The first official account of the iconic record label.

This Mortal Coil, Birthday Party, Bauhaus, Cocteau Twins, Pixies, Throwing Muses, Breeders, Dead Can Dance, Lisa Germano, Kristin Hersh, Belly, Red House Painters. Just a handful of the bands and artists who started out recording for 4AD, a record label founded by Ivo Watts-Russell and Peter Kent in 1979, a label which went on to be one of the most influential of the modern era. Combining the unique tastes of Watts-Russell and the striking design aesthetic of Vaughan Oliver, 4AD records were recognizable by their look as much their sound. In this comprehensive account concentrating on the label's first two decades (up to the point that Watts-Russell left), music journalist Martin Aston explores the fascinating story with unique access to all the key players and pretty much every artist who released a record on 4AD during that time, and to its notoriously reclusive founder.

"Facing the other way: the story of 4AD is the first comrehensive account of the iconic record label. From 4AD's inception in 1980, at the dawn of Britain's post punk movement, the label's enigmatic founder Ivo Watts-Russell pursued a particularly singular and obsessive vision, an artistic venture rather than a commercial exercise, eschewing trends and incorporating equally groundbreaking record sleeve design"--inside cover.

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER One of NPR's "Books We Love" of 2021 Longlisted for the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography Winner of the Christopher Award “Masterly. An epic story of four Japanese-American families and their sons who volunteered for military service and displayed uncommon heroism… Propulsive and gripping, in part because of Mr. Brown’s ability to make us care deeply about the fates of these individual soldiers...a page-turner.” – Wall Street Journal From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Boys in the Boat, a gripping World War II saga of patriotism and resistance, focusing on four Japanese American men and their families, and the contributions and sacrifices that they made for the sake of the nation. In the days and months after Pearl Harbor, the lives of Japanese Americans across the continent and Hawaii were changed forever. In this unforgettable chronicle of war-time America and the battlefields of Europe, Daniel James Brown portrays the journey of Rudy Tokiwa, Fred Shiosaki, and Kats Miho, who volunteered for the 442nd Regimental Combat Team and were deployed to France, Germany, and Italy, where they were asked to do the near impossible. Brown also tells the story of these soldiers' parents, immigrants who were forced to submit to life in concentration camps on U.S. soil. Woven throughout is the chronicle of Gordon Hirabayashi, one of a cadre of patriotic resisters who stood up against their government in defense of their own rights. Whether fighting on battlefields or in courtrooms, these were Americans under unprecedented strain, doing what Americans do best—striving, resisting, pushing back, rising up, standing on principle, laying down their lives, and enduring.

Under the Second Empire in France, Cordier received several assignments in North Africa and there he completed scientific busts that were just as much works of art. His busts in silver or gilt bronze, onyx and coloured marble are delicate gems, reflecting Cordier's interest in other civilizations, most notably African. The Musee d'Orsay in Paris has organized an unprecedented international exhibition of Cordier's work, highlighting seventy-five sculptures and approximately forty ethnographic photographs. Filled with several texts on his life and work compiled by the exhibition's organizers, this book was created and based on the research by Jeanine Durand-Revillon for the Ecole du Louvre in 1980.

Iran's long history and complex cultural legacy have generated animated debates about a homogenous Iranian identity in the face of ethnic, linguistic and communal diversity. The volume examines the fluid boundaries of pre-modern identity in history and literature as well as the shaping of Iranian national identity in the 20th century.

Simon's father has been accused of the murder of a rival cab driver and Simon faces a life branded as the son of a murderer. Then he meets Charley, grieving for her dead father, the murder victim, and they determine to find out the real story behind the murder. Together they can face up to the danger which surrounds them, and bring back some hope for the future. Michael Harrison was born in Oxford in 1939. He has taught in North Queensland, London, Oxford, and Hartlepool but is now a part-time librarian in Oxford and enjoys visiting schools as a writer. He is married with two grown-up sons. His previous books include a history of witches, funny novels, retellings of Norse myths, a book of poems, Junk Mail, and a retelling of Don Quixote. Together with Christopher Stuart-Clark, he has anthologised many books for OUP, including The Oxford Treasury of Classic Poems. Facing the Dark is his second novel for OUP, and is now reissued in a smaller mass- market format.