Gift Ideas for Vinyl Lovers 11 Items

This book reveals the remarkable history of a company that for 100 years has always been in the business of acoustics. Indeed, for that timespan, Denmark itself, has been recognised as the land of acoustics, with many companies designing innovative products. The country retains that reputation today.

Ortofon has played a significant role in creating a rich heritage for Danish acoustics. We believe that enviable legacy is best protected and continued by the development of exciting new products and keeping Ortofon viable for the future. As you will discover in the book, the list of Ortofon’s famous and groundbreaking products is a long one.

Music historian Kevin Howlett has written this history of 100 years of Ortofon based on a firm foundation of exhaustive research in various archives and in-depth interviews with past and present employees from the 1970s until now. We are indebted to all the many friends and colleagues who gave so generously of their time to contribute to this book.

We are in the middle of one of the greatest periods in music packaging. Collectible packaging is back at the cultural vanguard: physical records are coveted by millennials, and hip clothing outlets devote massive amounts of space to record players and racks of LPs.

Album Art profiles thirty-three designers at the forefront of this movement, among them Braulio Amado, Chris Bigg, Brian Roettinger and Jonathan Barnbrook. They reveal and analyse the creative process behind each design, offering exclusive insights into how they are able to elevate the simple record cover into something more, something special, something unique, something memorable. Exclusive interviews with some of the biggest names in the field, including Stefan Sagmeister and Paula Scher, accompany the profiles. The designers aren’t the only stars of the show – the book reproduces and discusses sleeve designs for such artists as David Bowie, Tame Impala, Kesha, Kim Deal, David Sylvian, The Flaming Lips, Queens of the Stone Age, and more.

Packed with innovative artworks by one-of-a-kind designers, this is the definitive guide to album cover design in the 21st century.

Motown: The Sound of Young America is the definitive, beautifully produced visual history of Motown, the most successful independent record company in the world.

Motown became a prolific and hugely successful production line of suave, sassy and sophisticated music through the 60s, 70s and 80s. This exceptional book features extensive specially commissioned photography of treasures gathered from the archives. It also captures the graphic and design iconography that underpinned Motown’s extraordinary creativity.

Packed with fresh insights gleaned from scores of interviews with key players, this revealing book delves into the workings of the Motown machine and details how a dedicated team of backroom believers, white and black, turned a small family business into a popular music powerhouse. This was the home of Stevie Wonder, Smokey Robinson & The Miracles, Diana Ross & the Supremes, Marvin Gaye, The Jackson 5, The Temptations and many more.

Motown: The Sound of Young America is a spectacular labour of love befitting an incredible story.

Awarded a Certificate of Merit in the category of Best Historical Research in Record Labels, from the Association for Recorded Sound Collections Awards for Excellence 2017

This book is a journey – a ride through the depths of Germany’s modern musical roots:

At the beginning of the 1970s, experimental and progressive music in Germany developed far from the mainstream. Although few initially noticed it, it is now internationally celebrated as a cult phenomenon called „Krautrock“. Today, bands like Kraftwerk, Can, Amon Düül II, NEU!, Cluster, and Tangerine Dream are considered pioneers of groundbreaking sound experiments.

In order to understand the Krautrock era and its impact, it’s worth delving deeper into the history of German rock music and taking a closer look at the overall picture.Times & Sounds offers a comprehensive insight into the mechanisms of post-war Germany’s music industry and sheds light upon its diverse musical styles, as well as their mutual influences and connections, which have received little attention until now: From the onset of German Jazz and Swing orchestras to the first Rock ‚n‘ Roll bands around Hamburg‘s Star Club and electronic synthesizer pioneers. From the intact world of Schlager to agitprop and left-wing protest songs. From the avant-garde compositions of Stockhausen and his presumed disciples of Krautrock to the Neue Deutsche Welle.

This book is a journalistic diary tracing Germany’s dynamic culture from the late 40s to the early 90s. Those who take this journey experience the ups and downs of five decades, thus developing an understanding deeper than any other of the Krautrock phenomenon.

– Foreword by Hans-Joachim Roedelius (Kluster/Cluster/Harmonia)
– Hardcover with coloured headband and ribbon
– 536 pages including coloured endpaper with infographics

Bestselling author and Sundance award-winning director Questlove offers a thrilling, music-driven ride through the last fifty years of American history​.

In Music Is History, bestselling author and Sundance award-winning director Questlove harnesses his encyclopedic knowledge of popular music and his deep curiosity about history to examine America over the past fifty years. Choosing one essential track from each year, Questlove unpacks each song’s significance, revealing the pivotal role that American music plays around issues of race, gender, politics, and identity.

Music Is History focuses on the years 1971 to the present, not only the country’s most complex and rewarding half-century when it comes to the ways that pop culture and culturally diverse history intersect and interact, but also the years that overlap with Questlove’s own life. Music Is History moves fluidly from the personal to the political, examining events closely and critically, to unpeel and uncover previously unseen dimensions, and encouraging readers to do the same. Whether he is exploring how Black identity reshaped itself during the blaxploitation era, analyzing the assembly-line nature of disco and its hostility to Black genius, or remembering his own youth as a pop fan and what it taught him about America, Questlove finds the hidden connections in the American tapestry.

Complete with playlists organized around personal, playful themes that touch on everything from the relationship of hip-hop to music’s past to the secret ingredient in all funk songs, Music Is History is filled with and informed by Questlove’s preferences, perspectives, and particularities. It feels like both a popular history of contemporary America and a conversation with one of music's most influential and unique voices.