Print & Design 448 Items

The Secret DJ’s first two books lifted the lid on what really happens behind the decks in the sometimes hilarious, sometimes harrowing world of the superstar DJ. Now they’ve reached out to dozens of DJs from around the world – and from every scene and genre – for their own true stories of the DJ life.

Tales From the Booth raises the BPM, rounding up an all-star cast of Secret DJs to tell their anonymous stories of what it’s really like to rock dancefloors for a living. From strange encounters on tour to side-splitting debauchery and afterparty excess to the seamy and even dangerous side of the industry, this is your access-all-areas backstage pass. You’ll never look at a DJ quite the same again.

Out of Space plots a course through the different UK towns and cities club culture has found a home. From Glasgow to Margate via Manchester, Sheffield and unlikely dance music meccas such as Coalville and Todmorden, this book maps where electronic music has thrived, and where it might be headed next…

Please note that Out Of Space is available as a paperback and postage is charged separately. There’s no postage charge for the ebook option which will be delivered as an epub file.

The first up to date, post-pandemic, no-borders era book to cover Berlin’s role as an electronic music and cultural capital. Coming To Berlin breaks the tradition of Berlin’s perception as techno ground zero and shows the true diversity and richness that make up the city. Written by a former Londoner who made Berlin his home, the book captures nuances and details of living in Berlin that will be immediately relatable to fellow Berliners yet at the same time captures the city’s creative, free-living essence to anyone with a curiosity for Berlin and a love of electronic music.

During the second half of the 1990s, Paris experienced a dance music revolution thanks to groundbreaking artists like Daft Punk, Air, Super Discount, Motorbass, Cassius, Dimitri from Paris, Bob Sinclar and many, many more. It was a scene that became known as French Touch and was heralded throughout the world as the epitome of dance music cool, forever placing Paris on the dance culture map. Journalist and author Martin James was there right from the start, documenting the scene from its inspirations to its earliest moments and onto its global breakthrough. In the process, he inadvertently provided the French Touch moniker that became adopted throughout the world. Drawing on a dazzling array of exclusive interviews with the biggest names in French electronic music history, French Connections explores France's significant contribution to dance music culture that paved the way for the French Touch explosion.

"Push it to Pop it! Rock it to Lock it! Break it to Make it!" The dance explosion of the 80's jumps off the screen with the Special K 3.75-inch ReAction Figure.

• Product Material/Process: Injected Plastic & Paint
• Package Dimensions (in): 9"x6"x1"
• Weight (oz): 3 oz

"He's the shining and the light without whom I cannot see"

The officially licensed Ghost - Papa Emeritus III jointed and posable glow-in-the-dark decoration. Measures over 50-inches tall and suitable for hanging to display every day of the year and not just on Halloween! The microphone is removable and fits in a slot in Papa's hand. Comes packaged in a plastic bag with custom header card.

The punk rock collaboration of Super7 x Descendents continues with a celebration of the band’s third album, Enjoy! Standing 3.75" high, the Enjoy! Milo comes with a microphone and, of course, a roll of TP.

• Product Material/Process: Injected Plastic & Paint
• Product Accessories: Microphone, Roll of TP
• Package Dimensions (in): 9"x6"x1"
• Weight (oz): 3 oz

Not only was Jam Master Jay a peerless DJ, he’s also responsible for RUN DMC’s iconic look. He brought the street-style, B-Boy-centric look of track suit, big gold chain, hat and (of course) laceless sneakers to the group, creating an archetype aesthetic not just for RUN DMC, but for an entire era of Hip-Hop. This 3.75” articulated RUN DMC ReAction figure of Jason “Jam Master Jay” Mizell looks ready to lay down the beats and tracks that helped propel three guys from Hollis, Queens to the top of the Hip-Hop world. Gone all too soon, Jam Master Jay will never be forgotten, and adding his RUN DMC ReAction figure to your collection can be a tribute to his enduring legacy.

• Commemorate hip hop pioneers RUN DMC with ReAction figures by Super7!
• 3.75” articulated figure of Jason “Jam Master Jay” Mizell
• Packaged on carded back with iconic logo
• Product Material/Process: Injected Plastic & Paint
• Product Accessories: Record
• Package Dimensions (in): 9"x6"x1"
• Weight (oz): 3 oz

»Queen Of Nowhere« is the result of the photographic works by Kourtney Roy and the musician Dayve Samek (Trance Farmers). Samek has recorded his first album in 2014 on Leaving Records (Stones Throw Records). His music ranges between sweaty, garage-born ballads brush shoulders with drifter anthems and gasoline drenched doo wop with at some points some beats close from the past Anticon works. The Canadian photographer Kourtney Roy was born in Northern Ontario in 1981. She conjures an intimate universe pervaded by both wonder and mystery. Her photographer’s eye is drawn to places and settings whose lyrical qualities underscore the sublime banality of everyday life.

The birthplace of graffiti, New York City, has evolved into a global center for street art. Its public surfaces host a range of media from handmade stickers and wheatpastes to huge installations and murals. Artists from across the globe routinely travel to New York City to grace its walls as they refashion the city into one huge never-ending unofficial street art festival. Among these are such contemporary urban legends as Shepard Fairey, Ron English, Okuda, MaClaim, Faith Xlvii, Stik, Nick Walker, JR and Swoon. Street Art NYC showcases both sanctioned and unsanctioned works captured in the course of a transformative decade that saw the emergence of over a dozen distinctly engaging projects. The hugely popular Bushwick Collective, L.I.S.A Project NYC and Welling Court Mural Project are highlighted with introductory essays. Local community-based projects and festivals, as well as those responding to specific environmental and social issues, are also represented. Banksy’s one month 2013 residency, “Better Out than In” is documented with words and images. And homage is paid to the legendary 5 Pointz graffiti and street art mecca. Street Art NYC is is a beautifully designed hardcover book. The full color photographs by Lord K2 captures the art in the city, printed on thick coated paper, and Lois Stavsky’s text provides the context. This is the only book to spotlight the transformational decade that marked the shift from largely unsanctioned to widely curated street art throughout New York City’s five boroughs. This book is a collaboration between Lord K2, an award-winning photographer and curator of the online Museum of Urban Art and Lois Stavsky, a noted street art documentarian and editor of the popular blog, Street Art NYC.

Phew One of Japan’s original punk generation, a collaborator with both Otomo Yoshihide and members of Can, has reinvented herself once again in the new millennium with recordings of her hardcore voice, electronic experiments, and collaborations with Jim O’Rourke and The Raincoats’ Ana Da Silva. Interview by Emily Pothast.

The Primer: Pauline Oliveros The sprawling discography of the Deep Listening innovator, including electronic compositions at Mills College, adventurous settings for improvisation, site-specific projects, experimental scores and her distinctive accordion drones, is mapped by Louise Gray. The Dream Syndicate The survivors of the 80s US Paisley Underground have flourished since their recent reformation, exploring cinematic influences, hypnotic songwriting, soundtrack collaborations, and with Steve Wynn as a wild card guitarist for hire in numerous collaborations. Joseph Stannard talks to them. Invisible Jukebox US guitar shredder Ava Mendoza tries to ID our mystery record selection. Global Ear Arthur Kuzmin of New New World Radio in Moscow describes the changes in Russia’s alternative music landscape following the country’s invasion of Ukraine. Unlimited Editions Pioneering broadcasting project Radio Art Zone aims to light up the airwaves in Luxembourg as part of this year’s European Capital of Culture Esch celebrations. By Ilia Rogatchevski. Unofficial Channels Inner Sleeve US rapper billy woods on Bigg Jus’s Black Mamba Serums. Epiphanies Former Magic Band and Jeff Buckley guitar hero Gary Lucas chronicles his 50 year obsession with the mesmerizing moves of Third Ear Band.

Plus one page interviews with Julmud, Black Glass Ensemble, Floris Vanhoof, and Deborah Walker & Silvia Tarozzi...

The book comes with inlaycard signed by Jimi Tenor.

Reynols As one of the most singular groups in rock release a new album, and following drummer Miguel Tomasin’s Henry Viscardi Award for achievement in the disability community, the Argentinian trio talk to Emily Pothast about their mission to acknowledge all sounds, experiences and abilities, and the emancipatory power of noise and jamming.

Valentina Magaletti One of the most prolific and sought after percussionist-composers in the London music scene tells Ilia Rogatchevski about her role laying down the rhythm for psychedelic rock groups like Vanishing Twin, participation in London Improvisers Orchestra, and her growing reputation as timekeeper for hire for Gruff Rhys, Can Project, Bat For Lashes, and many more.

Ivo Perelman The Brazilian saxophonist has forged his own uncompromising and hardcore approach to the instrument that’s now being heard across a dizzying range of collaborations and projects. He tells Phil Freeman about his epic plans for 2022 including a dozen recordings with fellow saxophonists, a trio with Joe McPhee and Matthew Shipp, and a new documentary about his work.

Invisible Jukebox: King Jammy Reggae and dancehall godfather King Jammy takes our mystery record test as he revisits his 1980s and 90s catalogue in dub style on a new release.

Global Ear Two reports from the underground music scenes of Kyiv and Moscow as their communities are left reeling by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Unlimited Editions Nathan Evans tunes into unorthodox transmissions from Blackpool with Lancashire’s guardians of the weird and the occult Fonolith Records.

Unofficial Channels Marc Weidenbaum surveys eclectic and groundbreaking uses of sound to represent information via the Data Sonification Archive.

The Inner Sleeve Dennis Bovell on The Slits’s Cut.

Epiphanies Composer and writer Edward Henderson discovers the true meaning of experimentation watching two people cover themselves in tape in an East London flat. Plus full page interviews with Ailbhe Nic Oireachtaig, oksana linde, Helms Alee, and Blod.

Embodying a chic casualness that is uniquely American, the Polo shirt is a cultural symbol, worn by everyone from movie stars and presidents to athletes and artists. The Polo shirt is to Ralph Lauren what Mickey Mouse is to Disney or the Empire State Building is to New York City. Whether worn with the collar popped up, open and untucked, or dressed up under a suit jacket, the Polo embodies the optimism of American style. In Lauren’s words, “It’s honest and from the heart and hopefully that is what touches the diversity of all who wear it. It was never about a shirt, but a way of living.” Featuring a gallery of stars from the worlds of sports, politics, film, and music—from Leonardo DiCaprio and Spike Lee, to Bill Clinton and Oprah Winfrey, to Pharrell Williams and Venus Williams—as well as everyday people who make the Polo their canvas for self-expression, The Polo Shirt looks at the enduring cool of a wardrobe classic. Included are the full range of colors, styles, and fits the shirt has been produced in during its more than 50 year history. From the classic white to the weathered Polo, from the striped Polo to the US Olympic, US Open, and Wimbledon Championship collaborations, this catalogue celebrates the full spectrum of the Polo, making it a collector’s dream. Ralph Lauren began his career in 1967, designing neckties under the label Polo. He has received numerous awards for his work in fashion, philanthropy, and humanitarian causes and is the only designer to receive the CFDA’s four highest honors: Womenswear Designer of the Year; Menswear Designer of the Year; Retailer of the Year; and Lifetime Achievement. In 2019 he received an honorary KBE for Services to Fashion from the Prince of Wales. Ken Burns is an Academy Award–winning filmmaker. David Lauren is the Chief Innovation Officer of Ralph Lauren, Vice Chairman of the Board, and President of the Ralph Lauren Foundation.

After ten years, Deathbeds is finally available again as a paperback with the original cover. Deathbeds was first released in 2007, compiling the lyrical content of Wesley EISOLD’s work in renowned bands American Nightmare, Some Girls and the beginning of his current moniker, Cold Cave. Along with tour journals, poems and prose of early fanzines, Deathbeds is the comprehensive work of an artist in their twenties trying to connect with the outside world and their discontent, confusion and the existential within. The book celebrates the beauty that is the struggle of depression and growth in a poignant and foreword way that is rarely written down or documented coherently. These words came from a place of desperation and isolation but ended up inspiring others with how relatable not being able to relate is. First published in 2007, Heartworm has sold over 10,000 copies of this cult collection between three paperback and three hardcover editions. 3rd edition paperback.

Maggot Brain is a full-color, quarterly magazine edited by noted Detroit scribe Mike McGonigal: 100+ pages packed with phenomenal content – art, music, literature, unpublished archival material, and more – with a simple promise to only exist on the printed page. The cover feature is an epic, really long timeline of images and interview with the modern king of arts portrait photography, Michael Lavine. + Amazing archival images by Gail Butensky and reflections on Pavement + what we think is the band’s first new interview in a decade in anticipation of their reusion shows and events later this year + Tom Scharpling talks about prog rock with Matt Berry + a lengthy interview with the SF-based dreamy pop band Cindy by editor Mike McGonigal + Reuben Radding’s killer photos and review of a recent show in Brooklyn by Chicago’s Irreversible Entanglements + Ana Gavrilovska on why sax player and drone composer Lea Bertucci matters +Sara Jaffe on how essayist Aisha Sabatini Sloan is a genius

Hidden Notes Records are proud to announce that in February next year we will be releasing a smorgasbord of new music; creative collaborations born out of the award winning music podcast excuse the mess. Two compilation albums featuring 17 unique voices from contemporary music worlds and beyond…

How does a podcast = two albums worth of music? excuse the mess is a music podcast with a twist - alongside your bread and butter artist interviews each guest takes on the challenge of writing a brand new piece of music on the fly, in the room and with excuse the mess host, Ben Corrigan. They follow three rules (limitations are liberating!): 1. There can be no preplanning, it is spontaneous music making. 2. The track must be finished the same day. 3. Only one instrument can be used as a sound source but there can be electronic manipulations of it.

Our upcoming release is the end result of each of those heart palpating writing sessions featuring Hannah Peel, Gold Panda, Anna Meredith, Galya Bisengalieva, Manu Delago, Robert Ames, Emily Hall, Oliver Coates, Mira Calix, Matt Calvert, Douglas Dare, Laura Jurd, Mark Lockheart, Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch, Anne Nikitin, Alev Lenz and Elliot Galvin. Released as two albums, to mirror the two series of excuse the mess in which they were made.

All the music fizzes with an energy that only fast paced work can invoke and the compositional fingerprint of each guest artist is embedded into the core of each track, whilst intermingling with Ben's own artistic voice. For anyone interested in a further delve they can go back to the podcast episode and witness the composition unfolding bit-by-bit, from the blank page to the finished piece, you are invited on that compositional journey.

Als Punk etwa im Jahr 1980 in der DDR ankam, verunsicherte er nicht nur die sogenannten Staatsorgane, auch die Spießer und Biedermänner, die bekanntlich im Osten die Mehrheit stellten, liefen Amok. Bereits optisch als Provokation gewollt und verstanden, bildete sich in einigen Zentren eine ganze Gegenkultur samt Lifestyle und Musik heraus, der es um Freiräume und Freiheit ging. Und genau wie Punk in der DDR eine von Stadt zu Stadt, von Kaff zu Kaff ganz unterschiedliche Szene jeweils mit ganz eigenen Protagonist:innen und Eigenheiten war, zeichnet sich dieser Sammelband durch Vielstimmigkeit aus, Stories stehen neben Anekdoten, sachliche Analysen neben ganz persönlichen Reflektionen. "Punk in der Ddr" versteht sich als eine Zeitklammer, die möglichst viel von dem wiedergeben will, was für zehn Jahre in diesem anderen deutschen Staat für zumindest etwas Farbe und Esprit sorgte. Mit Texten von Cornelia Schleime, Franziska Hause, Jan Müller, Anne Hahn, Tim Mohr, Alexander Pehlemann, Jan Off, Roland Galenza, Jochen Schmidt, Peter Wawerzinek, Heinz Havemeister, Iron Hennig und vielen anderen mehr. Einige der hier versammelten Texte sind bereits in vergriffenen Publikationen erschienen, einige wurden extra für dieses Buch verfasst. Gemeinsam ist ihnen allen, dass sie möglichst viel von der Lebenswirklichkeit made in GDR abbilden, die in die Geschichte einging. Broschur, mit Abbildungen ca. 264 Seiten

Wisdom and musings on creativity and life from one of the world’s most beloved musicians, producers, and mentors, Quincy Jones12 Notes is a self-development guide that will affirm that creativity is a calling that can and should be answered, no matter your age or experience. Drawing from his own life, and those of his many creative collaborators past and present, Quincy Jones presents readers with lessons that are hardworking and accessible, yet speak to the passion of self-expression.

On February 11, 2012, Whitney Houston was found submerged in the bathtub of her suite at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. In the decade since, the world has mourned her death amid new revelations about her relationship to her Blackness, her sexuality, and her addictions. Didn’t We Almost Have It All is author Gerrick Kennedy’s exploration of the duality of Whitney’s life.

The year 1972 brought together two legends of rock 'n' roll at the peaks of their careers: Jim Marshall and the Rolling Stones. Selected by Life magazine to photograph the Stones' Exile ON Main ST. tour, Marshall had a week of unlimited access. The results are his now-iconic images of the band, onstage in their full glory and backstage in moments of unguarded camaraderie. Marshall's ability to capture the essential spirit of an artist and the transformative power of music is matched only by the Stones' largerthan- life.

From a talented young journalist on the rise, a deeply reported, timely new biography of the Notorious B.I.G., publishing for what would have been his 50th birthdayThe Notorious B.I.G. was one of the most charismatic and talented artists of the 1990s. Born Christopher Wallace and raised in Clinton Hill/Bed Stuy, Brooklyn, Biggie lived an almost archetypal rap life: young trouble, drug dealing, guns, prison, a giant hit record, the wealth and international superstardom that came with it, then an early violent death.

George Michael was an extravagantly gifted, openhearted soul singer whose work was both pained and smolderingly erotic. He was a songwriter of true craft and substance, and his music swept the world, starting in the mid-1980s. His fabricated image—that of a hypermacho sex god—loomed large in the pop culture of his day. It also hid—for a time—the secret he fought against revealing: Michael was gay. Soon his obsession with fame would start to backfire. As one of the industry’s most privileged yet tortured men began.

Happy, beautiful and full of fun - this book is an intimate portrait of the real Amy Winehouse. With over 50 photographs, many seen here for the first time, this is a celebration of a young artist on the cusp of fame. The photos were taken by Charles Moriarty just before Amy released her debut album. These beautiful images give an early glimpse of the girl who would captivate the world. With a foreword by Asif Kapadia, director of Academy Award-winning documentary Amy, and an introduction by Ashleigh Kane from Dazed, Before Frank is a tribute to the enduring spirit of a truly special artist.

Published by Moriarty Publishing

About: ‘where i am allowed to sit for one more day, and this is an endless wonder’... is something more logical in its unfurling of desire (if the weight of words hold more ‘meaning’), a transversal thing from object to image. The book inlcudes poetry, prose, drawings and contributions from Angelina Nonaj, Hanne Boulanger, Emily Yuting Chen, Sam Horman, Harriet Jones, Sami Domenico, Laila Sakini, & Sam M plus an interview with ‘J’ by Lauryn Groševs on the topics of “my seat and weep”, the book, care, desire and interpreting connection.

Excerpt: I can find it difficult to articulate things into words, it's as if I can't find the (right) words. Sometimes it's a gesture, a look or a glance, or a simple movement that seems to communicate, or embody, what I want to say or what I "mean". The next question, for me, is what changes, or rather who. The absurdity of closeness, of putting things together, building meaning.

… And out come the wolves! The collaboration between Super7 and punk rock greats Rancid continues with the Skeletim - Wolf Head 3.75” ReAction Figure! This latest figure comes howling in with not one, but two guitar accessories to represent the axes used by Tim and Lars.

• Product Material/Process: Injected Plastic & Paint
• Product Dimensions (in): 3.75"
• Weight (oz): 3 oz

The 3.75” scale Bertha ReAction figure is inspired by the cover of the Grateful Dead live album that would become known as “Skull & Roses.” This debut figure commemorates the 50th Anniversary of that landmark album’s release. The skeleton with a crown of roses, affectionately named Bertha, is a classic piece of Grateful Dead imagery. So pick up the iconic Grateful Dead Bertha ReAction figure… or don’t you come around here any more.

• Product Material/Process: Injected Plastic & Paint
• Package Dimensions (in): 9"x6"x1"
• Weight (oz): 3 oz

This is the third issue of the new We Jazz Magazine, 128 pages 174 x 250 mm in size and printed on 140g Edixion paper with laminated 300g Invercote covers. All articles presented IN English. Stories include Joe Henderson by Daniel Spicer, International Anthem by Tina Edwards, Tokyo Jazz Joints by Philip Arneill, Ben Lamar Gay by Stewart Smith, Smooth Jazz by Francis Gooding, ESP-Disk by Matti Nives, Scottish Folk & Jazz by Gareth Allen, The Lisbon Scene by Rui Miguel Abreu, plus many more.

Scratcha DVA As the best connected mover and shaker in London’s dance underground nears 20 years in music, the producer and DJ talks to Chal Ravens about his Afrofuturist visions, his Hyperdub productions, making intercontinental connections with South Africa’s bass avant garde, and a broadcasting legacy that stretches from his pirate days at Rinse FM to NTS.

and also...

Eberhard Kranemann An unheralded figure in Germany’s underground rock revolution, Eberhard Kranemann was a member of Kraftwerk and Neu! in their crucial early years before striking out on his own with the notorious Fritz Müller Rock project and later collaborations with Harald Grosskopf.

Anne Gillis The French artist and experimental sound maker trod a distinctive path through the industrial scene with projects such as Devil's Picnic. Now, with her first album in over 15 years and new collaborations with London duo Seymour Wright and Paul Abbott, her unique rhythmic sensibility is surfacing once more.

Invisible Jukebox: Lee Ranaldo & Steve Shelley As an extensive collection of Sonic Youth’s live recordings is released, the New York pair take The Wire’s mystery record test.

Global Ear Peter Margasak investigates a new group of Berlin composers exploring the possibilities of just intonation tuning, including Catherine Lamb, Werner Durand, Marc Sabat, Chiyoko Szlavnics and Arnold Dreyblatt.

Unlimited Editions Emily Pothast talks to Ratskin Records, the Bay Area crew putting issues of accessibility and equality at the forefront of its music including in its ‘mixed reality’ online projects.

Unofficial Channels Abi Bliss investigates This Band Isn’t Real, the Twitter feed creating fictitious metal groups and album covers through the power of machine learning.

When Tim from Dagger Zine approached us about his book idea covering long-loved "spaces" held sacred for countless music fans, we knew it was a great project to get behind, Similar in its community effort to our last book release (The White Label Promo Preservation Society), Hinely organized an incredible list of contributors from all stripes of the underground music spectrum, each waxing their own warm recollections of wild nights seeing life-changing bands and/or terrible bathroom experiences. Chock full of photos, original newspaper ads, flyers, and long-lost monthly calendars of the pre-Internet age, Where The Wild Gigs Were illustrates how important these sacred spaces really are, and how much it's noticeable when we can't actually be AT these homes-away-from-home, spread all across the USA. From Stache's in Columbus, OH to Flynn's Ocean 71 in Miami, FL (the 'CBGB's on the beach'), back to The Brewery in Lansing MI (complete with previously unpublished Stooges photos!), to City Gardens in Trenton, NJ (staffed by Comedy Dentral's Jon Stewart) to Peter Aaron's sordid details on the mob-run Jockey Club in Newport, KY, you won't find many dull moments as each page bleeds into the next, oozing with recollections of blurry good times and endless excitement before the world changed, as we know it. Includes a foreword by Byron Coley and an afterword by Tesco VEE. 235 pages, paperback. First edition of 500 copies.

If you're interested in the Microphones box set but maybe you don't actually enjoy music (or maybe you have the records, or maybe it's sold out), here you can buy just the book.

It's pretty fancy on its own. 12.5" x 12.5", 107 pages, perfect bound with huge french flaps, packed with beautiful photos and artwork, notebook spreads, studio track sheets, show posters, etc. These were made at the sustainability-award-winning Hemlock Printers in Burnaby, B.C., a splurge.

It works as either a semi-abstract aesthetic art thing or as an abundantly packed collection of background materials that should satisfy even the most curious Microphones music listener.

The first ever book of its kind on the history of the artwork of The Residents and their label Ralph Records. The life of Ralph Records and The Residents has always been cloaked in obscure mysteries, woven by the anonymous Cryptic Corporation, around which many luminaries have revolved; painters, graphic artists, cartoonists, musicians, film-makers, and writers. All have been channeled together by a powerful creative synergy that helped champion a new, mercurial and thoroughly multi-faceted artifact. Buy Or Die!, for the very first time, brings together a collection of images that represented the sounds of Ralph from 1972 to the present. A historical journey that traces the path of one of the most innovative record labels of the last fifty years. A collection of original, rare, and remarkable images drawn from record covers, fan catalogs, posters, and a wide variety of promotional material, demonstrating the technological and stylistic adaptations undergone through the arc of half a century.

Mdou Moctar

Niger guitar hero Mdou Moctar has blazed a trail across the world for a new style of hypnotic desert rock. On the eve of a major US and European tour, Clive Bell talks to Moctar and his band about the anti-colonial spirit animating their current album Afrique Victime, the infamous Purple Rain-inspired motorbike musical Akounak Tedalat Taha Tazoughai, and their connections with other leading lights of daredevil North African guitar including Les Filles De Illighadad.

Inside the issue... Éliane Radigue Mazen Kerbaj Ben LaMar Gay Jeff Parker

The Primer: Éliane Radigue Julian Cowley writes a user’s guide to the recordings of the great French electronic and electroacoustic composer, whose work has continued exploring the connections between Buddhism and longform sound well into the 21st century with the acoustic Occam Ocean series. Mazen Kerbaj The Lebanese trumpeter, improvisor and cartoonist has carved out a new niche for himself in Berlin. He tells Mariam Rezaei about his new album Sampler/Sampled, where a global cast of collaborators including Bob Ostertag, Muqata’a and Equiknoxx’s Gavsborg explore the power of music as a universal language.

Invisible Jukebox Chicago creative music polymaths Jeff Parker and Ben LaMar Gay go head to head with The Wire’s mystery record test. Global Ear In Lisbon, April Clare Walsh gets familiar with a new wave of creole language rap.

Unlimited Editions Tokyo label, record shop and keepers of the roots reggae flame Dub Store.

Unofficial Channels YouTube’s Original Jungle Samples channel.

Inner Sleeve Tim Hecker. Epiphanies Reinhold Friedl on Iannis Xenakis.

Plus full page interviews with Robbie Lee, Hedvig Mollestad, Powers/Rolin Duo, and Duma.

Regardless if you’re doing it for the purpose of relaxation or for releasing a lot of stress, having a night out could have an almost purifying effect. Things then will certainly look even more peachy when your name is on the guest list. It’s just perfect in case you want to have a life but it shouldn’t be too real.
People who aren’t on the guest list are officially uninvited. At least that’s how you should feel when your name made it on one. You put so much energy, smalltalk, omnipresence and social media action into it, you deserve to be treated like royalty. If there’s one constant you can count on, then it certainly is that being on the guest list still is the ultimate status check.

For our GUEST LIST issue, Lodown was hanging out backstage, enjoyed private views, got drunk at uncountable vernissages, took a closer look at flyer culture, high-fived a few bouncers - and even let a few guest art directors take over a couple of pages.
All for the simple reason that you don’t have to queue. You’re welcome. Now let’s dance.

- WHY Ebay... Every once in a while you get introduced to the work of an emerging artist that immediately makes you reflect on why you fell in love with graffiti, graphic design, fashion and getting inked in the first place. It is as if you suddenly got invited to observe things from an edge, wondering when and why you suddenly stopped to rethink - or think ahead - the many possibilities these mediums offer while admiring the audacity, presumed playful easiness and variety of ideas on display. And one of these artists goes by the capricious name of Why Ebay.

- Richard Kern... There are quite a few protagonists that portrayed the seedy underground of NYC in the 80s, and East Village-based Richard Kern certainly is one of the most prominent ones. As a filmmaker he was one of the driving forces behind the Cinema of Transgression, for which he explored hysteria, sex, drugs and violence through the punk rock lens - topics he committed to for a large part of his professional career as a photographer as well.

- Cali Thornhill Dewitt... Creating subversions of the American flag. Being a roadie for grunge royalty. Running a publishing house. Doing radio. Preparing for solo-exhibitions worldwide. Running a record label. Actually, the creative endeavors of celebrated artist Cali Thornhill DeWitt are too numerous to list, but it’s safe to state that the collaboration with Abloh and Kanye a few years back might have been the moment that catapulted his name into the mainstream consciousness once and for all.

- plus more elaborate features and visual awesomeness from the likes of: Marta Blue, Mark Mulroney, Clamm, Jake & Dinos Chapman, Icy & Sot, Dry Cleaning, Matt Hansel, Mike Osborne, Djinn and many others.

Highlights of our GUEST LIST issue include…

DAVE SWINDELLS… In the UK, some people refer to the London of 1988 as “Year Zero“, because it seemed to have kickstarted a club scene in a way that hadn’t existed before. It was the year Acid House was hitting England’s capital (and beyond) big time. It was the time of clubs like Future, Shoom and Spectrum. And luckily East London-based photographer Dave Swindells was there to capture it all.

CIVILIST… Everybody’s favorite Skate Shop in Berlin opened its diary for us. In the end, it basically felt like chronicling the last years of skateboarding of Germany’s capital. It’s a Lodown exclusive, by the way.

NIKITA TERYOSHIN… Berlin-based photographer Nikita Teryoshin invites us to visit the back office of war with him, as his awarded, ongoing project “Nothing Personal“ takes a look at global defence business. Shot (so far) at fourteen different defence exhibitions worldwide between 2016 and 2020 the images capture a parallel world unknown to the vast majority of us ordinary mortals.

DAN WITZ… Embracing the possibility of a collective high through clubbing or a proper show can have an almost cleansing effect - because letting loose within the community of kindred spirits is something very comforting. And there hardly is any other artist capturing these moments of crowds going blissfully berserk than Brooklyn-based genius artist Dan Witz.

- plus more elaborate features and visual awesomeness from the likes of: EIKE KÖNIG, KUEDO, MARCELOA CANEVARI, PVA, LISA WASSMANN, LYZZA, DAVID HENRY BROWN JR. and many others.

Limited Edition Custom Playing Cards illustrated by El Oms - Released in conjunction with the new El Michels Affair 7" featuring Bobby Oroza // We had this idea years ago and a phone call to our very talented friend El Oms brought it to fruition. El Oms illustrated all the charcters on the card faces and our own Danny Akalepse designed the backs and the box. In talking about this deck of cards we decided to release a 7" with it and El Michels Affair cut a track for Bobby Oroza to write to which plays up the theme here and is aptly titled "Stack The Deck". For good measure we dug in the vaults and made the B Side El Michels Affair's crushing cover of the Notorious B.I.G.'s "Things Done Changed". This playing card collaboration is a limited 500 piece run. Standard 52 card poker deck, 2 jokers , and 2 logo cards in a customized box. A collectors item on release and a great gift for fans of the label, El Oms, and card players. The 7" is available if you would like to offer the full collaboration. We hope this is right on time to usher in the days of hanging out with friends listening to music, playing cards, and enjoying one another's company.

The Wire’s essential annual guide to the year in sound and music is upon us, as we consider where we are now after a tumultuous 12 months of underground activity, recovery, false starts and new beginnings. Our specially extended Rewind issue includes our Top 50 Releases of the Year and Archive Releases of The Year charts, cultural reflections from our extensive roster of writers, and our specialist columnists’ charts from avant rock to noise. This year the Rewind section also includes essays by Clive Bell on how new tunings are breaking the stranglehold of Western music; Neil Kulkarni on the complex and problematic legacy of the Fourth World aesthetic in contemporary sound; and Rob Turner on how music formats from LP and tapes to downloads and streams are still changing the way we listen.

Elaine Mitchener

Loré Lixenberg

Reiko & Tori Kudo

Haley Fohr Inside the issue...

Invisible Jukebox Vocalists Loré Lixenberg and Elaine Mitchener take The Wire’s mystery record test.

Global Ear James Gui spends a week in Seoul as the underground music scene opens up after Covid.

Unlimited Editions Robert Barry profiles publishing house and event organiser Grapheme as it explores the role of notation and scoring in music.

Unofficial Channels Punk ’zine archive Contextual Dissemination. Inner Sleeve Reiko and Tori Kudo choose record sleeves that have influenced them.

Epiphanies Haley Fohr aka Circuit Des Yeux on lessons learned in quarantine and the isolation of a Robert Rauschenberg residency.

Plus full page interviews with Matthias Muche, Klankvorm, Giant Claw, and Saadet Turkoz.

Soundcheck Selected new vinyl, CDs, cassettes, singles, downloads, streams etc reviewed

„Ikonographische Bilder aus Berlin kennt man zu Genüge und in verschiedenen Tonalitäten: Sarah Eick gelingt nun das große Kunststück, das auch Urberliner:innen, die sehr viele Fotografien über ihre Heimatstadt gesehen haben, noch Bewunderung abverlangt: ihre Fotos geben zweifellos Berliner Motive wieder, doch gleichzeitig sind es Werke von einer großen, translokalen, abstrakt-poetischen Qualität. Eigentümlich kontextlos, fast wie Ufos, wirken die bekannten Gebäude und Stadtansichten. Ohne jede Form von historisierendem oder nostalgischem Pathos lässt Eick ihnen eine große Würde zukommen. Selbst eine Imbiss-Bude sieht bei ihr erhaben aus.” – Tanja Dückers (Schriftstellerin, Publizistin, Kunsthistorikerin)

Jeden Tag Vinyl, das ganze Jahr! Okay, die meisten von euch werden das wohl eh so halten, eure Plattenspieler setzen sicher keinen Staub an. Trotzdem wird euch der MINT-Vinyl-Kalender gut unterhalten und inspirieren – versprochen. Denn jeden Tag erwartet euch ein spannendes neues Kalenderblatt: von Plattencover-Kunst bis zu Jubiläen herausragender Alben, von Künstlerporträts über Pflege- und Technik-Tipps bis zu den besten Plattenläden Deutschlands. 365 Beiträge, die die MINT-Redaktion für euch zusammengestellt hat. Zum Aufstellen – am besten natürlich in direkte Nähe eures Plattenspielers.

For fans, Boxer is a profound personal meditation. Life decisions have been based on it. Relationships have been created and dissolved by it. For the band that recorded it, Boxer symbolizes a do-or-die moment; a final, give-it-everything-you've-got effort to make it work.

Released in May 2007, The National's fourth full-length is the album that saved them. It's where the Ohio-via-Brooklyn five-piece found the sound, success, and spiritual growth to become one of the most critically acclaimed bands of their time. Obsessively researched and featuring intimate interviews with the fighters who were there in the ring, Ryan Pinkard captures a transformative chapter in The National's story, revealing how their breakthrough album is deeply intertwined with their personal lives, the New York indie rock renaissance of the early aughts, and a generational experience in America.

Kraftwerk's most concise and focused conceptual statement, Computer World, was also their most influential album, paving the way for a range of new musical styles and genres. This book explores the band's revolutionary sonic template, and their lyrical obsessions in detail.

An analysis of the bands work reveals a unifying theme, overlooked by other writers, of movement and transition. While many remarked on the prevalence of travel within Kraftwerk's art: Autobahn (1974) – cars, Trans-Europe Express (1977) – trains, The Man- Machine (1978) – space, and Tour De France (1982) – bicycles, Francis contends that this is a surface manifestation of a deeper theoretical subtext in their work. Movement is really a reflection of the concept of transition, through time and space, from one physical, emotional, or existential state of being to another. The book explores transition, as expressed on Computer World, via theories of post-humanism, cybernetics and the anthropology of transnationalism.

Highlights of our Savages issue include… - Ricky Powell... It’s probably a truism, and doubly true for those of us invested in the idea of culture, that when we finally go, we have a nagging fear that others will eulogize us with half-baked notions about who we were, what we cared about, what we brought to the party. A lot of empty pontificating, getting the important details all wrong. Well, lemme tell you, Ricky wasn’t just interested or invested in culture, it was his lifeblood, his *‘raisin dead rat’*. Rest In Peace, brother!

- WHY Ebay... Every once in a while you get introduced to the work of an emerging artist that immediately makes you reflect on why you fell in love with graffiti, graphic design, fashion and getting inked in the first place. It is as if you suddenly got invited to observe things from an edge, wondering when and why you suddenly stopped to rethink - or think ahead - the many possibilities these mediums offer while admiring the audacity, presumed playful easiness and variety of ideas on display. And one of these artists goes by the capricious name of Why Ebay.

- Richard Kern... There are quite a few protagonists that portrayed the seedy underground of NYC in the 80s, and East Village-based Richard Kern certainly is one of the most prominent ones. As a filmmaker he was one of the driving forces behind the Cinema of Transgression, for which he explored hysteria, sex, drugs and violence through the punk rock lens - topics he committed to for a large part of his professional career as a photographer as well.

- Cali Thornhill Dewitt... Creating subversions of the American flag. Being a roadie for grunge royalty. Running a publishing house. Doing radio. Preparing for solo-exhibitions worldwide. Running a record label. Actually, the creative endeavors of celebrated artist Cali Thornhill DeWitt are too numerous to list, but it’s safe to state that the collaboration with Abloh and Kanye a few years back might have been the moment that catapulted his name into the mainstream consciousness once and for all.

- plus more elaborate features and visual awesomeness from the likes of: Marta Blue, Mark Mulroney, Clamm, Jake & Dinos Chapman, Icy & Sot, Dry Cleaning, Matt Hansel, Mike Osborne, Djinn and many others.

An album which distilled a genre from the musical, cultural, and social ether, Portishead's Dummy was such a complete artistic achievement that its ubiquitous successes threatened to exhaust its own potential. RJ Wheaton offers an impressionistic investigation of Dummy that imitates the cumulative structure of the album itself, piecing together interviews, impressions of time and place, cultural criticism, and a thorough exploration of the music itself.

The approach focuses as much on the reception and response that Dummy engendered as it does on the original production of the album. How is that so many people have, collectively, made a quintessential headphone album into a nightclub album? How have they made the product of a niche local scene into an international success? This is the story of how an innovative, experimental album became the iconic sound for the better part of a decade; and an aesthetic template for the experience of music in the digital age.

248 pages.

Thirteenth issue of We Jazz Magazine, "Zoning".

128 pages, 170 x 240 mm in size and printed on 140g Edition paper with laminated 300g Invercote covers. All articles presented in English.

Includes Mary Lou Williams by Anton Spice, Tomeka Reid by Michael Mikesell, Horace Silver by Seymour Wright, Wind Up & Julius Eastman by Marc Medwin, Esmond Edwars at Prestige by Francis Gooding, Contemporary Ethio-Jazz by Nathan Hamelberg, Ivo Perelman & Matthew Shipp by Phil Freeman, Arooj Aftab by Rob Garratt, John Surman by Bret Sjerven, Punk Jazz with Benjamin Herman by Danny Veekens, Discaholic Column by Mats Gustafsson, Odysseus Festival 2024 photo report, reviews and more.

Wreaking havoc in Czarlem, Impostarr is the Deacon of Deception casting an evil red shadow on Czarface’s good name! The latest 7” scale, highly articulated Czarface ULTIMATES! Impostarr figure features Earth 808’s anti-hero in a slick metallic red-and-silver colorway. Featuring intricate sculpt and premium paint detailing, this figure also comes with multiple interchangeable heads and hands, a removable soft goods cape, and single and double missile accessories. One of Czarface’s most formidable foes, Impostarr’s dastardly deeds have earned this Czarface ULTIMATES! a spot in your collection!

Features:
• Inspired by Hip Hop supergroup Czarface’s superhero mascot
• Figure is 7” scale and highly articulated, and features intricate sculpt and premium paint detailing
• Includes multiple interchangeable heads and hands, a removable soft goods cape, and single and double missile accessories
• The perfect gift for any Czarface fan; collect the entire lineup of Hip Hop legend action figures, apparel, and accessories by Super7!

Accessories:
• 3x Interchangeable Heads
- 1x Neutral head
- 1x Open mouth head
- 1x Laser eyes head
• 9x Interchangeable Hands
- 2x Grip hands
- 4x Open hands
- 3x Fists
• 1x Double missile
• 1x Single missile
• 1x Soft goods cape

Details and Specs:
• Product Material/Process: Injected Plastic & Paint
• Package Dimensions (in): 9.75 x 4.25 x 9
• Product Weight: 1.5 lbs
• Case Weight: 12.49 lbs

zweikommasieben #29 features interviews and essays on contemporary music and sound, with a focus on experimental and electronic music.

Close The App, Make The Ting is a collection of ideas shared by Elijah that began in July 2021, as the Covid 19 lockdowns were ending in the UK. They started as simple notes questioning what the music and creative scenes would look like after being shut down for 18 months shared regularly on Instagram, then developed into a multimedia project that spanned visual installations, an album with grime MC Jammz, a club night and a lecture series that toured the world.

Close The App, Make The Ting: Transformative Prompts for the Modern Artist brings together the best of the ideas and the projects they inspired. This book is for anyone producing or thinking of producing creative work, that needs something outside of ‘advice’, these are evergreen artistic prompts that will inspire new ways of approaching being an artist in the 2020s.

The book is 25cm x 25 cm, and the 160 pages are printed on premium heavyweight paper.

“Elijah’s work and writing is stimulating and insightful. He captures the shifting tides of music and creativity with a canny sense of precision and clarity. The ability to connect the dots across music, culture, history, politics, the evolving creative landscape and more is a rare quality, and yet, he thrives at it.” – Anifieok Ekpoudom (author of Where We Come From: Rap, Home & Hope in Modern Britain)

The OSTKREUZ agency was founded in the midst of the upheavals that took place in East Berlin in 1990. For Dream on - Berlin, the 90s, nine OSTKREUZ photographers worked together with curators Annette Hauschild (OSTKREUZ) and Boaz Levin (C/O Berlin Foundation) to cast a modern-day eye over their extensive archives as seen from today’s perspective. As documentarists operating at the apogee of photojournalism, they tracked the changes that the city underwent. They observed the shifts in society and the challenges facing a city that had previously been divided by a wall as it grew together, capturing all this in powerful, personal images. The essays reflect this on a variety of levels: Janos Frecot’s examination of the changes in the urban space; Jens Balzer’s description of Berlin’s potential as a centre of creativity and culture; and Anne Rabe’s very personal view, as a young East German writer, of today’s Berlin.

OSTKREUZ is an independent, Berlin-based agency that is run by twenty-four photographers.

348 pp.
250 b/w and color illustrations
thread-sewn hardcover

Leipzig September, 2024
ISBN: 9783959058520

Width: 20 cm
Length: 24 cm

Language(s): English

Editor
Boaz Levin, C/O Berlin Foundation, Annette Hauschild, Kathrin Kohle, OSTKREUZ

Designer
Marc Naroska

Text
Jens Balzer, Janos Frecot, Boaz Levin, Veronika Epple

Photographer
Sibylle Bergemann, Annette Hauschild, Harald Hauswald, Ute Mahler, Werner Mahler, Jordis Antonia Schlösser, Anne Schönharting, Maurice Weiss

Black Star No Fear Of Time Skate Deck - Features:
• Skate deck measuring 8.375" width x 32.125" length
• Full color printed bottom
• 2-Color print on natural top

A portion of proceeds will go to savethechildren.org benefiting relief efforts in DRC, Sudan, Haiti and Gaza.

The artist formerly known as Mos Def, now Yasiin Bey, teams up with Talib Kweli again for a second Black Star album. This merch drops with the first widely available vinyl edition that is also available at HHV.

The bedroom wall and what to cover it with has always been a dilemma through the ages as we revelled in our teenage / rebellious glory. Posters, flyers, ticket stubs badges tour programmes and record sleeves. Items we gathered, begged and stole were carried home after sweaty nights in clubs and pubs. Tape and blu tack in hand we tried to find a place to add our new additions.



I always thought it would be great to show the Punk Rock items of what I call ‘the class of ‘76’ groups I had gathered over the years in a bedroom setting. Each room could have a different theme. Blondie, Buzzcocks, The Clash, The Damned, Generation X, The Jam, Ramones, Sex Pistols, Siouxsie and The Banshees, The Stranglers, and maybe a mixed Punk Room with all the above and some smaller bands to fill out the story.



Maybe I could then put all that in a book to show the beauty of it all. So I did and here it is. I hope all this madness might bring back some fond memories for you as you flick through these pages.

Swiss Hardcover, cloth binding
240 pages
17 x 24 cm
ISBN 978-3-00-079721-7
Edition of 600
Published by JB. Institute, 2024

Contributions by
Dinho Araujo, Jan Brokof, Britta Brüning, Jana Duda, Lukas Feireiss, Elke Giffeler, Lenia Hauser, Łukasz Polowczyk, Dr. Sebastian Möllers, and Andrea Sunder-Plassmann

“ENSEMBLE” is the first book by 44flavours and showcases a 20-year creative journey.

Sebastian Bagge and Julio Rölle have been working together as the artist duo 44flavours for over 20 years. The book contains a careful selection of their projects and works from the last two decades, documenting the development and dynamics of their artistic collaboration.

“In the book, we look at our backgrounds and the dynamics of our collaboration: What context do we come from? How did we develop together? Another focus is on our installation work and our experimentation with different materials, with bricolage playing a major role. Overall, our research into painting and the exploration of physical and imaginary spaces is covered.

The main influences on our work can be filtered out as follows: encounters with other positions, investigating certain materials and learning techniques, discovering new places and ways of thinking, social exchange, and the activation and exploration of work processes in exchange with others, the development of a dynamic that leads to new ways of working and results, playful exploration, discovery, trial and error.”

Julio Rölle & Sebastian Bagge

The perfect-bound 80-page coffee table book delves into our two decades of history through in-depth interviews with our founders Friction & K-Tee, as well as a range of artists past and present. Accompanied by beautiful full-colour photography from the archives throughout, this book is an essential for Shogun fans and D&B enthusiasts worldwide.