Micro-bionic : radical electronic music and sound art in the 21st century / Thomas Bey William Bailey.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bailey, Thomas Bey William.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Electronic music--History and criticism.

Electronic music.

Music--21st century--History and criticism.

Music.

Music--20th century--History and criticism.

Physical Description:

216 pages : illustrations ; 26 cm

Other Title:

MicroBionic

Place of Publication:

[London] : Creation Books, 2009.

Summary:

As maintream music consumers wait with baited breath for the next major musical upheaval, a small core of tech-savvy, highly mobile individuals are re-shaping the aura landscape without the assumrance of being part of any larger movement. Their ideologies, creative approaches, and end products differ wildly; but they do share a common bond of self-reliance, flexibility in the face of information overload, and a desire to take sound beyond the realm of mere entertainment.

Starting with the guerrilla media tactics of Industrial music in the laste 1970s, the author charts an ongoing trend in electronic music; an increasing amount of sonic quality, recorded output and international contact accomplished with a decreasing amount of tools, personnel, and capital investment. From the use of laptop computers to create massive avalanches of noise, to the establishment of micro-nations populated largely by sound artists, 21st century sound culture is expanding in its scope and popularity even as it shrinks in other respects.

The text of Micro-Bionic is built up from exhaustive research into the world of audio extermity, including physical travel to the various 'hot sports'where these new sounds are made and thousands of hours listening to live and recorded music. Numerous exclusive interviews with leading lights of the field were also conducted for this book: william Bennett (Whitehouse), Peter Rehberg (Mego), Peter Christopherson (Throbbing Gristle/Coil), John Duncan, Francisco Lopez, Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Bob Ostertag and many others weigh in with a range of thoughts and opinions that underscores the incredible diversity to be found within new electronic music itself. illustrated throughout, Micro-Bionic unveils a host of audio. phenemena that range from the capricious to the terrifying, and provides a perfect gateway into this parallel sound universe both for the uninitiated and for devotees wishing to learn more.

Contents:

Resistance of the cell : industrial music vs. the "control machine"

Libertines or asceticists? : a quarter-century of Whitehouse

Re-launching the dream weapon : an unnatural histury of Coil

Electrovegetarianism : an abridged history of Merzbow, from biomechanic to biophiliac

Mash communication (and other symptoms of the sampling virus)

Beyond the valley of the falsch : Mego (and friends) revitalize "computer music"

To kick a king : the Kingdoms of Elgaland and Vargaland

Francisco López : the big blur theory

Vox stimuli : John Duncan's unrestrained explorations

Uncommon sense(s) : synesthesia and electronic music

Silence is sexy : the other "extreme" music

Faster than light (and cheaper) : the great immaterial music debate

Technomadism : taking electronic music beyond the mass media centers.

Notes:

"Recommended listening": p. 213-215.

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

9781840681536

1840681535

OCLC:

318421281