Throbbing Gristle's Twenty Jazz Funk Greats (33 1/3) [Paperback]

Drew Daniel (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 15, 2007 | Series: 33 1/3 (Book 54)

In 20 Jazz Funk Greats Drew Daniel (of the experimental band Matmos) creates—through both his own insights and exclusive interviews with the band—an exploded view of the album's multiple agendas: a series of close readings of each song, shot through with a sequence of thematic entries on key concepts, strategies, and contexts (noise, leisure, process, the abject, information, and repetition). This is a smart and unusual book about a pioneering band.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Daniel brings erudition and clarity to the 33 1/3 series with writing that's both meticulous and giddy...Daniel achieves a fantastic hat trick— a love letter to an unacceptable band about their least-loved album in a book series that, until recently, was reserved only for acceptable albums. Let the wrecking of civilization begin." —Brian Joseph David, Eye Weekly (Brian Joseph David )

"Drew Daniel employs a very rich lexicon, but chooses his words judiciously. More importantly, he admits right up front to being a huge TG fan boy, and that enthusiasm translates — even when he veers towards head-scratching territory — particularly in some of his interview passages with the band members (all of whom participated in the creation of his book). And by focusing squarely on the group's music, not their sensationalistic trappings, in a song-by-song analysis, he opens up the listening experience, both to neophytes and diehards. I might never have imagined such a thing was possible, but Daniel's musings on 20 Jazz Funk Greats have made me a committed Throbbing Gristle fan. And that kind of connective tissue I can heartily endorse." —Weird at my School Blog, KXEP

"Always perverse, Throbbing Gristle was perhaps never more so than on their 1979 release, 20 Jazz Funk Greats. From the cover art, which at first glance appears to your standard "band outdoors" snap, (but is actually the group assembled at Britain's Beachy Head, a suicide hotspot) to the almost "normal" synth pop found within, TG deliberately alters reality until it nearly comes back around- nearly. Drew Daniel, one half of the electronic group Matmos, draws on new interviews with the group to craft a look at one of music's most extreme, intense and provocative artists, who delighted here in subtle rearrangements of benign elements into darker statements, such as captured field recordings of young children, mashed against a simple drum machine to create "Persuasion". Daniel ably illustrates the sheer brilliance of the record, in which TG turned down the volume but upped the intensity of their message. At nearly 200 pages this is one of the longer "33 1/3" releases, but is such a captivating look at the legendary group of pop culture provocateurs that you won't put it down." —The Big Takeover

"This is a fascinating and thought-thorough accompaniment to the album, augmented by interviews with all the group members, which uncovers a trove of pertinent unfamiliarities in songs which feel like longstanding parts of the mental furniture after nearly 30 years." —David Stubbs, The Wire, UK

(David Stubbs )

"I fell into this book like Alice down an unfathomable dark rabbit-hole. It reads like a riveting detective novel, so concisely has Daniel (AKA one half of Matmos) woven personal history (both TGs and his own), (un)reliable narration (thanks to the members of TG themselves, contradictory bastards the lot of them), close dissection (a forensic/anatomical tank being particularly appropriate with TG) and overarching pop-cultural critique...this tiny volume on only one album in the massive TG oeuvre situates the group so powerfully in the appropriate historical, personal, and musical contexts that I never wanted the book to end. It's a vivid, revealing, and very personal work that is beautifully written from start to finish, and my favorite of the 33 1/3s so far. " —Warped Reality Magazine

"Daniel is more than fully qualified to author this personal, historical and cultural deconstruction of TG's third album."

Reviewed by George Taylor in Plan B, 2008

"Daniels is a lucid and engaging writer who captures the struggle of a band that felt increasingly trapped by its own accomplishments and confined by the conventions of a genre that it hadn't really wanted to create." —Signal to Noise

"an excellent reason for picking up or dusting off the album"

Reviewed by Scott McKeating, 2008

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"Daniel has delved into the album and dissects it here, sony-by-song, with acute insight, and with some thought in providing the context and meaning of each track. Daniel had access to all four band members for the book, garnering valuable information in his conversations with each, also drawing upon the band's historical record as documented in print." -Blurt Magazine

"Daniel brings erudition and clarity to the 33 1/3 series with writing that's both meticulous and giddy...Daniel achieves a fantastic hat trick— a love letter to an unacceptable band about their least-loved album in a book series that, until recently, was reserved only for acceptable albums.  Let the wrecking of civilization begin." —Brian Joseph David, Eye Weekly (, )

“Drew Daniel employs a very rich lexicon, but chooses his words judiciously. More importantly, he admits right up front to being a huge TG fan boy, and that enthusiasm translates — even when he veers towards head-scratching territory — particularly in some of his interview passages with the band members (all of whom participated in the creation of his book). And by focusing squarely on the group’s music, not their sensationalistic trappings, in a song-by-song analysis, he opens up the listening experience, both to neophytes and diehards. I might never have imagined such a thing was possible, but Daniel’s musings on 20 Jazz Funk Greats have made me a committed Throbbing Gristle fan. And that kind of connective tissue I can heartily endorse.” –Weird at my School Blog, KXEP

"Always perverse, Throbbing Gristle was perhaps never more so than on their 1979 release, 20 Jazz Funk Greats. From the cover art, which at first glance appears to your standard “band outdoors” snap, (but is actually the group assembled at Britain’s Beachy Head, a suicide hotspot) to the almost “normal” synth pop found within, TG deliberately alters reality until it nearly comes back around- nearly. Drew Daniel, one half of the electronic group Matmos, draws on new interviews with the group to craft a look at one of music’s most extreme, intense and provocative artists, who delighted here in subtle rearrangements of benign elements into darker statements, such as captured field recordings of young children, mashed against a simple drum machine to create “Persuasion”. Daniel ably illustrates the sheer brilliance of the record, in which TG turned down the volume but upped the intensity of their message. At nearly 200 pages this is one of the longer “33 1/3” releases, but is such a captivating look at the legendary group of pop culture provocateurs that you won’t put it down." —The Big Takeover

“This is a fascinating and thought-thorough accompaniment to the album, augmented by interviews with all the group members, which uncovers a trove of pertinent unfamiliarities in songs which feel like longstanding parts of the mental furniture after nearly 30 years.” –David Stubbs, The Wire, UK

(, )

“I fell into this book like Alice down an unfathomable dark rabbit-hole. It reads like a riveting detective novel, so concisely has Daniel (AKA one half of Matmos) woven personal history (both TGs and his own), (un)reliable narration (thanks to the members of TG themselves, contradictory bastards the lot of them), close dissection (a forensic/anatomical tank being particularly appropriate with TG) and overarching pop-cultural critique…this tiny volume on only one album in the massive TG oeuvre situates the group so powerfully in the appropriate historical, personal, and musical contexts that I never wanted the book to end. It’s a vivid, revealing, and very personal work that is beautifully written from start to finish, and my favorite of the 33 1/3s so far. ” –Warped Reality Magazine

“Daniels is a lucid and engaging writer who captures the struggle of a band that felt increasingly trapped by its own accomplishments and confined by the conventions of a genre that it hadn’t really wanted to create.” —Signal to Noise

Normal 0 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4

“Daniel has delved into the album and dissects it here, sony-by-song, with acute insight, and with some thought in providing the context and meaning of each track. Daniel had access to all four band members for the book, garnering valuable information in his conversations with each, also drawing upon the band’s historical record as documented in print.” -Blurt Magazine

About the Author

Drew Daniel is one half of the acclaimed electronic group Matmos - successful in their own right, and also as collaborators with Bjork. Drew has taught the history of electronic music at the San Francisco Art Institute and a sound art seminar at Harvard. He has just moved to Baltimore, where he now teaches in the English Department at Johns Hopkins University.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Continuum (December 15, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0826427936
• ISBN-13: 978-0826427939
• Product Dimensions: 6.5 x 4.8 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #389,348 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Spot on, April 23, 2008

By 

J. Miller "father, husband, teacher, writer, ... (Louisville, KY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Throbbing Gristle's Twenty Jazz Funk Greats (33 1/3) (Paperback)

I have to admit some bias -- I grew up with the author and I am quite familiar with some of the places described in the book's lengthy and personal introduction. It's not often that one sees the themes and places of one's youth detailed and dissected for an audience that is not the people who shared those experiences to begin with. That said, Dr. Daniel does an excellent job dissecting the classic and maligned TG album. Each track gets its own chapter, of course, and the chapters are filled with recent interviews with various members of TG about the songs and their processes of creation. Daniel relies on his own encyclopedic knowledge of music, history, and art -- not to mention an uncanny ability to write clearly and specifically about music for a non-professional audience -- to fully paint the picture of this Throbbing Gristle album.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Facist Groove Things, August 11, 2008

By 

Andrea M. Feldman "Visa for Violet" (Providence) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Throbbing Gristle's Twenty Jazz Funk Greats (33 1/3) (Paperback)

Pop is, by its very nature, glossy and superficial, glancing off complexity and thorny ambivalences with blithe assurance.

With 20 Jazz Funk Greats, Throbbing Gristle attempt --in their own profoundly warped way-- to make peace with pop music's influence upon them; at the same time, the album plays out with such profound ambivalence --running hot and cold all at once, constantly vacillating between attraction and repulsion and back again-- that its exploration of "pop" becomes heavily weighted --its like a mille-feuille of ironic distance. Upon its release in 1979, TG's third full-length album was received with head-scratching condescension for the most part. Daniel's artfully written little volume makes the case for this strange, unlikable album and its often unpalatable charms.

Alluring and repellent in equal measure, the group's masterwork remains indelible for the ways in which it reworks the last vestiges of 60s optimism (as evinced in psychedelia and prog) with the darker, more ambivalent strains of punk and post-punk. In this way the band doesn't simply straddle genres but whole philosophical, moral and sexual divides. This is what makes their music so enduringly strange and repugnant --yet fascinating.

I fell into this book like Alice down an unfathomably dark rabbit-hole. It reads like a riveting detective novel, so concisely has Daniel (AKA one half of Matmos) woven personal history (both TG's and his own), (un)reliable narration (thanks to the members of TG themselves, contradictory bastards the lot of them), close dissection (a forensic/anatomic tack being particularly appropriate with TG) and overarching pop-cultural critique.

I haven't read Steven Ford's Wreckers of Civilisation, but this tiny volume on only one album in the massive TG oeuvre situates the group so powerfully in the appropriate historical, personal, and musical contexts that I never wanted the book to end. It's a vivid, revealing, and very personal work that is beautifully written from start to finish, and my favorite of the 33 1/3s so far.

5.0 out of 5 stars Anyone who read Simon Ford's excellent "Wreckers of Civilization" should read this., December 15, 2009

By 

Eric Mortensen "Eric" (NYC) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Throbbing Gristle's Twenty Jazz Funk Greats (33 1/3) (Paperback)

I love 33 1/3 books. Love them! To have an entire volume dedicated to one of my favorite records is almost too good to be true. Daniel is a professor at Johns Hopkins in addition to being a musician, so he's well-equipped to offer both informed and formal criticism. He spends 18 pages discussing the cover alone.

It is one of the more deliberate and academic books in the 33 1/3 series. If you're looking for fluffy interviews and and fawning tidbits, look elsewhere.