Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain's Visionary Music

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The issue incidentally features a fantastic illustration of David Cameron as a Muslim imam on the cover. In the end, this is a terrific read, thought-provoking and stimulating, and for all the small shortcomings that other readers will find (which can surely be ironed out in a revised edition), it's a book that's likely to remain the definitive reference point in its field. It provides an essential insight to anyone interested in modern history or early twentieth-century literature.

I’m hosting a panel around Simon Reynolds’s new book, Retromania: Pop Culture’s Obsession with Its Own Past , at London ICA this week. He is the author of Rough Trade and Warp, and the editor of Undercurrents: The Hidden Wiring of Modern Music and The Wire Primers: A Guide to Modern Music. Are the stars of later decades – Billy Bragg, Clannad, the Pogues, Enya et al – evidence of folk's perennial ability to adapt to new musical fashions, or did Young disqualify them as redundant postscripts to a closed canon?I ve already made several precious musical discoveries thanks to this book and I expect to make more. In a sweeping panorama of Albion’s soundscape that takes in the pioneer spirit of Cecil Sharp; the pastoral classicism of Ralph Vaughan Williams and Peter Warlock; the industrial folk revival of Ewan MacColl and A.

What keeps it consistently readable is the happy marriage between Young's incisive observation and his talent for a vivid phrase.About an early record by the band Steeleye Span, he observes the way acoustic and amplified instruments “rub up against each other like a shedload of rusted, notched and pitted farm implements. I also suggest seeking out Rough Trade's Psyche Folk compilation 9to see how folk has developed) and Island Records folk boxset (you get the roots: Traffic , which complement this book nicely.