All Categories — All Formats  

The Rittor Music Japan Bible Of Extreme Metal – a discography book that covers brutal music in a beautiful way! The cover art is extremely metal – but the book actually covers more than just "extreme metal" – it spans the metal genre from it's origins to today – and in exhaustive detail! The text is mostly in Japanese, with the exception of the chapter titles, band names and album titles – but the appeal of the book is largely visual! It assembles the album cover art of key titles in a bunch of categories – including the precedent-setting early legends, the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal, Thrash, Black Metal, Doom Metal, Grindcore, Gothic Metal, Hardcore and more. Paperback, 252 pages.

A cool little guide to all things club jazz – put together by Shuya Okino of Kyoto Jazz Massive, and featuring both record listings and writings! The record listing section is a fair bit smaller than other Japanese books like this that we stock – about 40 pages that show how you might build a club set from one key record, with suggested segues for the tunes before and after. The remaining 200 pages of the book is an extended essay, in Japanese, written by Okino – telling his thoughts and concepts of what Club Jazz should be. Given that he's been lecturing around Tokyo these days on the topic, you can bet that he's got plenty to say – but we warned, you must read Japanese to enjoy the bulk of this book!

An amazing guide to some of the hippest jazz ever released – a wealth of great albums from the 50s and 60s – not just from the US, but from England, Italy, Germany, and many other global locales! As with other volumes in this series, the discography focuses on rare bits that have a strong current appeal – the kind of older jazz albums that have inspired current players and producers – and which are readily changing hands for big dollars in the collectors market. Most of the text here is in Japanese, but the book features color covers of hundreds of albums – plus track listings, players, and dates. Like other Japanese discographies, the book's a great guide to get you digging even deeper – and it's filled with loads of titles we'd never seen before at all!

A totally great book for 7" collectors – especially if you dig unusual picture sleeves! The book was put together by DJ Muro – an artist we've come to love for his work on mixes and compilations, but who's also well-known for his massive record collection, too – one that's certainly informed his music, but which stands well enough on its own – as you'll see in the book! For the volume, Muro brought together rare 7" picture sleeve images – all in a full-color, 7" package that's just the size of a vintage 45 – so that flipping the pages is almost like sifting through a stack of singles. Most of the images are from rare Japanese and Asian pressings – which means that you'll see unusual covers for funk, soul, soundtrack, and other groovy music styles of the 70s and 80s. Some of the images are odd variations on the American LP covers, and others are completely unique – and together, they provide a fascinating visual document that's sure to please any collector of rare singles. Almost 250 pages, full color!