Customer Reviews

Cracked Media: The Sound of Malfunction

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A fascinating account of practices of cracked media, giving an astounding number of examples that document this movement and trace its genealogy back in time through various avant-garde artistic practices. Kelly convincingly links a lot of disparate practices under this term; my only question would be whether in fact there might be a major omission in the form of musique concrete which would seem to fit in the category. The book is perhaps more of interest for its accounts of artistic /musical practice rather than its forays into the theoretical realm when it tries to think through some of the issues arising from them, as well as about the nature of music vs sound art, sound vs noise, but this is not the major focus of the book anyway really so little matter. Anyone who has ever thought that the Madonna CD playing in the supermarket sounded much better when it started skipping, or who loves the sound of the run out groove at the end of a 33rpm or the satisfying kthunk hsss hsss as the stylus drops on to a platter of vinyl has to read this.

One feature of avantguarde music since its inception early in the 20th century has been the 'misuse' of instruments and the incorporation of 'non-instruments' to create music.
Anyone tackling this vast subject will have to focus on some aspects while ignoring others. Mr. Kelly's take is the use and abuse of recording and playback media, such as the CD, tape and vinyl records. We get details of the works of artists like Nam June Paik, Yasuano Tone and Oval. I found the book to contain many interesting observations and actually felt insprired to try some techniques myself.
The book was less convincing in its attempt to try to find some common denominator for all the different artists. That is probably impossible given the timespan the book covers and the many different approaches described; in any event the use of French philosophers like Michel Certeau unfortunately leads to verbose drivel.
That quibble however shouldn't take away from what is a really informative and at times inspring work.