Good topic. The problem with books of this nature is that most will cater to students/academics since the field of more 'popular' (for lack of better words) interest outside of these areas is very small and unlikely to sustain any kind of sales or publishing interest. These books are almost all written by university professors. Same old story...this is why the real stuff is found in zines etc most of the time.
All that said, I am a student and this is the stuff I love. I have no problem (now) with academic writing but accept that is definitely quite marginalising and thats a shame. Also, a lot of what has been written about noise even in terms of bands, artists, music etc can be quite fairly criticised for being reductive and inaccurate. This is the biggest problem with Noise/Music: A History as I see it, even if I do find it useful. I agree totally with DDmurph though in that a detailed list of events throughout noise and industrial history is just not what the book is about or tries to be. Paul Hegarty is a philosophy professor and the book should be seen more through that lens. When he does talk about 'noise music' he does so in a way that seems to leave quite a lot of important information out and I think the theories he puts forward become quite unstable when viewing what noise is/does/is about outside of the narrow 90s Japan frame he uses. Also I often wonder whether the things he argues for match up with his feelings as a fairly regular performing artist? This gets no mention at all (or I don't think it does) in his book. The more I read that book the more I become convinced of its flaws, but also the less I feel he deserves the universal lambasting he has received from noise fans.
So anyway, here are some which I haven't seen mentioned, pretty much all academic but folk may like it.
Newish one with stuff from Hegarty again. A lot of this deals with noise from many angles other than music. I've read the first part and lots of it I didn't understand a lot of it! Even so there are some good essays in here which provoke a lot of thought. The publisher, continuum, has a lot of things planned for this year which should focus a bit more on noise as we know it. One forthcoming book even has a whole essay dedicated to filthy turd.
This is actually really good. Easily the best book I've read so far which deals in many forms of experimental, electronic music; a fair chunk of noise included. Very readable and doesn't seek to push her own philosophies everywhere. Deals with much more factual and observational elements. Recommended even for those who don't enjoy academic writing!!
New one by the same dude who wrote microbionic (by the way, is there anywhere this can be ordered for a reasonable amount of money? so far WAY expensive). Deals with the idea of handmade audio and so LOTS about cassette underground and mail art. Quite a lot of contextual history in there and at times veers away from what you'd expect but still covers some interesting ground. Must be mentioned that Mikko Aspa gets a bit of a grilling in this one! hope he doesn't mind my posting it.
I don't have this one but I've read a few essays in there which I enjoyed and found myself thinking about a lot. Those suspicious of the kind of books I've recommended thus far may find extra issue in that this is published in collaboration with Wire magazine!!!
There is a lot more out there but I know less about them. Also, they can be very, VERY expensive and probably hard to find outside of university libraries. There are some interesting essays in journals which I've managed to find a lot of in pdf form. Once again, very academic but dealing with more up to date stuff. If anyone is interested in these give me a PM and I'll be happy to send any of them you find interesting along.
