Book Review
Wading Through the Ocean of Sound
Notable music journalist and author David Toop explores a world of aether talk and atmospheric sound in his new book,
By Morgan KeepMusic Editor
Snatches of
sound... shifting and evolving... patterns revealed and lost: such is the
music that floats along David Toop's "Ocean of Sound." This book, the
second by British journalist Toop, who is known for his regular
contributions to The Wire, embodies all of the characteristics of
the music Toop is describing, and creates a captivating snapshot of music
that is mystical and teasingly intangible.Toop wrote "Ocean of
Sound" in a drifting, ambiguous style that mimics the music he's
discussing. At best, this style brings about juxtapositions that are
enlightening, and helps carry the reader along Toop's
stream-of-consciousness narrative. But at times (like when he talks about
his cat's fleas), Toop's ambient writing seems too contrived, and gets in
the way of the story he's trying to tell. Still, this is a minor flaw in a
book filled with enough insight and information to qualify as easily
the music book of the decade.Meant to be a sort of
ambiguous overview of ambient-influenced music and its origins, "Ocean of
Sound" draws brilliant parallels between almost every important influence
on modern music from dub to free jazz, acid house to ambient house, Miles
Davis to Muzak. The common thread between the seemingly disparate strands
of music Toop explores is that they all create a palpable atmosphere and
put this atmosphere at the forefront of the music.Toop takes the term
"ambient" by its broad, intended definition, allowing a wide variety of
music to fall under its umbrella. Of course, Toop avoids using the term to
describe all of the music he discusses, as it has come to be associated
with slow beat-free electronica. But if we define "ambient" as music that
transports the listener to another world, putting mood, sound and
atmosphere above all else, it quickly becomes clear that the term can be
applied to much more than post-rave chill-out music.As ambient pioneer Brian
Eno explained in the liner notes to his 1978 album, Music for
Airports, "Ambient Music must be able to accommodate many levels of
listening attention without enforcing one in particular: it must be as
ignorable as it is interesting." Like most, Toop credits Eno as the father
of modern ambient music. But first, he steps further back to examine the
roots of atmospheric music.He recalls the true father
of ambient, Erik Satie, whose "Musique d'ameublement" was specifically
composed to be used as background music for dinner parties. After a
disturbingly noisy meal, Satie decided to create music that would soften
"the clatter of knives and forks without dominating them, without imposing
itself." Ocean of Sound shows how similar this concept, which was
written in the early 20th century, is to the theories and practice of Eno
and the artists who followed him.Toop's nonlinear history
simultaneously chronicles everything from the influence of Javanese and
Balinese music on Satie to the genesis of the ambient house genre through
the chill-out rooms hosted by the Orb's Alex Patterson. And everything
seems interrelated, as Javanese influences give way to the world-music
experiments of Bill Laswell, and ambient house and dub merge into...
ambient dub. Though Toop doesn't specifically make all of these
connections, they slowly become clear as "Ocean of Sound" progresses. Like
ambient music itself, patterns slowly emerge out of a seemingly random sea
of sounds.The book's greatest
strength lies in Toop's interviews with prominent and influential
musicians. His funny, off-the-cuff discussions with Sun Ra and Lee Perry
are the highlights of "Ocean of Sound." Perry, one of the pioneers of
Jamaican dub, is a master at creating other-worldly music that transports
the listener to another galaxy. In fact, Perry (like Sun Ra) claims he is
from outer space, furthering the mystical aura surrounding his music. Dub was one of the earliest
forms of music to view the studio as an instrument and Perry is a dub
virtuoso, creating a never-ending supply of mind-blowing sounds from his
tiny Black Ark studio. Toop connects this studio artistry to the earlier
experimentation of Brian Wilson, whose Pet Sounds created an
entirely different world from Perry's while being just as far out of the
galaxy.These studio wizards have
become heroes to thousands of musicians recording in home studios. The
entire realm of dance culture and the idea of the remix can be traced back
to Dub, and the quirky, antisocial behaviors of people like Wilson and
Perry are direct precursors to what is often described as isolationism.Much of what Toop discusses
can be related to the often discussed phenomena of isolationism in modern
music. The majority of techno, ambient and other dance records are created
by people alone in bedroom studios throughout the world. The inability to
round up a band is no longer a roadblock to popular music success in this
era of isolationism.Perhaps the greatest
example of loner-makes-good is techno superstar (if there is such a thing)
Aphex Twin. Toop paints Aphex Twin (aka Richard James) as a Perry-esque mad
scientist who creates magical sounds in a home studio filled with equipment
built from scratch. James sums up electronic music's isolationist
tendencies by saying, "They've all got these strange personalities you've
never seen in the pop stardom world, people in their bedrooms all day
long."Equally telling is Toop's
interview with Kraftwerk member Ralf HŸtter, who is to electronica what
Miles Davis is to jazz. When Toop asks if Kraftwerk's placement of sound
over form is the group's main problem, HŸtter counters "No, not problem.
Aim, because form we don't care for too much." And in keeping with the
book's themes of dreams and imagination, HŸtter claims that the only music
Kraftwerk listens to is "fictitious music in our head. Think music."This interview must have
sent Toop on his quest to define and describe the formless music that makes
up the "Ocean of Sound." This de-emphasis on form shines through in Toop's
writing. While the crazed, drug-induced prose of Lester Bangs was a perfect
reflection of the atmosphere of the `70s, Toop's writing is the ideal music
writing of the `90s, and Toop just may be the most important (or the only
important) music writer working today. Though writers like Greil Marcus and
Richard Meltzer are as brilliant as ever, they are still stuck in the
excitement and confusion of the punk era. On the other hand, David Toop
isn't afraid to plunge ahead and chart new musical territory.Toop's impressive
collection of interviews reads like a top influences list from any of
today's most important artists. Though he doesn't cover many current acts,
the concepts Toop discusses are becoming more and more prominent in modern
music. Bands like Tortoise, Main, Stereolab and Bardo Pond are definitely
fellow voyagers on Toop's imaginary sea.In this respect, "Ocean of
Sound" accomplishes the magical task of predicting the future by way of the
past. By piecing together disparate pieces of musical history, Toop has
formed a road map for the future of popular music. Toop definitely has his
finger on the pulse of modern music, probably due in part to his
involvement with The Wire. And like that magazine, "Ocean of Sound"
is a near bible of all that is currently relevant and exciting in
music."Ocean of Sound"--Aether Talk, Ambient Sound and Imaginary Worlds, by David Toop, published by Serpent's Tail, 306 pages, $16.99