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How To Wreck A Nice Beach: The Vocoder From World War II To Hip-Hop, The Machine Speaks (2010)

by Dave Tompkins(Favorite Author)

3.87 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

1933633883 (ISBN13: 9781933633886)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Stop Smiling Books

review 1: Definitely one of the strangest non-fiction titles I've read, this book moves from lucid analysis of WWII implementations of vocoders and cryptography, through to blindingly befuddling journeys into the early hip-hop underground. Around 40% of this book was entirely lost on me, but it's written in such a poetic fashion that I couldn't put it down. "How to Wreck a Nice Beach" is art about art, and it's like nothing I've ever encountered.
review 2: What the funk? This is a brilliant concept for a book, turned into an unedited collection of incomprehensible (unless you already know a lot about funk and early hip hop, not to mention a lot about voice synthesis!) vignettes, gonzo recollections, interviews, and histories. There's a lot of great stuff in here, and T... moreompkins had incredible sources and insights into how the encryption tool turned into a pop music tool. But I think that this would make a vastly better film documentary, or interactive web site, than book, particularly for an audience that's not nearly as culture-aware as Tompkins is. less

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