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The poetry of groundbreaking Greek artist Lena Platonos takes center stage in Piercing Red: Collected Poems and Lyrics 1984–2008. Best known for her radical electronic music compositions, her innovative work as a poet has been underacknowledged, in no small part due to writing and singing in her native Greek. This book was put together to rectify this lapse, to help encounter her song lyrics on their own as literary work. Collected here are all the poems Platonos put to music over four decades, appearing for the first time in English thanks to loving translations by Stathis Gourgouris. Careful attention was paid to Platonos’s phrasing so that the unique voicings and surrealist imagery would come forth intact. With their rapid-fire juxtapositions and dreamlike narrations, these poems are gestural and performative evocations of the artist’s vast inner world. They are performances of her soul in the realm of words. Book design and typography by Eloise Leigh. “Platonos’s poetic musings across the collection draw inspiration from her home in Athens — a place steeped in classical history. She evokes the architecture and mythology of the city, creating ambient space with an ambivalence to emotions. The energy throughout is delicately cohesive, the artistic vision is strong, and the beautifully delicate narrative exists as if lost in time.” — Emily Hill, The Vinyl Factory

From their formation in Sydney, Australia in 1973 by brothers Angus and Malcolm Young, Ac/dc have made the most visceral and single-minded rock, and it has served them well, with more than 200 million records sold. The basic blueprint that Ac/dc laid down on their early albums with Bon Scott—hard, no-nonsense, riff-driven rock’n’roll—has sustained them all the way through to their latest album, 2014’s Rock Or Bust. Angus and Malcolm held Ac/dc together after the death of singer Bon Scott in 1980. And now, so many years later, even without Malcolm around, Angus doesn’t look like he’s about to give up on the band. Illustrated with rare and unseen photographs, this handsome biography from an acclaimed rock biographer is a fitting salute to rock‘s royal family.

Voodoo, D'Angelo's much-anticipated 2000 release, set the standard for the musical cycle ordained as "neo-soul," a label the singer and songwriter would reject more than a decade later. The album is a product of heightened emotions and fused sensibilities; an amalgam of soul, rock, jazz, gospel, hip-hop, and Afrobeats. D'Angelo sets to music his own pleasures and insecurities as a man-child in the promised land. It was both a tribute to his musical heroes: Prince, Sly Stone, Marvin Gaye, J Dilla ... and a deconstruction of rhythm and blues itself.

Despite nearly universal acclaim, the sonic expansiveness of Voodoo proved too nebulous for airplay on many radio stations, seeping outside the accepted lines of commercial R&B music. Voodoo was Black, it was definitely magic, and it was nearly overshadowed by a four-minute music video featuring D'Angelo's sweat-glistened six-pack abs. "The Video" created an accentuated moment when the shaman lost control of the spell he cast.

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

Credited as one of the pioneers of ‘harsh noise wall’; influential artist Sam McKinlay (b. 1974, CA) has been operating under the alias The Rita for over 25 years. Having performed extensively and credited with over 200 releases, the project has grown into a laser focused multidisciplinary venture and is celebrated for pushing the boundaries of ‘harsh noise’.

Accompanying The Rita’s singular and often unpredictable sonic output is an inseparable and distinct visual language. By combining McKinlay’s fine arts education, research, experimentation, and collaboration; the project visually and texturally unites the artist’s interests in minimalist design, noise, ballet, sharks, choreography, and film.

‘Correlations’ presents some of the images and documents McKinlay finds most definitive in his practice The monograph is designed to provide a cohesive understanding of the artist’s creative trajectory, as well as illuminate The Rita’s uncanny process that visually, conceptually, and historically ‘connects’ seemingly unrelated subjects.

Published by Amaya Productions; the monograph includes essays by the author and Centre Pompidou art historian Nicolas Ballet (‘Shock Factory: The Visual Culture of Industrial Music’), associate Professor and harsh noise artist Lexi Turner (Cornell University), and author, writer, producer Kier-La Janisse (‘House of Psychotic Women’).

Graffiti for Beginners is an easy-to-follow introduction that presents you with the basics behind graffiti lettering. The two funky yet classic graffiti alphabets created by experienced graffiti artist Mega gives you the opportunity to learn a basic graffiti style, as well as a more advanced wild style. Each of the alphabet’s 26 letters has its own spread where the building blocks of the letter are carefully displayed next to the specified space for you to practice, along with illustrations of how the letters can be used in different words and names. In addition to the letters, you will find examples of characteristic elements used in graffiti such as 3D or shades to add depth to the letters, or arrows, stars, bubbles, highlights and shines to make the piece stand out. Graffiti for Beginners is the fundamental guide for you to learn how to master the alphabet with style and finesse, letter by letter, until you are able to put together complicated words and messages, adding the coloring of your own choice. Learning graffiti has never been easier or more fun! Graffiti for Beginners suits all ages and is a great tool for advertisers, home stylers, school teachers, kids and creative adults alike.

‘Cuba: Music and Revolution: Original Album Cover Art of Cuban Music: Record Sleeve Designs of Revolutionary Cuba 1959-90 ’ is a stunning new deluxe 250-page large format hardback book compiled and edited by Gilles Peterson and Stuart Baker (Soul Jazz Records) that features many 100s of stunning and unique Cuban record sleeve designs made since the Cuban Revolution led by Fidel Castro in 1959. These album covers have rarely been seen (nor heard) outside of Cuba and show a rich previously hidden history of both music and design.

‘Cuba: Music and Revolution’ is the first ever book about Cuban record sleeve design and has been five years in the making, made in full co-operation with the Cuban government. The record sleeve designs reflect both the rich cultural Latin musical legacy of Cuba, as well as the political and aesthetic influence of revolutionary Communism, which manifests itself both in the music created on the island and the artwork of the designs included here.

Cuban music is the source of much Latin music in the 20th century. Salsa, the all-encompassing Latin music that came out of New York in the 1970s, and soon spread across Colombia, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and elsewhere, owes all of its success to the Cuban music on which it is fundamentally based.

These record sleeves help document the dramatic change in Cuba’s identity from that of 1950s tourist paradise to socialist state. Following the Cuban Revolution in 1959, the United States imposed a trade embargo which exists to this day, and as a consequence the many 100s of Cuban records featured here have rarely been seen outside of Cuba.

The book is edited and compiled by Gilles Peterson, BBC broadcaster, record label owner, DJ, record collector, founder of Worldwide FM and Stuart Baker, founder of Soul Jazz Records. Together they have edited two earlier critically-acclaimed music and design books ‘Freedom, Rhythm and Sound – Revolutionary Jazz Cover Art 1965-83’ and ‘Bossa Nova and The Rise of Brazilian Music in the 1960s’.

In conjunction with the deluxe book, Soul Jazz Records will be releasing an album also compiled by Gilles Peterson and Stuart Baker, charting the rise of Cuban music in the 1970s and featuring many of the artists who appear in this book.

In 1991, a loose-knit collective released a record called Blue Lines under the name Massive Attack, splicing together American hip-hop and soul with the sounds of the British underground. With its marauding bass lines, angular guitars, and psychedelic effects, Blue Lines built on the Caribbean soundsystems and nascent rave scene of the 1980s while also looking ahead to the group's signature blend of epic cinematics and lush downtempo. In the process, Blue Lines invented an entirely new genre called trip hop and launched the career of a rapper named Tricky.

Ultimately, Blue Lines created the sonic playbook for an emerging future: hybrid, digital, cosmopolitan, and rooted in the black and immigrant communities who animated the urban wreckage of the postindustrial city. Massive Attack envisioned an alternate future in sharp counterpoint to the glossy triumphalism of Brit Pop. And while the group would go on to bigger things, this record was both a warning shot and a definitive statement that sounds as otherworldy today as on the day of its release. As Blue Lines's iconic flame logo spun on turntables the world over, Massive Attack and their spaced-out urban blues reimagined music for the 1990s and beyond.

The question of control for Black women is a costly one. From 1986 onwards, the trajectory of Janet Jackson's career can be summed up in her desire for control. Control for Janet was never simply just about her desire for economic and creative control over her career but was, rather, an existential question about the desire to control and be in control over her bodily integrity as a Black woman.

This book examines Janet's continuation of her quest for control as heard in her sixth album, The Velvet Rope. Engaging with the album, the promotion, the tour, and its accompanying music videos, this study unpacks how Janet uses Black cultural production as an emancipatory act of self-creation that allows her to reconcile with and, potentially, heal from trauma, pain, and feelings of alienation. The Velvet Rope's arc moves audiences to imagine the possibility of what emancipation from oppression--from sexual, to internal, to societal--could look like for the singer and for others. The sexually charged content and themes of abuse, including self-harm and domestic violence, were dismissed as “selling points” for Janet at the time of its release. The album stands out as a revelatory expression of emotional vulnerability by the singer, one that many other artists have followed in the 20-plus years since its release.

"As government legislation, standardised music and bad drugs forced the euphoria of the rave phenomenon into the darkness, a new underground movement emerged – the jungle and drum & bass nexus.

It was the sound of the beating heart of Britain’s multi-cultural urban rave, produced by the children of the Windrush and their closest friends, and distilled via the journey from a Tivoli Gardens soundclash, to the UK’s inner city blues parties and onto jazz-funk all-dayers and soul weekenders.

It was a space that was forged in the hidden edges of urban warehouses and the darkened recesses of clubland’s backrooms; schooled in the swagger of dancehall, the thunder of hardcore, the fury of bebop and the depth charge of dub.

Jungle and drum & bass was like nothing else the world had experienced before – simultaneously black and white, urban and suburban, old skool attitude and new school innovation. A socio-cultural melting pot of early-90s broken Britain seizing the wheel and taking control of the machine.

Originally published in 1997, State of Bass explores the scene’s roots through its social, cultural and musical antecedents and on to its emergence via the debate that surrounded the apparent split between jungle and drum & bass. Drawing on interviews with some of the key figures in the early years State of Bass explores the sonic shifts and splinters of new variants, styles and subgenres as it charts the journey from the early days as the deliberately hidden underground, ignored by the media in favour of the post-rave progressive house scene, to its position as a global phenomenon.

State of Bass: The Origins of Jungle and Drum & Bass extends the original text to include the award of the Mercury Prize to Roni Size & Reprazent for the groundbreaking New Forms album and brings new perspectives to the story of the UK’s most important subterranean urban energy.



Quotes

“Cogent, well researched and hardly oblivious to the nutty charisma of jungle’s lexicon and nomenclature. The first serious attempt to document the drum & bass realm is a total success.”
Select

“Exceedingly well researched, endlessly authoritative and undeniably ace…”
Melody Maker

“(State of Bass) deserves a special mention. A thorough account of the story of jungle.”
Ben Osborne, author of The A-Z of Club Culture

“The best book so far on the evolution of drum & bass”
Sheryl Garratt, author of Adventures in Wonderland: a decade of club culture

“Martin James comes up trumps with an in-depth examination of Jungle’s roots, history and even a recommended listening guide.”
Muzik

“Essential reading for anyone who is interested not only in the jungle scene… but in dance in general, in the music industry as a whole or even British society and its infrastructures.”
DJ

“An acutely perceptive and thought-provoking account of the circumstances and celebrities surrounding the development of a modern music that we can finally call our own.”
The Scotsman

“Well worth rattling through if you can track it down.”
FACT

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

The book is 27.2cm x 29.4cm, and the 160 pages are printed and bound on heavyweight 130gsm paper with a hardback cover.

Welcome to Egostrip Book 1, an illustrated escapade through the visions of Dan Lish.

The Egostrip Book project began on Dan’s daily commute to work, where he chose to draw his favourite musicians in little black books. Created in black fibre tip ink pen, straight to paper, while the train rocked back and forth, commuters knocking his elbow (or vice versa). Back in the studio, the illustrations were brought into the computer and digitally coloured, adding texture and details.

There are also black and white sketches and photos with Dan’s anecdotes, process thoughts and tips and histories of the interconnected characters; their alter-egos and worlds created in glorious analogue and digital techniques, plus an introduction to Dan’s life as a DJ, B-Boy and graffiti artist in the UK and New York.

Within the handcrafted lines are layered micro-narratives and ink pen explorations, celebrating Black music and the journey of human creativity.

“Fast slash, cross hatch, slash, cross patch / every word of mine will be verbally sewn tight to match / data that’ll hit you harder than Caterpillar trucks. In the lab, when we collaborate, all matter will erupt.” Pharoahe Monch – Front Line

As an M.C. I was always trying to implement what I learned in the High School Of Art & Design into my music career. In this specific case, it was the specific style of cross-hatching in which we used for shading in my commercial arts class. It only stands to reason that when I first encountered the amazing artwork of Dan Lish that my mind exploded. How ironic that an artist who obviously had a love for the culture would also implement the things I’d come to know in love. Cross-hatching and hip hop. Upon seeing his work, Dan immediately skyrocketed to the top of my all-time favourite artists. From his LP covers to his broad appreciation for the music, Dan Lish is the gold standard. Pharoahe Monch

Five years in the making, an in-depth survey of Pentagram from its beginnings in 1970s London to its current status as one of the powerhouses of international design.

Pentagram: Living by Design (two volumes) is the definitive statement on 50 years of Pentagram. This is an in-depth survey of the group from its beginnings in 1970s London to its current status as one of the powerhouses of international design.

Book one, The Biography, offers a comprehensive analysis of the group, its partners, its achievements, its multidisciplinary approach, and its unique business model. This is accompanied by a plethora of images (some never published), a visual essay of Pentagram’s work across four main sectors, a selection of partners writings, a Pentagram family tree, and much more.

Book two, The Directory, has profiles of 50 partners, past and present, accompanied by extensive coverage of their work. It’s a stellar roll call: from the five famous founders to some of the most celebrated names in contemporary design. It also includes a list of everyone who worked in the firm’s various offices.

Both books are designed by Tony Brook and the Spin design team and use a range of paper stocks and special colours.

'If you want an in-depth look at some of the best work created by some of the best designers in the past fifty years, this book is for you' Creative Bloq

About the Author: Adrian Shaughnessy is a graphic designer, writer and senior tutor at the Royal College of Art, London. He has written numerous books, including a recently published compendium of his design journalism, Scratching the Surface, and monographs devoted to legendary designers Herb Lubalin and Ken Garland. He regularly contributes to design publications and blogs such as Design Observer, Eye, Creative Review and Design Week. In 1988, Shaughnessy co-founded design studio Intro; today he runs ShaughnessyWorks, a consultancy combining art direction, writing, editing and lecturing, and is a co-director of Unit Editions. He is a member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale. Tony Brook is primarily a designer, but also a publisher, collector and curator. Brook founded Spin, his south London-based studio, in 1992, and is a co-director of Unit Editions. He is currently a visiting professor in Graphic Design at the University for the Arts, a specialist arts university in the South East of England.

Format:Hardback Size:27.1 x 21.7 cm Extent:1392 pp Illustrations:3500 Publication date:12 October 2023 ISBN:9780500027462

Music from the punk era transformed the world of music. If you could play three chords, you could make records. You didn’t even need a record label. You could start your own. The same thing happened in graphic design. All you needed were a few sheets of Letraset and access to a photocopier, and you could make your own record covers. And lots of people did just that. Action Time Vision: Punk & Post-Punk 7” Record Sleeves is a celebration of DIY graphics from the punk and post-punk eras. You might call it outsider graphic design. With a few exceptions, trained designers rarely did 7” singles covers for this notoriously shouty and aggressive music. Apart from a few covers done by Barney Bubbles and Peter Saville, most punk and post-punk covers were designed by band members, label owners or friends. Few of the sleeves showcased here are beautiful in the normal sense of the word. But they all have an urgency and an exhilarating disregard for design conventions that makes them exceptional. They are all clarion calls for independence and freedom from pop industry norms. The work in this book is culled from the record collections of designer (and Unit Editions co-founder) Tony Brook, and leading punk scholar Russ Bestley. As one of the world’s leading authorities on punk and post-punk music, Russ has contributed an insightful essay to the book. The book also features interviews with designer Malcolm Garrett, Mute founder Daniel Miller and Sniffin’ Glue editor and musician Mark Perry.

Transformative Visions - An illustrated history of the Twelve Step program

Through art, literature, and scientific research, delve into the history of the Twelve Steps – the path of recovery that has helped millions radically change their lives. Using symbolism and myths, this unique visual edition honors the transformative power of these universal principles and thoughtfully explores ways of aligning with them.

Drawing on art, literature, and scientific research, scholar and therapist Kikan Massara delves into the Twelve Steps – the widely used and respected program of recovery. Developed in the early 20th century to address alcoholism, the Twelve Step program was later found to be an effective tool in aiding recovery for all types of addictions and compulsive behaviors.

Now for the very first time, Twelve Step recovery is linked to a visual narrative. This inspiring edition features over 150 timeless and compelling works of art — from antiquity to the present day — to metaphorically describe a soulful path toward healing and transformation using these principles of recovery that continue to help millions.

Featuring in-depth studies by leading experts in several converging fields, the book examines the history behind the Twelve Steps, from the program's origins in Depression-era America to building a foundation for recovery that incorporates concepts identified by psychologist C. G. Jung. The volume also offers relevant insight into the meaning of addiction in today's society. With striking imagery, literary quotations, and psychological references, the Twelve Step program is reintroduced to a wider audience as timely, accessible, and constructive. At a time of radical change and opportunity, this visual edition honors the transformative power of these universal principles and thoughtfully explores ways of aligning with them.

The author Kikan Massara is a psychotherapist, author, and creative. A passionate researcher of consciousness studies, meditation, and emotional health, she has long used visual arts, symbols, and myths in her practice to facilitate access to the empowering resources of the inner world.

The editor Jessica Hundley is an author, filmmaker and journalist. She has written for the likes of Vogue, Rolling Stone, and The New York Times, and has authored books on artists including Dennis Hopper, David Lynch, and Gram Parsons. Hundley often explores the counterculture in her work, with a focus on metaphysics, psychedelia, and magic.

“In all chaos there is a cosmos, and in all disorder a secret order.” C.G. Jung

Hardcover, quarter-bound, 17 x 24 cm, 1.51 kg, 384 pages

Yo! The Early Days of Hip-Hop 1982-84 is a new book published by Soul Jazz Books/Records that features 300+ pages of stunning photographs documenting the rise of hip hop in the early 1980s, taken by French photographer Sophie Bramly.

Featuring: Fab Five Freddy Futura Afrika Bambaataa Grand Mixer D.ST Beastie Boys Kool Herc Run DMC Cold Crush Brothers Rocksteady Crew Grandmaster Flash and many more!

Introduction BY: Bill Adler

With Additional Text BY: Fab Fab Freddy Grand Mixer D. St Rahiem of The Furious Five Arthur Baker Zephyr Muhamad of The Magnificent Force Lady Pink Mister Freeze of The Rock Steady Crew Patti Astor & Slick Rick

“All these photos speak for a time that is so special, is never coming back and changed the world. It’s pretty much this experience that changed everything for ever. What makes it amazing, is that you hear stories about superheroes that changed the world, and that was us.” Grand Mixer D. St

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Sophie Bramly lived in New York in the early 1980s and became firmly embedded in the emergent scene. The book features many stunning, intimate images of a star-studded roll call of legendary hip hop figures, all of whom were only just getting known or in their ascendency.

These include Kool Herc, Afrika Bambaataa, Grandmixer DST, Jazzy Jay, Red Alert, Grandmaster Melle Mel, Kurtis Blow, Lisa Lee, the Fat Boys, Run-DMC, Beastie Boys and many more.

Bramly knew that hip hop was becoming a cultural force rather than just a musical fashion, and spent many hours photographing the four essential elements of this new world: the emcees, the deejays, the graffiti artists and the break dancers.

Aside from the musical stars of hip-hop you will also see legendary graffiti artists captured at work and play, such as Keith Haring, Dondi, Futura, Phase One, Zephyr and Lady Pink, and break dancers including members of Magnificent Force, Dynamic Breakers and the Rock Steady Crew

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Sophie Bramly is a French photographer born in 1959. In 1982, she moved from France to New York at age 22 and for two years documented the burgeoning hip-hop scene, taking pictures of everyone from graffiti artists and breakdancers to rappers such as the Beastie Boys and Run-DMC. She returned to France in 1984, bringing a number of US hip-hop artists to Europe and then in 1987 moved to London to host and produce MTV’s first ever hip-hop show, Yo! MTV Raps.

She currently lives in Paris and her work is featured extensively at Hip-Hop 360 a six month long exhibition showing at the prestigious Philarmonie de Paris, France (Dec 21–Aug 22)

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“One of the curious facts about hip-hop’s history is how little photographic documentation exists of the culture’s early years. Come the dawn of the Eighties, a handful of talented photographers finally began to pay attention, most notably Henry Chalfant, Martha Cooper, and Joe Conzo. In retrospect, it’s clear that each of them focused on a particular element or two of the multiform explosion of creativity that came to be called hip-hop. Henry zeroed in on graffiti. Martha devoted herself to graffiti and breakdancing. And the heart of Joe’s work documents the career of the Cold Crush Brothers. Uniquely Sophie Bramly, unlike the others, managed between 1982 and 1984 to put her arms around all four of the hip-hop elements: the emcees, deejays, graffiti artists, and breakdancers.” Bill Adler from the introduction.

Isbn: 978-1-9163598-2-6

Flexibound, 304 pages, Dimensions 224 X 284 mm, Weight 1.75Kg

Written by award-winning Black British children’s author Sharna Jackson, Black Artists Shaping the World celebrates the diversity of work being produced today by Black artists from around the globe, introducing young readers to twenty-six contemporary artists from Africa and of the African diaspora.

Sharna Jackson’s experience as a children’s author who has worked for over a decade in the cultural sector, both at Tate in London and at Site Gallery in Sheffield, is combined here with the curatorial expertise of Dr Zoé Whitley, Director of London’s Chisenhale Gallery and co-curator of the landmark Tate exhibition ‘Soul of a Nation: Art in the Age of Black Power’. Their book features artists working in a variety of media from painting, sculpture and drawing to ceramics, installation art and sound art. Artists featured include British Turner Prize-winning painters Lubaina Himid and Chris Ofili; renowned South African visual activist Zanele Muholi; Nigerian sound artist Emeka Ogboh; Sudanese painter Kamala Ibrahim Ishag; Kenyan-British ceramicist Magdalene Odundo; African-American artists Kerry James Marshall, Faith Ringgold, Amy Sherald and Kehinde Wiley; performance artist Harold Offeh; and moving image artist Larry Achiampong.

The result is a refreshingly contemporary celebration of Black artists at work today that will serve as inspiration to a new generation of aspiring young artists.

Graffiti Characters for Beginners presents you with a simple and straightforward introduction to the basics behind graffiti characters. Easy-to-follow instructions of how to draw a classic b-boy or a fly girl, flying eyeballs, angry spray cans, happy Uni-markers and much more. Learn the the basic composition of the characters, and give them emotions, attitude and purpose. Graffiti Characters for Beginners is the fundamental guide for you to learn how to master drawing funky cartoonish figures with style and finesse. Step by step, until you are able to put together complicated sceneries with interacting characters of your own choice. Graffiti Characters for Beginners suits all ages and is as great for kids and creative adults as it is for advertisers, home stylers and school teachers. Learning graffiti has never been easier or more fun! Also available in Dokument Press’ ”beginners” series is the popular Graffiti for Beginners: An

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.

The definitive study of the work of Kaws, one of the most influential and much-loved forces in contemporary art and culture

Kaws is one of the most popular and recognizable contemporary artists, whose reach extends far beyond the art world into the realms of fashion, music, and popular culture at large. Beginning his career as a graffiti artist in the 1990s, Kaws has expanded his repertoire into painting, sculpture, drawing, product design, and augmented reality, together forming an artistic vision that unites all of these practices. Kaws has collaborated with some of the most prominent international brands, including Uniqlo, Comme des Garçons, Supreme, Nike, Dior, sacai, General Mills, and many more, and the book includes images of the artist’s studio by Jason Schmidt and a selection of Kaws’s previously unpublished preparatory drawings as well as work spanning his entire career, from his early graffiti days to his highly collectible vinyl toys, complex abstract paintings, and monumental public sculptures. Richly illustrated and featuring the most significant scholarship on his work to date, this book is a definitive study on the life and career of this extraordinary artist.

Specifications:
Format: Paperback Size: 290 × 250 mm (11 3/8 × 9 7/8 in)
Pages: 160 pp
Illustrations: 200 illustrations

The first monograph on the Japanese streetwear brand Whiz Limited, this book showcases the last 20 years of the brand’s design and collaborations with streetwear’s most iconic players.

Whiz Limited is a Japanese streetwear brand estab-lished in 2000 by Hiroaki Shitano. With a following in Japan as well as Hong Kong and mainland China, Shitano has become something of a cult figure, as one of the new generation of streetwear designers influ-enced by Hiroshi Fujiwara. Consisting originally of handmade, printed tees, the label has since expanded to include a complete range of streetwear infused with an eccentric Japanese flair. Shitano was raised in the entertainment district of Shinjuku, and this is reflected in the clothing’s distinctly downtown urban vibe and predominantly dark color palette. Chronicling the history of the brand, alongside some of Whiz’s most prolific projects to date, this book features beautiful, newly shot photographs of a long list of collaborations with streetwear icons, including Hiroshi Fujiwara/Fragment, Mastermind, Stüssy, A Bathing Ape®, Bristol, Bountyhunter, M&M, Kappa, New Era, Disney, Hello Kitty, G-Shock, Peanuts, Porter, The North Face, Marmot, First Down, and the estate of Keith Haring. This book also features an impressive archive of the brand’s iconic sneaker designs, boasting collabora-tions with heavy hitters like mita sneakers, Adidas, New Balance, Asics, Puma, Reebok, Mizuno, Converse, and Ugg, making it a must-have for sneak-erheads and lovers of streetwear style alike.

A lyrical, poignant ode to wrinkles and the stories they tell, by the world renowned photographer and public artist JR

This first-ever picture book by internationally acclaimed artist-photographer JR allows young readers to consider the lives and stories of the older people around them. Memories, experiences, and emotions are touched on in a welcoming way, creating the perfect conversation-starter between children and their elders. Evocative black-and-white photographs of faces and simple, poignant read-aloud text consider the literal and lyrical meaning of wrinkles, leaving readers of all ages with a well-justified appreciation of aging and natural beauty. Published to coincide with a major exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, opening in October 2019.

From notes, invitation cards, marking and signs, to decorative artwork: There's always a use for hand lettering! Learn the basics of letterforms and styles, tools and materials, and practice eight different alphabets created exclusively for this book. With step-by-step instructions and exercises, this workbook will guide you through the process of learning the techniques and skills necessary to create beautiful, unique lettering. You’ll learn the basics of letterform structure, spacing and alignment, and progress to more advanced techniques where you will be able to design your own beautiful letters as well as creating letter images with composition and decorative embellishments that make your text stand out. Whether you’re a beginner or looking to improve your existing lettering skills, this workbook is an excellent way to release your creativity. Explore the medium, be creative, make an impact and immerse yourself in the world of letters, design and shapes. Hand Lettering and Beyond is the fundamental guide for you to learn how to master the alphabet with style and finesse, letter by letter, until you are able to put together complicated words and messages, adding the coloring of your own choice. Sofie Björkgren-Näse is an experienced lettering artist. She is a full-time freelance letterer who have created lettering work for numerous international companies and shared the joy of hand lettering with thousand of workshop participants. Hand Lettering and Beyond suits all ages and is a great tool for advertisers, home stylers, school teachers, creative kids and adults alike. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to elevate your hand lettering to the next level!

Geechi Suede and Sonny Cheeba are Camp Lo. These two emcees from the Bronx, NY entered the American hip hop scene with an insider slang that bewildered listeners as they radiated the look of a bygone era of black culture. In 1996, they collaborated with producer Ski and a host of other contributors to create Uptown Saturday Night, featuring the seminal single “Luchini (a.k.a. This is It).” While other 1990s rappers referred to 1970s Blaxploitation culture, Camp Lo were self-described “time travelers” who weaved the slang and style of a soulful past into state-of-the-art lyrical flows.

Uptown Saturday Night is a tapestry of 1970s black popular culture and 1990s New York City hip hop. This volume will detail how the album's fantastic world of “Coolie High” reflected classic films like Cooley High and the Sidney Poitier film from which the album's title is derived, and promoted vintage slang and fashion. The book features new interviews with Camp Lo, producer Ski, Trugoy the Dove from De La Soul, Ish from Digable Planets, and others, and offers musical and cultural analyses that detail the development of the album and its essential contributions to a post-soul aesthetic.

Vol 3 of the interviews series – Includes interviews with: DJ Hen Boogie & Izadoe from Bay Area crew The Dereliks, Izniz [Ghettolandz/The Madness/Burn UNI/Boom Bap Nation], Eddie Meeks Insane Cirkle & Southern Vanguard Radio , Charlie Dawk The Superstar from Da Phlayva/Langston, Joseph Caldwell from Lower Level, Supreme The Rudeboy aka DJ Supreme, Dope artwork by AzhqOne.

Count up to 25 with all of the friendly faces who call Sesame Street home, including Elmo, Big Bird, the Count, and more, in the latest title of the Abrams Block Book series! Each exciting spread highlights beloved characters for the board book age group, teaching counting with a fun Sesame twist, and making this book perfect for the youngest fans as well as seasoned collectors. As in previous Block Book titles, this title will include die-cut pages and the stylish art of British design team Peski Studio.

New York City in the 1970s was an urban nightmare: destitute, dirty, and dangerous. As the country collectively turned its back on the Big Apple, two musical vigilantes rose out of the miasma. Armed only with amplified AC current, Suicide's Alan Vega and Marty Rev set out to save America's soul. Their weaponized noise terrorized unsuspecting audiences. Suicide could start a riot on a lack of guitar alone. Those who braved their live shows often fled in fear--or formed bands (sometimes both). This book attempts to give the reader a front-row seat to a Suicide show.

Suicide is one of the most original, most misunderstood, and most influential bands of the last century. While Suicide has always had a dedicated cult following, the band is still relatively unknown outside their musical coterie. Arguing against the idea of the band's niche musical history, this book looks at parallels between Marvel Comics' antiheroes in the 1970s and Suicide's groundbreaking first album. Andi Coulter tells the origin story of two musical Ghost Riders learning to harness their sonic superpower, using noise like a clarion call for a better future.

What a beautiful book...a great presentation and wonderful insight into these historic guitars." -Nils Lofgren on 108 Rock Star Guitars From the photographer of the critically acclaimed 108 Rock Star Guitars comes a new collection of guitar photos, including B.B. King, Kurt Cobain, and Prince as well as more than one hundred legendary rock icons. Lisa S. Johnson's journey into the world of rock and roll photography began more than seventeen years ago when she photographed the legendary Les Paul and his beloved Gibson during one of his famed.

Published in 2005, The Void is a book that features a collection of photographs by Naoki Ishikawa. The photos illustrate the primeval forest on the North Island of New Zealand. It is a dense and deep forest that the indigenous Maori inherited as a sanctuary. A young Naoki Ishikawa trekked solo through these forests for a month and a half, taking pictures of what he saw as he went. Looking at the work 17 years ago, Mr. Ishikawa says, "What I was thinking at that time and what I think now hasn't changed at all."

From remote areas such as the Arctic Circle and the Himalayas to Japanese visiting gods and prehistoric cave paintings, Naoki Ishikawa has perceived the world with his own body and captured it in photographs. Mr. Ishikawa's first photo book The Void was released in 2005. The subject is a primeval forest where nature and humans have built a mature relationship. Now that interest in the global environment is increasing, Mr. Ishikawa's photographs and words give us a lot of awareness. To think about the future of the earth.

Dimensions: 34 x 27 cm; printed and bound in Japan.

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.

From his own adolescence, when his allegiance was to punk rock, to his work as one of the essential voices of our time on music and culture at the New York Times and the New Yorker, Kelefa Sanneh has made a deep study of how our popular music unites and divides us. Distilling a career’s worth of knowledge, Sanneh explores the tribes music forms, and how its genres, shape-shifting across the years, give us a way to track larger forces and concerns. He debunks cherished myths, reappraises beloved heroes and upends familiar ideas of musical greatness, arguing that sometimes the best popular music isn’t transcendent: it expresses our grudges as well as our hopes, and is motivated by greed as well as inspiration. Throughout, race is a powerful touchstone: just as there’s always been a ‘Black’ audience and a ‘white’ audience (with some overlap) there is Black music and white music and a whole lot of expropriation. This is a book to shock and awe the deepest music nerd, and at the same time to work as a heady gateway drug for the uninitiated.

San Francisco rock’n roll bleeds through Michael Goldberg – an innovative, inspiring figure who always has been quietly pioneering something interesting for the past 50+ years. Hozac Books is thrilled to present the first-ever collection of his photographs in Jukebox, featuring an impressive array of underground figures and outcast luminaries captured in their natural habitat, most seen here for the first time anywhere. Also the author of our critically acclaimed Wicked Game book, Michael’s body of work extends farther out than we’d ever imagined, and we’re so excited to get his first major photography collection out into the world. Bridging the gaps between the late ‘60s psychedelic era, primitive first-wave ‘70s punk and soul & reggae, as well as never-before seen images of country & folk iconoclasts and rule-breakers across the spectrum of all that is captivating, and even including some modern artists still making waves, Jukebox is a riveting photography collection that truly feels as good as it looks. Addicted To Noise founder and former Rolling Stone senior writer Michael Goldberg’s new book, Jukebox, is a book of distinctive, full-page photographs of musicians taken between 1967 and 2023. Goldberg is best known as a writer, but for over 50 years he’s also been photographing musicians and the photos in Jukebox are drawn from the thousands he’s taken over the years. Included are photos of the Sex Pistols, Crime, the Ramones, the Avengers, Devo, the Nuns, the Clash, Tom Verlaine, Lou Reed, John Cale and the Dils as well as Tom Waits, Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile, Janis Joplin, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Muddy Waters, Toots and the Maytals, Patti Smith, Bettye LaVette, the Who, Neil Young, Jonathan Richman, Townes Van Zandt, the Flamin’ Groovies, and many many more. Softcover First edition of 400 10″ x 9″ – 252 pages

HoZac Books is proud to present The White Label Promo Preservation Society: 100 Flop Albums You Ought to Know, written and compiled by Sal Maida and Mitchell Cohen, who have recruited for their “society” a gang of esteemed music obsessives: musicians, label executives, and journalists who chose favorite albums from the 1960s and 1970s to rave about and expound upon. The only criterion was that the albums never made the top 100 on Billboard’s LP Top 200 (although in a few cases, they did quite well on the R&B or country chart). The selection ranges from east coast vocal-group harmony to punk and metal, from superstars like The Who and the Beach Boys to virtual unknowns. As Sal and Mitchell write in the book’s introduction, “These are the albums you might not read about, except here. No one needs to tell you why Pet Sounds, Revolver or Blonde On Blonde are essential parts of any decent record collection, or guide you towards classics – or even somewhat lesser efforts – by the Rolling Stones, Chuck Berry or the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Or which Pink Floyd album is indispensable (hint: the debut; you can stop right there). Although we have strong opinions about pantheon artists like Led Zeppelin and Marvin Gaye, and are happy to share those views with anyone in earshot, that isn’t what this book is about. We aren’t here to challenge or endorse rock orthodoxy. Neither is the mission to, once again, assert the brilliance of Skip Spence’s Oar, of such artists as Nick Drake, Big Star, and the Velvet Underground, whose influence, despite the lack of any commercial success in their time, has been thoroughly – one might even say exhaustively – documented elsewhere.” To tell help this story, Sal and Mitchell called on an impressive team of guest essayists: Lenny Kaye, Russ Titelman, Amy Rigby, Brian Koppelman, Dennis Diken, Bebe Buell, Jim Farber, Susan Whitall, Steve Shelley, Phil King, Ira Robbins, Billy Altman, Marshall Crenshaw, Peter Holsapple, Wreckless Eric, Peter Keepnews, Miriam Linna, Joe McEwen, and a cast of dozens.

In July 2019, eleven years after Jay-Z became the first hip-hop artist to headline Glastonbury, Stormzy became the first English rapper to follow suit. Wearing a customised stab-proof vest designed by Banksy, the South London rapper delivered an explosive performance and finished by thanking the “legends for paving the way,” name-checking Wiley, Dizzee Rascal, and Giggs. Despite how unlikely it seemed for decades, UK rap was now firmly a part of pop music and the greater hip-hop canon.

Rich, nuanced, and often misunderstood, the history of UK rap is a story of music that refused to stand still. Factoring in socioeconomics, gender, identity, music industry disruption, and innovation, What Do You Call It? charts the artform’s first four decades, beginning when rap landed on our island in the early 1980s. Shaped by sound system culture, inspired by punk, and accelerated by rave, it has evolved from Britcore, UK hip-hop, and trip-hop of the late twentieth century to garage, grime, and drill.

Through cultural theory, historical research, and original interviews with key figures and collaborators in the UK rap scene, from pioneers like Malcolm McLaren, Soul II Soul, Tricky, Roots Manuva, and Roll Deep to modern artists like Dave, CASISDEAD, Little Simz, Loyle Carner, and Skengdo x AM, adds a rich human dimension to the UK rap story — one that helped change British music and culture forever.

Cover design by Trevor Jackson.

“A long overdue exploration of rap music in the UK and its longstanding – albeit overlooked – legacy and influence. In an era when UK rappers dominate the charts, star in major movies and TV shows and front huge advertising campaigns for multi-national corporations, Kane traces back the arduous journey from maligned sub-culture to celebrated mascot of neoliberal capitalism.” Jehst

“David Kane writes with a deft touch and possesses a disarming and deeply insightful interview style. Sparking life, humour, and sorrow across every page of more than three decades of UK rap history.” Charlie Dark MBE

“Kane builds bridges in a rich musical universe full of heroes and villains—and plot twists. With an inimitable style, he merges culture high and low to bring new meaning to the music. What Do You Call It? is a landmark tome for UK rap music.” Brian DiGenti, Wax Poetics

“A mind rich in ideas” Stanley Ledbetter, The New Yorker

Weight: 0.4 kg
Dimensions: 23 × 3 × 17 cm

In 1999, Modest Mouse struck out for Chicago to record their major-label debut for Epic Records. Amid indie circle cries of “sellouts,” a largely untested producer, and a half-built studio, the trio recorded the instrumental basics of The Moon & Antarctica … and then singer/songwriter Isaac Brock got his face smashed by a hooligan in a park.

With barely any vocals recorded, Brock emerged from the hospital with his jaw completely wired shut, and returned to a mostly empty studio. And there, on a diet of painkillers, in a neighborhood that wanted to purge the band from its borders, a creative alchemy took place that would redefine Modest Mouse and indie rock at large.

The fact that the band finished the album at all is surprising. The fact that it is now considered by critics as “hands-down one of the greatest records ever made” (NME) is perhaps an utter miracle.

The Moon & Antarctica is an album so strange and enigmatic, from those sweet opening notes, to the plunging depths of the middle, to the shocking, furious end, that you almost hesitate to listen to it again for fear of it losing its chaotic magic. But then you do, and you discover all-new sounds-a lost harmonic here, a stray percussion element there, a fresh interpretation of a lyric that leaves you thunderstruck.

And that ever-looming question, years on: How the hell did Modest Mouse pull this off?!

Come to My Garden (1970) introduced the world to Minnie Riperton, the solo artist. Minnie captivated listeners with her earth-shattering voice's uncanny ability to evoke melancholy and exultance. Born out of Charles Stepney's masterful composition and Richard Rudolph's attentive songwriting, the album fused a plethora of music genres. A blip in the universe of fusion music that would come to dominate the 1970s, Come to My Garden also featured the work of young bandleaders like Ramsey Lewis and Maurice White, thus bridging the divide between jazz and R&B.

Despite fairly positive reviews of the album, even in its many re-releases, it never garnered critical attention. Minnie Riperton's Come to My Garden by Brittnay L. Proctor uses rare archival ephemera, the multiple re-issues of the album, interviews, cultural history, and personal narrative to outline how the revolutionary album came to be and its lasting impact on popular music of the post-soul era (the late 20th to the early 21st century).

Longtime music icon John Mellencamp’s artistic expression has never been limited to song.

The acclaimed singer-songwriter John Mellencamp has been an accomplished painter for more than four decades. This definitive survey—curated by Mellencamp himself—of his large-scale oil portraits and mixed-media assemblages documents America’s heart and soul, revealing unsettling but beautiful truths with an antiestablishment frown and a rich sense of narrative. “Although we may primarily know Mellencamp as a rock star, one of the highest-selling of all time and a Hall of Famer, he is also a great painter, as this book shows. Not a musician who also paints... No, John legitimately belongs in the modern art pantheon,” says Bob Guccione Jr. in his essay that delineates the connection of Mellencamp’s music and art, both imbued with the earnest voice of America’s heartland.

The definitive book on the creations, career, and legacy of one of the world’s greatest sneaker designers.

Often called the father of modern running and basketball sneakers, Jacques Chassaing has shaped and influenced sports and street fashion like few designers ever will. For the first time, Chassaing reveals the story behind the forty-year career of a pioneering designer who has continually pushed boundaries and led the creation of many of the world’s most beloved sneakers. Chassaing thrills and provokes readers with his life experiences, taking them on a journey of continual evolution and revolution. We learn about those who have inspired him and meet those he has inspired. We discover what drove his design philosophy and the process behind some of the greatest sneakers and sports technology ever created: the Forum, Rivalry, Lendl, Edberg, ZX series, Predator, EQT line, Torsion, and his Porsche Design collabs, to name but a few. And we see how Chassaing’s designs have impacted modern culture and won a place on the feet and in the hearts of millions of people. This book features stories about and contributions from athletes, celebrities, and designers who have worked with and been influenced by Chassaing and his work, including Michael Jordan, Stefan Edberg, Patrick Ewing, Run DMC, Gary Aspden, Paul Gaudio, and many more. Art directed by Peter Moore, designer of the Nike Air Jordan 1 and creator of the adidas Originals line, From Soul to Sole is a story, a statement, an experience, and a celebration of a life and career that is still impacting how we think about sneakers and street fashion design today.

Featuring never-before-seen unit photography, storyboards, costume and concept designs, and behind-the-scenes photos from Academy Award–winning director Steven Spielberg’s first musical, West Side Story: The Making of the Steven Spielberg Film is a loving chronicle of the years of effort that went into bringing a beloved story back to the screen for a new generation. Author Laurent Bouzereau was embedded with the film’s cast and crew and conducted original interviews with director and producer Steven Spielberg, screenwriter and executive producer Tony Kushner, Tony Award–winning choreographer.

Having designed Roxy Music as an haute couture suit hand-stitched of punk and progressive music, Bryan Ferry redesigned it. He made Roxy Music ever dreamier and mellower-reaching back to sadly beautiful chivalric romances. Dadaist (punk) noise exited; a kind of ambient soft soul entered. Ferry parted ways with Eno, electric violinist Eddie Jobson, and drummer Paul Thompson, foreswearing the broken-sounding synthesizers played by kitchen utensils, the chance-based elements, and the maquillage of previous albums.

The production and engineering imposed on Avalon confiscates emotion and replaces it with an acoustic simulacrum of courtliness, polished manners, and codes of etiquette. The seducer sings seductive music about seduction, but decorum is retained, as amour courtois insists.

The backbeat cannot beat back nostalgia; it remains part of the architecture of Avalon, an album that creates an allusive sheen. Be nostalgic, by all means, but embrace that feeling's falseness, because nostalgia-whether inspired by medieval Arthuriana or 1940s film noir repartee or a 1980s drug-induced high-deceives. Nostalgia defines our fantasies and our (not Ferry's) essential artifice.

Shelved for over 20 years, Sam Cooke's Live at the Harlem Square Club, 1963, stands alongside Otis Redding's Live in Europe and James Brown's Live at the Apollo as one of the finest live soul albums ever made. It also reveals a musical, spiritual, emotional, and social journey played out over one night on the stage of a sweaty Miami club, as Cooke made music that encapsulated everything he had ever cut, channeling forces that would soon birth “A Change is Gonna Come,” the most important soul song ever written.

This book covers Cooke's days with the Soul Stirrers, the gospel unit that was inventing a strand of soul in the 1950s, and continues on to his string of hit singles as a solo artist that reveal far more about this complex man and the complex music he was always fashioning. A writer and an agent of social change, he absorbed the teachings of Billie Holiday and Bob Dylan while reconciling his own identity and what fans expected of him. Fleming explores how this towering soul artist came to reconcile so many disparate elements on a Florida stage on a winter night in 1963-a stage that extended well into the future, beyond Cooke's own life, beyond the 1960s, and into a perpetual here-and-now. Live at the Harlem Square Club, 1963 will resonate so long as we all have need to look into ourselves and square our differences and become more human, and more connected with others in our humanity.