Mars by 1980

David Stubbs Mars by 1980 (2018)
This is approximately the book I was hoping Paul Griffiths' Guide to Electronic Music would be, give or take some small change. As promised by the cover, it traces the history of the form from Russolo to the present, albeit with a fair bit of lateral waggle once we're past John Cage. Of course, the term electronic here encompasses plenty which isn't strictly electronic but which is at least progressive in forging an unorthodox path either at odds with, or at least adjacent to the mainstream. I suspect that any respectable attempt to cover this broad field will be obliged to take a subjective route if only for the sake of focus, which is what Stubbs does, and why his account succeeds for the most part.

Somehow this is the first time I've read about a great many of these people in this sort of detail, and the first thing I've read which has bothered to admit that Russolo's ambition - for one example - far outstripped his achievement. The reasonably lavish background detail on both Schaeffer and Stockhausen is also greatly appreciated, as is Stubb's reluctance to waste time and brain cells on Switched on fucking Bach. Of course, given the unashamedly subjective composition of this particular journey, I was left with at least a couple of questions. If Stubb's criteria for who made the cut depended on extent and spread of subsequent influence - which I suppose justifies the presence of Depeche bloody Mode - the relative absence of SPK, Hawkwind, vapourwave and more or less all rap music seems a little puzzling, although not enough so as to unbalance the whole.

The title refers to the historically Gernsbackian thrust of electronic music as something which looks to the future, a quality which might be deemed inherent to the exploratory nature of the form; then asks whether or not this is something we have lost in recent times. It's a good question, although I'm not convinced that it can have a single coherent answer, depending as it does on who and when we're asking. I personally suspect that there's something in Lawrence Miles' ghostpoint which proposes that innovation itself may have ceased for our culture, replaced by cyclical revision with each leap forward being no more significant than the latest smartphone - nothing but updates as far as the eye can see; but it's a pessimistic view and possibly works only as a rhetorical generalisation. Stubbs seems to conclude that the current standard bearers for electronic music demonstrate the same creative vitality as their ancestors, despite the increasing ubiquity of the form, and he's probably right.

The only problem I see with this account is that as an argument for the revolution remaining continuous, it hangs together, but only just, being stretched thin across a dizzyingly broad span of digressions and rabbit holes - all fascinating, but which tend to distract from the theme as a result; but this is a minor quibble which shouldn't really be taken as a complaint given that the journey seems to be the point here, and frankly it doesn't get much better than this.

I've always thought David Stubbs was a great writer, but this is exceptional beyond my expectations.