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Highly recommended. It's probably as comprehensive as possible considering that there's next to nothing to build upon. There is a distinct emphasis on Japanoise with a whole chapter on Merzbow alone, but then again, I think it's deserved.We can forgive many of the book's faults because it is essentially the first of its kind. It's a bit more dense than, say, an article on Wire or Pitchfork, but it's also structured so that a casual reader can simply skip over the more theoretically robust sections, while still getting a lot of useful information.Noise/Music is an exciting first step and fans of the music (you know who you are) will not want to miss this. Paul Hegarty does a good job jumping into the world of experimental/noise music headfirst. Up to now, this has been a whole area of music largely ignored by the musicological community. Hegarty has done a great service to future scholars.The writing is scholarly and theoretically sound, but it's also approachable to those outside the field of musicology.
Here's some examples: If Japanese noise is zen, then it is also rope bondage (134). This is a major problem with ethnomusicology and musicology in general-waxing and waning about the supposed post-modern qualities about music at the expense of the musician in favor of a totalizing reading of the subject. - Am I'm supposed to be impressed with semantics here or what.All in all, it will satiate the need to fill the gap; however, the many gaps within this text will hopefully be filled in the near future before many of our contemporary "noise" artists are dead. First off, this book is long overdue; however, what undermines Hagerty's project is his theoretically dry and unconvincing writing (something the editor should have caught, unless the press wanted to publish the philosophical meanderings of the author). Thus, the reader is bombarded with concepts at the expense of offering insights into the production of noise (by actually interviewing the artists in question). -That's really academically lazy, I might add.On John Zorn, "If he and others are some sort of neo-anthropologists, or exorcists, they are ethnographers of a future culture, and in the meantime, engage in neither the ethno-or the-graphy (137).
Hegarty's book is not a dry,excessively detailed history but rather a work much more usefull to myself and perhaps all noisicians and sound artists.It tries very well to reason why we make noise.If you make or dig noise,even if you are a philosophical novice,read this book.
His coverage of historical and contemporary performers/composers is exceptionally broad and adds a invaluable context for the work -- even if some influences are only mentioned in passing.The chapters on Japanese noise and Merzbow are spot on and alone make the book a worthy purchase. One other minor point: the font on the paperback is a small narrow sans serif which increased the reading effort (although given the topic this might have been a design decision) Hegarty comes at the topic from the standpoint of an avid listener and performer, explaining and exploring what the various artists are trying to achieve. I have been listening to this stuff for over ten years and found the discussions both accurate and enlightening.I only give it four stars since while reading other parts of the book I kept wishing that he would describe what the music sounds like rather than engage its theory.
Several mentions of Throbbing Gristle are made as well, though the book "Wreckers of Civilization" by Simon Ford is an excellent read on that wacky troupe. I appreciated the fact that in the introduction the author did mention that he only touches on Coil, Nurse With Wound, and Current 93 b/c they have their own book ("England's Hidden Reverse" by David Keegan). This was a gift, but I would have gladly paid full price for this excellent book. Sometimes the writing tends to be a tad dry, but this is a serious work of scholarship regarding the "noise" movement through the history of music so one wouldn't expect a page turner. There is a whole chapter devoted to Japanese Noise music, as well as one specifically on Merzbow, who is like the god of noise. I was entertained by the author's description of listening to specific pieces of music, and he raised my interest in several artists I wasn't familiar with.
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