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Review: Public Castration Is A Good Idea is one of the rare instances of a bootleg instantly becoming part of a band's canon. As Michael Gira's Swans grew in stature on the outer edges of industrial rock through the 80s, their reputation as an incendiary live act rose in tandem. Some Bizarre gave their blessing to this recording which wound up as the first Swans live album, captured in the UK in 1986 in the wake of the Greed and Holy Money tours. It's a forbidding listen, as you might well expect - all clanking metal, barbed noise and Gira's troubled invocations - and it takes you right to the heart of the band in this formative era.

Notes: Michael Gira - The Knot: Complete Words for Music, Collected Stories and Journals

Hardcover 7 1/4 x 10 1/4 inches, 408 pages, includes 101 colour images printed on high quality photographic paper.

Journals, stories, and songs span the years 1981 to present. Includes visual archives and artwork dating back to 1974.

Hardcover Collector's edition of 3000 numbered copies, signed by M. Gira

"From the Preface to The Knot: This book contains the words to every song I've written worth collecting to date from all my musical projects throughout the years. I've left out various imbecilities and feckless half-starts. Also included in this book are several previously published short stories. They're taken from the collections The Consumer and The Egg, as well as a few other hand- made limited editions of stories. In a few cases I've included excerpts rather than the entire story. This was done for aesthetic purposes, with the overall feel of this current volume in mind. There are a great many journal entries in this book. For the most part they are also, emphatically fiction. They're from an ongoing journal, not a diary. My journals are where I often allow a disembodied, fictional 1st person narrator to take over and unspool imagined events, diatribes, impossible scenarios, psychic auto-cannibalisms, and corrosive or ecstatic dreams etc. Again, these are fiction. Certain things I've written about (in fiction and in song form) seem to exist beneath the surface (in myself and others) and I find them compelling to look at and to describe. I view this as a positive act. In acknowledgment of the constricting and microscopically judgmental and censorious times we live in, the usual authorial caveats apply here. Certainly there are many purely anecdotal journal entries included in this book as well, and my presumption is that an intelligent reader would be able to differentiate one from the other. Personally, I'm very suspicious of memory (especially my own), so I can't definitively vouch for the veracity of the recounting of the literal events herein either. I have also excised material that I felt too personal to include, out of respect for the people involved as well as for myself. There are several large gaps in the journal entries over the years. This is due to lost journals of the time, and in one case a lost laptop (which, painfully, contained a great deal of writing). There are also periods where I didn't keep a journal and didn't write fiction. In any event, I've tried to include fiction and journal entries that correspond roughly to the period before and after a musical album's release and the words that were written for that music. The end section of this book consists of recently unearthed visual documents and imagery and functions here as an incidental archive. The images span the years from 1974 to the present."

Michael Gira

Notes: Michael Gira - The Knot: Complete Words for Music, Collected Stories and Journals

Paperback; 7 1/4 x 10 1/4 inches, 408 pages, includes 101 colour images printed on high quality photographic paper.

Paperback has bookplate signed by M Gira.

Journals, stories, and songs span the years 1981 to present. Includes visual archives and artwork dating back to 1974.

"From the Preface to The Knot: This book contains the words to every song I've written worth collecting to date from all my musical projects throughout the years. I've left out various imbecilities and feckless half-starts. Also included in this book are several previously published short stories. They're taken from the collections The Consumer and The Egg, as well as a few other hand- made limited editions of stories. In a few cases I've included excerpts rather than the entire story. This was done for aesthetic purposes, with the overall feel of this current volume in mind. There are a great many journal entries in this book. For the most part they are also, emphatically fiction. They're from an ongoing journal, not a diary. My journals are where I often allow a disembodied, fictional 1st person narrator to take over and unspool imagined events, diatribes, impossible scenarios, psychic auto-cannibalisms, and corrosive or ecstatic dreams etc. Again, these are fiction. Certain things I've written about (in fiction and in song form) seem to exist beneath the surface (in myself and others) and I find them compelling to look at and to describe. I view this as a positive act. In acknowledgment of the constricting and microscopically judgmental and censorious times we live in, the usual authorial caveats apply here. Certainly there are many purely anecdotal journal entries included in this book as well, and my presumption is that an intelligent reader would be able to differentiate one from the other. Personally, I'm very suspicious of memory (especially my own), so I can't definitively vouch for the veracity of the recounting of the literal events herein either. I have also excised material that I felt too personal to include, out of respect for the people involved as well as for myself. There are several large gaps in the journal entries over the years. This is due to lost journals of the time, and in one case a lost laptop (which, painfully, contained a great deal of writing). There are also periods where I didn't keep a journal and didn't write fiction. In any event, I've tried to include fiction and journal entries that correspond roughly to the period before and after a musical album's release and the words that were written for that music. The end section of this book consists of recently unearthed visual documents and imagery and functions here as an incidental archive. The images span the years from 1974 to the present."

Michael Gira

Review: Sampha is now well established as a solo artist in his own right having first risen up via work with SBTRKT, Kanye West, Drake, Jesse Ware and Frank Ocean, amongst others. The British singer, songwriter and producer has since released a couple of well received albums but before then came his Dual EP back in 2013. It found the South Londoner really establish his own voice on a mix of tunes that were recorded in his own bedroom and showcased his style and intent early on. Snap up this bit of history on exclusive orange vinyl.

Review: Johnny Malek is a Detroit-based fashion designer-turned-producer who makes a strident arrival on Yoruba with this EP of gospel-infused deep house. It's a potent approach which chimes perfectly with Osunlade's esteemed label, reportedly prefacing a larger project to come. There is an abundance of Afro house drums on 'I Promise', an anthem in the making with a vocal which will lodge itself in the hearts and minds of any assembled throng it's faced with. 'Venus Rising' maintains the vibe, confirming Malek's arrival as an artist to keep tabs on in the new wave of deep house artists.

Review: REKAB has been making strong moves in the world of techno with his classic inspired but futuristic blend of melodic techno. The My Future & My Past EP showcases that. 'Soulful Season' opens the album with a magical and traditional Detroit techno sound, featuring playful melodies and ambient touches. Key piano notes impact the tune, setting the tone for the rest of the album. The title track, 'My Future & My Past,' is a robotic funk and techno fusion with a touch of electro. The beautiful melody adds a touch of soul to the track. Side 2 opens with 'Raw Note,' featuring an addictive groove and memorable keys. 'Bad Nights Better Nights' closes the album with a deeper groove, combining UK ambient techno and IDM influences. Overall, Soulful Season is a diverse and engaging album that showcases the artist's range and versatility.

Review: The festive season can be busy, stressful and quite frankly hard work. Thank you to Joel Andrews then for serving up this perfect excuse to take half an hour to yourself and get lost in his most lush and soothing ambient sounds. The A-side is taken up entirely by 'Paradise Bird' which is rich with spring-like energies and delightful uplifting melodies. But this limited long player also offers more quiet moments of calm and introspection such as on the harp-like and heavenly melodies of 'Chamber Of The Heart.' Glorious stuff that will enrich and energise your life with its subtle and charming beauty.

Review: New and exciting Los Angeles label YKW returns with a second release, this time from Montreal's Ohm Hourani who is well known in hardcore circles for his superb jazzy and minimal stylings. He offers one particularly standout track, 'Herbs Miles,' which mixes up a sample of Herbie Hancock discussing the legendary Miles Davis. His own live-recorded and processed trumpet layers in another soulful edge and makes it a brilliantly original jam. G76/Gojnea76 delivers a weird and wonky remix and then 'Down the Syncussion Hole' is another inventive and rather madcap sound from this studio wizard.

Review: Full Time Men are a lesser spotted curio of New York's indie rock scene in the late 80s, mainly known for their 1988 album Your Face My Fist. As much as that title might make them sound like a hardcore punk outfit, they carried a strong melodic sensibility to their spiky rock and new wave which is celebrated on this retrospective compilation. Part Time Job shows how varied the band were in their heyday, drawing on rock n' roll and blues as much as power pop or noise rock, and that carries through to the newer tracks which make their first appearance on this collection.

Review: Recorded in Montreal, Quebec in 1981 whilst touring his sophomore solo endeavour Diary Of A Madman, this live LP from the former/current/former (?) Black Sabbath frontman serves up an iconic slice of very-much-in-his-prime metallic rock mayhem. Featuring timeless staples such as 'I Don't Know', 'Crazy Train', 'Mr. Crowley', and even finishing with an electrifying cover of 'Paranoid' (greatly embellished by Ozzy's secret weapon throughout the 80s - guitar virtuoso Randy Rhodes), this LP serves as a high watermark live collection from the Prince of Darkness.