simon reynolds: classic or dud

in any case i should be so nitpicky overall it's been a great read and i've learned a lot!

I'm not too bothered to re-read Rip it Up, but it was hugely formative for my music taste when I read it at 15 or 16. It got me into dance music in a roundabout way: Remain in Light -> Ze Records -> disco etc.

my version had twenty or so pages switched out with some cowboy book about Reagan or something. LOL publisher fail

This and Our Band Could Be Your Life kind of invented college for me.

my version had twenty or so pages switched out with some cowboy book about Reagan or something. LOL publisher fail

No, that was just the chapter on the Mekons.

loll

hahahahahahahaha

The US published version of Rip It Up is shorter than the Brit published version. Someone wrote on amazon.com:

Three chapters have been cut in their entirety and portions of other chapters have been cut or shortened. In total, the US version of the book is nearly 200 pages shorter.

― curmudgeon, Monday, June 13, 2011 11:09 AM (Yesterday) Bookmark

ARGH fuck you publishers

Wow what a joke.

There's at least a chapter missing from the us version of Energy Flash (generation ecstasy), right?

http://www.vanityfair.com/style/2012/01/prisoners-of-style-201201

Kurt Anderson on retro culture. I haven't read this yet. Wonder if he refers to Reynolds book?

IIRC, no.

That article was rough. Pointless musing and avoiding any question of technology and its relationship to art. Ugh. (not to mention writing something like this and not mentioning Retromania seems a little goofy (though I might be playing up Retromania's impact)).

New book

http://shockandawesimonreynolds.blogspot.com/

a book about glam rock and art pop - 1970s mostly - but also tracking its echoes and reflections through the 80s, 90s and into the 21st Century - footnotes to follow here soon

Is there any differences between Generation Ecstasy and the later re-prints of Energy Flash other than a few less extra chapters at the end? My local library's only got Generation Ecstasy in stock right now

Seems to be some pretty exhaustive info on the Energy Flash blog

http://energyflashinfohype.blogspot.co.uk/

My Twitter feed is nothing but 'conceptronica' jokes

I don't get why "conceptronica" has blown up as a meme, it's clearly just a placeholder portmanteau for a very easy-to-define approach

Have missed most of the "live" broadcast but...

https://www.nts.live/shows/guests/episodes/simon-reynolds-9th-april-2024

Music journalist and writer Simon Reynolds shares an hour of music featured in his first book in eight years, "Futuromania", which explores the vanguardist electronic music which prefigured the pop of the future

LIVE TRACKLIST

14:54
HOLLY HERNDON
Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt

14:50
JAMES BLAKE
If The Car Beside You Moves Ahead

14:47
CHIEF KEEF
On the Corner

...

http://blissout.blogspot.com/2024/04/futuromania-out-today.html

New book Futuromania is out today in the UK

getting delivered tomorrow. i'm excited but i can't stop thinking from the premise it feels sorta lowkey for a sr book? or maybe i just want it to start earlier than the 70s. the blurb:

"Starting with an extraordinary chapter on Giorgio Moroder and Donna Summer, taking in illuminating profiles of Ryuichi Sakamoto, Boards of Canada, Burial, and Daft Punk, and arguing for Auto-Tune as the defining sound of 21st century pop, Futuromania shapes over two-dozen essays and interviews into a chronological narrative of machine-music from the 1970s to now."

ofc i expect to really get into it anyway. and his autotune piece for pitchfork from a few years back already feels classic.

A lot of it is remixes or director’s cuts of previously published articles, which explains the more contemporary focus. The ‘reacting in real time’ aspect was important this time apparently. There is an all new chapter at the end though that aims to tie the threads together and provide a counterpoint to Retromania.