Just finished reading two books from the lesser trodden ends of the musical spectrum which are definitely worth a look:

‘Noise/Music – A History’ by UCC’s Paul Hegarty details the dissonant journey music has made from John Cage and Pauline Oliveros (who will be performing at the Quiet Festival in Cork at the end of this month) to the Boredoms and Autechre. Included also is the mandatory chapter dedicated to ‘the paragon of noise’, Merzbow. Hegarty does his best to pack in as much as possible and chapters on free jazz are correlated to subsequent chapters on industrial and punk music making for a varied narrative on the subject of noise music.

The second book which has provoked an obsessive reaction to the music dealt within it is ‘Japrocksampler’. Written by Julian Cope (who also brought us ‘Krautrocksampler’) it is a detailed account of the mayhem incited by the arrival of Western music and the effect its collision with 1960’s Japan had, from it’s avant-garde foundations to its culmination into a psychedelic mutiny of the ‘long-haired teenage futens’. Cope, while providing a historical background to Japan’s musical landscape also goes into detail on the central bands that paved the lysergic pathway for the rest to follow, the controversial ‘Les Rallizes Denudes’, ‘Speed, Glue and Shinki’ and the naked bikers gracing the books cover, ‘Flower Travellin’ Band’ seen performing in the clip below.
Well worth a look.

Shauna O'Brien
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