Switched On Bach 2000
Miller Freeman’s All Music Guide series has become both the industry standard and a usual success. The series has been redesigned and printed in a larger trim size for requiring little effort reading and handling.
This comprehensive guide profiles the careers of hundreds of major artists such as Aphex Twin and the Prodigy, and reviews thousands of the best electronica recordings. Incisive essays explore electronica’s widely varied subgenres.
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Most helpful customer reviews
19 of 20 people found the following review helpful.
 Unbelievably Unfocused and Underlisted
By James M. Bailey
Actually, 1.5 stars: this has to be, without doubt, the most unfocused and incomplete AMG ever produced. I agree with the reviewer who asserted that AMG simply cut and pasted content off their web site and quickly threw together this diffuse hodge-podge of questionable and incomplete listings. Caveat Emptor: this book is not the 2nd edition like Amazon lists it as. 2nd editions generally take what was wrong with firsts, correct, and expand. This is what the AMG brain-trust needs to do with this book: the foundation is there, just seriously review content, edit out what isn’t true electronica (by their admitted definitions), and expand to include other artists, including the complete discography (you don’t have to review each album, just list) of established artists and the genre’s prolific indies like Thumbtack Smoothie and Voice of Eye. So what if it approaches 1,200 pages? Same with Pop: unless they’re cutting-edge contributers like Blancmange or Gary Numan, leave all the 80′s synth-pop and hair-band fluff out; C’mon AMG,Flock of Seagulls and Talk Talk? Plus, devoting nearly three pages to verbose, hyper-detailed reviews of every Prince album, yet hardly any attention to the shifting careers and prolific output of ground-breakers like Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze? Some listings are just plain insulting: the superficial Sun Ra discography is a huge disservice; although Sun Ra did introduce electronics into the jazz idiom, the music was still jazz–artists like this should be given full attention in the AMG Jazz Guide. Likewise, rock-oriented artists should remain in the AMG Rock Guide; I like Radiohead and Pink Floyd, but they seem woefully out of place here (in the case of PF, they stop the discography listings at “The Wall.” Who was in charge of this project?) And if AMG wishes to questionably include the “Shoegazer” movement as electronica, why list My Bloody Valentine and leave out Lush or Catherine Wheel? Be consistent!!
Not that the book is all bad. The essays and chart maps on how all the various electronica sub-genres evolved are informative reading, and push the book up 1/2 star. Plus they give good attention to all the various DJ’s and their respective roles in the genre’s development. And thankfully Yanni and John Tesh aren’t included (there is a benign God, after all.) The foundation is here; nonetheless, AMG needs to start over with this guide, review, cut, and expand. Better yet, maybe an enterprising MUSICHOUND editior will read these reviews and decide to produce and release their own competing guide. At least they won’t short-shrift the artist’s discography for the sake of space. Who knows, they might even include a photo or two….
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful.
 Decent guide, but some strange choices
By hamilcar barca
If you need a guide electronic music, and don’t have a lot of access to the internet (and if you don’t you probably won’t be reading this review anyway), this is really the only source. However, I find that there is a lot missing from it. It deals with mostly mainstream artists, with a decent amount of independents. However, it seems to feature a very high concentration of dance music artists and DJs. Also, it includes some bizarre choices such as bands like Godspeed You Black Emperor, Sigur Ros, Labradford, Mogwai and other “post-rock” bands that really have little to do with electronic music. I love these bands, but it doesn’t seem to me that they belong in this book. I also find a lot of their reviews to be very harsh toward experimental music and overly praising of more unoriginal genres.
13 of 18 people found the following review helpful.
 Definitive Guide?!? Nah!!!
By A
I picked up that book a while ago, thinking I had found some sort of Holy Grail. Reality check! This so-called definitive guide is so full of errors, omissions and such that even the most braindead raver could have made a better job! Not to mention that most of the bands/artists discography is incomplete.
Being a life-long fan of electronic music (especially of Industrial & EBM) I couldn’t help but noticed some insanities. Here a few.
1) Straight in the beginning of the book (“Brief Style Description” > Industrial Dance”). The authors are mentioning Front 242 (cool!)… but guess what? There is no entry for Front 242 in the “Definitive Guide”!!! Yeah, who cares about those belgians innovators who coined the style known as EBM (Electronic Body Music)? Laughable.
2) Now go to the Skinny Puppy entry. What’s wrong with it? Read the first paragraph carefully. cEvin Key is listed as “the former singer of Images In Vogue”. What??? That’s new to me… I thought I heard Mr. Crompton himself said he only been the drummer (to pay the rent). Thanks guys to enlighten me. cEvin, you lied to us all Puppy fans!
3) Anyone remember the late Frank Tovey? You know, that guy from UK who made quite a sensation in the 80s on the electro scene? No? Fad Gadget was the name of his band… on Mute Records. Yep, sharing the slot with Depeche Mode… Remember now? Ok, another hint, his live performances were totally wild and his music minimalist? Well… don’t worry if you don’t remember, the authors didn’t do any good either.
4) A tricky one now. Who inspired Wumpscut, Allied Vision, Leather Strip, Hocico and another handful of dark electro-industrial bands? They were german. No, not Kraftwerk. Another try? yelworC!!! But they doesn’t count since they only released a handful of tapes, singles, and a full lenght album & an anthology before one of the former member left to create amGod. But I bet you never heard of them either. Nevermind, neither the authors of The Definitive Guide.
5) Talking about obscure bands, the authors did a remarkable job at ignoring Klinik, whom dark icy minimalist electro-industrial muzak didn’t make much of a difference on the scene in the 80s.
and the list drags on forever on multiple levels.
The only point worth mentioning about this joke book is the efort the authors deployed to describe styles of electronic music, put them in categories and draw tables showing off ramifications. That alone prevail me from throwing the book away.
Let’s all consume large amount of MDMA and let’s read the electronic bible while reading entries about obscure DJs that shaped the present music (and the one to come)!
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