Soundheads rejoice, with our guide to the best new books across all aspects of modern music. If you’re tempted to delve into the inner workings of the Minimoog, explore the tall tales behind one of America’s most famous recording studios, or simply study the history of recorded sound, the Seattle scene of avant-garde guitars, or new musical exponents, you’ll find something below that strikes a chord.
New books for music lovers and music makers
Portables: A Visual & Historical Exploration of 222 Vintage Portable Turntables
Move quickly to secure your copy of Portables, specialist Brooklyn-based publisher Dust & Grooves’ exploration of the design and variety of the portable turntable, along with the collector culture that has sprung up to cater for these colourful pieces of tech. Featuring no fewer than 222 examples of the genre, this 470-page hardback features photography from Dust & Grooves’ founder Eilon Paz and a historical overview from the music historian Dan Epstein.
A spread from Portables: A Visual & Historical Exploration of 222 Vintage Portable Turntables
(Image credit: Dust & Grooves)
The battery-powered turntable is a true pop cultural artefact, frequently branded with toy and comic tie-ins. At the very least, they were brightly coloured, oddly shaped and favoured by design aficionados (the cult Sound Burger from Audio-Technica is still going strong). Portables delves into the key players, both literally and in the collecting scene, with page upon page of luscious imagery.
Portables: A Visual & Historical Exploration of 222 Vintage Portable Turntables, $89, DustandGrooves.com, @DustandGrooves
NME: The Cover 2024 – 2025
NME: The Cover 2024 – 2025
NME has come a long way from its origins as an inky weekly exploration of the popular music charts. Now a strictly online portal ‘music and pop culture brand’, the publication is veering back into print with this prestigiously packaged monograph, The Cover 2024–2025.
Spreads from NME: The Cover 2024 – 2025
(Image credit: NME)
A celebration of the NME’s undeniable combination of grass roots access to new acts and excellent photography, The Cover includes portraits and images of 50 artists that have captured the industry’s fickle attention over the past 12 months
NME: The Cover 2024–2025, £160, NME.com
No New York: A Memoir of No Wave and the Women Who Shaped the Scene
Coming in early 2026, No New York is author Adele Bertei’s personal memories of No Wave-era New York, a creative cauldron of the avant-garde that sprang from the mid-70s punk and went on to define a generation of the city’s art and music.
Bertei, who played in the Contortions and worked for Brian Eno, is a first-person chronicler of this very female-focused scene. From photographer Nan Goldin, artists and filmmakers like Kathryn Bigelow, Barbara Kruger and Lizzie Borden, through to avant-garde provocateurs like Lydia Lunch and Kathy Acker, Bertei brings the era to life.
No New York: A Memoir of No Wave and the Women Who Shaped the Scene, Adele Bertei, $28.95, PenguinRandomHouse.com, AdeleBertei.com
This Ain’t Rock ’n’ Roll: Pop Music, the Swastika and the Third Reich
This Ain’t Rock ’n’ Roll
One of punk’s less savoury shock tactics was the repurposing of Nazi imagery. It was far from the only genre or performer to flirt with fascism, as Daniel Rachel chronicles in his new book, This Ain’t Rock ‘n’ Roll. Rachel is not looking to cancel or absolve but instead explore the musical obsession with atrocity and how it relates to rock history in general. A sadly rather timely book.
This Ain’t Rock ‘n’ Roll: Pop Music, the Swastika and the Third Reich, Daniel Rachel, White Rabbit Books, £25, WhiteRabbitBooks.co.uk, @WhiteRabbitBks, @DanielRachelAuthor
Suddenly Something Clicked: The Languages of Film Editing and Sound Design
Suddenly Something Clicked
Walter Murch was one of the earliest employees at American Zoetrope, the San Francisco film studio set up in 1969 by Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas. The Oscar-winning sound designer and film editor worked on Coppola’s The Rain People, The Godfather parts I, II and III and The Conversation, along with George Lucas’s THX 1138 and American Graffiti and many others, making him well placed to tell the story of modern cinema sound and editing. Replete with anecdotes about some of the most celebrated films in history, Suddenly Something Clicked is a gifted insider’s insight into the craft.
Suddenly Something Clicked: The Languages of Film Editing and Sound Design, Walter Murch, £23.15, Faber.co.uk, Amazon.co.uk
Making It: An Intimate Documentary of the Seattle Indie, Rock & Punk Scene, 1992 – 2008
The story of Seattle’s shift from hard rock satellite to ground zero of grunge and beyond, Making It is a photographic portrait of a city’s music scene in full swing. Featuring a foreword from Megan Jasper, CEO of Seattle’s legendary Sub Pop Records, Holler’s pictures capture a live music scene that was briefly the subject of a global fixation.
Energetic and nostalgic, it’s a chronicle of a scene in the pre-streaming age as well as Holler’s own journey through the era. The photographer is also offering a number of different special editions through her own website.
Making It: An Intimate Documentary of the Seattle Indie, Rock & Punk Scene, 1992–2008, Bootsy Holler, $60, ArtBook.com, BootsyHoller.com, @BootsyHoller
Turn My Head Into Sound: A history of Kevin Shields and My Bloody Valentine
My Bloody Valentine remain niche but highly notable, a band that’s managed to transcend genres and remain innovative, abstract and influential for decades, despite a relatively scant recorded output. Turn My Head Into Sound is the story of the band and its founder and driving creative force, Irish musician and producer Kevin Shields.
Despite the 21-year gap between their second and third albums (1991’s Loveless and 2013’s m b v), Shields and his band – Deb Googe, Colm Ó Cíosóig and Bilinda Butcher – have stayed relevant, with Shields finding a side hustle as a member of Primal Scream and as a producer in his own right. Perer’s book traces the history of the band from the very beginnings.
Turn My Head Into Sound: A history of Kevin Shields and My Bloody Valentine, Andrew Perer, £16.95, Jawbone Press, JawbonePress.com, Amazon.co.uk
Freedom, Rhythm & Sound: Chapter Two
Freedom, Rhythm & Sound: Chapter Two
Stuart Baker and Gilles Peterson’s second volume of jazz cover art dives deep into the genre’s frequently avant-garde and innovative album cover artwork. Short of spending many weekends sifting through record bins, this chronology of covers from the world of radical jazz is the only way you’ll ever clap eyes on these obscure and illuminating pieces.
Freedom, Rhythm & Sound: Chapter Two, Revolutionary Jazz Original Cover Art 1965 – 83, edited by Stuart Baker and Gilles Peterson, $49.95, Soul Jazz Records, ArtBook.com, Amazon.co.uk
Buzz Me In: Inside the Record Plant studios
Vintage diversions courtesy of a new history of Record Plant, the legendary studio that had outposts in both New York and California. Founded in 1968 by Gary Kellgren and Chris Stone, Record Plant helped shape the sound of the 1970s. It was here that Stevie Wonder shaped Songs In The Key Of Life, The Eagles checked into Hotel California and Fleetwood Mac got it together to create Rumours. Buzz Me In is an illustrated oral history of this legendary creative space.
Buzz Me In: Inside the Record Plant studios, Martin Porter and David Goggin, £30, ThamesandHudson.com, Amazon.co.uk
How Does It Sound Now? Legendary Engineers and Vintage Gear
The second edition of this insightful tome will be of especial interest to music professionals. Delving into the work patterns, gear preferences and technological evolutions of 32 key engineers and producers, including Bob Clearmountain and Alan Parsons, Gary Gottlieb has produced a book that’s also pitched at audiophiles and vinyl obsessives.
How Does It Sound Now? Legendary Engineers and Vintage Gear, Gary Gottlieb, £46.99, Focal Press, Routledge.com
A Brief History of Sound Recording
A Brief History of Sound Recording (available soon)
The eclectic UK-based Museum of Portable Sound has produced its own ‘Fully Incomplete and Highly Biased’ history of sound recording, written by chief curator Dr John Kannenberg and designed to accompany an online and physical exhibit of objects, ephemera and the sounds themselves.
In addition to over 350 illustrations, the book contains a timeline of sound recording history and marks ten years of the museum. From the invention of stereo to the Dictaphone, black box recorder, compact cassette, mp3 and many more formats both weird and wonderful, the book is a true labour of love and well worth your time.
A Brief History of Sound Recording: Fully Incomplete & Highly Biased, Dr John Kannenberg, Available from MuseumofPortableSound.com, @MuseumofPortableSound
Everything We Do Is Music
Everything We Do Is Music
Writer and broadcaster Elizabeth Alker’s new book traces the often unexpected parallels and cross-pollinations between 20th-century Classical music and the emerging world of pop.
From Steve Reich to Sonic Youth, The Blessed Madonna to La Monte Young, via Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood and Jean-Michel Jarre, Everything We Do Is Music is a fascinating journey that’ll have you reaching for the playlists.
Everything We Do Is Music: How 20th-Century Classical Music Shaped Pop, Elizabeth Alker, £20, Faber & Faber, Faber.co.uk, Amazon.co.uk
The Minimoog Book: The Synthesizer that changed music forever
The newest publication from music specialist Bjooks is this extensive history of the Minimoog synthesiser. Still finding favour amongst contemporary artists (with the Minimoog Model D now back in production), The Minimoog Book is both the history of a technology and the artists that used it to shape their sound and rewrite pop.
The Minimoog Book, £65, Bjooks.com
One Hundred Sheets of Guitars
One Hundred Sheets of Guitars
(Image credit: Verso Instruments)
In the past five years industrial designer Robin Stummvoll has modestly reinvented the art and aesthetic of the electric guitar via his company Verso Instruments. Both the Cosmo and Sine models depart far from conventional norms, yet have proved to be high quality instruments favoured by performers in a variety of genres.
A spread from One Hundred Sheets of Guitars
(Image credit: Verso Instruments)
One Hundred Sheets of Guitars is Stummvoll’s celebration of his first century (and more) of custom builds, chronicling each and every guitar along with many of the happy owners. Every instrument is a bespoke build, and the book showcases Verso’s blend of innovative form and beautiful craft.
One Hundred Sheets of Guitars, Robin Stummvoll; contact details at VersoInstruments.com, @VersoInstruments
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