An insider's view of the UK music scene from the punk years onwards – served up by Mick Houghton, who had close associations with KLF, Echo & The Bunnymen, Julian Cope, Jesus & Mary Chain, and other key acts! The "on the ground" tone of the book is a great look inside this key moment in music – and Houghton is especially great on the way things shifted in the 80s – from underground labor of love on the scene to much more big business – a trend that only continued into the 90s! Softcover edition is almost 300 pages, with a small amount of black and white images. Book

Way more than just another book of album cover art – as this impressive volume presents countless images from the evolution of blues music in the 20th Century, alongside detailed writings that also try to explore visual trends, tropes of representation, and the larger role of the music in an American popular aesthetic! Chapters look at a range of different imagery – from early sheet music, to pre-war 78rpm labels, to blues photographs, record covers, and even film posters – but all laid out in a way that's extremely lively, given the great choice of images, and the book's glossy pages and hardcover presentation! 224 pages, with a look that's like the nicest coffee table books – but content that runs a lot deeper. Book

Beautiful posters from a huge legacy in film – 100 years' worth of images that were used to promote black cinema – with entries that run from the early silent era, through unusual mid-century material, 70s blacksploitation movies, and both mainstream and indie films from later decades! Yet the book is way more than just another poster book – as the images here come with plenty of text – thoughtful writings on trends, styles, and key figures in black film – amidst words and images that pull no punches on treatment of race and social issues. The book is oversized, very heavy, full color throughout, and 317 pages – filled with fantastic images. Book

Beautiful images from the late 70s onwards – posters, advertisements, album covers, and lots of other visual creations used to help showcase the new sounds and styles of the punk and new wave generation! The book is better than we even could have hoped – as it's not just a loose collection of classic records, and instead is a really thoughtful presentation of a wide array of media – divided up into sections that really make sense, often with a fair bit of history and other detail that really illuminates this new movement in style! The book is split in half – half US, and half UK – but also does a great job of linking the images to global trends in aesthetics too. A hefty 335 pages, hardcover, and full color throughout! Book

A wonderfully beautiful package – filled with gems from the central African scene of the 50s – all packaged together with a huge book of notes that's as wonderful as the music itself! The set culls together vintage singles from the Congo, Tanganyika, Zanzibar, and Kenya – not as random rare records, but instead to showcase some fantastic musical trends that were taking place in African music during the postwar years – particularly as influences from the Caribbean were starting to hit those shores in the form of imported phonograph records. Many of these tracks showcase some fantastic acoustic guitar work along with a very hypnotic singer – while others show maybe the beginning of the Cuban influence that would come into the fold even more during the 60s – and as usual with Dust-To-Digital, the book-like presentation is as much of a history lesson and travelogue as it is a treasure trove of music. 47 tracks in all – presented beautifully! (Global Grooves, Books) CD