Mark Goodall – författare

Critical opinion on The Beatles (aka the 'White Album') in 1968 varies, the record being seen as something of a comedown after the exhilaration of the group's somewhat over-rated predecessor, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. In addition, conventional wisdom holds that The Beatles marks the beginning of the end of the Lennon/McCartney partnership. This book however, exists to argue that The Beatles is not only the finest achievement of the group but can also be considered one of the greatest LP recordings of all time.

This collection of essays highlights innovative work in the developing field of media archaeology. It explores the relationship between theory and practice and the relationship between media archaeology and other disciplines. There are three sections to the collection proposing new possible fields of research for media studies: Media Archaeological Theory; Experimental Media Archaeology; Media Archaeology at the Interface. The book includes essays from acknowledged experts in this expanding field, such as Thomas Elsaesser, Wanda Strauven and Jussi Parikka.

This collection of essays highlights innovative work in the developing field of media archaeology. It explores the relationship between theory and practice and the relationship between media archaeology and other disciplines. There are three sections to the collection proposing new possible fields of research for media studies: Media Archaeological Theory; Experimental Media Archaeology; Media Archaeology at the Interface. The book includes essays from acknowledged experts in this expanding field, such as Thomas Elsaesser, Wanda Strauven and Jussi Parikka.

This collection of essays highlights innovative work in the developing field of media archaeology. It explores the relationship between theory and practice and the relationship between media archaeology and other disciplines. There are three sections to the collection proposing new possible fields of research for media studies: Media Archaeological Theory; Experimental Media Archaeology; Media Archaeology at the Interface. The book includes essays from acknowledged experts in this expanding field, such as Thomas Elsaesser, Wanda Strauven and Jussi Parikka.

It is clear that landscapes have long inspired the consciousness of creative artists. By way of quick introduction to the links between music and territories, the 1977 KPM 1191 library music LP features a suite of pieces with titles such as 'Country Lanes', 'Passing Meadows' and 'Memory Lane' composed by Johnny Pearson to express the different aspects of (mostly rural) landscapes. The pieces are interesting as they try to capture an immersive experience of being in a land by using sound. This is a process by which many of the composers in this volume hope to express the wonder and mystery of landscape through sound. The music has been made to express a variety of landscapes: rural and urban; real and imaginary. About the series: GATHERING OF THE TRIBE is an on-going series about the mysterious power of sound and tone, with each book devoted to reviewing records that reveal divine and cosmic laws, voyages to other worlds or use sound as a tool for transformation. While highly selective, the series offers a practical guide to the ultimate occult record collection. Rare album sleeves complement each review.

The records discussed in GATHERING OF THE TRIBE: ACID explore the key aspects of the acid experience, these being principally the way in which psychedelic drugs intensify sensory impressions (sound and vision); the ability to experience different dimensions simultaneously and mystical dimensions where the individual feels unified with the cosmos. This music also explores aspects of the infamous 'bad trip' or the 'terror that was wrong', where positive feelings are replaced by paranoia, depression, anxiety and disturbing flashbacks, the 'other side of anguish'. About the series: GATHERING OF THE TRIBE is an on-going series about the mysterious power of sound and tone, with each book devoted to reviewing records that reveal divine and cosmic laws, voyages to other worlds or use sound as a tool for transformation. While highly selective, the series offers a practical guide to the ultimate occult record collection. Rare album sleeves complement each review.

The writer, musician and curator Tot Taylor once observed that the word 'ritual' is already present in the word 'spiritual'. That combination of material practice and the transcendent can be found within the strange combination of records discussed in this publication. With music, one can transpose imagination, visions and dreams into 'sacred rites'. 'Heavy conscious creation', the theme of this series, embodies the realisation of occult and esoteric ideas through artistic expression, in this case sonic arts. The music discussed here is using elements of ritual to immerse the listener in the experience of a magical rite; it may aid the listener in spiritual enlightenment in some way but might also simply provide entertainment and an engaging listening experience. Ritual is a form of living action and while LP records are encountered as objects mostly on the aural plane, an innovative and surprising use of sound can conjure up all manner of images, places and emotions.

'Love is two minutes and fifty-two seconds of squelching noises' (Johnny Rotten, Rolling Stone) The theory is that sex sells. And sex sells music. The connections between music and sexuality are long-standing, 'rock'n'roll' itself being a slang term for sex, and there are many ways in which ar sts have explored sex and love through the medium of sound. Some of the records discussed in this book are experiments in expressing sexual desire through musical forms, mixing musical and sexual sounds. Others use sex purely as a marketing device or as 'whimsical entertainment' (sexualised images on LP covers, for example). Other records examine the politics of sexuality and/or offer a subversive take on the relationship between popular music and eroticism. As an accessible form of 'entertainment, the LP was part of the 'democratization' of sexuality and erotica, something that was previously only available to the upper classes collecting erotic and pornographic materials on their many travels around the globe. Recorded music extended the reach of sexual content from literature, with books such as An ABZ of Love by Inge and Sten Hegeler (1963) or Alex Comfort's The Joy of Sex (1972), into the audio-visual realm. The 'stirrings of the soul', the animation of the spiritual and the emotional, is what 'heavy conscious creation' is about and the sexual aspect of this is significant and profound. Canadian electroacoustic composer Robert Normandeau once claimed that 'music, unlike other contemporary art forms, has hardly dealt with eroticism as a genre'. This book tries to fill in the gaps that this statement implies. And the 'two minutes and fifty-two seconds of squelching noises' that Johnny Rotten spoke about are here, sometimes literally, in musical form.

el records was created in 1984 by Mike Alway. Alway was A&R man for Cherry Red signing artists such as Everything But the Girl, The Monochrome Set and Felt. Alway left Cherry Red to help run Blanco Y Negro (an offshoot of WEA) but soon felt constrained but the conservativism of the commercial music sector and left to set up his own label. el was once described as 'the most innately English record label there has ever been' and yet had a global appeal. Alway must be the only record label boss to have had four songs written about him... Alway's mercurial approach was to take complete control of the repertoire, the philosophy of the label's releases and even the titles of songs in the manner of pop impresarios of the past. Alway became a curator, selecting, shaping and overseeing the records issued on el. He employed songwriters proficient in classical pop techniques such as Nicholas Currie (AKA Momus) and Philippe Auclair (AKA Louis Philippe) who in addition to issuing their own records wrote, arranged and performed for other el artistes and used creative talents such as photographer Nick Wesolowski and designer Jim Phelan to create the el 'look'. el had a unique flavour eschewing the traditions of rock and indie music of the mid 1980s, exhibiting instead a taste for 1960s bubbelgum and chamber pop, the European chanson tradition, Latin rhythms and film scores (one of el's key players was child prodigy Simon Turner who wrote music for the films of Derek Jarman). The ethos of the label was decidedly un-macho and many of el's key artists were female. El's first single 'I, Bloodbrother Be' by Shock Headed Peters was an uncompromising gay anthem. Alway saw el as a celebration of elegance and beauty, in his own words, 'a pop world beyond leather jackets and jeans'. While record sales were disappointing, this unique blend was critically acclaimed in the UK and popular in America and mainland Europe while in Japan el had a profound effect, directly influencing the Shibuya-kei phenomenon that included Pizzicato Five, Cornelius and Kahimi Karie. Bright Young Things is the first book to tell the fascinating story of el, one of the most influential indie labels of all time.

This collection of essays highlights innovative work in the developing field of media archaeology. It explores the relationship between theory and practice and the relationship between media archaeology and other disciplines. There are three sections to the collection proposing new possible fields of research for media studies: Media Archaeological Theory; Experimental Media Archaeology; Media Archaeology at the Interface. The book includes essays from acknowledged experts in this expanding field, such as Thomas Elsaesser, Wanda Strauven and Jussi Parikka.