Customer Reviews

Sound Unbound: Sampling Digital Music and Culture

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
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I just finished this one. If you're looking for insight from the myriad influential contributors, you'll find that and much more here. The book's themes run deep, weaving together music history and theory with meditations on technology, perception, and cultural zeitgeist. I went in curious how the ideas of Brian Eno, Bruce Sterling, Cory Doctorow, and Chuck D would cohere under the editorial hand of DJ Spooky. Color me surprised - it's an enlightening trip! A must-read!

This book shows off Paul Miller aka DJ Spooky's two biggest strengths, the mashup and the teamup. The big name roster didn't deliver scraps; they all provide thoughtful and entertaining essays, for example Jonathan Lethem's essay also features the key to that same essay showing where he "plagiarized" just about ever phrase in the proceeding few pages. Saul Williams, provides a pensive meditation on words as magic, something I was more used to hearing out of Grant Morrison or Alan Moore, but Williams is sincere and Smart. And the inclusion of unsung geniuses like Alex Steinweiss, the inventor of the record jacket (before him there was no art on albums, you only saw their spine at the store) pushes it over the top and into the zone. The included CD is way cool in and of itself; its easy to poopoo such ambitious works, but Spooky lays it all down with love not pretense, throwing snippets of James Joyce, Gertrude Stein, Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs -- all actual spoken word from the Sub Rosa archivce over some avantgarde classical like John Cage, and then enriched by textured groovy beats... Spooky's having a ball and sharing the fun

Sound Unbound brilliantly details the explosion of culteral diffusion in the 21st century as a result of advancements in technology. The book consists of several excellently written essays whose authors range from rappers to scientists, sampling various viewpioints from one another. DJ Spooky successfully conveys how both in the past and today, now more than ever, art is naturally derrivative; stemming from one source after another.

Educating yourself should always be this much fun! I especially enjoyed the intro by Steve Reich, and Jeff Winner's chapter. The CD that comes with the book is the perfect soundtrack while reading. Mr. Miller has done a fantastic job of assembling talent for his collection; not only Mr. Winner and Reich, but others like Brian Eno, Chuck D., and many more. I've read most of this book twice already - highly recommended!

Great Book. A lot of intelligent essays on very relevant topics. As someone who enjoys sampling digital music, I find it very helpful to hear what my peers are thinking about the varying issues surrounding the activity. Some ideas are new to me and get my gears spinning, some of them are problems I've wrestled with myself, such as the moral dilemma embedded in the digital sampling culture. Is it thievery? Should laws be enacted to punish it? Should we do it at all, out of respect for the original artist? Some essays are more difficult to follow on account of references to so many artists and their works that I am unfamiliar with. However, others are a quick and enjoyable read that are pleasantly easy to comprehend, while still no less important to the book as a whole. Again, great read.

This book is excellent. It comes with a a CD of some really excellent mashup too. I've really enjoyed the differnt writing styles and the great anecdotes that present themselves in this compilation of what is essentially a book of post-graduate papers on music and it's evolving relationship with the world. Delightfully rich with first person experience and gives you something to listen too in the background.Yummy for my sonic tummy.

This book was extremely helpful in writing a research paper that I have been working on! Quality work and overall a really great buy!

This anthology includes essays by David Allenby Pierre Boulez, Catherine Corman, Chuck D, Erik Davis, Scott De Lahunta, Manuel DeLanda, Cory Doctorow, Eveline Domnitch Frances Dyson, Ron Eglash, Brian Eno, Dmitry Gelfand, Dick Hebdige, Lee Hirsch, Vijay Iyer, Ken Jordan, Douglas Kahn, Daphne Keller, Beryl Korot, Jaron Lanier, Joseph Lanza, Jonathan Lethem, Carlo McCormick, Moby, Naeem Mohaiemen, Alondra Nelson, Keith and Mendi, Obadike, Hans Ulrich Obrist, Pauline Oliveros, Philippe Parreno, Ibrahim Quraishi, Steve Reich, Simon Reynolds, Scanner aka Robin Rimbaud, Nadine Robinson, Daniel Bernard Roumain (DBR), Alex Steinweiss, Bruce Sterling, Lucy Walker, Saul Williams, Jeff E. Winner.

As a disclaimer I am only 100 pages in, but it's been enough to form an opinion, and warnt hose who might be buying this book based on its sub-title.

DJ Spooky is a farce. His writing lacks content, and is more concerned with flashy language and textual slight of hand. He seems to be doing a great job of fooling some people who are as disconnected as he is from DJ/Hip Hop/Sampling culture. Contrary to the back cover's summation of the accompanying cd the musical work is far from "groundbreaking." The drums are weak (ebay acquired sample library, or cheesy keyboard?), and That Subliminal Kid doesn't do much to work his loops aside from just looping them.

Some of the writing thus far has been worth it, some I've skipped outright as it has absolutely nothing to do with sampling, and some I've been dissatisfied with.

If you're looking for a book on sampling you'll have to do a fair amount of sifting here.