Where's the beef? In the news, that's where. More than ever, meat is making the headlines and growing numbers of people are becoming more informed and passionate about what they eat. The facts are compelling: contamination cases are on the rise, o...

In 1976 the British band Throbbing Gristle emerged from the radical arts collective COUM Transmissions through core members Genesis P-Orridge and Cosey Fanni Tutti, joined by Hipgnosis photographer Peter Christopherson and electronics specialist Chris Carter. Though having performed previously in more low-key arts environments, their major launch coincided with the COUM retrospective exhibition Prostitution at London’s ICA gallery, showcasing and contextualising an array of challenging objects from COUM’s various actions in performance art and pornography. In a deliberately curated strategy inviting press, civic and arts dignitaries, extravagant followers of the nascent punk scene and music journalists, the band created an instant controversy and media panic that tapped into the restrictive climate and encroaching conservatism of late 1970s Britain. Any opportunities that were being explored by a formative punk ethos and movement around sex, censorship and transgression were amplified and exposed by Throbbing Gristle and Prostitution. An outraged Member of Parliament Nicholas Fairbairn took the bait and called the ensemble the ‘wreckers of civilisation’, providing the suitable newspaper headline that would be followed a month later by ‘the filth and the fury’ as the Sex Pistols uttered strong profanities on live television. The switch from COUM to Throbbing Gristle encompassed a primary mode of expression in making music as opposed to art, to further coincide with the energy of the nascent punk scene. The band quickly developed a radically deviant and challenging reputation through pushing the punk format past its strictures in terms of lyrical themes, amateurism, and considerations of what constitutes music. Through a handful or record releases on their own label Industrial Records, and a sporadic string of live performances, the band nurtured a strong and devoted following including key journalists and fanzine editors of the punk and post-punk scenes such as Jon Savage and Sandy Robertson. The band’s style of exploring harsh pre-recorded sounds, samples of disconcerting narrative and conversation, and feeding all sounds through messy electronic processing devices gave rise to the title industrial music. This was further buttressed by performing a strictly timed set of one hour, and adopting a non-rockstar mode by appearing disinterested and preoccupied with electronic devices. Having given a name and impetus to the industrial music scene, many of their followers and fans formed bands in later years. Drawing on works such as Andy Bennett’s When the Lights Went Out, this book looks at late 1970s Britain, before, during and immediately after the Winter of Discontent, to situate the activism of Throbbing Gristle in this time. It explores how the band worked in and against the time, and how they worked in and against punk as punk worked in and against the time and place. Punk acts as a mediating factor and nuisance value, as Throbbing Gristle emerged with punk in late 1976, seemingly grappled with it through 1977, and then went on to create and eventually criticise a number of post-punk scenes that had flourished around 1979. Trowell narrates the story through a series of live performances, as this is a point where Throbbing Gristle interact with the various city-scenes around England during their original period of operation (1975-1981). The band reflected (and incorporated into their live music) key tropes form the time, both ‘mainstream’ and fringe (subcultural, avant-garde art, counter-culture, taboo subjects, extremes) such that Throbbing Gristle events had an impact and affect, and Trowell traces these as a series of impressions and reverberations amongst fans who went on to do their own music and projects.

In 20 Jazz Funk Greats Drew Daniel (of the experimental band Matmos) creates-through both his own insights and exclusive interviews with the band-an exploded view of the album's multiple agendas: a series of close readings of each song, shot through with a sequence of thematic entries on key concepts, strategies, and contexts (noise, leisure, process, the abject, information, and repetition). This is a smart and unusual book about a pioneering band.

Seven Terrifyingly Delectable Short Stories and Novellas in the vein of Stephen King and Clive Barker. "Intelligent, character-driven horror tales." - Jack Ketchum, author of The Girl Next Door Baby Teeth - When doctors tell her she can never be pregnant, Candace learns that not every child is a gift. Beware of Dog - Disgraced soldier Dean Vogel returns to his hometown and confronts the bullies, and a violent incident, from his past. Viral - A reporter uncovers what really happened to the latest internet sensation, a troubled teenage girl who vanished on camera. Artifact (#37) - Gonzo pornographers learn a brutal lesson following a tragedy they inadvertently caused when life imitated "art." //END USER - Anti-social conspiracy theorist Mason Adler's life is turned upside-down when he begins receiving eerily personal and prophetic spam that could be heralding the Apocalypse. Fat of the Land - A couple discovers the secret of a tourist town's prosperity may lie in its sinfully delicious cuisine, and they might be on the menu. Scavengers - When successful restaurant owners confess to a grisly series of small town murders, their neighbor learns the gruesome truth that led them to kill. In Knee High, Nebraska, someone--or something--has been stalking household pets in the dead of night... but would they rather be hunting us? Short and novella-length fiction from the twisted imagination of Duncan Ralston, author of Salvage and WOOM. Includes an Introduction from Chris Hall of DLS Reviews.

How was it an entire cultured nation allowed their children to be raised by a political party with an ideology of hate? Stories of the fanatical bravery of the young men and children of the Reich on the battlefields of Europe are abundant.It is easy to admire the courage of the Hitler Youth as they battled relentlessly against the Allied and Soviet armies. But when one looks at it in the cold light of day, one cannot fail to be overwhelmed with the senseless loss of life. Millions butchered for an old man's nightmare vision of a world he hated and wanted to see burn. His failure to face the facts, combined with the Allies demand for unconditional surrender resulted in an entire generation consumed to the abyss. The Wehrmacht, the Hitler Youth, the Volkssturm and the children were all in the end just gristle for the Reich's mill. This book covers the whole story of a generation of young Germans, from the rebirth of a Nation to its consignment to the abyss and their role in this calamity.Includes many photos.