Lately I’ve been reading Ocean of Sound by David Toop (who’s already been mentioned here). I bought it at Mary Go Wild in Amsterdam.
Saw that they’re doing a new edition with extra words and fixed typos, so it might be a great occasion to get it brand new.
I keep meaning to get this. I love this era of music. Although I’m probably about 10 years too young to have lived through it these bands were really important to me in my teens.
Get In The Van and a book called The Road To Nirvana were my gateway into this sort of stuff.
Original Rockers by Richard King is a great one on his days working in a record shop in Bristol and meeting some of the doyens of reggae. His book How Soon Is Now is also ace - on the history of independent music in the UK.
I’m sitting surrounded by the bloody things so rather than reel them off I’ll just say that I bought this recently, but haven’t read it yet:
Mars by 1980: The Story of Electronic Music
by David Stubbs
Link: http://amzn.eu/d/5KXmCi4
How are people doing those cool embeds of books etc?This one is fictional but I enjoyed it a lot:
@joseatbdem one paragraph space before and after a link should do a fine embedding
Have enjoyed these this year, maybe some standard or good beginners reading but its great to find books who cover a lot of modern and electronic artists…
Music of the Future - Robert Batty - On artists through the last few hundred who have looked to the future to break ground from theatre or operas with unconvential instruments to john cage and to modern music and the digital landscape.
Babbling Corpse - Grafton Tanner - on vaporwave and digital/online music culture
Retromania - simon reynolds - bit of a classic on the worlds obsession at looking to the past to move forward.
Also read some bios on classic Artists thats i enjoyed. On Some Faraway Beach on Eno, No One gets out of here alive on Jim morrison / the doors + Riders on the Storm written by John Desnmore, Golden Stone - a slight conspiracy on the life and death of Brian Jones and Crazy Diamond on Syd Barrett.
Not quite music but the new Lynch book Room to Dream was great. Half written by himself and half by Kristine Mckenna. Great if you are a fan of his and covers up to the new Twin Peaks, focuses a lot on his other artwork outside of film and his often funny worldview and approach to art and the creative process which is very cool.
Finally got deeper into Mark Fisher’s writing and collections and its all recommended, looking forward to the collection of his kpunk writings later in the year and the re-print of More Brilliant than the sun. Some great recommendations ive not heard of in here, I find reading will often inspire and motivate me in the studio a little more then music lately, great to have books piled up to get stuck into…
cheers
absolutely! i’m really grateful for the responses, shows there is still a need for music forums once we all get familiar with using them again — it requires an investment in time an attention on levels we’re no longer used to 
peace!
Well, and music forums in 2018 are nothing like they were in 1998, for better and worse.
Been reading one book in particular lately that’s been knocking my socks off…very happy to see Spinoza popping up in so many sonic theory books. Have only gotten to read what’s on Google Preview as it’s too expensive for me to buy at this point, but have read the intro and the first chapter twice already.
Low End Theory by Paul C. Jasen
https://books.google.com/books/about/Low_End_Theory.html?id=yAhoCwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button#v=onepage&q&f=false
Also, been finally getting around to reading some more Paul Gilroy…music is just part of the Black Atlantic cultural engine he identifies, but have found it super useful for framing my own worn on the hardcore continuum and black music in london:
And to push things out even more abstractly, this is a book ostensibly on environmental disasters in LA, but Steve Goodman very smartly uses it as a springboard to situate his sonic theories (in the sense that sound makes up our environment and suffuses it with fear/dread/passion).
Mike Davis - Ecology of Fear
https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/98/08/30/daily/losangeles-book-review.html
And this is today’s afternoon reading…finally reading more Massumi beyond his translator work (namely focusing on The Superiority of the Analog but it all gooooood):
Totally spaced on this one as well.
Phonographies: Grooves in Afro-Sonic Modernity
Also, I imagine this got shared already but just in case…one of the more consistently fantastic anthologies out there:
Pink Noises: Women on Electronic Music and Sound
I’d highly recommend ‘A Brief History of Seven Killings’ by Marlon James
Gives context to music in Jamaica spanning from the 70’s thru the 90s… not necessarily just a good ‘music’ read.
that’s probably my favorite fiction book from this decade, @PIHMS…he has a new one out that has been described as a queer, African Game of Thrones that I can’t wait to devour…Seven Killings is just sooooooooooo good.
Anyway, been doing a shitload of reading the past six months and been meaning to share some of my recent discoveries. Actually have gotten around to reading the Jasen book I recommended up above and hollllly shit, it is so good…it takes up Brian Massumi’s challenge to cultural studies to “unsettle itself, unsettle its neighbours, and embrace its creativity” and “top open a conceptual field in that region where scientific activity trails off and the interests of the humanities are not yet operational.” Massively recommended.
I’ve definitely taken Low End Theory as a jumping point into Arun Saldanha’s Psychedelic White: Goa Trance and the Viscosity of Race, which is a fascinating investigation into how bodies self-segregate and coalesce on the dance floor and off. Roll your eyes at the prospect of an academic study into Goa Trance all you want…the music is truly secondary to his analysis of how sonic bodies operate.
Also, have been reading Julian Henrique’s Sonic Bodies: Reggae Sound Systems, Performance Techniques, and Ways of Knowing and it’s another great example of an academic study that doesn’t rely too heavily on theory as a tool to distance the reader from the subject matter, instead plunging you head first into the world of Jamaican dance halls (re: outdoor soundsystem parties) and their vibrations.
Another one I’ve been finally starting to make my way through is Jacques Attali’s Noise: The Political Economy of Music…it’s a good one! Here’s a pdf of it as I don’t believe it’s been in press since 1984, though I could be wrong.
OK, now moving onto something a bit less academically dense, picked up a library copy of Dave Thompson’s How To Wreck a Nice Beach: The Vocoder From World War II To Hip-Hop as I’ve heard a lot of good things about it over the years.
Oh!!! And I almost forgot, last but certainly not least, I enjoyed the living shit out of Dan Hancox’s Inner City Pressure: The Story of Grime as it’s a truly eye-opening study of early 21st century East London (especially if you’re like me and haven’t spent much time in the UK despite having an unhealthy obsession with its music).
Am sure I’m missing some, but these five books have definitely been helping me through the bleakness of January and February.
I’m starting the 2nd chapter of “Sounds like London” and I’m hooked! What a book! Nice to live in the 21st century and having the possibility to listen to all the stuff on youtube while reading.