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Re: book review time



Hi all

Need some help please.

I have just been down the local bookstore, and picked up the Nyman
Experimental book, ...but also saw.

Ocean of Sound by Toop
and
Kraftwerk from Dusseldorf with love.

I suppose some people may have read either of the two.

Q1 Is the Toop book worth the read, I really LOVE the Chadabe book "Electric
Sounds", it's my fav of the lot, and I know Toops book will be different but
is it up to the standard of Chadabe's?...is it worth buying ?

Q2 Kraftwerk, I had a copy of the original Kraftwerk book, sold in the back
of Sound on Sound mags, and loved that, any one read both books, I have a
sneeking feeling that the From Dusseldorf was given a huge slagging.

appreciate any comments

cheers
Ross

----- Original Message -----
From: "Michael Upton" <jetjag@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "microsound" <microsound@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, 19 May 2000 9:21
Subject: [microsound] A few bits


> Janne Mårtensgård <janne.martensgard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> An interesting question is this: can totally deaf people experience
> >something that hearing people would classify as sound? This would have to
be
> >completely brain-manufactured, i e  hallucinated hearing ... The only way
to
> >know this would have to be to ask someone who once could hear but now is
> >completely deaf, since people who has been deaf since birth wouldn't be
able
> >to tell if these "hallucinations" were of the auditory kind or not (no
> >frames of reference etc).
>
> I've been dipping into a book called 'Seeing voices' by Oliver Sacks (you
> know, 'Awakenings' etc) in which various post-linguistically deaf (ie.
> became deaf after learning a spoken language) people attest to having
> mental records of people's voices, etc. that they "hear" having learnt
> lip-reading. They also talk of phantom sounds, etc. (like phantom limbs -
> where people feel a limb even after it's been amputated).
>
> My understanding from what I've read of the book so far is that those who
> are born without any hearing have so little conception of what hearing
> might involve or be like that the idea of an auditory hallucination isn't
> worth discussing... it'd be like asking a person with all senses intact if
> they sometimes sense the nyeepnyoopnyopness of their surroundings, ie.
> completely meaningless. :-)
>
> I've just been listening to the Andrew Thomas CDR release on Involve, 'So
> You Wanna Be a (Death) Star'. Judging-by-peers disclaimer: yeah, it's the
> same record label that's released me, but, well, it's so utterly different
> from what I do, or what Aspen (label owner) does that I think the label's
> as good as irrelevant.
>
> The CDR's 12 very short tracks - it clocks in at around 25 minutes. The
> majority consist of bass tones, clicking a lot as they stop and start in
> stereo space, interleaved with sudden bursts of other sounds.. the common
> element through all tracks is the way the sound sources are chopped nice
> and roughly so that tracks are defined by constant clicks. Somehow the
> sound is simple and raw enough to avoid sounding like Oval or something.
> Apparently most sound sources are from 4-track tape recordings, lending a
> nice Sigma Editions-style blur to the proceedings that I certainly get
> right into. This is most evident on a track consisting of stumbling piano
> lines.. yum.. Some tracks also have what once was a drum machine rhythm
> somewhere in them. I keep thinking of the Solvent tune called 'Half Eaten
> Drum Machine', which seems like a damn apt description for this as well...
> a bit like an incredibly lo-fi Atom Heart work-out, with the over-all
> result almost more texture than anything else.
>
> Umm.. to be honest I'm never sure how to review this kind of music,
because
> I feel like people approach it for so many different kinds of pay-back.
> *shrug* I'd recommend 'So You Wanna Be A (Death) Star' if you like
> relatively "open" or "simple" this-listy music with an affective element
to
> it. Thinking mood wise of eg. Sigma Editions stuff; Neina; and yeah, Oval
> circa 'Systemisch' I guess.
>
> I also just wanted to say that I'm really enjoying this list. I don't feel
> like saying particularly much, but look forward to receiving the digests
> and feeling like there's some people at least engaging with topics in a
way
> I'm interested in, whether or not their outlooks are anything like mine.
Yay!
>
> Michael
>
> np. 'There's a Riot Going On' - Sly and the Family Stone (perhaps not
_too_
> relevant ;-)
>
> -+-
> Involve Records http://involve.co.nz
> Jet Jaguar MP3s http://mp3.com/jetjag/
> -+-
>
>
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