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Cover of Mazzy Star’s So Tonight That I Might See - 33 1/3 by Anthony Gomez III.

Anthony Gomez III

Mazzy Star’s So Tonight That I Might See - 33 1/3

Bloomsbury Publishing USA

    Anthony Gomez III explores how out of the commercial failure of the 1980s Paisley Underground genre, a Los Angeles that suffered one of the highest crime rates in the country, the rise of Chicano/a art in the public eye, and record label disputes, singer Hope Sandoval and guitarist David Roback form the influential dream pop band Mazzy Star.

    Mazzy Star's So Tonight That I Might See was a slow, reluctant success. Pushed by Capital Records as an album for teenagers to make out during, as a record about girlhood, and as music for those uninterested in the era's male aggression, the album's reputation has been plagued by these forced connections ever since.

    But by tracing the hurried development of So Tonight That I Might See and the band's efforts to bend the record company's wants to their will, this book revisits and challenges these imposed narratives that have overshadowed the band's interest in the mystical, the American Southwest, ranchera music from the mid-century, and a surrealism which summons the strange, dark shadows of everyday life in the US.

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    Cover of Stiff Little Fingers' Inflammable Material - 33 1/3 by Kevin Dunn.

    Kevin Dunn

    Stiff Little Fingers' Inflammable Material - 33 1/3

    Bloomsbury Publishing USA

      Situating the band and its groundbreaking debut within the context of The Troubles, this book explores the band's complicated and controversial relationship with the Belfast punk scene, a scene that actively defied violent social divisions to create important non-sectarian spaces through which an “Alternative Ulster” was imagined and put into practice.

      Stiff Little Fingers' 1979 debut album, Inflammable Material, was the first independent album to ever reach the UK Top 20 and is regarded as one of the most influential punk releases of all time, containing the singles “Suspect Device” and “Alternative Ulster.” Inflammable Material was both a product of, and response to, The Troubles, the era of political violence in Northern Ireland that claimed more than 3,500 lives over three decades.

      Though Inflammable Material was regarded as the clarion call for that scene, with anthemic songs now regarded as synonymous with the times, the band was often viewed with suspicion and outright hostility by many of their contemporaries.

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      Cover of Tame Impala’s Currents - 33 1/3 by Alister Newstead.

      Alister Newstead

      Tame Impala’s Currents - 33 1/3

      Bloomsbury Publishing USA

        Tame Impala's psychedelic third album Currents (2015) is emblematic of a cultural shift in music production and consumption in the early days of streaming and a project that cemented its creator, Kevin Parker, as one of Australian music's most unlikely success stories and influential exports.

        Currents marked a conscious shift in sound and attitude for its creator, West Australian polymath Kevin Parker, resisting his role as psych rock savior to embrace soul, disco, funk and his latent pop instincts. The result was Tame Impala's most popular and influential album, transforming them into festival-headlining, internet-famous Gen Z idols and turning the ear of popular acts, from Rihanna and Lady Gaga to Travis Scott and Dua Lipa. Parker's increasingly substantial credits as a collaborative producer and songwriter, with the likes of these artists as well as The Weeknd, Mark Ronson, Justic, Gorillaz and many more, served to enshrine him as a modern architect of pop music.

        Not bad for a shy, shaggy teen who used to lurk in basement Perth venues and play gigs with a towel on his head.

        This book dives deep into Currents, examining its context, creation, content, and lasting impact and importance in the history of Australian popular music. The album's themes of metamorphosis and genre-blurring sound embodied (and possibly encouraged) a wider shift in the 2010s of popular music trends, consumption, and listening habits.

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        Cover of Interpol's Antics - 33 1/3 by Gabriel T. Saxton-Ruiz.

        Gabriel T. Saxton-Ruiz

        Interpol's Antics - 33 1/3

        Bloomsbury Publishing USA

          At the dawn of the 21st century, the New York City indie rock scene emerged as a beacon of artistic innovation, capturing widespread attention. Within this vibrant milieu, Interpol's second album, Antics, stands out as a landmark release.

          Released in 2004, Antics initially received a spectrum of responses-acclaimed by fans yet, somewhat dismissively regarded by critics; nevertheless, time has favored Antics, elevating it to a revered status among aficionados. Covering the album's intricate musical craftsmanship to its innovative marketing, and with insights from lead singer Paul Banks, this book reveals the depths of Interpol's creative evolution and the album's shift towards distinct singles while maintaining its atmospheric essence. Highlighting the band's widespread appeal, especially in Latin America, the book looks into the band's fervent fanbase and the cultural phenomena that arose, showcasing the enduring bond between Interpol and their international audience. It discusses the global impact of Antics, and underscores the album's longevity and Interpol's status as architects of a sound that has resonated across borders and generations, cementing their place in the annals of modern music history.

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          Cover of Sufjan Stevens' Carrie & Lowell - 33 1/3 by Joel Mayward.

          Joel Mayward

          Sufjan Stevens' Carrie & Lowell - 33 1/3

          Bloomsbury Publishing USA

            Upon the release of Sufjan Stevens' seventh studio album, Carrie & Lowell, two divergent groups found themselves as strange bedfellows: the LGBTQIA+ community and American evangelical Christians. Both were united in praise for Stevens' beautifully melancholic music.

            Critically acclaimed as one of the best albums of 2015, the elegiac and intimate record about the death of Sufjan's estranged mother reflects the musician's own paradoxical posture-Carrie & Lowell is both sacred and profane, Christian and queer, traditional and progressive, despairing and hopeful.

            Theologian and cultural critic Joel Mayward considers Carrie & Lowell as a mystical metamodern memento mori, Sufjan's symphonic (as opposed to systematic) approach to the questions of mortality, sexuality, and God. Fusing critical observations with personal narrative, Mayward examines the unique audience reception of Carrie & Lowell and the questions it raises: in a world of division, how might Stevens' affecting music act as a bridge of love between seemingly irreconcilable communities? As Carrie & Lowell reminds us of the painful truth that “we're all gonna die,” perhaps it also offers a glimpse of transcendence and hope on this side of death.

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            Cover of Plunderphonics - 33 1/3 Genre Series by Matthew Blackwell.

            Matthew Blackwell

            Plunderphonics - 33 1/3 Genre Series

            Bloomsbury Publishing USA

              Featuring interviews with John Oswald, Negativland, and others and drawing on a wealth of research on copyright and intellectual property, Plunderphonics explores the impact of a genre that made illegality a point of pride.

              In Plunderphonics, Matthew Blackwell tells the story of a group of musicians who advocated for changes to the copyright system by deploying unlicensed samples in their recordings. The composer John Oswald, who coined the genre term “plunderphonics,” was threatened with legal action by the Canadian Recording Industry Association on behalf of Michael Jackson. The Bay Area group Negativland was sued by Island Records on behalf of U2 for their parody of the band. These artists attracted media attention to their cause in a bid to expand fair use protections. Later, the Australian band the Avalanches encountered the limitations of the music licensing system during the release of their debut album, having to drop several samples that could not be successfully cleared. Finally, American DJ and producer Girl Talk released a series of albums featuring hundreds of uncleared samples and successfully avoided lawsuits by publicly arguing a fair use defense.

              This book narrates the conflicts between these artists and the recording industry. Blackwell places plunderphonics in the cultural contexts of postmodernism, Situationism, and culture jamming and analyzes responses to the genre from the media and the legal system. Along with histories of each artist, changes to American copyright law are tracked through important cases like Grand Upright v. Warner Bros. and Bridgeport v. Dimension Films. Though the legal terrain did not shift in the favor of plunderphonic musicians, they changed public perception of fair use and enabled more widespread sampling in underground music.

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              Cover of 20th Century Ambient - 33 1/3 Genre Series by Dusty Henry.

              Dusty Henry

              20th Century Ambient - 33 1/3 Genre Series

              Bloomsbury Publishing USA

                Through text and comics, 20th Century Ambient searches through ambient music's recent history to unearth how the genre has evolved and the role it plays in our daily lives.

                Ambient music is a part of our daily lives, whether we all realize it or not. It's the undercurrent in some of our favorite songs. It's the mood-setting background music in our favorite movies and video games. We hear it in the placid music pumped through the speakers in department stores, on critically acclaimed albums from generational talents, and in synthesizer drones from the depths of Soundcloud. It's present in the peaceful sounds of spa music, new-age chants, and wellness resources like the Calm app that purport ambient's healing properties. You can find it on those strange, anonymous instrumental nature albums you can buy at Bed Bath & Beyond. It shows up in genres ranging from electronic and rock music to jazz and lo-fi beats. Ambient is everywhere.

                20th Century Ambient details a crucial period in which ambient music became a fully realized idea and is secretly one of the most popular genres in the world. Ambient has existed debatably as long as music itself. It wasn't until the 20th century that it became a defined genre. This book walks through ambient's ambiguous timeline to uncover not just the genre's evolution but to understand why it resonates so deeply with the human spirit. From Erik Satie's classical compositions, hidden histories in blues and dub music, innovations by Brian Eno and Alice Coltrane, all the way through modern artists spearheading ambient in the still early 21st century.

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                Cover of The B-52s' Cosmic Thing - 33 1/3 by Pete Crighton.

                Pete Crighton

                The B-52s' Cosmic Thing - 33 1/3

                Bloomsbury Publishing USA

                  The B-52s were always queer, though not overtly, and this book dissects the coded queer messaging in their music, using 1989's Cosmic Thing as a focal point.

                  Alongside the author's own queer awakening, Crighton investigates the band's history and recorded work to date, providing cultural context along the way, and proves what was obvious all along – the B-52s aren't just pop culture icons, they are queer history.

                  Cosmic Thing took the world by storm in 1989 in the wake of the band's single greatest tragedy: losing guitarist Ricky Wilson to complications from AIDS in 1985. Cosmic Thing is a celebration of queer joy in the face of that seismic setback. Not only did the B-52s have to fight through their pain and grief to make their fifth full length record, the band was also up against a conservative government under Reagan (then Bush), a misunderstood virus still ravaging the queer community and an indifferent public after years out of the spotlight. Watching the band enjoy their greatest success in the face of adversity was part of what made Cosmic Thing such a marvel to behold - as miraculous as the B-52s' entire career.

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                  Cover of Summer In St. Mary's by Bhajan Bhoy.

                  Bhajan Bhoy

                  Summer In St. Mary's

                  Feeding Tube Records (USA) / We Here & Now (Can) / Wormer Bros. Records (NL)

                    Ajay Saggar has been making music under the moniker Bhajan Bhoy for the last 5 years, releasing several albums and touring around the globe. As a member of both Water Damage and CHELA, he appeared on 3 consecutive nights at Le Guess Who? festival in November 2024. Bhajan Bhoy’s music “plough a peak time psychedelic furrow; from lazy interstellar ragas to lysergic dance music, mellow psychedelic rock and all sorts of kosmische mutations” (The Slow Music Movement).

                    “Summer In St. Mary’s” is an album of beautiful and highly meditative and minimalist compositions with repetitive motifs, played on a 19th century church organ in the 15th century church of St. Mary’s in the small village of South Cowton in North Yorkshire (U.K.).

                    It’s an incredibly beautiful church with a rich history. Built in the 1450s by Sir Richard Conyers (who also built his castle on the hill opposite), this handsome church, like the castle, is sturdy in character. Inside the church are the alabaster effigies of Sir Richard Conyers and his two wives. The church is unused but maintained by the the Churches Conservation Trust. Inside is a church organ built by the The Packard Company, who were based in Fort Wayne, Indiana, USA. I dated this particular organ by finding the serial number that had been scratched into the back of the organ, and via a wonderful website setup by a fan of the organ company, could see that it was built somewhere between 1896 - 1898!

                    I discovered the church in the summer of 2022, whilst on a visit, that summer, to unusual buildings in North Yorkshire with my mum. I saw the organ tucked away in a corner and immediately was drawn to playing it, and heard the amazing sound that emanated from it, and the seeds of an idea to record on it were sown. Over two long days in the summer of 2023, I composed and recorded a number of long compositions. Spending those long hours in the church gave me a stereophonic impression of the auditory surround. Inspired by the “natural musics” of the house’s structure (its acoustics, creaks, wind blowing through the wooden doors and room tone) and the history of it (stain glass windows, effigies of Sir Richard Conyers and his two wives, Latin inscription above the doors), I fell into a spell of playing music in a very open and free manner for many hours that, within the confines of this very special building, felt transcendent and astral.

                    STAFF COMMENTS

                    Barry says: Eschewing Bhajan Bhoy's usual widescreen psychedelic fare somewhat for an entirely minimalistic sound palatte seems like it could easily sacrifice some of BB's usual seismic intensity, but 'Summer In St. Mary's' is a completely absorbing, dizzying wonder.

                    TRACK LISTING

                    Side A
                    Sir Richard Conyers
                    Alice Wycliffe

                    Side B
                    Piscina
                    Font

                    Side C
                    Funeray Helmet
                    Gauntlet

                    Side D
                    Custom
                    Parvis

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                    Cover of Cocteau Twins' Blue Bell Knoll - 33 1/3 by Chris Tapley.

                    Chris Tapley

                    Cocteau Twins' Blue Bell Knoll - 33 1/3

                    Bloomsbury Academic USA

                      In this exploration of Cocteau Twins’ quintessential album, Chris Tapley traces lines in all directions from Blue Bell Knoll to paint a revealing portrait of the enigmatic trio and their career-long struggles with self-doubt, stubborn principles, and pure experimentation. Throughout their career, Cocteau Twins sought to escape definition. Lyrics were a closely-guarded secret, their transcendent recordings sounded completely unique, and they were notoriously tight-lipped during interviews.

                      The music, they said, should speak for itself. Only nobody could agree on what the music said. Released in 1988, their fifth full-length, Blue Bell Knoll, is the pinnacle of Cocteau Twins’ legendary ambiguity.

                      The first album recorded entirely in their own studio, these dense dreamlike songs capture the band as they refined the key elements of their iconic sound while testing the limits of language and the mixing desk. From lyrics and production to artwork and interviews, everything about this influential, one-of-a-kind band stokes contradictions and uncertainty, and raises the question: can anyone ever really define what a song means?


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                      Cover of John Cale's Paris 1919 - 33 1/3 by Mark Doyle.

                      Mark Doyle

                      John Cale's Paris 1919 - 33 1/3

                      Bloomsbury Publishing USA

                        John Cale's enigmatic masterpiece, Paris 1919, appeared at a time when the artist and his world were changing forever. It was 1973, the year of the Watergate hearings and the oil crisis, and Cale was at a crossroads. The white-hot rage of his Velvet Underground days was nearly spent; now he was living in Los Angeles, working for a record company and making music when time allowed. He needed to lay to rest some ghosts, but he couldn't do that without scaring up others. Paris 1919 was the result.

                        In this vivid, wide-ranging book, Mark Doyle hunts down the ghosts haunting Cale's most enduring solo album. There are the ghosts of New York – of the Velvets, Nico, and Warhol – that he smuggled into Los Angeles in his luggage. There is the ghost of Dylan Thomas, a fellow Welshman who haunts not just Paris 1919 but much of Cale's life and art. There are the ghosts of history, of a failed peace and the artists who sought the truth in dreams. And there are the ghosts of Christmas, surprising visitors who bring a nostalgic warmth and a touch of wintry dread. With erudition and wit, Doyle offers new ways to listen to an old album whose mysteries will never fully be resolved.

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                        Cover of Yo La Tengo's And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out - 33 1/3 by Elliott Simpson.

                        Elliott Simpson

                        Yo La Tengo's And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out - 33 1/3

                        Bloomsbury Academic USA

                          Hailed as a “quiet masterpiece”upon release, Yo La Tengo's And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside-Out proposed a radical new future for rock music. Released at a time when the music industry was changing dramatically thanks to the rise of online file sharing, it suggested that the only way for a band to survive was to listen to themselves.

                          A delicate and hushed album, its songs explore the quiet battles that take place every day and the beauty that can emerge from the ordinary. In many ways, this is reflective of the story of the band that made it – self-managed for most of their career and having maintained the same line-up since 1992, Yo La Tengo almost resemble a suburbs-based nuclear family.

                          And Then Nothing… argues that great art does not come from suffering, but instead, steady, unglamorous work. It is an album that helped forge a new mythology for rock and roll: one not built on sex, drugs and debauchery, but instead the quiet lives of people living in peaceful suburban homes. From the nothingness of the everyday, something incredible can emerge.

                          Table of Contents

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                          Cover of The Avalanches' Since I Left You - 33 1/3 by Dr. Charles Fairchild.

                          Dr. Charles Fairchild

                          The Avalanches' Since I Left You - 33 1/3

                          Bloomsbury Publishing USA

                            Capturing the fraught moment in popular music history as reflected in and anticipated by Since I Left You (2000), the debut studio album from electronic music group The Avalanches.

                            Since I Left You has a reputation amongst its advocates that exceeds those of nearly all of its closest peers. Yet despite the inordinate amount of attention this album has received, it has never been thoroughly examined in context. While repeatedly celebrated for its artistry, technical skill, and emotional resonance - in particular its sample-based material and then-cutting edge technological feats within the electronic music genre - it has never been definitively placed in the world that produced it.

                            Charles Fairchild studies this album in a way no one else has. Since I Left You is placed in its historical, technological, and cultural contexts and is examined for the social and aesthetic attributes it was said to possess at the time of its release. There is a focus on the clear set of aesthetic aspirations that guided the album's creators and how those creators pasted together the fragments of many sound worlds.

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                            Cover of Kate Bush's Hounds Of Love - 33 1/3 by Dr. Leah Kardos.

                            Dr. Leah Kardos

                            Kate Bush's Hounds Of Love - 33 1/3

                            Bloomsbury Publishing USA

                              Hounds Of Love invites you to not only listen, but to cross the boundaries of sensory experience into realms of imagination and possibility. Side A spawned four Top 40 hit singles in the UK, ‘Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)’, ‘Cloudbusting’, ‘Hounds of Love’ and ‘The Big Sky’, some of the best-loved and most enduring compositions in Bush’s catalogue. On side B, a hallucinatory seven-part song cycle called The Ninth Wave broke away from the pop conventions of the era by using strange and vivid production techniques that plunge the listener into the psychological centre of a near-death experience. Poised and accessible, yet still experimental and complex, with Hounds Of Love Bush mastered the art of her studio-based songcraft, finally achieving full control of her creative process. When it came out in 1985, she was only 27 years old.

                              This book charts the emergence of Kate Bush in the early-to-mid-1980s as a courageous experimentalist, a singularly expressive recording artist and a visionary music producer. Track-by-track commentaries focus on the experience of the album from the listener’s point of view, drawing attention to the art and craft of Bush’s songwriting, production and sound design. It considers the vast impact and influence that Hounds Of Love has had on music cultures and creative practices through the years, underlining the artist’s importance as a barrier-smashing, template-defying, business-smart, record-breaking, never-compromising role model for artists everywhere.

                              This book charts the emergence of Kate Bush in the early-to-mid-1980s as a courageous experimentalist, a singularly expressive recording artist and a visionary music producer. Track-by-track commentaries focus on the experience of the album from the listener’s point of view, drawing attention to the art and craft of Bush’s songwriting and sound design. It considers the vast impact and influence that Hounds Of Love has had on music cultures and creative practices through the years, underlining the artist’s importance as a barrier-smashing, template-defying, business-smart, record-breaking, never-compromising role model for artists everywhere.

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                              Cover of Modest Mouse’s The Moon & Antarctica by Zachary Petit.

                              Zachary Petit

                              Modest Mouse’s The Moon & Antarctica

                              Bloomsbury Publishing USA

                                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?!

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                                Cover of Einsturzende Neubauten's Kollaps - 33 1/3 by Melle Jan Kromhout, Jan Nieuwenhuis.

                                Melle Jan Kromhout, Jan Nieuwenhuis

                                Einsturzende Neubauten's Kollaps - 33 1/3

                                Bloomsbury Academic USA

                                  Perhaps the best musical encapsulation of the Cold War as experienced in the walled city of West-Berlin, Kollaps is a product of its time while remaining as vital, exhilarating and surprising as the day it was released. The book explores the contexts, themes and influences that shaped Kollaps. It describes the early days of Einstürzende Neubauten in West-Berlin, their infamous live performances and guerilla style recording tactics, and the scrap metal banging, piercing guitar noise and evocative lyricism that went on to inspire generations of fans.

                                  Most significantly, it explores the desire and deep sense of belonging that is expressed by what Nick Cave called the ‘incredibly mournful, haunting’ nature of this music. The beginning of a 40-year career, this first burst of energy remains their purest statement.

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                                  Cover of Depeche Mode's 101 - 33 1/3 by Mary Valle.

                                  Mary Valle

                                  Depeche Mode's 101 - 33 1/3

                                  Bloomsbury Academic USA

                                    Depeche Mode’s 101 is, at first glance, a curious thing: a live double-album by a synth band. A recording of its “Concert for the Masses,” 101 marks the moment when doomy, cultish, electronic Depeche Mode, despite low American album sales and a lack of critical acclaim, declared they had arrived and ascended to the rare air of stadium rock. On June 18, 1988, 65,000 screaming, singing Southern Californians flocked to Pasadena’s Rose Bowl to celebrate DM’s coronation.

                                    The concert also revealed the power of Southern California radio station and event host KROQ, which had turned Los Angeles into DM’s American stronghold through years of fervent airplay. KROQ’s innovative format, which brought “new music” to its avid listeners, soon spread across the country, leading to the explosion of alternative rock in the 1990s. Eight years after its founding in Basildon, Essex, Depeche Mode, rooted in 1970s Krautrock, combined old-fashioned touring, well-crafted songs, and the steadfast support of KROQ to dominate Southern California, the United States, and then the world, kicking open the doors for the likes of Nirvana in the process.

                                    101 is the hidden-in-plain-sight hinge of modern music history.

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                                    Cover of The Clash's Sandinista! - 33 1/3 by Micajah Henley.

                                    Micajah Henley

                                    The Clash's Sandinista! - 33 1/3

                                    Bloomsbury Academic USA

                                      Following the success of their instantly iconic double LP, London Calling, The Clash set out to do something “triply outrageous.” Named after the Nicaraguan rebels who successfully overthrew an authoritarian dictator, Sandinista! consists of 36 songs across six sides of vinyl. Produced by the band, it showcases their politics as well as their ability to adopt a multitude of genres ranging from punk, reggae, jazz, gospel, calypso, and hip hop. Free from the influence of their Machiavellian manager, Bernie Rhodes, The Clash still battled their record label to release the triple LP on their terms: three for the price of one.

                                      Despite its polarizing reception from critics at the time of its release, Sandinista! is often considered one of the greatest albums of all time. Nevertheless, critics and fans have spent over 40 years debating whether the album would be better as a 12-track LP. This book entertains that idea and considers what is lost or gained in the process.

                                      To do so, the book delves into the politics of The Clash, the spliff bunkers constructed for the production of the album, and the sacrifices made upon its release. It examines the album's 36 tracks and considers the significance of the record's dissection on behalf of fans who curate their own versions of the album in the mixtape, CD, and playlist eras.


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                                      Cover of Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds' Murder Ballads - 33 1/3 by Santi Elijah Holley.

                                      Santi Elijah Holley

                                      Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds' Murder Ballads - 33 1/3

                                      Bloomsbury Academic USA

                                        In a bar called The Bucket of Blood, a man shoots the bartender four times in the head. In the small town of Millhaven, a teenage girl secretly and gleefully murders her neighbors. A serial killer travels from home to home, quoting John Milton in his victims’ blood.

                                        Murder Ballads, the ninth studio album from Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, is a gruesome, blood-splattered reimagining of English ballads, American folk and blues music, and classic literature. Most of the stories told on Murder Ballads have been interpreted many times, but never before had they been so graphic or profane. Though earning the band their first Parental Advisory warning label, Murder Ballads, released in 1996, brought Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds their biggest critical and commercial success, thanks in part to the award-winning single, “Where the Wild Roses Grow,” an unlikely duet with Australian pop singer, Kylie Minogue.

                                        Closely examining each of the ten songs on the album, Santi Elijah Holley investigates the stories behind the songs, and the numerous ways these ballads have been interpreted through the years. Murder Ballads is a tour through the evolution of folk music, and a journey into the dark secrets of American history.

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                                        Cover of Massive Attack’s Blue Lines - 33 1/3 by Ian Bourland.

                                        Ian Bourland

                                        Massive Attack’s Blue Lines - 33 1/3

                                        Bloomsbury Academic USA

                                          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.

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                                          Cover of Fugazi's In On The Kill Taker - 33 1/3 by Joe Gross.

                                          Joe Gross

                                          Fugazi's In On The Kill Taker - 33 1/3

                                          Bloomsbury Academic USA

                                            By June 1993, when Washington, D.C.’s Fugazi released their third full-length album In on the Kill Taker, the quartet was reaching a thunderous peak in popularity and influence. With two EPs (combined into the classic CD 13 songs) and two albums (1990’s genre-defining Repeater and 1991’s impressionistic follow-up Steady Diet of Nothing) inside of five years, Fugazi was on creative roll, astounding increasingly large audiences as they toured, blasting fist-pumping anthems and jammy noise-workouts that roared into every open underground heart. When the album debuted on the now-SoundScan-driven charts, Fugazi had never been more in the public eye.

                                            Few knew how difficult it had been to make this popular breakthrough. Disappointed with the sound of the self-produced Steady Diet, the band recorded with legendary engineer Steve Albini, only to scrap the sessions and record at home in D.C. with Ted Niceley, their brilliant, under-known producer.

                                            Inadvertently, Fugazi chose an unsure moment to make In on the Kill Taker: as Nirvana and Sonic Youth were yanking the American rock underground into the media glare, and “breaking” punk in every possible meaning of the word. Despite all of this, Kill Taker became an alt-rock classic in spite of itself, even as its defiant, muscular sound stood in stark contrast to everything represented by the mainstreaming of a culture and worldview they held dear. This book features new interviews with all four members of Fugazi and members of their creative community.

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                                            Cover of Manic Street Preachers’ The Holy Bible - 33 1/3 by David Evans.

                                            David Evans

                                            Manic Street Preachers’ The Holy Bible - 33 1/3

                                            Bloomsbury Academic USA

                                              In August 1994, Manic Street Preachers released The Holy Bible, a dark, fiercely intelligent album that explored such themes as mental illness, murder and war. Richey Edwards, the band’s lyricist and motive force, vanished five months later; he was never found. In his absence The Holy Bible entered the rock canon alongside Joy Division’s Closer and Nirvana’s In Utero, the valedictory works of troubled young men.

                                              This book tells the dramatic story of Manic Street Preachers' masterpiece. Tracing the album's origins in the Valleys, an industrialised region of South Wales where the band spent their formative years, the author argues that The Holy Bible can be seen as a meditation on the uses and abuses of history.

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                                              Cover of Siouxsie And The Banshees' Peepshow - 33 1/3 by Samantha Bennett.

                                              Samantha Bennett

                                              Siouxsie And The Banshees' Peepshow - 33 1/3

                                              Bloomsbury Academic USA

                                                In 1978, Siouxsie and the Banshees declared ‘We don’t see ourselves in the same context as other rock'n'roll bands.’ A decade later, and in the stark aftermath of a devastating storm, the band retreated to a 17th-century mansion house in the deracinated Sussex countryside to write their ninth studio album, Peepshow. Here, the band absorbed the bygone, rural atmosphere and its inspirational mise en scène, thus framing the record cinematically, as Siouxsie Sioux recalled, ‘It was as if we were doing the whole thing on the set of The Wicker Man’. Samantha Bennett looks at how Siouxsie and the Banshees’ Peepshow is better understood in the context of film and film music (as opposed to popular music studies or, indeed, the works of other rock'n'roll bands).

                                                Drawing upon more than one hundred films and film scores, this book focuses on Peepshow’s deeply embedded historical and aesthetic (para)cinematic influences: How is each track a reflection of genre film? Who are the various featured protagonists? And how does Peepshow’s diverse orchestration, complex musical forms, atypical narratives and evocative soundscapes reveal an inherently cinematic record? Ultimately, Peepshow can be read as a soundtrack to all the films Siouxsie and the Banshees ever saw. Or perhaps it was the soundtrack to the greatest film they never made.


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                                                Cover of David Bowie's Diamond Dogs - 33 1/3 by Glenn Hendler.

                                                Glenn Hendler

                                                David Bowie's Diamond Dogs - 33 1/3

                                                Bloomsbury Academic USA

                                                  After his breakthrough with Ziggy Stardust and before his U.S. pop hits "Fame" and "Golden Years" David Bowie produced a dark and difficult concept album set in a post-apocalyptic "Hunger City" populated by post-human "mutants." Diamond Dogs includes the great glam anthem "Rebel Rebel" and utterly unique songs that combine lush romantic piano and nearly operatic singing with scratching, grungy guitars, creepy, insidious noises, and dark, pessimistic lyrics that reflect the album's origins in a projected Broadway musical version of Orwell's 1984 and Bowie's formative encounter with William S. Burroughs.

                                                  In this book Glenn Hendler shows that each song on Diamond Dogs shifts the ground under you as you listen, not just by changing in musical style, but by being sung by a different "I" who directly addresses a different "you." Diamond Dogs is the product of a performer at the peak of his powers but uncomfortable with the rock star role he had constructed. All of the album's influences looked to Bowie like ways of escaping not just the Ziggy role, but also the constraints of race, gender, sexuality, and nationality. These are just some of the reasons many Bowie fans rate Diamond Dogs his richest and most important album of the 1970s.

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                                                  Cover of Pulp's This Is Hardcore - 33 1/3 by Jane Savidge.

                                                  Jane Savidge

                                                  Pulp's This Is Hardcore - 33 1/3

                                                  Bloomsbury Publishing USA

                                                    This Is Hardcore is Pulp's cry for help. A giant, sprawling, flawed masterpiece of a record, the 1998 album manages to tackle some of the most inappropriate grown-up issues of the day – fame, ageing, mortality, drugs, and pornography – and still come out crying and laughing on the other side. The subject of pornography dominates the record – from its controversial artwork to the images conjured up by songs like "Seductive Barry" and the title track – after Pulp's main man, Jarvis Cocker – who'd spent most of his teenage and adult life chasing celebrity, only to be cruelly disappointed when it finally arrived in spades – hit upon the grand notion of using pornography as a metaphor for fame. The album's commercial failure as a follow-up to the band's Britpop-defining, Different Class, also symbolizes a death knell for Britpop itself.

                                                    Dark, right? Except just like Pulp themselves, Jane Savidge's book is playful and sometimes very funny indeed. Kicking off with an imaginary conversation between Jarvis Cocker and the people who run the Total Fame Solutions helpline, Savidge expertly guides us through the trials and tribulations of an album that begins with the so-called Michael Jackson Incident, when Cocker got up on stage at the 1996 Brit Awards and waggled his fully-clothed bum at the King of Pop. Pulp's This Is Hardcore may be a sleazy run through porn and mental demise, and an album that chronicles Cocker's continuing disillusionment with his newfound lot in life, but Savidge's book assesses the cultural and historical context of the album with insider knowledge and a sharp modern lens, ultimately making a case for it as one of the most important albums of the 1990s

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                                                    Cover of Madonna's Erotica - 33 1/3 by Michael Dango.

                                                    Michael Dango

                                                    Madonna's Erotica - 33 1/3

                                                    Bloomsbury Academic USA

                                                      Everyone wanted Madonna’s 1992 album Erotica to be a scandal. In the midst of a culture war, conservatives wanted it to be proof of the decline of family values. The target of conservative loathing, gay men reeling from the AIDS epidemic wanted it to be a celebration of a sexual culture that had rapidly slipped away.

                                                      And Madonna herself wanted to sell scandal, which is why she released Erotica in the same season as her erotic thriller Body of Evidence and her pornographic coffee-table book simply titled Sex. But Erotica is more sentimental than pornographic. This ambivalence over sex is what makes the album crucial both for understanding its time and for navigating culture a generation later.

                                                      As queer politics were transitioning from sexual liberation to civil rights like same-sex marriage, Madonna tried to do both. Her songs proved formative for works of queer theory, which emerged in the academy at the same time as the album. And Erotica was—and is—central to a developing consciousness about cultural appropriation.

                                                      In this book, Michael Dango considers Erotica and its legacy by drawing both on the intellectual traditions at the center of today’s hysteria over critical race theory and “don’t say gay” and on his own experiences as a gay man too young to know the original carnage of AIDS and too old to grow up assuming he could get married. Madonna offered up Erotica as a key entry in the 1990s culture wars. Her album speaks all the more urgently to the culture wars of today

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                                                      Cover of B-Side Hits - 1955-1962 USA by Elvis Presley.

                                                      Elvis Presley

                                                      B-Side Hits - 1955-1962 USA

                                                      Vinyl Passion

                                                        This collection is an overview of the B-sides of Elvis Presley’s hit singles in the period 1955 to 1962. Take, for example, “I Was The One”, the B-side of “Heartbreak Hotel”, The King’s first worldwide hit. To name a few more “Treat Me Nice”, from the single “Jailhouse Rock”, “Loving You” from “(Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear”, “Treat Me Nice” from “Jailhouse Rock”. Enjoy this delicious collection of Elvis Presley singles.

                                                        TRACK LISTING

                                                        1. Baby Let's Play House
                                                        2. Mystery Train
                                                        3. I Was The One
                                                        4. My Baby Left Me
                                                        5. Any Way You Want Me That's How I Will Be
                                                        6. Playing For Keeps
                                                        7. Treat Me Nice
                                                        8. That's When Your Heartaches Begin
                                                        9. Loving You
                                                        10. I Beg Of You
                                                        11. Doncha' Think It's Time
                                                        12. Don't Ask Me Why
                                                        13. I Got Stung
                                                        14. My Wish Came True
                                                        15. I Need Your Love Tonight
                                                        16. Fame And Fortune
                                                        17. A Mess Of Blues
                                                        18. I Gotta Know
                                                        19. Lonely Man
                                                        20. Little Sister
                                                        21. Wild In The Country
                                                        22. Rock-A-Hula Baby
                                                        23. Just Tell Her Jim Said Hello
                                                        24. Anything That's Part Of You

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                                                        Cover of J Dilla's Donuts - 33 1/3 by Jordan Ferguson.

                                                        Jordan Ferguson

                                                        J Dilla's Donuts - 33 1/3

                                                        Bloomsbury Academic USA

                                                          From a Los Angeles hospital bed, equipped with little more than a laptop and a stack of records, James “J Dilla” Yancey crafted a set of tracks that would forever change the way beatmakers viewed their artform. The songs on Donuts are not hip hop music as “hip hop music” is typically defined; they careen and crash into each other, in one moment noisy and abrasive, gorgeous and heartbreaking the next. The samples and melodies tell the story of a man coming to terms with his declining health, a final love letter to the family and friends he was leaving behind.

                                                          As a prolific producer with a voracious appetite for the history and mechanics of the music he loved, J Dilla knew the records that went into constructing Donuts inside and out. He could have taken them all and made a much different, more accessible album. If the widely accepted view is that his final work is a record about dying, the question becomes why did he make this record about dying?Drawing from philosophy, critical theory and musicology, as well as Dilla’s own musical catalogue, Jordan Ferguson shows that the contradictory, irascible and confrontational music found on Donuts is as much a result of an artist’s declining health as it is an example of what scholars call “late style,” placing the album in a musical tradition that stretches back centuries.

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                                                          Cover of Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy - 33 1/3 by Kirk Walker Graves.

                                                          Kirk Walker Graves

                                                          Kanye West's My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy - 33 1/3

                                                          Bloomsbury Academic USA

                                                            In the first decade of the twenty-first century, Kanye West created the most compelling body of pop music by an American artist during the period. Having risen from obscurity as a precocious producer through the ranks of Jay Z's Roc-A-Fella records, by the time he released My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (MBDTF) in late 2010, West had evolved into a master collagist, an alchemist capable of transfiguring semi-obscure soul samples and indelible beats into a brash and vulnerable new art form. A look at the arc of his career, from the heady chipmunk soul exuberance of The College Dropout (2004) to the operatic narcissism of MBDTF, tells us about the march of pop music into the digital age and, by extension, the contradictions that define our cultural epoch.

                                                            In a cloud-based and on-demand culture – a place of increasing virtualization, loneliness, and hyper-connectivity – West straddles this critical moment as what David Samuels of The Atlantic calls "the first true genius of the iPhone era, the Mozart of contemporary American music." In the land of taking a selfie, honing a personal brand, and publicly melting down online, Kanye West is the undisputed king. Swallowing the chaos wrought by his public persona and digesting it as a grandiose allegory of self-redemption, Kanye sublimates his narcissism to paint masterstroke after masterstroke on MBDTF, a 69-minute hymn to egotistical excess. Sampling and ventriloquizing the pop music past to tell the story of its future – very much a tale of our culture's wish for unfettered digital ubiquity – MBDTF is the album of its era, an aesthetic self-acquittal and spiritual autobiography of our era’s most dynamic artist.

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                                                            Cover of LCD Soundsystem’s Sound Of Silver - 33 1/3 by Ryan Leas.

                                                            Ryan Leas

                                                            LCD Soundsystem’s Sound Of Silver - 33 1/3

                                                            Bloomsbury Academic USA

                                                              When LCD Soundsystem broke up in 2011, they left behind a small but remarkable catalog of music. On top of the genius singles and a longform composition for Nike, there was a trilogy of full-length albums. During that initial run, LCD Soundsystem—and the project's mastermind, James Murphy—were at the center of several 21st century developments in pop culture: indie music's growing mainstream clout, Brooklyn surpassing Manhattan as an epicenter of creativity in America, the collision and eventual erosion of genre perceptions, and the rapid and profound growth and impact of digital culture.

                                                              Amidst this storm, Murphy crafted Sound Of Silver, the centerpiece of LCD's work. At the time of Sound Of Silver’s creation and release, Murphy was a man closing in on 40 while fronting a critically-adored band still on the ascent. This album was the first place where he earnestly grappled with questions of aging, of being an artist, and the decisions we make with the time we have left.

                                                              Anchored by a series of colossal, intense dance-rock songs, Sound Of Silver called upon the rhythms of New York City in order to draw out, dissect, and ultimately rip open these meditations. By the time LCD Soundsystem reunited in 2016, Sound Of Silver had already proven to be a generational touchstone, living on as a document of what it's like to be alive in the 21st century.

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                                                              Cover of The Jesus And Mary Chain's Psychocandy - 33 1/3 by Paula Mejia.

                                                              Paula Mejia

                                                              The Jesus And Mary Chain's Psychocandy - 33 1/3

                                                              Bloomsbury Academic USA

                                                                The Jesus and Mary Chain’s swooning debut Psychocandy seared through the underground and through the pop charts, shifting the role of noise within pop music forever. Post-punk and pro-confusion, Psychocandy became the sound of a generation poised on the brink of revolution, establishing Creation Records as a tastemaking entity in the process. The Scottish band’s notorious live performances were both punishingly loud and riot-spurring, inevitably acting as socio-political commentary on tensions emergent in mid-1980s Britain.

                                                                Through caustic clangs and feedback channeling the rage of the working-class who’d had enough, Psychocandy gestures toward the perverse pleasure in having your eardrums exploded and loudness as a politics within itself. Yet Psychocandy’s blackened candy heart center – calling out to phantoms Candy and Honey with an unsettling charm – makes it a pop album to the core, and not unlike the sugarcoated sounds the Ronettes became famous for in the 1960s. The Jesus and Mary Chain expertly carved out a place where depravity and sweetness entwined, emerging from the isolating underground of suburban Scotland grasping the distinct sound of a generation, apathetic and uncertain.

                                                                The irresistible Psychocandy emerged as a clairvoyant account of struggle and sweetness that still causes us to grapple with pop music’s relation to ourselves.

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                                                                Cover of The National's Boxer - 33 1/3 by Ryan Pinkard.

                                                                Ryan Pinkard

                                                                The National's Boxer - 33 1/3

                                                                Bloomsbury Academic USA

                                                                  We all know the Boxer. The fighter who remembers every glove but still remains. That grisly, bruised American allegory who somehow gets up more times than he’s knocked down.

                                                                  This is the fight that nearly broke The National. The one that allowed them to become champions. Released in 2007, The National’s fourth full-length album is the one that saved them.

                                                                  For fans, Boxer is a profound personal meditation on the unmagnificent lives of adults, an elegant culmination of their sophisticated songwriting, and the first National album many fell in love with. For the band, Boxer symbolizes an obsession, a years-long struggle, a love story, a final give-it-everything-you’ve-got effort to keep their fantasy of being a real rock band alive. Based on extensive original interviews with the fighters who were in the ring and the spectators who witnessed it unfold, Ryan Pinkard obsessively reconstructs a transformative chapter in The National’s story, revealing how the Ohio-via-Brooklyn five-piece found the sound, success, and spiritual growth to evolve into one of the most critically acclaimed bands of their time.

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                                                                  Cover of Born In The USA - 40th Anniversary Edition by Bruce Springsteen.

                                                                  Bruce Springsteen

                                                                  Born In The USA - 40th Anniversary Edition

                                                                  Sony

                                                                    This 40th anniversary edition of Bruce Springsteen’s history-making ‘Born In The U.S.A.’ album has been re-pressed on translucent red vinyl. The anniversary edition also features a gatefold sleeve and exclusive booklet with archival material from the era, new liner notes penned by Erik Flannigan and a four-color lithograph. Originally released on June 4, 1984 - ‘Born In The U.S.A.’ had an unprecedented seven Top Ten singles on its tracklist, sold 17 million copies to date and captured the pop culture zeitgeist with once-in-ageneration impact.

                                                                    TRACK LISTING

                                                                    Side A
                                                                    1. Born In The U.S.A.
                                                                    2. Cover Me
                                                                    3. Darlington County
                                                                    4. Working On The Highway
                                                                    5. Downbound Train
                                                                    6. I'm On Fire

                                                                    Side B
                                                                    1. No Surrender
                                                                    2. Bobby Jean
                                                                    3. I'm Goin' Down
                                                                    4. Glory Days
                                                                    5. Dancing In The Dark
                                                                    6. My Hometown

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                                                                    Cover of Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works Volume II - 33 1/3 by Marc Weidenbaum.

                                                                    Marc Weidenbaum

                                                                    Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works Volume II - 33 1/3

                                                                    Bloomsbury Academic USA

                                                                      Extravagantly opaque, willfully vaporous — Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works Volume II, released by the estimable British label Warp Records in 1994, rejuvenated ambient music for the Internet Age that was just dawning. In the United States, it was Richard D. James's first full length on Sire Records (home to Madonna and Depeche Mode) under the moniker Aphex Twin; Sire helped usher him in as a major force in music, electronic or otherwise.

                                                                      Faithful to Brian Eno’s definition of ambient music, Selected Ambient Works Volume II was intentionally functional: it furnished chill out rooms, the sanctuaries amid intense raves. Choreographers and film directors began to employ it to their own ends, and in the intervening decades this background music came to the fore, adapted by classical composers who reverse-engineered its fragile textures for performance on acoustic instruments. Simultaneously, “ambient” has moved from esoteric sound art to central tenet of online culture.

                                                                      This book contends that despite a reputation for being beatless, the album exudes percussive curiosity, providing a sonic metaphor for our technologically mediated era of countless synchronized nanosecond metronomes.

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                                                                      Cover of Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp A Butterfly - 33 1/3 by Sequoia Maner.

                                                                      Sequoia Maner

                                                                      Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp A Butterfly - 33 1/3

                                                                      Bloomsbury Academic USA

                                                                        Breaking the global record for streams in a single day, nearly 10 million people around the world tuned in to hear Kendrick Lamar’s sophomore album in the hours after its release. To Pimp a Butterfly was widely hailed as an instant classic, garnering laudatory album reviews, many awards, and even a canonized place in Harvard’s W. E.

                                                                        B. Du Bois archive. Why did this strangely compelling record stimulate the emotions and imaginations of listeners?This book takes a deep dive into the sounds, images, and lyrics of To Pimp a Butterfly to suggest that Kendrick appeals to the psyche of a nation in crisis and embraces the development of a radical political conscience.

                                                                        Kendrick breathes fresh life into the Black musical protest tradition and cultivates a platform for loving resistance. Combining funk, jazz, and spoken word, To Pimp a Butterfly’s expansive sonic and lyrical geography brings a high level of innovation to rap music. More importantly, Kendrick’s introspective and philosophical songs compel us to believe in a future where, perhaps, we gon’ be alright.

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                                                                        Cover of Feel Worse by USA Nails.

                                                                        USA Nails

                                                                        Feel Worse

                                                                        One Little Independent

                                                                          London noise-rock quartet USA Nails have announced their upcoming album, ‘Feel Worse’.

                                                                          ‘Feel Worse’

                                                                          TRACK LISTING

                                                                          Cathartic Entertainment
                                                                          Feel Worse
                                                                          The Sun In The Sands
                                                                          Pack Of Dogs
                                                                          Networking Opportunity
                                                                          Holiday Sea
                                                                          On Computer Screen
                                                                          Beautiful Eyes!
                                                                          An Audience Of Love
                                                                          I Love It When You Succeed

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                                                                          Cover of Back In The USA - 2023 Reissue by MC5.

                                                                          MC5

                                                                          Back In The USA - 2023 Reissue

                                                                          Rhino Atlantic

                                                                            "Back in the USA" is MC5's 1970 second album, celebrated for its energetic proto-punk vibe and departure from their previous style. Its fast-paced tracks, like "Ramblin' Rose" and "Back in the USA," showcase the band's rebellious spirit and helped shape the punk and garage rock genres that followed. The album's enduring influence on rock music solidifies its place in the annals of musical innovation.

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                                                                            Cover of Selected Works by Liasons D.

                                                                            Liasons D

                                                                            Selected Works

                                                                            USA Import Music

                                                                            “Pour les gens supercool.” This slick tagline caused a commotion among Belgian electronic music fans in 1985 as a jingle in Liaisons Dangereuses, the infamous radio show on local station S.I.S. Antwerpen. Hosted by Paul Ward and DJ Sven Van Hees and playing an exhilarating mix of EBM, house, new beat, acid house, Detroit techno, synthpop and more, the transmit was without a doubt trendsetting, presenting music on the radio that before was only to be witnessed in dark clubs or underground record stores. Listeners needed to make an effort though, since the S.I.S. waves only reached about 10km out of the city center. But a network of copied tape recordings and a fast growing bunch of fans - some of which even driving their cars to parking lots inside the broadcast area to hear the show - created a buzz that would easily exceed the limits of the transmission signal.

                                                                            In 1989 Ward and Van Hees formed their own band named after the radio show, but to avoid confusion with the eponymous German new wave band, they signed their records with Liaison D or Liaisons D. Assisted by Jan Van Den Bergh (Mappa Mundi, Kumulus, Buzz), Marcos Salon (Outlander), Frank De Wulf (B-Sides, World Party II) and J.P. Ruelle, Liaisons D released a solid string of EP’s and the album “Submerged In Sound” on USA Import Records between 1989 and 1992. We are extremely proud to present four tracks from the album here as a brand new EP, a must-have for fans of their unapologetically rough and ravy sound, testimony of a unique era in Belgium’s electronic music history.

                                                                            Text by Koen Galle

                                                                            STAFF COMMENTS

                                                                            Matt says: Retrospective from these Belgium club goths. Inspired by acid house, rave and hardcore; the Belgium scene took these templates and configured them to their own Up All Night mentality. Liasons D, as well as showcasing these sounds on one of the only commercial radio shows playing this sort of music, recorded these early blueprints between '89 - '92. They still sound hot today!

                                                                            TRACK LISTING

                                                                            A1. Stress Free 
                                                                            A2. Submerged In Sound 
                                                                            B1. He Chilled Out 
                                                                            B2. Astrogood 

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                                                                            Cover of Split by Psychic Graveyard / USA Nails.

                                                                            Psychic Graveyard / USA Nails

                                                                            Split

                                                                            Box Records

                                                                              The “in-name only” United States and Kingdom’s divisions are more raw and splintered than ever before. And it's from this place of division that the USA’s Psychic Graveyard and Skin Graft Records have joined with the UK’s USA Nails and Box Records to form “Split”.

                                                                              Having been remixed by the likes of MSTRKRFT, Liars and Secret Fun Club, Psychic Graveyard are no strangers to collaboration. Here they determinedly ease layer upon cacophonous layer to their methodically set stage before burning it to the ground. As with their previous full lengths, the songs were recorded with Seth Manchester at Machines With Magnets in Pawtucket.

                                                                              Off the back of their 5th LP (Character Stop) released mid-pandemic in October 2020, and a split single with ex-Sepultura noise duo Petbrick, USA Nails serve up six cuts of slabby noise-rock / angular post-punk / dissonant no-wave, featuring notes that work, notes that don't work, wonky out of tune ping-pong guitars, dumb business riffs, shit solos, and musings on clinically medicated anxiety, internet commentators and Orwellian data practices. Although he didn't realise it at the time, drummer Tom Brewins broke his arm just before the band recorded with Wayne Adams at Bear Bites Horse in London. 


                                                                              TRACK LISTING

                                                                              PSYCHIC GRAVEYARD
                                                                              01. Building You A Rainbow
                                                                              02. Strangest Hobbies
                                                                              03. Love My Skeleton Too
                                                                              04. What Happens At Zero
                                                                              05. Wrecked At The Yankee Swap

                                                                              USA NAILS
                                                                              06. It's All In The Context
                                                                              07. A Two Footed Jump Into A Wall Whilst Chewing On Fingernails
                                                                              08. What Have We Become?
                                                                              09. God Help Us If There's A War
                                                                              10. Tooting Broadway
                                                                              11. Love Embassy

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                                                                              Cover of Soul Jazz Records Presents Brazil USA 70: Brazilian Music In The USA In The 1970s by Various Artists.

                                                                              Various Artists

                                                                              Soul Jazz Records Presents Brazil USA 70: Brazilian Music In The USA In The 1970s

                                                                              Soul Jazz

                                                                                All of the music featured on this new Soul Jazz Records collection was created by Brazilian artists in the USA in the 1970s. In the early 1970s North American jazz musicians were eager to work with upcoming Brazilian musicians. Miles Davis invited Airto Moreira to join his new ‘electric’ band, Dom Um Romao (part of Sérgio Mendes’ legendary Brazil ‘66 in the 1960s) joined the fusion group Weather Report, Flora Purim and Airto both became a part of Chick Corea’s new project Light As A Feather, Wayne Shorter collaborated with Milton Nascimento, George Duke recorded Brazilian Love Affair and so on. With all the attention placed on them from these important jazz artists, North America became the new musical playground for a large number of these Brazilian artists - Airto Moreira, Flora Purim, Sérgio Mendes, Luiz Bonfá, Eumir Deodato, João Donato and many others. 

                                                                                Most of these musicians had already experienced success through the earlier popularity of bossa nova in the 1960s, either at home in Brazil or in the USA. However, by the end of the 1960s, many Brazilian artists had left their own country, as the military dictatorship became progressively more authoritarian and repressive. In the USA, through their critically acclaimed work for Miles Davis, Weather Report, Light As A Feather etc., all of these artists were now given reign to explore new musical terrains away from the restrictions of both a musical genre and a state censor back in Brazil.  

                                                                                This collection brings together some of these finest works and comes complete with extensive notes that explains the path these musicians took from Brazil to the USA and shows the political and musical links between Brazil and the USA that created the conditions for this unique fusion of these two distinct cultures, North American Jazz and Brazilian music, that occurred in the 1970s. 

                                                                                The CD contains large 40-page outsize booklet all housed in Soul Jazz slipcase. The double LP comes in a deluxe gatefold complete with digital download code, full sleevenotes and exclusive photography.

                                                                                TRACK LISTING

                                                                                1. Airto - Samba De Flora
                                                                                2. Duke Pearson And Flora Purim - Sandalia Dela
                                                                                3. Sérgio Mendes & Brasil '66 - Batucada (The Beat)
                                                                                4. Deodato - Skyscrapers
                                                                                5 .Milton Nascimento - Catavento
                                                                                6. Airto - Tombo In 7/4
                                                                                7. Luiz Bonfá - Bahia Soul
                                                                                8. Dom Um Romao - Braun- Blek-Blu
                                                                                9. Moacir Santos - Kathy
                                                                                10. João Donato - Almas Irmãs
                                                                                11. Sivuca - Ain't No Sunshine
                                                                                12. Milton Nascimento - Rio Vermelho
                                                                                13. Tamba 4 - Consolation (Consolação)
                                                                                14. Flora Purim - Moon Dreams
                                                                                15. Dom Um Romao - Escravos De Jo
                                                                                16. Airto - Andei (I Walked)

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                                                                                Cover of Summer USA / Lucky by Tommy Toussaint.

                                                                                Tommy Toussaint

                                                                                Summer USA / Lucky

                                                                                Make Mine

                                                                                New signing to Make Mine (The Books, Gold Panda, Dent May), Tommy Toussaint is the pop-moniker for southern American songwriter Jesse Thompson. Since 2008, Toussaint has been a frequent collaborator and band member of Mississippi musician, Dent May. He's released the majority of his music via the May-run Cats Purring collective's website, including the 2010 Cosmic Caverns EP, which he completed while living and working in an Atlanta, Georgia house for the homeless. Coming on like Brian Wilson for the i-pad generation, Tommy Toussaint's debut release - the perfect 2011 summer swansong - is a blistering carefree jam set to blow away those winter chills.

                                                                                Limited to just 500 copies worldwide.

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                                                                                F**k Me USA

                                                                                F**k Me USA

                                                                                Georgia Marauder

                                                                                  'More guns than Goodfellas, more cocaine than Scarface', F**k Me USA was started in February 2006 as a concept, a group designed as an idea; everything, from the lyrics, the notes, the artwork, the instruments and the press shots needed to be in place before a single note was played. What followed was twisted film noir storylines over a 150BPM beat, sung in a style not dissimilar to Alan Vega's from '77s New York punk scene. F**k Me USA are Chris Olley and James Flower sometime members of Six By Seven.

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                                                                                  The USA Is A Monster

                                                                                  Tasheyana Compost

                                                                                  Load

                                                                                    The USA Is A Monster is a brilliantly fried two-piece guitar and drums band of sun spotters hailing from Brooklyn, NY. The band has roved the planet with instruments strapped to their backs playing the tops of mountains, skin-melting deserts, and rusted out America. The band has trekked across Europe, America (too many times to count), and Mexico. The sound of the record is a synapse firing melt of rock and other-wordly whisper. The rock goes from balls out to a gentle, massaging hand reaching into your cortex.

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                                                                                    Major Matt Mason USA

                                                                                    Me Me Me

                                                                                    Shoeshine

                                                                                      Sublime acoustic pop from Kansas-born, NY based 'anti-folkster'...A voice that makes Michael Stipe sound like Joe Bloggs singing karaoke...Brilliant Michael Shelley-esque lyrics about winding up on the wrong side of love....

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