Undercurrents

By The Wire and Wire

Book Overview

For the last twenty years The Wire has fearlessly bypassed fashion in it's search to expose the most innovative, radical, and compelling music from every genre all across the world. As listeners have grown increasingly eclectic and adventurous in their tastes, The Wire has emerged as the most authoritative source on modern music.

In Undercurrents some of the best music writers of our time uncover the hidden wiring of the past century's most influential music. Ian Penman discusses how the microphone transformed the human voice and made phantom presences of great singers such as Billie Holiday, Robert Johnson, and Brian Wilson. Christoph Cox demonstrates how the pioneers of live electronic music, the West Coast ensemble Sonic Arts Union, redefined virtuosity for the electronic age. Philip Smith and Peter Shapiro examine Harry Smith's Smithsonian Anthology of American Folk Music, which led to a massive reappraisal of musical values that went far beyond the folk music revival.

>Music explored in Undercurrents ranges through avant rock, jazz, hiphop, electronica, global music, and contemporary "classical."

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0826464505
• ISBN13: 9780826464507
• Release Date: December 2002
• Publisher: Continuum
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.16 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.7" x 9.7"

Customer Reviews

Music Journalism At Its Finest...

From the preeminent music journal comes forth an excellent series of essays covering a vast array of topics under the expansive unbrella known as music. The fine music writers of the Wire have blessed us with a collection of very thoughtful, deep essays on music. A wide range of disparate threads are tied together by the wonderful muscial minds from many of the Wire's peerless journalists and scholars. Do not be scarred, this is not stuffy, academic hogwash; this is enlightened and entertaining writing. Many key concepts and underlying themes are explored within the confines of this fine book. Including: The phonograph, electronics, chance operations, Futurism, Surrealism, the civil rights movement, noise, and musical evolution. Modern composition, free jazz, experimental rock, ethnic music, Techno, and Turntablism are all expounded upon with great clarity, research, and wit. Many of these essays first appeared in the Wire, however, all essays within have been updated and revised. Anyone with even a passing interest in contemporary music or the socialogical aspects of it needs this book. If you read 'The Wire' you know what to expect. If you don't, you're life is missing an important element.

A key book on contemporary music

This is a wonderful book, written by some of the best and smartest writers on contemporary music. It takes up and connects musical practices from free jazz, classic electronic music, and sound poetry to HipHop turntablism, electro-funk, and experimental rock; and it does so in sparkling prose that's eminently readable. If you want a glimpse of what is truly vital in the music of the 20th and early 21st centuries, buy and read this book.