From William D. VanLoo Sent Tue, Sep 8th 1998, 20:54
From William D. VanLoo Sent Tue, Sep 8th 1998, 20:54
In response:
I haven't read "Generation Ecstacy", but I have read a fair bit of
Reynolds' other work (articles, mostly). While I agree that his attitudes
towards substance use are grating at times (especially for somebody who
doesn't really use illicit substances), I find myself agreeing with him on
other subjects sometimes. His dismissal of cookie-cutter
fungle/drill-n-bass/whatever especially hits home - check
http://members.aol.com/blissout/over97.htm for the full article. As
annoying as I find his overdependence on his own coined terms ("heroin
house" to describe Chain Reaction material, especially), I find his
willingness to aim at the sacred cows refreshing.
> I finished "Generation Ecstacy" by Simon Reynolds this week. What promised
> to be the *definitive* history of techno and electronics boiled down to a
> little good history and a heavy dose of subjectivity. His amazingly
> obnoxious attitude about substance abuse (at times its like he is saying "If
> you ain't high, you don't know nothin' about techno") and his haughty
> dismissal of non club-oriented electronics is really hard to stomach. Worse
> of all, he parades the usual list of post-modernists (Baudrillard, Virilo,
> blah) as his theoretical backing.
I found Toop's book interesting, but a little too filled with seemingly
purposeless name-dropping at times. I also found myself wondering at the
tenuous nature of some of the connections he drew (especially between
things like gamelan music and today's ambient via the minimalists
composers such as Steve Reich). I'm not nearly as knowledgable about some
of the history as he is, so maybe it's there & I'm just not seeing it or
don't know about it.
If you're looking for pure history about music that influences
IDM/electronics, check "Reggae: A Rough Guide", especially the chapters on
dub's development. It's excellent.
> A much better music book with similar aims is "Ocean of Sound" by David
> Toop. It has a much broader perspective, and gives a good overview of the
> modern techno/electronic scene (in addition to jazz, ambient, weird rock and
> other forms).
Also, no idm-related book review session would be complete without
mentioning the disquiet site:
http://www.disquiet.com/
An excellent resource for those interested in reading while they listen.
Bill / dj marathon
> >Would list members be willing to reveal what book(s) they're reading at the
> >moment? It
> >might be interesting. For example, I just finished skimming through a book
> >on physics
> >by Prigogine.
> >
> >thanks, mikail
> >
> >
>
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