Music
Reviews of the best new books appear in each issue of
The Edge.
John Aizlewood (editor) Love is the Drug
A collection of fan-scribbles -- 17 pieces, mostly by music journalists, about their early devotions
Jeremy J Beadle Will Pop Eat Itself?
The KLF are, you see, the main plank of Beadle's discussion/argument surrounding the present and future of Modern Pop Music
Lloyd Bradley Bass Culture
The first comprehensive history of reggae
John Cale & Victor Bockris What's Welsh for Zen?
The autobiography of John Cale
Julian Cope Krautrocksampler
One Head's Guide to the Great Kosmische Musik -- 1968 Onwards
Deborah Curtis Touching From A Distance
Ian Curtis and Joy Division; a bio of Curtis by the person best able
Bill Drummond 45
The KLF's Drummond's terms of reference are wide. He muses on nationalism and art; visits Serbia; records a soundtrack Bad Wisdom (co-written by Mark Manning) with a host of fictitious Finnish punk bands; burns 'a million quid'; drives round the M25; and tours London on Christmas Eve, distributing free Tennant's Super to the homeless, including an amusing stint outside the Crisis shelter. Ferociously intelligemnt, sometimes poignant; strange.
Brian Eno A Year With Swollen Appendices
Brian’s diary
Alec Foege Confusion is Next
The history of Sonic Youth, placed in context -- New York No Wave and beyond through to 90s grunge and college radio
Chris Heath & Pennie Smith Pet Shop Boys versus America
Heath trails the band, access-all-areas, on their 1989 tour of the US. Transcribed dialogue, conversations and tantrums, with excellent photos
Clinton Heylin
The Great White WondersThe story of British bootlegs
Clinton Heylin
From the Velvets to the VoidoidsOr A Pre-Punk History For A Post-Punk World; a history of US punk in all its variety
Ian Johnston
Bad SeedThe biography of Nick Cave
John Lydon
RottenLydon (and other protagonists) on punk and the Pistols
Greil Marcus
In the Fascist BathroomBritish punk and post punk
Chris Roberts (editor)
Idle WorshipGreat pop music is about the people who listen to it... Idle Worship tries to reconcile the people who make the music and the people who listen to it -- stars as fans, first-hand accounts
Jonathan Romney
Celluloid JukeboxPopular Music and the Movies Since the Fifties; what Martin Scorsese calls "uncharted terriotory"
Simon Reynolds & Joy Press
The Sex RevoltsGender, rebellion and rock'n'roll -- huge
Jon Savage
Time TravelAbout a quarter of Jon Savage's output from 1977 to 1996
Giles Smith
Lost in MusicThe memoir of boy pop obsessive/failed star Giles Smith… what he writes will mean everything for others similarly afflicted
Paul Stump
Unknown Pleasures'A cultural biography of Roxy Music'
David Toop
Ocean of SoundAmbient