Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Micro-Bionic Radical Electronic Music and Sound Art in the 21st Century by Thomas Bey William Bailey Re-launching the Dream Weapon: Considering COIL. I originally wrote this overview of the music project Coil in 2007, for the book “Micro Bionic: Radical Electronic Music and Sound Art in the 21st Century.” Since the time of its original composition, I’ve done some considerable re-editing, expanding on the role that Coil’s formative influences played in their creative process, and also musing upon what esotericism means within a largely techno-scientific age. I consider the version that appears here to be the definitive one, replacing any and all previous versions. Coil is a project I have always had a good deal of respect for - a group that succeeded in making a musical equivalent to the a-musical work of their mentors (Brion Gysin, Austin Osman Spare), while defying categorization and commercialization throughout their career. Having never really deviated from the declaration on their first album’s liner notes - i.e. that they embraced “unreasoning fear” as a spur to creation - they defined themselves by an ability to venture into uncharted territory (psychic, geographic, aesthetic, etc.) and to report on their findings there in a voice that was noticeably their own. While scene peers like Genesis P. Orridge were gradually sliding into undistinguished rock ‘n roll and subordinating their actual musical content to the conceptual apparatus, Coil was wise enough to understand that concepts, no matter how profound, would be ignored without a sufficiently seductive means (musical, graphic, or otherwise) of bringing audiences to the threshold of understanding. And once audiences had reached that threshold, the group was content to leave them there without further instruction or promises of ultimate illumination. This hermetic refusal to dutifully explain every aspect of their work may have cut them off from a much wider public, but also made them one of the most unique electronic acts of the last few decades, with each of their unanticipated stylistic shifts testifying to the regenerative force of chaos. I had planned to make this chapter freely available to the public shortly after the death of Peter Christopherson in 2010. I eventually decided against this for two reasons: firstly because it seemed like too much of an attempt to draw attention to my own work rather than to Peter’s, and also because of my being under contract with a publisher that didn’t want any “competing versions” of my work available for people to read for free. Enough time has passed now that I feel like this is more of a proper tribute to Coil’s work, and not a rushed attempt to exploit the tragedy of their final dissolution. And with my publisher having breached my contract (and those of some fifteen other authors) multiple times, they do not have a legal “leg to stand on,” so to speak. This last item is of added importance for anyone curious about my work, since it means a 2nd edition of ‘MicroBionic’ will be ready very soon. This will be available both as a digital text sold on a “pay what you want” basis, and as a “proper” paperback book. In both cases, the end product will be a dramatic improvement on the original, featuring dozens of extra notes, a full index and bibliography, and a new concluding chapter. UNUSUAL BOOK BLOG. MICRO BIONIC is an exciting survey of electronic music and sound art from cultural critic and mixed-media artist Thomas Bey William Bailey - first published in late 2009 - This new edition includes all of the original supplements refused by the publishers of the first edition, including a full index, bibliography, additional notes and commentary with a large updated discography. As the title suggests, the unifying theme of the book is that of musicians and sound artists taking bold leaps forward in spite of (or sometimes because of) their financial, technological, and social restrictions. Some symptoms of this condition include the gigantic discography amassed by the one-man project Merzbow, the drama of silence enacted by Onkyo and New Berlin Minimalism, the annihilating noise transmitted from the laptop computers of Russell Haswell and Peter Rehberg and much more. Although the journey begins in the Industrial 1980s, in order to trace how the innovations of that period have gained greater currency in the present, it surveys a wide array of artists breaking ground in the 21st century with radical attitudes and techniques. A healthy amount of global travel and concentrated listening have combined to make this a sophisticated yet accessible document, unafraid to explore both the transgressive extremes of this culture and the more deftly concealed interstices thereof. Part historical document, part survival manual for the marginalized electronic musician, part sociological investigation, Micro Bionic is a number of different things, and as such will likely generate a variety of reactions from inspiration to offense. Numerous exclusive interviews with leading lights in the field were conducted for this book: William Bennett (Whitehouse), Peter Christopherson (r.i.p., Throbbing Gristle / Coil), Peter Rehberg, John Duncan, Francisco López, Carl Michael von Hausswolff, Bob Ostertag, Zbigniew Karkowski and many others weigh in with a diversity of thoughts and opinions that underscore the incredible diversity to be found within new electronic music. ** Orders Outside the USA Please E-Mail: [email protected] - for shipping details. Belsona Books - 2012 Release - 400 Page Paperback - Revised and Expanded Second Edition - No Illustrations or Photos - Industrial Noise // Mash-Ups // Sampling // Glitch Core // Drone // Plunderphonics // Electronics - PRICE: $20.00. The Wire. The world's greatest print and online music magazine . Independent since 1982. Issue #313. March 2010. Magazine - Out Of Stock £6.00 - Unavailable. Caledonia dreaming How Glasgow has become the UK's experimental free folk capital, with Alasdair Roberts, Trembling Bells, The Family Elan and more. By Rob Young. Marina Rosenfeld Working with teenagers, amateurs and professionals, The New York composer and sound artist gives Ligeti the American Idol treatment. By Anne Hilde Neset. The Thirteenth Assembly Howard Mandel diagnoses the state of downtown jazz with the uncompromising quartet of Taylor Ho Bynum, Mary Halvorson, Jessica Pavone and Tomas Fujiwara. The Moodies These British former art students scandalised the early 1970s with their burlesque, postmodern cabaret. By Adrian Whittaker with Michael Bracewell. Invisible Jukebox: Dylan Nyoukis The Blood Stereo vocal improvisor and Chocolate Monk founder mouths off about The Wire's mystery record selection. Tested by Daniel Spicer. Geiom Joe Muggs meets the Nottingham producer who is equally at ease with dubstep, Grime and UK Funky. Sebastian Lexer The inventor of the piano+ tells Philip Clark why he has wired his ivories to a computer program. Yabby You RIP Derek Walmsley pays tribute to a reggae artist, whose spirituals transcended the poverty of their creation. Cross Platform: Céleste Boursier-Mougenot The French sound artist tells Louise Gray why finches are the guitarists of choice for his London installation Global Ear: Houston Deep in the heart of Texan weirdness, David Keenan gets chopped and screwed by the legacy of DJ Screw. Epiphanies Going to school next door to the madhouse where 19th century poet John Clare was incarcerated left its mark on writer Alan Moore. The Inner Sleeve Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard on Adam And The Ants' Kings Of The Wild Frontier. Print Run Harry Smith: The Avant-Garde In The American Vernacular edited by Andrew Perchuk & Rani Singh Micro-Bionic: Radical Electronic Music And Sound Art In The 21st Century by Thomas Bey William Bailey Improvised Music From Japan 2009 edited by Yoshiyuki Suzuki. On Screen Mellodrama: The Mellotron Movie DVD Jack Rose & Glenn Jones The Things That We Used To Do DVD Grindstone Redux DVD Leif Elggren Death Travels Backwards DVD On Site Iannis Xenakis: Composer, Artist, Visionary New York City, USA. On Location Tuli – Nothing, New York City, USA Another Timbre Festival, London, UK CHOPPA Festival, Singapore Gary War + Bird Names + Dam Mantle, London, UK. Soundcheck A–Z AMP2 + Tim Hodgkinson Anarchist Republic Of Bzzz Autechre Edward Barton Berg-und Tahlfahrt Blacklist César Bolaños Burning Star Core Dirk Mont Campbell clifford and calix Robert Curgenven Jacques Demierre Excepter Bill Fay Fenn O'Berg Terry Fox Free Jazz Quartet Matthew Herbert Dick Higgins Tim Hodgkinson Tim Hodgkinson & Milo Fine Rowland S Howard Indignant Senility Interference Jodis Tom Johnson Pekko Käppi Kidkanevil Koss League Of Automatic Music Composers Led Er Est Liars Mincemeat Or Tenspeed Mist Monofonic Orchestra Jemeel Moondoc Scout Niblett L'Ocelle Mare M Ostermeier Neve Joanna Newsom Pit Er Pat Polar Bear Ramleh The Red Krayola Martin Rev Claudio Rocchetti School Of Mesak Gil Scott-Heron Wadada Leo Smith Souljazz Orchestra Temperatures Thee Silver Mt Zion Memorial Orchestra To Rococo Rot TwinSisterMoon Various Advent Various Good God! Born Again Funk Various Rinse 11: Oneman Voice Of The Seven Thunders Xeno & Oaklander Yellow Swans Michael Yonkers Zu. Micro-Bionic: Radical Electronic Music and Sound Art in the 21st Century by Thomas Bey William Bailey. Leif Elggren (born 1950, Linköping, Sweden), is a Swedish artist who lives and works in Stockholm. Active since the late 1970s, Leif Elggren has become one of the most constantly surprising conceptual artists to work in the combined worlds of audio and visual. A writer, visual artist, stage performer and composer, he has many albums to his credits, solo and with the Sons of God, on labels such as Ash International, Touch, Radium and his own Firework Edition. His music, often conceived as the soundtrack to a visual installation or experimental stage performance, usually presents carefully selected sound sources over a long stretch of time and can range from mesmerizingly quiet electronics to harsh noise. His wide-ranging and prolific body of art often involves dreams and subtle absurdities, social hierarchies turned upside-down, hidden actions and events taking on the quality of icons. Together with artist Carl Michael von Hausswolff, he is a founder of the Kingdoms of Elgaland-Vargaland (KREV) where he enjoys the title of King. Elggren spent five years at the Academy of Fine Arts in Stockholm, specializing in drawing, design and bookprinting. In the late ‘70s he began to associate with performance groups, meeting people like Hausswolff and Thomas Liljenberg. With the latter he formed Firework in 1978, a duo that put up exhibitions and performances. Around the same time he purchased a press and started to publish art books. In 1988 he formed the duo Guds Söner (The Sons of God) with Kent Tankred, whom he had met four years earlier. The duo excels in creating long, puzzling stage performances that give equal roles to physical action (or inaction) and soundtrack (live or taped) with themes such as violence, love, the quotidian, food and royalty. Elggren released his first 7" records in 1982 and 1984 on Hausswolff's label Radium. A first solo LP, Flown Over by an Old King, came out in 1988. The inception of Firework Edition in 1996 allowed Elggren to release more of his music and the growing popularity of installation art in avant-garde music circles (thanks to its ties with experimental electronica) has given his work more international exposure since the late ‘90s. Other key solo works include Talking to a Dead Queen (1996) and Pluralis Majestatis (2000). Together with Hausswolff, Elggren represented Sweden in the Nordic Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2001 (with Tommi Grönlund and Petteri Nisunen from Finland and Anders Tomren from Norway). In 2007 he appeared (with John Duncan) at the Netmage festival in Bologna organized by xing and executed "Something Like Seeing in the Dark". Leif Elggen is also a member of Guds Soner (or The Sons of God) with Kent Tankred. The Wire. The world's greatest print and online music magazine . Independent since 1982. Search inside issue 313 of The Wire. Access to The Wire ’s online archive of back issues is available to subscribers. Issue 313. March 2010. Caledonia dreaming How Glasgow has become the UK's experimental free folk capital, with Alasdair Roberts, Trembling Bells, The Family Elan and more. By Rob Young. Marina Rosenfeld Working with teenagers, amateurs and professionals, The New York composer and sound artist gives Ligeti the American Idol treatment. By Anne Hilde Neset. The Thirteenth Assembly Howard Mandel diagnoses the state of downtown jazz with the uncompromising quartet of Taylor Ho Bynum, Mary Halvorson, Jessica Pavone and Tomas Fujiwara. The Moodies These British former art students scandalised the early 1970s with their burlesque, postmodern cabaret. By Adrian Whittaker with Michael Bracewell. Invisible Jukebox: Dylan Nyoukis The Blood Stereo vocal improvisor and Chocolate Monk founder mouths off about The Wire's mystery record selection. Tested by Daniel Spicer. Geiom Joe Muggs meets the Nottingham producer who is equally at ease with dubstep, Grime and UK Funky. Sebastian Lexer The inventor of the piano+ tells Philip Clark why he has wired his ivories to a computer program. Yabby You RIP Derek Walmsley pays tribute to a reggae artist, whose spirituals transcended the poverty of their creation. Cross Platform: Céleste Boursier-Mougenot The French sound artist tells Louise Gray why finches are the guitarists of choice for his London installation Global Ear: Houston Deep in the heart of Texan weirdness, David Keenan gets chopped and screwed by the legacy of DJ Screw. Epiphanies Going to school next door to the madhouse where 19th century poet John Clare was incarcerated left its mark on writer Alan Moore. The Inner Sleeve Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard on Adam And The Ants' Kings Of The Wild Frontier. Print Run Harry Smith: The Avant-Garde In The American Vernacular edited by Andrew Perchuk & Rani Singh Micro-Bionic: Radical Electronic Music And Sound Art In The 21st Century by Thomas Bey William Bailey Improvised Music From Japan 2009 edited by Yoshiyuki Suzuki. On Screen Mellodrama: The Mellotron Movie DVD Jack Rose & Glenn Jones The Things That We Used To Do DVD Grindstone Redux DVD Leif Elggren Death Travels Backwards DVD On Site Iannis Xenakis: Composer, Artist, Visionary New York City, USA. On Location Tuli – Nothing, New York City, USA Another Timbre Festival, London, UK CHOPPA Festival, Singapore Gary War + Bird Names + Dam Mantle, London, UK. Soundcheck A–Z AMP2 + Tim Hodgkinson Anarchist Republic Of Bzzz Autechre Edward Barton Berg-und Tahlfahrt Blacklist César Bolaños Burning Star Core Dirk Mont Campbell clifford and calix Robert Curgenven Jacques Demierre Excepter Bill Fay Fenn O'Berg Terry Fox Free Jazz Quartet Matthew Herbert Dick Higgins Tim Hodgkinson Tim Hodgkinson & Milo Fine Rowland S Howard Indignant Senility Interference Jodis Tom Johnson Pekko Käppi Kidkanevil Koss League Of Automatic Music Composers Led Er Est Liars Mincemeat Or Tenspeed Mist Monofonic Orchestra Jemeel Moondoc Scout Niblett L'Ocelle Mare M Ostermeier Neve Joanna Newsom Pit Er Pat Polar Bear Ramleh The Red Krayola Martin Rev Claudio Rocchetti School Of Mesak Gil Scott-Heron Wadada Leo Smith Souljazz Orchestra Temperatures Thee Silver Mt Zion Memorial Orchestra To Rococo Rot TwinSisterMoon Various Advent Various Good God! Born Again Funk Various Rinse 11: Oneman Voice Of The Seven Thunders Xeno & Oaklander Yellow Swans Michael Yonkers Zu.