Back catalogue: All genres

Review: The Harmony Codex - the seventh album by Steven Wilson - takes you on a trip. A genre-spanning collection that opens up like a musical puzzle box, it presents a series of endlessly beautiful vistas that roll out and shift in front of you. Arguably the best album Wilson has made during a career that's spanned more than three decades both as a band leader and as a solo artist, it represents the apotheosis of a life spent fully absorbed in music.

While The Harmony Codex nods to records from Steven Wilson's recent past, at times echoing the paranoid rumble of 2008's Insurgentes, the crystalline electronics of 2021's The Future Bites and the expansive storytelling of 2013's The Raven That Refused To Sing (and Other Stories), here he has managed to create something entirely unique, a record that exists outside of the notion of genre. And although The Harmony Codex is a record made with spatial audio in mind, it's not one that needs an elaborate sound system to lift you out of body - two speakers and an open mind will do just fine.

Steven Wilson is a singular talent, an artist/producer, his last album - 2021's The Future Bites - charted at No 4 in the UK and was nominated for 2 Grammys. He is the founding member of Porcupine Tree, whose last album (2022's Closure/Continuation) charted at No 2. Steven has also received multiple Grammy nominations for his spatial audio work, having recently remixed artists such as Chic, King Crimson, ABC, Roxy Music, A Ha, Suede, Tears for Fears and Guns N' Roses.

Region code: ABC

Notes: The Paul Weller: At The BBC is a 30 track DVD featuring the best of Paul Weller's BBC TV performances recorded throughout his solo career. Released to accompany the lavishly packaged 4CD box set out on the same date.

Essentially, an alternate greatest hits set, the DVD includes versions of over 15 hits singles, some classic Jam tracks and a splattering over cover versions. All of this material is completely unreleased.

The recordings were taken from flagship BBC programmes; top of the pops, later with Jools Holland and, most recently, Paul's performance at last year's Electric Proms Festival in Camden where he was joined on stage by Amy Winehouse, Carl Barat, of the Dirty Pretty Things and Richard Archer from Hard Fi.

The tracks were hand picked by Paul Weller and the BBC's Creative Head of Music and Entertainment, Mark Cooper. The artwork features many rare photos, sleeve notes contain interviews with Paul, Noel Gallagher, Bobby Gillespie, Tim Burgess, Steve White and others.

Notes: Shot at the Camden Palace in London during September of 1985 this rare footage captures Wendy and band during an epochal point in her career of which there is very little other footage around. Having been called the "Queen of Punk Rock" in the early stages of her career, by this time known as the "High Priestess of Metal", gotten a Grammy Nomination for the Gene Simmons (of KISS) produced "WOW" album and just released her speed metal album "Kommander of Kaos". In top form here, Wendy's scorching vocals are punctuated by her famous backbend screams. The show features Motorhead (Lemmy and Wurzel) joining Wendy onstage for "Jailbait", and also includes a performance of "You'll Succeed", a crowd favorite that never made it to an album of the Wendy's. The show, originally broadcast throughout Europe on Sky TV. was Directed by Plasmatics creator, Rod Swenson, and Produced by Phillip Goodhand-Taite.

Region code: 0 (universal)

Notes: Pre-order before 20 November 2020 Release date 10 December 2020 Andrew Weatherall was the acid house generation's most inspiring DJ and producer, renowned for his work on Primal Scream's epoch-defining 'Screamadelica' and his own bands Sabres Of Paradise and Two Lone Swordsmen. As a DJ he was peerless and unpredictable, helming club nights that played techno, rockabilly or music that "never knowingly exceeded 122 bpm."

Weatherall featured in seminal dance music magazine Jockey Slut many times during its lifetime. All his interviews from the publication are included within this tribute to The Guv'nor. Further articles cover the tenure of his professional life from the mid-80s to 2020. They include his beginnings at the influential Boy's Own fanzine, his DJ sets at landmark nights Shoom and Sabresonic, and the plethora of ventures he still had running including the Woodleigh Research Project, A Love From Outer Space and festival Convenanza.

Jockey Slut magazine ran from 1993 - 2004. The influential club culture publication was started by John Burgess and Paul Benney as a self published Manchester based fanzine. It became a monthly when it moved to London in 1999. Jockey Slut was notable for being more music-centric, left-field and irreverent than other dance music magazines. It also bagged some real exclusives during its tenure giving first ever interviews to The Chemical Brothers, Daft Punk and The Avalanches.

Included in the 160 page, perfect bound book edited by founding Jockey Slut editor John Burgess is:

- All Andrew Weatherall's Jockey Slut interviews collated (1993-2004) including Weatherall Gets His Tats Out, I'm A Classic Underachiever, Two Lone Swordsmen and An Audience With... and more.
- Further new features and classic articles from Luke Una, Richard Norris, Kris Needs, Joe Muggs, Jim Butler, Mandi James, Lee Brackstone and more.
- Brand new 10,000+ word oral history of Andrew Weatherall's early years from Shoom & Screamadelica to Sabres of Paradise featuring interviews with Bobby Gillespie, Ed Simons, Danny Rampling, Justin Robertson, Andrew Innes, David Holmes, Keith Tenniswood, Anna Haigh, Terry Farley and more.
- Retrospective of Andrew Weatherall's club nights Sabresonic, Bloodsugar, Double Gone Chapel, Wrong Meeting, A Love From Outer Space by John Burgess.
All proceeds from the book will go to the charities that were important to Andrew Weatherall: Amnesty International, Multiple Sclerosis Society, Thrombosis UK, Crisis.

Notes: DJ Skills: The Essential Guide to Mixing & Scratching is the most comprehensive, up to date approach to DJing ever produced. With insights from top club, mobile, and scratch DJs, the book includes many teaching strategies developed in the Berklee College of Music prototype DJ lab.

From scratching and mixing skills to the latest trends in DVD and video mixing this book gives you access to all the tools, tips and techniques you need. Topics like hand position are taught in a completely new way, and close-up photos of famous DJ's hands are featured. As well as the step-by-step photos the book includes an audio CD to demonstrate techniques. This book is perfect for intermediate and advanced DJs looking to improve their skills in both the analogue and digital domain.

* In-depth interviews with the best DJ's for their genre offering insight, tips and techniques
* Covers the hottest new trends- DVD video mixing, effects, computerised DJ
* CD with audio samples features US National DCM champion DJ Perseus to demonstrate techniques

Notes: Houston Rap Tapes is the companion to Houston Rap, Peter Beste's intimate photo book on this important hip hop culture. Houston Rap Tapes complements Beste's photography with a series of oral histories conducted by writer Lance Scott Walker.

The book features exclusive interviews with legendary producers and MCs such as Bun B, Willie D, Paul Wall, Z-Ro, Big Mike, DJ DMD, K-Rino, Salih Williams and Lil' Troy, alongside stories from old school masters like MC Wickett Crickett and Rick Royal.

The life stories of the Houston rap scene are also represented by an assortment of radio and club personalities, impresarios, ex-pimps, former drug dealers and members of the community. Lance Scott Walker and Peter Beste spent nine years documenting the most influential style in twenty-first-century hip hop and the vibrant inner-city culture from which it stems.

Notes: A Celebration of the glimpses of gold that characterised WU LYF's short reign - featuring new essays, original art, photography & lyrics.

Whilst preparing the 10th Anniversary Re-issue of the Singular WU LYF LP- "Go Tell Fire to the Mountain" a long forgotten hard drive was unearthed that held a pristine archive of the golden years of the LYF's creative output.

On it, there were many snapshots of early Live Performances, Scans of all the Collaged Art works and Paintings, numerous Beautiful Photos captured by Friends and Lovers and to our surprise a folder of live & improvised Demos for what could have been the 2nd WU LYF LP that tragically was never finished.

For those directly involved browsing over it provoked some giddy nostalgia for a well spent youth - a glorification of what was and some starry eyed speculation as to what could have been...

The conversation then arose that it would be a real shame to leave the work of WU LYF entirely overlooked in cultural history, lost to the sands of time, left as mere digital ash decaying in discarded digital urns.

So why not share it all?

Featuring text by and interviews with Joe, Tom, Ellery and Evans. Plus additional text by Warren (War God) Bramley, JD Beauvalet, Matt Wilkinson, Beatrice Miniconi, Mino Tristovskij & Sean Wood.

140 pages with debossed logo on recycled eco kraft card

Notes: "Queercore: How To Punk A Revolution: An Oral History" is the very first comprehensive overview of a movement that defied both the music underground and the LGBT mainstream community. Through exclusive interviews with protagonists like Bruce LaBruce, G.B. Jones, Jayne County, Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill and Le Tigre, film director and author John Waters, Lynn Breedlove of Tribe 8, Jon Ginoli of Pansy Division, and many more, alongside a treasure trove of never-before-seen photographs and reprinted 'zines from the time, "Queercore..." traces the history of a scene originally fabricated in the bedrooms and coffee shops of Toronto and San Francisco by a few young, queer punks to its emergence as a relevant and real revolution. "Queercore..." will stand as both a testament to radically gay politics and culture and an important reference for those who wish to better understand this explosive movement.

Notes: "We're Going to Be Friends" is one of The White Stripes most enduring and loved songs. With the help of illustrator Elinor Blake (aka April March), the perennial favourite feels right at home on the page as a children's book. Children, adults, and you, too, can join Suzy Lee as she goes to school with her books and pens, looks for bugs, shows and tells, and finds a friend.

- New children's book based on song lyrics from one of the most loved and recognizable songs by THE WHITE STRIPES.
- The first book by twelve-time Grammy winning musician, actor, and producer JACK WHITE.
- Illustrator Elinor Blake was an animator for The Ren and Stimpy Show, Pee-wee's Playhouse & more. As a musician, she is known as singer April March, whose song "Chick Habit" was featured in Quentin Tarantino's movie Death Proof.
- The original White Stripes song along with new versions by April March and also The Woodstation Elementary School Singers will be included via download with the book.