texts taken from Haber's personal digital diary spanning from 2020 to the start of 2022. Broken into six chapters - named for the six tracks on the record - the entries are an artist's log of sorts during a peculiar period of global hyper stagnation and navigating the aftermath of the Beirut explosions. The 96 pages highlight Haber's interest in decay, negative space and the temporality of the human condition. Instead of presenting the images and texts as they were originally paired online, they're reordered and recontextualized in the book. New connections are formed, as tenuous and fleeting as the content they surround. The images interrupt the texts in many instances, forcing pauses and inviting distraction.

At the centre of the book is a sudden burst of orange pages, with stylized pluckings of the text framing a QR-code that grants access to the record. With the brilliant orange covers and matching innards, pregnant with the music at the core, it's almost as if these central pages act as a way to turn the book inside out. There, the book's purpose is altered, fixated on a mirror image of itself. It forms a self-completing arc for the project, a loop.

ACMOTSO's second half is that mirrored album. Six tracks totalling just under 52 minutes. The music could be a continuation of his solo albums Of Palm Trees and Decompositions (2016) and It Ended Up Being a Good Day Mr. Allende (2012), an exploration into the expansiveness of seemingly simple loops of a lilting guitar. Careful electronic effects add dimensions or reground the listener. There's a swelling of sound, the illusion of the push of space before it retracts back into itself or fades into the distance. Much like the images and texts the music complements, the songs challenge the purity of cycles. Endings are beginnings, beginnings are endings or is everything just the middle? Haber is quietly and elegantly grappling with the troublesome act of place-making. In music, in words and in visual storytelling.

ACMOTSOL is a work that can be calming or disorienting, depending on what is requested of it. Similar to the way loops and cycles can signify both meditation and mania. The tendrils of Haber's past - his home of Beirut, fictional and real characters encountered, authors read, films watched, composers listened, walks taken - knit themselves together for a presentation of our immediate present. An evidence of a happening. A considered project of time.

All photographs, texts and music by Charbel Haber. Album mixed by Radwan Ghazi Moumneh. Design by Maziyar Pahlevan. Printed by Albe De Coker in Belgium.

This dual-part project will be released on November 11 2022 on 'Other People.'

Description by Nereya Otieno.

86 images
6 songs
52 minutes
96 pages
86 texts

Notes: Drawn from private collections around the world, this is the first comprehensive collection of the Saturn label's printed record covers, along with hundreds of the best hand-designed, one-of-a-kind sleeves and disc labels decorated by Sun Ra and members of his Arkestra.

Considered the foremost exponent of Afrofuturism, Sun Ra mastered a wide array of styles that spanned jazz, R&B, exotica, Afro-hybrids, electronic, big band, solo piano, orchestral, experimental, and chamber works. In his 45-year recording career, he issued an epic number of albums and he was one of the first Black musicians to own an independent label, which he named Saturn, after the planet on which he claimed to have been born. The covers of Saturn LPs, issued from 1957 to 1988, are iconic- some rolled off commercial printing presses but many were hand-crafted. These records were sold at concerts, club dates, and by mail order. As collectibles, original handmade Saturn covers sell for hundreds, sometimes thousands, of dollars. More than just packaging for a slab of vinyl, they are works of art in their own right.

Sun Ra: Art on Saturn is the first comprehensive collection of all Saturn printed covers, along with hundreds of the best hand-designed, one-of-a-kind sleeves and disc labels, decorated by Ra himself and members of his Arkestra. Essays by Sun Ra catalog preservationist Irwin Chusid, noted Ra scholar John Corbett, and Glenn Jones, who in the 1970s signed Ra to a distribution deal that put countless homemade covers into circulation, add unique insights into the interplanetary life and work of Sun Ra and his Saturn partner Alton Abraham.

Historians have written extensively about Sun Ra and his music. This book is a tribute to the covers and to the uncredited visual artists and their rich imaginations. From the simple to the baroque to the absurd, the covers that sheathed Ra's discs reflect the tenaciousness of a genius who refused to compromise or relinquish control of his destiny.

Pages: 240
Format: Hardback
Colour: Full-colour.
Dimensions: 11.75" × 11.75"

Notes: Conversations with the avant-garde's leading lights--from Suicide to Anohni -- by experimental music's go-to interviewer, guitarist and sound artist Alan Licht. For the past 30 years, Alan Licht has been a performer, programmer and chronicler of New York's art and music scenes. His dry wit, deep erudition and unique perspective -- informed by decades of experience as a touring and recording guitarist in the worlds of experimental music and underground rock -- have distinguished him as the go-to writer for profiles of adventurous artists across genres. A precocious scholar and improvisor, by the time he graduated from Vassar College in 1990 Licht had already authored important articles on minimalist composers La Monte Young, Tony Conrad and Charlemagne Palestine, and recorded with luminaries such as Rashied Ali and Thurston Moore. In 1999 he became a regular contributor to the British experimental music magazine the Wire while continuing to publish in a wide array of periodicals, ranging from the artworld glossies to underground fanzines. Common Tones gathers a selection of never-before-published interviews, many conducted during the writing of Licht's groundbreaking profiles, alongside extended versions of his celebrated conversations with artists, previously untranscribed public exchanges and new dialogues held on the occasion of this collection. Even Lou Reed, a notoriously difficult interviewee, was impressed. Interviews by Alan Licht with Vito Acconci, ANOHNI, Cory Arcangel, Matthew Barney, Glenn Branca, Rhys Chatham, Tony Conrad, the Dream Syndicate's Karl Precoda, Richard Foreman, Henry Flynt, Milford Graves, Adris Hoyos, Ken Jacobs, Jutta Koether, Christian Marclay, Phill Niblock, Alessandra Novaga, Tony Oursler, Lou Reed, Kelly Reichardt, The Sea and Cake, Suicide, Michael Snow, Greg Tate, Tom Verlaine, Rudy Wurlitzer and Yo La Tengo's Georgia Hubley and Ira Kaplan. Introduction by Jay Sanders.

Notes: This book is about synthesis, the underlying technical specifications with added interviews of artists and manufacturers.

Sound Synthesis, Oscillation and Waveforms, Wavetables, Samples, Filters, Distortion, Resonators, Amplification, Effects, Modulations, Envelopes, LFOs, AM, RM, FM, PD, Arpeggiators, Sequencers, Modularity, Jacks, Racks, Voltages, Gates, Clocks, Triggers, CVs, Interfaces, MIDI, Analog, Digital, Hybrid- & Software-Designs, Polyphony, Literature, Rhythm Sources and much more.

In other words, all you want to know for a good start into the worlds of patching your own sound ideas with Modular Synthesizers, conventional Synthesizers and Software Synthesizers!

Full color print, 300 pages, English language

Notes: Mechanical Reproductions stay true to their original mission statement of being 'an outlet for editions of vinyl and print' and, for their third release, serve up a 48 page archive of some of the posters created by Young Echo's Amos Childs & Sam Barrett for the long running nights the collective have been running since 2010.

'Heavyweight Champion is the result of six years' collaborative collage works for Bristol's Young Echo collective.

The collective's 12 members have been running club nights, radio shows and releasing music since 2010. Two of them, Amos Childs & Sam Barrett (who also make music together as O$VMV$M), have been responsible for creating the posters to promote the club nights since the start.

These posters are a regular fixture in the visual landscape of the city, on walls, bins, bus stops and pretty much any other available surface in the lead up to each event. Their informal visual language immediately sets them apart from the other flyers vying for attention. They're intriguing: through not having the artist names featured as prominently as possible they encourage the viewer to take a deeper look. There's dense layers of images and cut-and-pasted phrases to be deciphered - ultimately a far more engaging experience than being shouted at by a generic and large-fonted neon specimen.

Thanks to the local council (and keen fans who would rather see them on their walls at home), more often than not these works are gone soon after they're tacked up, meaning the only archive of them is as low resolution images on various social media channels. 'Heavyweight Champion', then, aims to provide a lasting document of this unique and vital part of Bristol's musical culture...'

48 page, A4, full colour book, 100gsm evolution uncoated inner pages.

Notes: Tresor is pleased to announce the Drexciyan journey's continuation with the release of The Book Of Drexciya, Vol. 1, a graphic novel which covers the first 5 vivid chapters of this powerful mythology, a crucial Afrofuturist work.

African pregnant women thrown o the slave ships gave birth underwater to amphibious creatures. They could breathe as they did in their mothers' wombs, they had webbed hands and feet and became the Drexciyan wave jumpers: great warriors of the abyss. Revealed in the inner sleeve notes of The Quest (1997), through a map of the diasporic black culture, Drexciya illustrated four phases: The Slave Trade, Migration Route of Rural Blacks to Northern Cities, Techno Leaves Detroit, Spreads Worldwide, and The Journey Home (Future). It introduces the very creatures and warriors found in these pages, such as Wavejumpers and Deep Sea Dwellers. The return home is of destination future, where lays the population of their abyss.

Follow the story of the first Drexciyan, his subaquatic birth, growing up in the caves of Ociya Syndor, later to become Drexaha, the empire's first king. Get introduced to Dr. Blowfin, Master of Alchemy and Quantum Genetics, who masterminded Drexciyan computer systems and network, based on Genetic Intelligence and DNA matrix systems. Hear the story of the birth of the wavejumpers, the mightest warriors of Drexciya. Enter Bubble Metropolis, thriving with its central command, aquabahns and aqua wormhole gateways to the cephalopod-like oceanic Cruisers.

Authored by Abdul Qadim Haqq and Dai Sato, it features the art of Haqq, Leo Rodrigues, Alan Oldham, Hector Rubilar, Leonardo Gondim, Daniel Oliviera and Milton Estevam. Haqq's legendary concept imagery associated with the Detroit techno community and beyond for almost 30 years and his contributions to the mythology at the time of conception makes him uniquely positioned to lead this endeavour. Dai Sato is most known for his screenwriting for animes Cowboy Bebop and Ghost in the Shell.

This project comes with the full support of living Drexciya member Gerald Donald and Helen Stinson, the surviving mother of James Stinson.

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: 260 page, full colour, hardback book full of previously unseen photographs from Mika Vainio's archive and the Vainio family scrapbook, plus contributions from his musical associates, friends and family, unseen texts, a full discography of everything Vainio ever released on his own and in collaboration with others and much much more - including a CD of previously unreleased material.

The book contains a heart-wrenching collection of photographs from the Vainio family archive, a broad range of artistic contributions (text, photographic and visual remembrances) from Mika's artist friends and collaborators, an Updated and exhaustive Mika discography, Jennifer Lucy Allen's unedited transcript for her The Wire magazine 2013 "Invisible Jukebox' - one of Mika's most animated media responses, a variety of Pansonic ephemera from Paul Smith's own Blast First archives, and an album length exclusive CD of previously unreleased Pansonic performance recordings - "Turku Moai - live on Rapa Nui"."

Notes: Corbett vs. Dempsey present Roscoe Mitchell, Keeper of the Code: Paintings 1963-2022. This is Mitchell's first exhibition with CvsD. Roscoe Mitchell (b. 1940) has been a leading figure in the performing arts for over 50 years. Keeper of the Code is the first solo exhibition to spotlight his work in the visual arts. Born and raised in Chicago, Mitchell formed the Roscoe Mitchell Art Ensemble in 1966, featuring Lester Bowie and Malachi Favors.

Three years later, adding Joseph Jarman, upon their departure to Paris for a two-year sojourn the group transformed into the collective interdisciplinary troupe called the Art Ensemble of Chicago. By that time Mitchell had already recorded the first LP of music affiliated with the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), Sound (Delmark, 1966), and he had joined forces with St. Louis trumpeter Bowie for Numbers 1 & 2 (Nessa, 1967).
Indeed, Mitchell had been painting since 1963, and he continued on and off into the heyday of the Art Ensemble and through a hyper-productive sequence of decades of solo music, improvised encounters, and music for Mitchell-led ensembles. The pandemic afforded Mitchell time off-road in which he began painting very avidly again.

This exhibition surveys his work from the most recent canvases -- including a series of compositionally complex four-by-four foot works -- all the way back to the beginning, when Mitchell was a promising young saxophonist and ambitious autodidact painter. A large selection of recent works, executed since 2018, includes the painting "The Code 3," its diamond-mosaic pattern surrounded by hip glyphic figures including the titular keeper. These delightfully playful, jubilantly colourful canvases sport various repeated motifs and themes -- custodians of codes and keys, time keepers and ticket takers, figures known as "floaters" and "wavers," and another persona called "the watcher." Alongside these imagistic works, interpenetrating them as well, are all sorts of approaches to abstraction, from organic masses of circles that might recall Aboriginal art and warped checkerboards to more rigidly structured geometry and colour sequences.

In the gallery's north space, CvsD has gathered Mitchell's historical works dating back to 1963, including the cover painting from Numbers 1 & 2, and the riveting piece that graced the Art Ensemble's 1985 LP The Third Decade. In addition to the paintings, Mitchell is installing a new incarnation of his legendary percussion set-up known as "The Cage," which directly bridges the musical and visual in his capacious artistic imagination.

140-page full-colour catalog reproducing over 100 of Mitchell's paintings, with an interview by John Corbett. First printing, edition of 1000; printed on 100# classic crest eggshell solar white and 70# starbright smooth white opaque text; 8.00x11.00x0.75 inches; 0.2 oz.

Notes: The Icon Catalogue is a series of small A6 zines profiling 40 record labels in various dance music genres such as Jungle, UK Garage and Dubstep. From the most important labels responsible for the scene's foundations to rare, hard-to-find imprints now defunct, plus a few heavy-hitting newcomers.
Jungle Volume 1 features the likes of Dread, Legend, Moving Shadow, Rugged Vinyl, White House and many more.

Notes: UK Garage Volume 1 features the likes of Casa Trax, Groove Yard, Locked On, Social Circles, Swing City and many more.

Notes: Crass was the anarcho-punk face of a revolutionary movement founded by radical thinkers and artists Penny Rimbaud, Gee Vaucher, and Steve Ignorant. When punk ruled the waves, Crass waived the rules and took it further, putting out their own records, films, and magazines and setting up a series of situationist pranks that were dutifully covered by the world's press. Not just another iconoclastic band, Crass was a musical, social, and political phenomenon.

Commune dwellers who were rarely photographed and remained contemptuous of conventional pop stardom; their members explored and finally exhausted the possibilities of punk-led anarchy. They have at last collaborated on telling the whole Crass story, giving access to many never-before-seen photos and interviews.

Praise:

"Lucid in recounting their dealings with freaks, coppers, and punks the band's voices predominate, and that's for the best."
The Guardian UK

"Thoroughly researched...chockful of fascinating revelations...it is, surprisingly, the first real history of the pioneers of anarcho-punk."
Classic Rock

"They (Crass) sowed the ground for the return of serious anarchism in the early eighties."
Jon Savage, England's Dreaming

About the Author:

George Berger has written for Sounds, Melody Maker and Amnesty International amongst others. His previous book was a biography of the Levellers: State Education/No University.

Author: George Berger
Publisher: PM Press
Published: 9/2009
Format: Paperback
Page count: 304
Size: 6 x 9
Subjects: Punk Rock, Anarchism

Notes: Released in conjunction with 'Scalping The Guru', a compilation of four Guided By Voices EPs dating from 1993 and 1994, is 'Eat 18', a book of original artwork from the group's insanely indefatigable leader Robert Pollard. It's yet another Thing Of Beauty from one of American independent culture's greatest icons.

235-page perfect bound book of collages. Published by Guided By Voices, Inc.

Notes: Finally, after a decade of work, countless interviews and immersing himself into the culture, John Robb's definitive book is a journey far into The Art Of Darkness. The first in-depth book on Goth is a deep dive into the enduring culture and the social, historical and political backdrop that created the space for The Art Of Darkness to thrive.

680 pages with interviews with the likes of Andrew Eldritch, Killing Joke, Bauhaus, The Cult, The Banshees, The Damned, Einsturzende Neubauten, Danielle Dax, Johnny Marr, Trent Reznor, Adam Ant, Laibach, The Cure, Nick Cave and many others, this is a deepdive and walk on the dark side and into the very heartland of Goth.

Every generation has got to deal with the blues - embrace the melancholy. Find a beauty in the darkness, a poetry in sex and death...Whether it's the Roman love of ghost stories, European macabre folk tales of the Middle Ages, Romantic poets, or the original Gothic tribes sacking the Eternal City, a walk on the dark side has always had its attractions. In the post-punk period, Generation Xerox saw music, clothes and culture come together to create one of the most enduring pop cultures of them all that still resonates to this day... Goth.

It may have been a retrospective term for a scene that was already thriving, but its back story goes back millennia. The book starts with the fall of Rome and ends with Instagram and Tik Tok influencers, taking diversions through Lord Byron, European folk tales, Indian sadhus, Gothic architecture, Romantic poets, philosophers and idealists before coalescing through the dark end of the Sixties' youthquake, and then blooming like Baudelaire's Les Fleurs Du Mal in the post-punk period.

Defying the broken heartland of the post-industrial cities, the semi-forgotten satellite towns and the grim real politic of the Thatcher years, this was a post-punk culture full of dark dance and a death disco. The music soundtracked the style and a Stygian obsidian soundtrack fused the many fragments of culture that had been flirted with in the post-war pop narrative; a darker culture that began to coalesce around the holy trinity of the Doors, the Velvets and the Stooges in the late Sixties before flirting with glam rock, being amplified by punk, exploding as Goth, and then splintering into electronic dance music, industrial, psychobilly and new Goth, before finally filtering through dystopian Hollywood blockbusters, modern literature and throughout the modern world.

In the late Seventies, Goth culture emerged around a clutch of bands who found a new form of beauty in the apocalyptic foreboding, as a new youth tribe took glam rock from the catwalk to the cobbles and onto their own dance floors, creating their own art of darkness.

Notes: Formed in Wiltshire, England, in 1980, the Subhumans are rightly held in high regard as one of the best punk rock bands to ever hail from the UK.

Over the course of five timeless studio albums and just as many classic EPs, not to mention well over 1,000 gigs around the world, they have blended serious anarcho punk with a demented sense of humour and genuinely memorable tunes to create something quite unique and utterly compelling. For the first time ever, their whole story is told, straight from the recollections of every band member past and present, as well as a dizzying array of their closest friends and peers, with not a single stone left unturned. Bolstered with hundreds of flyers and exclusive photos, it's the definitive account of the much-loved band.

Praise

"It's all here: the genesis of the band, the practising, the song-writing, the recordings, the gigs, the original split and the reformation ... in fact everything you could possibly want to know about this very special band."
Tony Whatley of Suspect Device

"Ian Glasper captures the emotion and excitement surrounding one of the most enduring punk bands on the planet. With an extensiveisome might say forensicinarrative, this book really gets under the skin of a perennial favourite who have rarely put a foot wrong."
Nathan Haywire, Louder Than War

"Subhumans have integrity in spades, and you can't buy that. They were important then and are important now."
Sean Forbes of Wat Tyler and Hard Skin

"Subhumans are special both on and off stage. It's the passion that's evident onstage, with those beautifully constructed lyrics spat out with every breathiand that charged energy they generate, that sweeps through the crowd and leaves us feeling changed."
Ruth Elias of Hagar The Womb

"They're one of my favourite bands in the world, but a band is only as good as the people in it ... and the Subhumans are the real deal."
Stu Pid of Police Bastard

"Their songs seem to exist out of time, somehow always relevant. And they've stuck to their gunsithere's this stubborn defiance in the face of fashion, and a glorious, unaffected honesty."
iWinston Smith

"They are the ultimate punk band, with the most genuine, inclusive, informative, approachable attitude, and such amazing music ... tight and edgy as fuck, and so professionalia joy to watch."
Peter Jones of Paranoid Visions

About the Author

Ian Glasper has been writing about punk since 1986, when he first started his own fanzine, Little Things Please Little Minds. Then in the early Nineties he started writing reviews for Record Collector, and a hardcore punk column for Terrorizer, the extreme music magazine that he contributed to for the next twenty years. He is the author of six other books including Burning Britain and The Day the Country Died. A father of two, and a lifelong vegetarian/vegan, he writes for Down for Life and Fistful of Metal, as well as regularly penning liner notes for retrospective punk and metal releases. He is tentatively working on the next book in his ongoing overview of the UK punk scene.

Notes: "How Much Art Can You Take?" compiles over 170 images, many of which have never been seen before, plus first-hand commentary from the band and their crew, spread across 190 pages in a beautiful, 10" x 10" hardcover book.

Notes: ""20 years ago, I dreamed a dream of creating a family of like-minded, crazy individuals from all corners of the planet. That dream was Crosstown Rebels. Over these years, I have forged beautiful friendships, discovered very talented artists and tried my best to help, advise and support some of the most colourful characters in dance music. It's been 20 years of madness, magic and music. Now it's been distilled into our own book to mark this milestone. I'm honestly surprised at how much I remembered!" - Damian Lazarus

For 20 years Crosstown Rebels has forged a path as one of the world's leading electronic music labels.

Established in 2003, Damian Lazarus' label manifesto has not changed. Discovering and nurturing new talent has always been the beating heart of the label, with a mission to soundtrack the future of the dancefloor and beyond. Introducing the world to the likes of Jamie Jones, Seth Troxler, Maceo Plex and Art Department was just the beginning. Today the roster is gloriously international, showcasing the truly global scene that Crosstown has shaped over the years.

Of course, there's the parties too. The early Slash & Burn and Rebel Rave parties paved the way for Damian to create two of the world's most cherished experiences, Get Lost and Day Zero, and in turn setting a benchmark for electronic music events worldwide.

Now the Crosstown Rebels story is told in a new 240 page book. 20 years of madness, magic and music. Starting right back before the beginning and taking us through to the present day, acclaimed electronic music writer Joe Muggs dives into the label's history, interviewing Damian at length and revealing Crosstown's story as never told before. The book brings together countless unseen photographs and artwork taken from the last two decades. It tells the story of how the dance underground battled and triumphed. This is a unique publication, not only for fans of Crosstown Rebels and Damian Lazarus, but also for anyone with an interest in independent label culture and the evolution of dance music over the last 20 years.

- Deluxe 240 page book
- Limited edition with only 400 copies on public sale
- De-bossed hardback cover, printed on FSC certified papers, with alternating paper stocks, book ribbon and G.F. Smith endpapers
- Foreword by Pete Tong MBE
- Comprehensive label discography
- Printed in the UK by PurePrint, the first CarbonNeutral printer in the world

Notes: About the photographer:

Yamamoto Masao started to photograph when he was 16 years old. He also studied painting but later chose gelatin silver print as his media. His first gallery show in the U.S. was in 1994 in San Francisco. In 1996 he had a solo exhibition at Yancey Richardson Gallery in New York. His works have been shown in Europe since 2006. Besides Japan, U.S.A., and Europe, his museum and gallery exhibitions were held in Moscow and Sao Paulo. Media coverage includes NY Times and other major art magazines.

Yamamoto lives in Yatsugatake Nanroku,Yamanashi Prefecture where he enjoys creating his work while being close to nature.

Fine Art Book, Ltd. to 2000 copies:

Hardcover book printed on Symbol Tatami White Smooth 135g/m2 // 96 pages (including 6 metallic/silver pages), 26cm x 25cm, 56 photos // Logo, slot and circle embossed // Hand-numbered, hand-stamped

Notes: The story is about Taina, a nine-year-old, Afro Boricua basketball novice growing up in Brooklyn during a pandemic who learns valuable life lessons from family, friends, and the community, both on and off the court. The narrative seamlessly weaves social-emotional learning with math, arts, social justice, identity, culture, and sports education, all in a fun (and at times goofy) manner!

-Written by Bobbito Garcia and illustrated by Estafania Rivera Cortes.
-58 large full colour printed pages (8.5" x 11"). Hardcover w/matte finish.
-Age range: 7+ and beyond.
-A helpful tool for social-emotional learning as well as math, social justice, identity, culture, and sports education.
-For any store that buys the book, Bobbito Garcia offers to do a personalized video drop to post on their socials and he'd repost it in his stories on IG. He would also add the store to the website of where people can go to buy the book locally (aimhighlittlegiant.com).

-"A brilliant, beautiful and spiritual basketball revelation disguised as a children's book."-Scoop Jackson, author of The Game Is Not A Game
-"A unique reframing of basketball delivered through New York City's diversity, geometry and spirituality."-Max Resetar, editor of SLAM MAGAZINE
-"Yet another achievement for the brilliant Bobbito Garcia who inspires the youth to championship heights! There is a giant in all of us."-Dan Klores, director of Basketball: A Love Story

"Bobbito Garcia's street-smart text and Estafania Rivera Cortes' starburst illustrations make for a buoyant, fun, and thoroughly modern experience. Call 'I got next' on AIM HIGH!" -Alexander Wolff, author of Big Game, Small World: A Basketball Adventure

"I've been documenting hip hop, sneaker, and basketball history in books, films, and magazines since the '80s, so imagine the thrill for me to finally write fiction, and especially for kids! The experience was liberating and allowed me to flex my experiences as a parent, which I haven't shared much of at all publicly. I truly hope the multiple communities I exist in have the opportunity to see themselves in the words and illustrations" -Bobbito Garcia

Brilliantly illustrated by Estefania Rivera Cortes, an artist based in San Juan, Puerto Rico with a compassion for social causes, Aim High, Little Giant, Aim High! is an unprecedented presentation of NYC's unique outdoor basketball culture, created for children of any background to enjoy. The book is published by We Are Little Giants, an independently Black and Puerto Rican owned business.

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: Massive document collecting all 12 issues of In Effect Fanzine from 1988-1999. Extras include essays and context from Chris Wynne for every issue and a foreword by Brett Beach, along with new photos, flyers, etc. 722 pages total dedicated to this legendary NYHC fanzine.

Notes: "With his gratifying archive, Matt Goody details one of the most successful eras in the history of rock music - Flying Nun Records, formed in 1981 by Roger Shepherd in a Christchurch record shop. Shepherd and his brilliant cohorts served up the legendary output of not only kingpins like The Clean, The Chills and Tall Dwarfs, but also captured the best from favourites of mine like Able Tasmans, Bird Nest Roys, Look Blue Go Purple and The Verlaines. Goody provides the most comprehensive presentation yet of Flying Nun's rise from Shepherd's notepad to international underground rock sovereignty - and a vital part of one nation's collective art history." - Bob Nastanovich, Pavement

In this remarkable tale of creativity and chaos, do-it-yourself innovation and extraordinary attempts at world domination, Needles and Plastic tells the inside story of one of New Zealand - and the world's - great independent music labels. Hundreds of full color & black and white photos illustrate the story! Founded in 1981 by Roger Shepherd in Christchurch, New Zealand, Flying Nun Records unleashed an extraordinary wave of music that had an impact around the world. Needles and Plastic is the first comprehensive history of the early years of the label and its bands covering the critical period from 1981-1988 when many of the most influential and critically acclaimed artists emerged on Flying Nun, bands like - from The Clean, The Chills, The Verlaines, Straitjacket Fits and Bailter Space. The influence of the obscure label became apparent in the 1990s, when big-time indie acts like Pavement, Cat Power or Yo La Tengo started covering Flying Nun bands.

In entries on over 140 records from The Clean's 'Tally Ho!' 7" in 1981 to The Verlaines Bird-Dog LP in 1988, Matthew Goody tells the story through the records themselves. His book draws on years of in-depth research to reveal the stories of the bands, the recordings, the songs, and the audience, with a host of significant characters contributing along the way - Shepherd, Chris Knox, Doug Hood, Hamish Kilgour and many more. In this remarkable tale of creativity and chaos, do-it-yourself innovation and extraordinary attempts at world domination, Needles and Plastic tells the inside story of one the world's great independent music labels.

Notes: The Icon Catalogue is a series of small A6 zines profiling 40 record labels in various dance music genres such as Drum & Bass, Jungle, UK Garage and Dubstep. From the most important labels responsible for the scene's foundations to rare, hard-to-find imprints now defunct, plus a few heavy-hitting newcomers.

Pages: 44
Size: A6 (10.5cm x 14.8cm)
Binding: Staple bound
Print: Black & white
Authors: Chris Dexta & Alex Immerse

Notes: 160 Pages Book (Boodk/Auduio Combination sold as "Merch Item"), containing 13 QR codes to download 13 songs.

Aho Ssan debuts on Other People with second solo album and book 'Rhizomes' featuring Nicolas Jaar, Moor Mother, Angel Bat Dawid, clipping., Blackhaine and more.

Paris based composer Aho Ssan, the artist moniker of Niamke Desire, presents his new full-length 'Rhizomes' on the Other People label following his debut LP 'Simulacrum' (2020) and collaborative record 'Limen' (2022) with fellow musician KMRU.

'Rhizomes' draws inspiration from a concept coined and developed between Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guatarri. The idea of an ever evolving structural model, constantly in motion and spreading out in all directions at once. It has no beginning and no end, but always remains in a middle, through which it grows and overflows.

"The root thought is the one that kills everything around itself while the rhizome is the root that stretches out to meet other roots," Desire explains considering the works of French writer Edouard Glissant who addresses questions of identity, crossbreeding of cultures and its evolution.

Much like the name it borrows, Aho Ssan's 'Rhizomes' is a multimedia project that embarks on a myriad of disparate, unique musical and artistic partnerships. This piece adapts this concept to explore the influence of sound materials on creation, the appropriation of a sound object, and the collaborative nature of a composition that responds to modernity.

"Rhizome represents an underground stem system that fosters connections between various organisms and allows them to flourish collectively. It's an album that celebrates collaboration and brings together a diverse group of talented artists," Desire continues.

Aho Ssan collaborated with a comprehensive cast of artists to create a musical rhizome including Nyokabi Kariuki, Josefa Ntjam, Blackhaine, Nicolas Jaar, Resina, R?n C?p ?uoi, Richie Culver, clipping., Lafawndah, 9T Antiope, James Ginzburg, Exzald S, Valentina Magaletti, Moor Mother, Angel Bat Dawid and Mondkopf. Cooperation and community are at the root of this project and the lens through which all the compositions can be understood through.

Aho Ssan will present 'Rhizomes' AV show together with visual artist Sevi Iko Domochevsky at Berlin Atonal 2023. 'Rhizomes' received a Honorary Mention at Prix Ars Electronica 2023 Digital Music

In conjunction with the album, 'Rhizomes' comes complete with a set of illustrations by Kim Grano in a book release. The drawings become a hybrid language, each an emotional response to the musical half. The book contains an extended version of the album with 3 additional songs and 2 longer versions of the album songs. It also includes a sample pack by Aho Ssan and a collection of solo tracks by Elliot Blaise, KMRU, Lamin Fofana, Brodinski & Se?bastien Forrester, Valence Drake, 9T Antiope, Exzald S and Valentina Magaletti. The extended version package is only accessible through the QR codes in the book.

Notes: Written by Spiral Tribe's co-founder and visual artist, Mark Angelo Harrison, A Darker Electricity charts the infamous sound system's nomadic journey and the rapid escalation of their popularity - and notoriety.

From small squat-scene parties in early 90s London to enormous warehouse raves and free festivals. The undercover police operation against them. The record deal with Youth. The creation of their community recording studio. The government stitch-up and their prosecution. The escape to Europe and the start of the teknival scene.

Notes: New edition of Dancehall, Beth Lesser's seminal photography and style book capturing the rise of Jamaican Dancehall Culture in the 1980s. The book also features a new introduction by the British fashion designer and art curator Duro Olowu.

Featuring 100s and 100s of amazing photographs - all with accompanying text, interviews and biographies,'Dancehall' is an essential reference book for anyone interested in Reggae and captures a previously unseen era of musical culture, fashion and lifestyle in stunning, vibrant colour.

Aside from the music, this book is as much about Jamaican fashion and style. Beth Lesser's Dancehall photographs in this book have directly influenced fashion brands including Aime Leon Dore ('Kingston 1983' collection), recent Levi's Vintage and Farah collections.

Dancehall is a culture that encompasses music, fashion, drugs, guns, art, community, technology, and more. Born in the 1950s out of the neighbourhood soundsystems of Kingston, Dancehall grew to its height in the 1980s before a massive influx of drugs and guns made the scene too dangerous for many. Today Dancehall remains at the centre of Jamaican musical and cultural life. From its roots in Kingston in the 1950s to its heyday in the 1980s, Dancehall conquered the globe spreading to the USA, UK, Canada, Japan, Europe and beyond.

In the early 1980s Jamaica was in the throws of political and gang violence - photographer Beth Lesser ventured where few other dared and this book is a never-before-seen record of the exciting, dangerous and vibrant world of Dancehall.

Living in Jamaica in the late 70s and early 80s she photographed and documented a cultural explosion as producers, singers, DJs and soundsystems who all made a living out of the slums of Kingston. With unprecedented access to the incredibly vibrant music scene during this period, Beth Lesser's photographs are a unique way into a previously hidden part of Jamaican culture.

Notes: The uncensored oral history of the "Silver age" of the NYHC scene as told thru the flyers of the era, with over 200 exclusive interviews, never-before-seen photos, and ephemera. Told by the bands, fans, 'zinesters, promoters, photographers, graffiti artists, thugs, slugs, and troublemakers that made it happen.

Includes interviews with Evan Seinfeld (Biohazard), Roger Miret (Agnostic Front), Lou Koller (Sick Of It All), J.J. Janick (Discharge), Joey Z (Life Of Agony), and many, many more.

Hand-numbered out of 1,000 copies and signed by the author.

Notes: Teppei Miki Photobook "Public Disturbance"

A bunch of helter-skelter shots of underground punk/hardcore!

Teppei Miki, a photographer who has been photographing punk/hardcore bands in Tokyo, has published his first photo book "Public Disturbance"!

A5 size, 248 pages.

Bands appeared in the photobook include:

Gauze / Black And White / Doraid / Firestarter / Framtid / G.a.t.e.s / Nightmare / Skizophrenia / Slight Slappers / The Last Survivors / Accidente / Annihilation Time / Hank Wood And The Hammerheads / Haram / Krimewatch / L.o.t.i.o.n. / Mdc / Screaming Mad George / Sheer Mag / The Vertigos / And More.

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: Eat Volume 19

240 page full color journal of Robert Pollard's gorgeous collage art.

Notes: Michael Gira - The Knot: Complete Words for Music, Collected Stories and Journals

Hardcover 7 1/4 x 10 1/4 inches, 408 pages, includes 101 colour images printed on high quality photographic paper.

Journals, stories, and songs span the years 1981 to present. Includes visual archives and artwork dating back to 1974.

Hardcover Collector's edition of 3000 numbered copies, signed by M. Gira

"From the Preface to The Knot: This book contains the words to every song I've written worth collecting to date from all my musical projects throughout the years. I've left out various imbecilities and feckless half-starts. Also included in this book are several previously published short stories. They're taken from the collections The Consumer and The Egg, as well as a few other hand- made limited editions of stories. In a few cases I've included excerpts rather than the entire story. This was done for aesthetic purposes, with the overall feel of this current volume in mind. There are a great many journal entries in this book. For the most part they are also, emphatically fiction. They're from an ongoing journal, not a diary. My journals are where I often allow a disembodied, fictional 1st person narrator to take over and unspool imagined events, diatribes, impossible scenarios, psychic auto-cannibalisms, and corrosive or ecstatic dreams etc. Again, these are fiction. Certain things I've written about (in fiction and in song form) seem to exist beneath the surface (in myself and others) and I find them compelling to look at and to describe. I view this as a positive act. In acknowledgment of the constricting and microscopically judgmental and censorious times we live in, the usual authorial caveats apply here. Certainly there are many purely anecdotal journal entries included in this book as well, and my presumption is that an intelligent reader would be able to differentiate one from the other. Personally, I'm very suspicious of memory (especially my own), so I can't definitively vouch for the veracity of the recounting of the literal events herein either. I have also excised material that I felt too personal to include, out of respect for the people involved as well as for myself. There are several large gaps in the journal entries over the years. This is due to lost journals of the time, and in one case a lost laptop (which, painfully, contained a great deal of writing). There are also periods where I didn't keep a journal and didn't write fiction. In any event, I've tried to include fiction and journal entries that correspond roughly to the period before and after a musical album's release and the words that were written for that music. The end section of this book consists of recently unearthed visual documents and imagery and functions here as an incidental archive. The images span the years from 1974 to the present."

Michael Gira

Notes: Passion For Vinyl - Tales From The Groove

It's quite amazing that in a world that has become increasingly digital and where 'stuff' has become invisible, vinyl has made such a spectacular comeback.

Yet it is very likely also one of the main reasons for its resurgence. People like to collect. The physical aspect of playing a record adds to the listening experience and creates memories
.
An album can take you back to an important time or place. And buying a new record is a great way of supporting a favorite artist and their label. That's also the reason why new generations of music lovers have embraced vinyl.

This new edition of Passion for Vinyl tells these stories. It's about the records that inspire people. The way they shaped their lives. How they sparked them to pick up an instrument, become a DJ, or start a label, pressing plant or YouTube channel.

Passion for Vinyl features exclusive interviews with Blue Note recording artist Gregory Porter, CEO of Linn Gilad Tiefenbrun, Bettina Richards of Thrill Jockey Records, YouTube personality Melinda Murphy, Beggars Group US president Nabil Ayers, Ben Blackwell of Third Man Records, Classic Album Sundays' Colleen 'Cosmo' Murphy, Liz Dunster of Erika Records, Robert Trujillo of Metallica, DJ, collector and label owner Gilles Peterson, Jenn D'Eugenio of Gold Rush Vinyl and Women in Vinyl, Bad Seed member Warren Ellis, Paulo Jr. of Sepultura, Chad Kassem of Acoustic Sounds, and many others.

This book offers close to 30 interviews with a very diverse cast of characters. They have in common a deep love of music.

Passion for Vinyl shares the unique experience of making, buying, collecting, and enjoying vinyl. Its purpose is to inspire.

Passion for Vinyl is written by the Dutch author, music journalist, audiophile, and vinyl collector Robert Haagsma.

Individually numbered, including a free 7inch single.

The single contains two exclusive tracks from Lovemonk's Gecko Turner and Munster Records' Los Saicos.

Written by: Robert Haagsma
Photography by: Tim Knol
Published by: Record Industry
Pages: 232 (case-bound, full colour print)
Weight: 1.1kg

Notes: Oral history detailing the final tour in the summer of 1989, featuring never-before-seen photos, memories, and anecdotes from Matt Warnke, Drew Thomas, Tim Brooks, Tom Capone, Howie Wallen, Sammy Siegler, Walter Schreifels, Jordan Cooper, Joe Nelson, Mike Madrid, and more. Layout and design by Shining Life. Photography by Ken Salerno, Dave Brown, and Gabe Rodriguez. Now back in stock.

Notes: Chunks was a fanzine from Australia that documented hardcore from 2010-2013 and spanned seven issues. This perfect bound book houses 100 pages collecting all seven original issues, plus extras. Contains interviews and articles with Rampage, Vigilante, Floorpunch, Reckless Aggression, Waste Management, Negative Approach, Omegas, The Rival Mob, Inside Out (NY), Free Spirit, Stick Together, Night Birds, Enuf, No Tolerance, Boston Strangler, Shipwrecked, Peacebreakers, Prisoner Abuse, Meanstreak, and more.

Notes: All contribution issue featuring photos of Black Flag shot in the '80s. From black and white to colour, from grainy handheld cameras to pictures shot by some of the legends of punk photography, it's all in this issue. Featuring the photos of Kevin Salk, Edward Colver, Naomi Petersen, Marla Watson, Linda Aranow, Alison Braun, and many others. 100 pages.

Notes: If we are somewhat over-inundated with rock biographies right now, then you can trust The Red Krayola's Mayo Thompson to come up with something different. The second part of his 'After Math' series sees us catch up with a plot to smuggle a small erotic bronze out of Tirana and the subsequent plot twists and red herrings are as unexpected and bewildering as any The Red Krayloa recording.

Notes: Egostrip Book 1 is a beautifully designed collection of Dan Lish’s stunning character illustrations from the world of hip hop and beyond. There are 138 illustrations of pioneering artists from hip hop’s golden era, such as De La Soul, Madlib, DJ Premier, Mobb Deep, Nas, Cypress Hill, J.Period, J Dilla, Kool Keith, MF DOOM, The Roots, Biggie Smalls, A Tribe Called Quest, Biz Markie and The Beastie Boys.

The book is 27.2cm x 29.4cm, and the 160 pages are printed and bound on heavyweight 130gsm paper with a hardback cover. It’s also available as a limited edition 20cm square art print (see left for design).

Notes: Let the Music Play: How R&B Fell in Love with 80s Synths is the overlooked story of how R&B, disco and funk were transformed by the explosion of music tech in the era of ghetto blasters and Ronald Reagan. It traces how pioneers like Stevie Wonder and Herbie Hancock inspired a new generation of black musicians and producers to reinvent music with a whole new set of rules.

From superstars like Prince and Sade to production geniuses like Kashif and Jam & Lewis, it tells the fascinating stories of the artists involved and how they made some of the best-loved records of the era - creating a blueprint for music today.