creel pone & that

exoticpylon said:

does anybody know of any decent books detailing the history of experimental electronic music (as in tape, concrete etc).

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The history of electronic music, if we are talking about the 1950s and 1960s, is fundamentally an experimental music history, so any well-researched history should cover aspects of the topics you mentioned (tape, concrete). If you understand Stockhausen's synthesis in Gesang, then you understand something of the pre- and post-history of the relationship between concrete and purely electronic-based tape music, since Stockhausen both showed through that piece, and articulated in writing, that the opposition was a false dichotomy ... things become much more interesting theoretically once you've worked your way through listening to that period, and once you've absorbed more about how the music was actually made, technically speaking ...

How is your french? There are some good works on concrete I could recommend...Chion is going to be featured in an upcoming issue of the Wire, will be interesting to see what he has to say (has written plenty on the subject already, also on sound in film) ...

Simon Reynolds seems to post many book covers of electronic music on his blog, though he rarely discusses any of them (the last thing I remember was an ill-informed and pedantic comment on Cage). But you will find titles there. The Griffiths' book is good, there are many others, depending on your interests and level of technical expertise. There is an enormous literature on the subject, ranging from the cute histories to very technical treatises in both journal and monograph form (Curtis Roads' book is a standard one on the history of computer music, but will be almost unreadable for many readers).

exoticpylon said:

I've been really getting into the Creel Pone label-.

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In the hipster blogger world, Creel Pone has become almost a brand name for 'hey i'm listening to weird historical electronic music', though you rarely ever find anyone actually describing what it is they like so much, much less offering an analysis or history of any of it ... the po-mo hipster network marches on, lol ...

exoticpylon said:

Some of this stuff is just the craziest shit- i'll put up some reccomendations in a bit

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Please do, would be curious what people think about individual releases.

There have been threads on Creel Pone before:

http://www.dissensus.com/showthread.php?t=6797

http://www.dissensus.com/showthread.php?t=4922&highlight=creel+pone

yes he did...http://www.ubu.com/film/lipsett.html

my fave creel pone is http://www.volcanictongue.co.uk/artist.php?art=Gregory Jones/Roy Sablosky
but everyone ive heard has merit..i know they could be seen as arrivist by yer academic concrete types but the cuteness/ collectablity factors get them heard!
('hey i'm listening to weird historical electronic music' has always and will always be a classic hipster move)

IMO the best book on the history of c20 experimental music is Morphogenesis memeber Roger Sutherland 's "New Perspectives in Music". Begins with Russolo, Webern and moves through Cage to live electronics, improvisation etc. Really an excellent book, inclusive, very clearly structured and written, meticulously researched. Won't be of much use if you're looking for recording "picks" however.

labrat said:

('hey i'm listening to weird historical electronic music' has always and will always be a classic hipster move)

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I think calling people hipsters is a classic hipster move. the few people i know with a genuine interest in this area are hardly what I'd think of as, "hip". Seriously this word gets chucked around pejoratively on here all the time, particularly when things move outside the cultural mainstream, it doesn't seem necessary. I assume it's shorthand for people taking an interest in things to make themselves look interesting, and we all know that goes on across the board.

i have to recommend this if you haven't heard it: http://www.furious.com/PERFECT/ohm/

i've got disc 1 on hard drive if anyone wants me to upload it.

for stockhausen's etudes and other electronic compositions, elektronische musik 52-60 is more or less comprehensive. i don't think it includes hymnen however. hymnen iirc was the inspiration for revolution #9. stock says he and lennon used to talk on the phone all the time.

"In this music, vertical and diagonal movements are composed for the first time, in addition to the horizontal movements in the earlier 4-channel or 8-channel electronic music.": http://www.mediafire.com/?lxlyzizmxdt

Stockhausen RIP

EDIT: Sorry you were looking for lit. Noise/Music: A history by Paul Hegarty is excellent. It may be more far-ranging than what you're looking for as it covers the Japanese noise scene and other derivations of electroacoustic music.

Electroacoustic music is definitely *not* hipster, at least not "hipster" in the sense I understand the word (ie wealthy suburban kids from Virginia who invade NY in droves wearing quirky t-shirts and shit). This video sums up what I mean:

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Intriguing bibliography of books and articles relating to 'electro-acoustic' music.

http://www.amrhome.net/contents/elearl.txt (from http://www.amrhome.net/contents/).

Mostly more technical and theoretical / critical than historical by the look of it but in these circles that kind of amounts to the same thing. Lots of stuff there to try and hunt down. I found it doing a search for pics of 'Electric Music - A Practical Manual' by John Jenkins & Jon Smith of which I have a copy. It's a real basic textbook on 'electric' music that goes from how amps work up to some nice discussion of using VCS3s and so on.

This looks good, haven't read through it all yet. An extensive history of early electronic music in four parts. Decent reading and listening lists there as well.

http://emusician.com/tutorials/electronic_century1