[sdiy] good books on electronic music/ electronics history?

[Derek Holzer]

Another score from the "Openbare Biblioteek Eindhoven" was "The 
Technique of Electronic Music" by Thomas Wells, which I imagine also to 
be from early 80s or late 70s (I didn't copy the publishing info page on 
this one). My favorite part of this book is that it's full of scope 
shots. Also, he gets into some of the basic circuits of the various 
modules as well (although not horribly deep). He's got a fairly unique 
set of symbols for the different blocks of the synth, in fact all the 
diagrams in this book are some strange block/circuit hybrids. 
Interesting stuff....

Otherwise, I've seen a bio of Lee Scratch Perry get recommended in a few 
other forums on emusic, which couldn't be too bad a read either... Steve 
Reich's collected essays have a nice piece about the pulse generator he 
designed (and abandoned) when he was working on his phase percussion 
pieces. Michael Nyman's "Experimental Music: Cage and Beyond" book is 
also a great introduction to Steve Reich, Terry Riley, La Monte Young, 
and Phillip Glass. Although most of them composed for acoustic 
instruments along with tape and (sometimes) electronics, I think the 
inspiration for electronic experimentation is really strong there.

There's also Paul Hegerty's "Noise/Music: A History", mostly focused on 
the Japanese scene I think. Brandon LaBelle's "Background Noise: 
Perspectives on Sound Art" is a very nice history of the more conceptual 
sound of electronic sounds which I enjoyed when it came out. I have 
"Noise, Water, Meat: A History of Sound in the Arts" by Douglas Kahn 
hanging around on my shelf but I haven't quite gotten around to it yet. 
And of course, there's "Wreckers of Civilization", by Simon Ford on 
Throbbing Gristle (without whom I dare say the face of electronic pop 
music wouldn't be the same, even if they were a noise group!). Not 
everybody wants to play perfect-pitch notes around here...

best,
D.

-- 
::: derek holzer ::: http://blog.myspace.com/macumbista ::: 
http://www.vimeo.com/macumbista :::
---Oblique Strategy # 144:
"Simply a matter of work"