Music Zines and Books Thread

#1

Starting a thread to discuss and recommend independently released or small-press music zines and books. When I first started getting into weirder music in the early 00s, I was an avid reader of US fanzines like Bixobal and Bull Tongue, and loved paging through older publications like Forced Exposure when I could find them.

I’ve recently picked up the two anthologies from Sound American, and I’m excited to dig in. They’re collections of previously published issues, each on a specific theme, from gospel music to “network music” to DIY instrument makers.

Anyone else come across cool publications recently? I would especially love to find more stuff covering electronic / dance music and jazz, but all recommendations / links welcome!

#2

I write for the extreme & experimental music zine Astral Noize, can check our 2017 list here. (I wrote the WITTR) bit. Got another piece on grindcore going live sometime today or tomorrow too.

#3

It’s not electronic but my favourite music zine of the past few years is Distort, an Australian punk/hardcore zine. Intelligent, knowledgable but stripped back writing in a genre that often mistakes Lester Bangs worship as prose. Devoted an entire issue to All by Myself by Rikk Agnew, amazing stuff.

#4

Distort looks very cool!
Love the design of the few issues available on the site. Nice “cross-brow” aesthetic.

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Link for convenience:

#5

I really like https://bombmagazine.org/ – not all music, but the music they do have is great coverage.

#6

Topping this to say I’m also excited for the new Blank Forms Journal, the second in the series, which is dropping soon. The first edition was really stellar, with great interviews and essays on experimental and avant garde music.

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https://blankforms.org/publications/

#7

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I thought this one was pretty cool

#8

Man, I’ve wanted that one for a while. Read some excerpts on Pitchfork when it came out, very interesting stuff.

#9

I liked Der Klang Der Familie as well.

FWIW, I had a short chat with two DJs who live in Berlin and know a lot about its history of dance music (Boris and Daniel Wang) and they both said it was a good book.

It’s worth to mention that it’s mostly made of short interviews and quotes. Not everybody likes this writing style, but I think it works well to show how different people lived and processed that era in different ways, with different results.

#10

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I just finished Rave On. Global Adventures in Electronic Dance Music by Matthew Collin. I liked it a lot.
It explores electronic dance music talking about different cities. It’s relatively cheap for its size, but if you don’t buy it, at least look for Matthew Collin’s articles (the Guardian, the Observer, Mixmag, the Wire…), they’re quite good.

#11

Berghain’s monthly flyers include writings by Stefan Goldmann, which are often interesting insights on how such a club works. English translations are available on Goldmann’s website:
https://sgoldmann.wordpress.com

Stefan Goldmann also wrote PRESETS – digital shortcuts to sound, a book I really enjoyed:

#12

Oh yeah, I’ve seen the Presets book in web shops before. Looks great!
Is it just a series of essays / ruminations?

#13

Yes, I guess?
Goldmann interviews eight (quite different) artists or teams who had something to do with instruments presets, tells their story, and focuses on various aspect of presets. Some of these stories were quite unexpected / surprising to me (of course, music means very different things to different people).
The book website has more details about the interviewed.

#14

Can any of you please recommend books and zines about industrial and EBM? Assimilate by S. Alexander Reed is a good one, but these genres seem to live on through interviews and zine articles, not (auto)biographies or academic stuff.

Also, while we are at the topic of zines: I wholeheartedly recommend Myrkfaelni, an amazing Icelandic underground zine with cassette compilations on Icelandic-only music. Weird, lovely and completely on the top of my shopping list.

#15

Just finished reading this one.


Really enjoyed the essay at the beginning and also a nice history of Drexciya at the end. The artist presented in the book are interesting if you like contemporary art practice (and with diverse practice and approaches which is nice for this kind of thematic exhibition).

#16

Also I guess it’s a classic among you folk but David Toop’s book is a MUST READ

#17

Probably my favourites are Energy Flash by Simon Reynolds, a thorough investigation & history of various rave scenes (mainly UK & US), and Our Band Could Be Your Life by Michael Azzerad which is about US punk & hardcore in the 80s and has loads of interesting stuff about bands, labels, business approaches etc.

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Been reading a bit about grime too. Really enjoyed This Is Grime by Hattie Collins & Olivia Rose which is like a photo book with essays and interviews from key players. Just about to start Dan Hancox’s new one which has been well received.

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Also recently enjoyed Viv Albertine & Wiley’s autobiographies.

A history of radical club culture
#18

For the past year I’ve been slowly reading more sociology/cultural studies/anthropology… books on music, 'cause of possible diploma and developed a little digital library of them, but some of them that really left an impression are:

  1. In Defense of Disco - Richard Dyer
  2. Maria Pini - Club cultures and Female Subjectivity

Now I’ve started Attali Jacques - Noise: The Political Economy of Music.

Recommendations highly appreciated.

#19

I thought This Is Grime and The Story of Grime were both really good.

Just finished reading Sound System: The Political Power of Music by Dave Randall, which had some interesting stuff on e.g. the political/rebellious origins of carnival and Adorno’s rather inflexible attitude towards pop (explored in more depth IIRC in Grand Hotel Abyss by Stuart Jeffries). I think I expected a bit more of an insight into contemporary debates about music and politics, but the book’s probably good as an introduction to the topic (and there’s an infinite amount you could write).

I had a look through a book on Umeå hardcore, with lots of great photos of Refused, Final Exit etc, but I’m not sure if it’s available to buy any more. Have also started Black Metal: Evolution of the Cult, which is interesting and talks about the first wave rather than just obsessing about Norway, but it is 600 pages long…

#20

I’ve been slowly working my way through Robert Loss’s Nothing Has Been Done Before:
Seeking the New in 21st-Century American Popular Music, a book of essays regarding the concept of newness/innovation in music. It’s a bit dense at times, but overall very good. Lots of philosophical underpinnings in his arguments even as he analyzes Katy Perry’s Superbowl halftime performance.

Also I read anything I can get my hands/eyes on that Jenn Pelly writes. Her 33 1/3 on The Raincoats’ self-titled was superb. Her writing on the playlistification of music was what first caught my attention and she’s supposedly writing a book about it as well, I think. In the meantime, her Problem with Muzak Baffler salvo and Secret Lives of Playlists WATT piece are stellar.