Bücher

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: Mechanical Fantasy Box is Cowley's homoerotic journal, or as he called it, "graphic accounts of one man's sex life." The journal begins in 1974 and ends in 1980 on his 30th birthday. It chronicles his slow rise to fame from lighting technician at The City Disco to crafting a ground-breaking 16-minute remix of Donna Summer's "I Feel Love" to performing with Sylvester at the SF Opera House. Vivid descriptions are told of cruising in '70s SoMA sex venues to primal highs in Buena Vista Park and composing pornophonics in his Castro apartment. The entries are introspective and show a very out-front, alive person going through the throes of gay liberation post-Stonewall.

French-born artist and Berlin resident Gwenael Rattke works in collage, silkscreen, photography and Xerox graphics. Rattke's collage works borrow from the visual codes of the 60s and 70s. Intricate, ornamental and excessive, they present "an imagined past fired with beauty and sexual freedom." For this book Rattke created 25 original illustrations inspired by selected entries, 3 street maps documenting locations mentioned herein and 4 collages of photos, ephemera and notes Patrick stuffed inside the journal. We've included Patrick's doodles too, as well as introductory essays by Josh Cheon, Theresa McGinley and Jorge Socarras.

Notes: · This deluxe 200 page hardback 12”x12”book
features hundreds of stunning full size record
cover designs from the legendary Studio One
Records.
· Described by Chris Blackwell as The University Of
Reggae, Studio One is by far the most important
record label in the history of Reggae music, an A-Z
of Jamaican music as iconic as Motown was to
soul, or Blue Note for Jazz.
· The book features classic artwork from Bob Marley
And The Wailers, Horace Andy, Alton Ellis, Freddie
McGregor, The Skatalites, Marcia Griffiths, Burning
Spear, The Heptones, Toots and the Maytals and
many more artists all of whom launched their
careers at Studio One.
· As well as many classic sleeves there are
numerous rare designs, including a collector’s
section featuring many alternate, silkscreen and
rarely seen designs.
· As Jamaica approaches the 50th anniversary of
independence, this stunning deluxe book is a
timely look at Reggae music’s legendary record
label and the artists and musicians that it made
famous.
· The book also features an introductory essay by
Steve Barrow (author of ‘Rough Guide To Reggae’)
and is edited by Stuart Baker (Soul Jazz Records).

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

Notes: Reggae Soundsystem 45! is a new stunning deluxe 500 page flexibound book that features over 1000 full size record label 45 rpm single designs that span the history of reggae music.

The book is compiled by the renowned author and reggae expert Steve Barrow (Rough Guide to Reggae/Blood and Fire Records) and Stuart Baker (Soul Jazz Records). Text by Steve Barrow and Noel Hawks.
As well as the stunning full-size 45 designs, this book is ram-jam filled with text on many of the records, artists, producers and record companies featured in the book.

The 45rpm 7" single is at the heart of reggae music, the main tool in which reggae music has been communicated to the public by the deejays in the dancehalls of Kingston, through to its dissemination worldwide, over the last 50+years.
These unique label designs give us a hidden history of design that is raw, innovative and hip. Ever since the birth of the Jamaican music industry through to the present day, these idiosyncratic label designs have helped illustrate, signify and energise the music that they accompany.

Reggae 45 Soundsystem is released to coincide with the publication of a second large format hardback 12x12" book, Reggae Soundsystem which features original album cover art of reggae, also published by Soul Jazz Books.

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: The first instalment of David Gedge's 'memoir-in-comic-book-form' will be released in paperback for the first time by Scopitones books. The stories featured in this stunning 176-page, matt-laminated, graphic novel have previously only been available to readers of the tales from the Wedding Present comic book series. This collected edition comes with forty pages of never-before-seen additional material and an introduction by Ian Rankin. David has written this autobiography together with long-time musical associate Terry de Castro, and the stories are illustrated by virtuoso artist Lee Thacker. It's in chronological order, beginning with David's childhood in England and South Africa and continues up to the inception of the Wedding Present. On the way we learn about some of the romantic experiences that may have informed his writing, how he first met the legendary BBC presenter John Peel, and the true story behind the classic Wedding Present song 'My Favourite Dress'.

Reviews "An autobiography of the wedding present would be great on its own. An autobiography in beautiful graphic novel form? Even better!" Dan Vebber (writer, The Simpsons)

"This is brilliant! It's like the storyboard for a Wedding Present biopic." Marc Riley (broadcaster, BBC)

"As informative, funny and essential as David Gedge himself. Can I be in the movie when all this is franchised?" Tony Gardner (actor)

"This is the graphic novel indie music mash up that we have all been waiting for and only David Gedge could deliver. It's amazing!" Stella Creasy (member, British Parliament)

"This is a Wedding Present fan's dream come true. Pure unfiltered Gedge; the inside track on what makes him tick and anecdotes aplenty. Essential!" Mike Gayle (author)

"It's very typical of the wedding present to do an autobiography differently to everyone else... But the stunning illustrations in this book really bring David's stories to life." Louise Wener (writer, musician)

Notes: Eat 17 is a beautiful 237 page, perfect bound book filled with the brilliant collage art of Robert Pollard.

Notes: Record stores are popping up again everywhere. New vinyl pressing plants are opening in America, Europe and Asia. Young vinyl enthusiasts - both male and female! - are swarming to record fairs looking for old and new records to build their collection. When Passion for Vinyl Part 1 came out, there was still some doubt about the comeback of vinyl. Wasn't it all just a hype? Now, five years later, even the biggest sceptic can't deny it: vinyl is back and it's here to stay!

In light of all these new and exciting developments, a follow-up to the successful and well-received first volume of the Passion for Vinyl book (four stars in Record Collector magazine) is more than viable. DJs, musicians, engineers, designers, shop managers, record label CEOs and collectors like Dischord's Ian MacKaye, Norton's Miriam Linna, singer-songwriter Ryley Walker, musician and producer T Bone Burnett, Abbey Road's half-speed maestro Miles Showell, DJs Sven Vath and Ellen Allien, designer John Kosh and many others tell about the records that changed their lives, their love for vinyl and the impact its resurgence has had on them. Passion for Vinyl Part 2 also shows how analogue recording techniques are making a comeback in the recording and mastering studios.

In the last few years, countless music lovers have (re)discovered that nothing beats listening to a vinyl record on a proper stereo set. It makes the listener connect with the music like nothing else. This book is a tribute to that unique experience.

Passion for Vinyl Part. 2 is written by Dutch author, music journalist and vinyl fanatic Robert Haagsma. With an introduction by Michael Kurtz, co-founder of Record Store Day.

Includes a limited edition 7" on white vinyl, featuring two tracks from Norton Record's Hasil Adkins and Bloodshot Bill, plus DJ/producer Ellen Allien on the flip side.

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

Notes: The eleventh issue of We Jazz Magazine, "Oni Puladi" for Carla Bley. 128 pages, 170 x 240 mm in size and printed on 140g Edixion paper with laminated 300g Invercote covers. All articles presented in English. Carla Bley by Stewart Smith, Gondwana Records by Debra Richards, [Ahmed] by Seymour Wright, Amirtha Kidambi by Ayana Contreras, Ruth Goller by Daryl Worthington, Abdul Wadud by Pierre Crepon / David Neil Lee, Francois Jeanneau by Bret Sjerven, Mette Henriette by Debra Richards, Nduduzo Makhathini by Rob Garratt, Discaholic column by Mats Gustafsson, We Jazz Festival 2023 photo essay by Julius Toyryla, album & live reviews, plus more.

Notes: Until we have a feature film in which Bill Callahan's words are spoken by the true and deep characters who exist within the songs, the best format will be this lyric book - wait, no, the best format will always be the albums featuring the songs, since they are sung by Bill Callahan, the author and singer, in his own inimitable and completely individual fashion. I Drive a Valence, however, which spans two decades of Smog/Bill Callahan songs, is a fairly unforgettable look-see; in fact, it's a definitive-yet-concise trip through the mirror, collecting the lyrics to 70 songs and pairing them with 116 dreamy ink-wash images by the man himself.

The nuances and ambiguities within plain-spoke expression are at the exquisite center of Callahan's gift, and the plain fact of words on paper nails them down in a concrete fashion that signals eternity somehow more concretely than sounds in the air can conjure.

I Drive a Valence does this for the listener - makes him/her a reader, while putting Bill Callahan's songs on another shelf where they sit just as entirely as they do on LP shelves around the world.

Notes: Dub Me Crazy (Mad Professor)

2024 Calendar

The iconic 12 part Dub Me Crazy series is available in calendar format.

Get your monthly dose of dub!

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: Brand new edition of Soul Jazz Records' massive deluxe 400-page Punk 45s cover art book edited and compiled by Jon Savage (author of the seminal book on punk, England's Dreaming) and Stuart Baker (founder of Soul Jazz Records).

This new edition comes with a new introduction from Bobbie Gillespie, founder of Primal Scream (who has recently also published his memoirs Tenement Kid).

Contributors include Peter Saville, Richard Hell, Richard H Kirk, Seymour Stein, Geoff Travis, Martin Moscrop, Glenn Branca, Jamie Reid, Dave Robinson, Roger Armstrong, Martin Mills, Gee Vaucher, Savage Pencil, Dennis Morris and more.

This book is a revelatory guide to hundreds and hundreds of original 7" record cover sleeve designs - visual artefacts found at the heart of the most radical and anarchistic musical movement of the 20th century.

As well as the encyclopaedic visual imagery featured inside, the book also includes interviews with a number of significant figures in punk music: artists and groups including Richard Hell, Martin Moscrop (A Certain Ratio), Richard H Kirk (Cabaret Voltaire), Glenn Branca and David Thomas (Pere Ubu); record label owners including Seymour Stein (Sire Records), Geoff Travis (Rough Trade), Roger Armstrong (Chiswick), Martin Mills (Beggars Banquet), Dave Robinson (Stiff Records), David Brown (Dangerhouse); and the celebrated designers involved in creating punk's original iconic imagery - Peter Saville (Factory Records), Gee Vaucher (Crass Records), Jamie Reid (Sex Pistols), Gee Vaucher (Crass Records) and Dennis Morris (Public Image Limited).

The revolutionary do-it-yourself ethic of punk was applied to the aesthetic of design as much as it was to music, and record sleeves acted as lo-fi signifiers of anarchy, style, fashion, politics and more with an urban and suburban invective courtesy of the 1000s of new bands - punk, post-punk, pre-punk, nearly-punk and more - that emerged at the end of the 1970s.

This book is an exhaustive, thorough and exciting celebration of the stunning artwork of punk music - everything from the most celebrated and iconic designs through to the stark beauty of the cheapest do-it-yourself lo-fi obscurities.

Notes: Title: A History Of The Jamaican Recording Industry 'The Upsetter To The Computer' From the Black Ark To Firehouse

Authors: Noel Hawks & Jah Floyd

Format: 230 Page Hardback Book Illustrated throughout with period photos, artefacts & record labels

About this book

The growth of the Jamaican recording industry

Records have played an integral part in the history of Jamaican music and the importance of making records, as opposed to making music, can never be overstated.

These are the stories, told through first-hand accounts wherever possible, of the men and women- manufacturers, musicians, singers, deejays, arrangers and record producers- who made the records and who made the sound of reggae available worldwide.

"Clearly this series is set to become the standard reference work on Jamaican music, such is its dizzying depths of research and the vast amount of oral evidence it has compiled from many years of interviews alongside critical quotes from recognised existing literature."

Steve Barker- The Wire

"In this third volume the authors skilfully weave interview material into its narrative. Among other histories, it examines the work of Lee 'Scratch' Perry, who transcended genre and became author of his own productions and, in the process, influenced the development of the major global artist Bob Marley. It examines the development of dub, the studio process that transformed the music, and in doing so exerted yet another influence on popular music on the world scale. It also examines the work of Lloyd 'King Jammy' James who utilised digital technological innovation to become a champion of sound system and record production and, thus, became the Eighties. equivalent of the earlier innovator Clement 'Coxsone' Dodd.

All this, and much more, is told by many of the protagonists who created the phenomenon of reggae as a cultural force that has travelled far beyond the confines of Jamaica."

Steve Barrow - Co-Author of "Reggae The Rough Guide"

"Noel Hawks' & Jah Floyd's third book on the history of the Jamaican recording business is another triumph. As with the first two volumes, they seamlessly weave quotes and recollections from the key players into the narrative, giving the reader a unique, and genuine, insight into the development of Jamaican music and the business of selling it. An essential read for anyone interested in ska or reggae and for all music lovers."

Chris Lane - Fashion Records

"I can confidently say, without fear of contradiction, that the final part of Noel Hawks' & Jah Floyd's trilogy is every bit as meticulously researched and mentally stimulating as the first two volumes. It may be that no history of Jamaican music can ever be totally definitive given how many of reggae's key singers, players and producers had already left Earth before anyone had the opportunity to get their takes on how it evolved. But, as of now, you will not find a more accomplished telling of the tale than that which is presented across the three volumes of 'Jamaican Recordings'... an Order of Distinction-worthy accomplishment that should henceforth become an essential component of everyone's reggae library."

Tony Rounce - Ace Records Ltd

Notes: A 470-page hardcover book featuring highly detailed photos and comprehensive research on 222 portable vinyl record players.

Once considered little more than a children's plaything or a grade school accessory, the portable record player has gained newfound respect in recent years. Whatever they may lack in high-end audio fidelity, battery-powered turntables more than make up for it with their convenience and ease of use. Just ask any crate digger: a cult favourite portable like the Columbia GP-3 or the Audio-Technica Sound Burger (or even the Fisher-Price Big Bird model) can be an absolutely essential companion on an all-day vinyl hunt.

Portables features lavish, detailed photos of 222 portable turntables from around the world, including rare record players from Japan, the UK, Germany and the Soviet Union as well as the USA, and ranging in vintage from the 1920s to the early twenty-first century. They're all gorgeously captured here by photographer Eilon Paz, with accompanying commentary from music historian Dan Epstein.

Whether you're a hardcore turntable collector, an aficionado of cool vintage audio gear, a student of industrial design, or a vinyl lover curious about the wild world of portable record players, Portables will make your head spin-and will soon have you scouring thrift stores, antique malls, and even your grandma's attic for the portable record player of your dreams.

Notes: Dubstep Volume 1 features the likes of Boka, Hyperdub, Skull Disco, Tempa, Uprise Audio and many more.

Notes: A crossroads of reggae and punk; a travelogue of Jamaica, UK, and Japan from 1982 to 2023, written and photographed.

To resist is to live.

1982-2023. Jamaica, UK, Japan.

The intersection of reggae and punk.

There are photographs that take on new meaning as time passes.

The lifework of photographer Masataka Ishida, who has been following the world's rebel music.

A record of his 41-year journey in search of true freedom.

The first product from Type Slowly.

Cover photo: Ali Up (The Slits)

Characters in the book:

The Clash, Aswad, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Caron Wheeler, Lee Perry, Adrian Sherwood, Massive Attack, Goldie, M.I.A., Shabaka Hutchings and more

Format: A5 (161×210mm) / Softcover / Colour / 352 pages

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.

Notes: At long last, it's here; the massive biography on THE BANGLES ready for consumption, and it is nothing short of a whopper. This monumental project, started by author and unofficial band historian Eric Shade back in the 1990s has had quite a journey from start to finish. This insane overview of the early days of the members' obscure early groups, as well as an amazing snapshot of the sorely-undocumented Paisley Underground scene of early 80s LA, all the way up through the core band members' current projects, is a feat some never thought would be fulfilled.

For a band as huge and omnipresent as The Bangles still in are 2023, the revelation of their earlier efforts, such as the mind-blowing story of Micki Steele in the first lineup of the fledgling Runaways, while the Peterson sisters were rocking out in bands such as The Muze, Hollywood Girls, and The Fans right around the same period is the legendary stuff mostly outside of public knowledge. The intertwining stories of Susanna Hoffs meeting David Roback (later of The Rain Parade) and getting inspired by The Last, with Vicki & Debbi's growing interest in garage bands like The Unclaimed around town, All Over The Place shows how many moving parts were swirling around, generating a indescribable electricity around Los Angeles as the hardcore scene raged on the other side of the coin. As the Paisley Underground scene evolved during its short window, bands such as Salvation Army/The Three O'Clock, Long Ryders, and Dream Syndicate are given their long-overdue historical appreciation here.

With original bassist Annette Zilinskas, the girls formed The Colours, evolved into The Bangs, and caught the right ears after self-releasing their debut 7" single, eventually signing to I.R.S. Records and touring extensively. As they changed the band name to Bangles, the lineup once again shifted, with Micki Steele joining, fresh off her years of gigging around LA in her post-Runaways bands Elton Duck, Slow Children, and Toni & The Movers, and things really start to fall into place. With their impeccable taste in 60s covers in their unique moment in time, The Bangles story just soars off from there, showing the gut-wrenching process of navigating the 1980s major label recording industry as a pioneering all-female band. Tours with Redd Kross, English Beat and Cyndi Lauper, MTV Spring Break appearances, meeting and working with Prince, and the inevitable drama that comes with superstardom once the "hits" started to stack up, this is the story of the Los Angeles underground you really need to read.

Shade's meticulous research and wild enthusiasm is instantly contagious, uncovering heaps of information lost to time from early bandmates and forgotten fanzines and overseas interviews, with no stone left unturned. From the inevitable struggles to the righteous triumphs, The Bangles back story has never been explored this in-depth before, while perfectly encapsulating the fertile Paisley Underground they sprouted from (and will always be a part of). Featuring an extensive discography and tons of previously unseen colour and black & white photos & ephemera, All Over The Place stands to be the crucial Bangles biography it was intended to be upon its conception.

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: 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: The birth and growth of the Jamaican recording industry...

Records have played an integral part in the history of Jamaican music and the importance of making records, as opposed to making music, can never be overstated.

These are the stories, told through first-hand accounts wherever possible, of the men and women... manufacturers, musicians, arrangers and record producers... who made the records and who made the sound of reggae available worldwide.

"An absolutely crucial survey of the origins of the Jamaican music industry replete with chapter and verse quotes from many of the pivotal movers and shakers. A wealth of new information, expertly marshalled: this is a book whose time has come."

Steve Barrow- Co-author of 'Reggae The Rough Guide'

"Noel Hawks' history of Jamaican studios and the characters involved provides an intriguing insight into the development of ska, rock steady and reggae. His lifelong love and deep knowledge of the music prove to be invaluable assets as he takes us on a journey from the primitive 'direct-to-disc' mento recordings of the Fifties through to the sophisticated roots and dub reggae of the Seventies. As both a music fan and a reggae business insider he has had access to the main players in the Jamaican music scene, and this book offers a genuine and unique insight into Kingston's studios and the producers and musicians who worked in them."

Chris Lane- Fashion Records

"Any music reference book should balance knowledge of an expert and enthusiasm of a fan in roughly equal measure. Noel Hawks' 'Jamaican Recordings' unquestionably succeeds in doing both. The wealth of facts and information that Noel has amassed in almost fifty years of researching and collecting reggae and its musical antecedents are presented here in a way that will show any reader that Noel still gets as much pleasure out of finding new classic music, not to mention acquiring new know how about it, as he and others among us did when we started our individual collector odysseys.

'Jamaican Recordings' is a fine read and a book that anybody with more than a passing interest in Jamaican recordings will need to add to their library right away."

Tony Rounce- Author & Music Historian

Format: 188 Page Hardback Book Illustrated throughout with period photos, artefacts & record labels

Notes: A retrospective of Third Earth Visual Arts and the career of Abu Qadim Haqq who as many of you know created art for Transmat, Drexciya and Underground Resistance.

The book covers his early life in Detroit to his last project for Third Earth Visual Arts in 2023.

Over 100 pages of art.
Over 100 pages of photos.
258 pages

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: 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: Photographer and road warrior Hannah Verbeuren presents a vivid, lurid, rabid history of mysterious heavy-metal animals Midnight. Captured in explosive live, comically candid, and lurid fantasy settings, the hooded band plays with fire, swords, and naked bodies in settings ranging from European castles to the the smutty back alleys of their native Cleveland, OH. Essays by Verbeuren and Midnight main-man Athenar ring the bells and keep everything street.

Hardback book

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: 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: EERIE VON's treasure trove of MISFITS / SAHMHAIN / DANZIG images features hundreds of live and candid shots from a peerless POV. Fly-on-the-wall photos from the best seats in the house document everything from the Misfits' humble beginnings in Lodi, New Jersey, to the heights of Danzig's stadium-rock glory. Few dared tread where Eerie walked during his years as unofficial Misfits photographer and bassist of Samhain and Danzig... and he was the only one wearing a camera. 180-page full-colour deluxe hardcover.

Notes: As the seventies drew to a close and the media declared punk dead and buried, a whole new breed of band was emerging from the gutter. Harder and faster than their '76-'77 predecessors, not to mention more aggressive and political, the likes of Discharge, The Exploited and G.B.H. were to prove not only more relevant but arguably just as influential. Several years in the making and featuring hundreds of new interviews and photographs, "Burning Britain" is the true story of the U.K. punk scene from 1980 to 1984 told for the first time by the bands and record labels that created it. Covering the country region by region, author Ian Glasper profiles legendary bands like Vice Squad, Angelic Upstarts, Blitz, Anti-Nowhere League, Cockney Rejects and the U.K. Subs as well as the more obscure groups like Xtract, The Skroteez and Soldier Dolls. The grim reality of being a teenage punk rocker in Thatcher's Britain resulted in some of the most primal and potent music ever committed to plastic. "Burning Britain" is the definitive overview of that previously overlooked era.

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: 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: Positive Influence was a hardcore fanzine done by Anji Lum and Buster Cates from San Pedro, CA, that existed from 1988-1989. This paperback anthology collects all six issues along with a new, 21-page introduction featuring never-before-seen photos, flyers, stories, ephemera, etc. You know the deal - every page of the original 'zines and then some, including interviews with Chain Of Strength, Free Will, Insted, No For An Answer, Operation Ivy, Reason To Believe, Slapshot, Uniform Choice, Up Front, Visual Discrimination, and more.

Notes: The extended play recording. Not quite an album. More than a single. And not only an artefact of the vinyl era, the EP has survived and even thrived at every turn of the music industry's evolution, from vinyl to tape to CD to stream. This definitive book unearths the EP's origins, history and cultural impact and enlists nearly 50 music-industry veterans (musicians, scribes, producers, executives, superfans) to create a list of the 200 best EPs ever recorded and shapes these opinions into a book that seeks to trace the arc of the EP's development and, in so doing, chart the history of the music industry writ large.

From Dangerhouse to Touch & Go to Sub Pop to Flying Nun, and all roads in between, savvy labels have used the EP to great effect and its been the way to introduce bands in a less risky mid-sized format for decades. This super-interesting guide shows how the format developed and how it took on a life of its own, from early jazz & rock'n roll through the beat & psychedelic rock era, right on through punk, new wave, and post-punk, and into the alternative/indie rock era, right up to the modern age. This rousing guide through the mid-sized mindset features a huge swath of guest writers galore, each offering up their enthusiastic opinions on which EPs deserve your attention, divided by decade, along with all of their details on long-forgotten B-sides and extras that couldn't fit on the 7" version, yet easily pad out a 12".

Notes: The history of India's first electronic music studio founded in 1969 at the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad by David Tudor.

A book companion to the compilation album The NID Tapes: Electronic Music in India 1969-1972 released by State51.

Subcontinental Synthesis explores the history of India's first electronic music studio, founded in 1969 at the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad with the support of the composer David Tudor. The essays and writings unravel the narrative and context surrounding the studio as well as the work of the Indian composers who created groundbreaking recordings during its four years of activity.

The texts reflect on the role of electronic music within a post-independence India, considering its interconnections with experimental design, radical pedagogies, and the international avant-garde, as well as the encircling conditions of Western ideological soft power within the global expansion of Modernism.

Contributors:

Geeta Dayal, Alannah Chance, Matt Williams, Shilpa Das, Jinraj Joshipura, You Nakai, Rahila Haque, and Paul Purgas. Foreword by Budhaditya Chattopadhyay

Notes: "A series of shit dominoes forever falling onto each other; the bloodline never stops creating a firm continual history of behavioural mess."

It's comedy night on the terminal ward. Jason Williamson returns with thirteen all-new short stories from a grim and desperate world where everything is either 'knackered and shit or new and shit.' Sound familiar? Here you'll meet roaming loners, twats in fast cars, hard men telling porkies, strong women who know the score, various music maniacs and sex-addled, whizz-infested pub warts galore. But it's not all abject fucking misery, Williamson's characters come alive and somehow manage to conjure some happy days from the endless, panicked slog of caged poverty and bad choices. So settle down for some porn barks, crap nature, terrible housing and dogging hotspots. Life a la fuckin sniff innit.

Jason Williamson is, of course, in the Sleaford Mods. He is also the author of 'Grammar Wanker' (2015) and 'Slabs from Paradise' (2017).

Perfect bound book. 144 pages

Notes: Amphetamine Sulphate, a chapbook press that prides itself on the cheap, brutal rush of pure literature. Among the writers of the first collection is Sleaford Mods' Jason Williamson, who's turned his pen to a collection of five stories titled Slabs From Paradise.

Notes: Take a trip through alien worlds and bizarre scenarios in a psychedelic Hero’s Journey of thrilling and surreal art from the mind of celebrated artist and composer Jem Panufnik. The Legend of Kaptain Karnival is a highly original lavishly illustrated book that also includes a CD soundtrack recorded under his Jem Stone moniker.

This highly original 94-page, lavishly illustrated book includes a specially created musical soundtrack with an array of incredible musicians including Ben Castle (Quincy Jones, Elton John, Hans Zimmer, Radiohead) and Dominic Glover (Incognito, Primal Scream, Brand New Heavies, Orbital), recorded under his Jem Stone moniker: the kind of deep, hypnotic and delicious grooves Mr Panufnik is renowned for.

The book is 24.5cm square and the 96 pages are printed and bound on heavyweight 150gsm paper with a hardback cover.

Notes: 1994 was a year of fervent resistance against the encroaching Criminal Justice Act in the UK. Amidst the clamour of dissent, three historic demonstrations echoed through the streets of London, challenging the very fabric of authority and transforming the nature of peaceful protest, forever.

Through the lens of Matt Smith (Exist To Resist), witness the raw energy and unity of the protests that shook the capital. Each image in this zine is a testament to the power of the people, capturing not just moments frozen in time, but the spirit of a generation refusing to accept oppressive legislation.

Pages: 68
Size: A5 (21cm x 14.8cm)
Binding: Staple bound
Print: Black & white
Front cover design: Tom Booth Woodger
Interior design: Jez Tucker

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: 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: Jim Franks is a baker and a poet who's written a love story about bread, which is to say he's written a life story about listening, learning, trying, failing, adapting, and above all, caring. Through humor, history, relentless curiosity, and refreshingly unsentimental poetry, Existential Bread teaches there are many ways to bake a loaf, just as there are many ways to live a life.