Book 50 - Rob Young "The Wire Primers"

[jazzy_dave]

Rob Young "The Wire Primers: A Guide to Modern Music" (Verso)




This is actually my second read-through now and it will not be the last.

I've been reading the Wire for decades. Back in the nineties when I first read the magazine and thought I knew everything about music, but the Wire was consistently the one magazine that would always reveal music I'd never heard of or considered. For those who haven't been reading this great magazine for as long, this is a great way to catch up on some essential acts/genres of underground and outer limits music. Even as a long-time reader, I saw a few pieces I had previously missed or had forgotten about. The Primers, Epiphanies, and Invisible Jukebox are the greatest part of the mag, apart from the reviews, and it's great to see some of these primers captured here. This, like the magazine, is the type of media I dip into often such as Rob Young's "Electric Eden".

The primers in this book are split into sections, Avant Rock, Funk Hip Hop And Beyond, Jazz And Improvisation, and Modern Composition. Hence, Captain Beefheart via Sonic Youth, Sun Ra, Tropicalia, James Brown, through to Karlheinz Stockhausen and Iannis Xenakis. If you want to explore the less mainstream side of modern music then this is essential.

I will dip into again of course.