BookWyrm

tele_well rated Red Pill: 5 stars

No cover — Hari Kunzru: Red Pill (2020, Simon & Schuster, Limited)

Red Pill by Hari Kunzru

tele_well rated Bass, Mids, Tops - an Oral History of Sound System Culture: 5 stars

Bass, Mids, Tops - an Oral History of Sound System Culture by Joe Muggs, Brian David Stevens

tele_well rated Bratislava: atlas sídlisk: 4 stars

Bratislava: atlas sídlisk by Henrieta Moravcikova

"The present publication offers a history with analysis of the social, economic, urban and architectural context of the construction of …

tele_well rated 1996 and the End of History: 3 stars

1996 and the End of History by David Stubbs, Mark Perryman

tele_well reviewed Jsme jako oni by Filip Zajíček

Review of 'Jsme jako oni' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Najlepší je v častiach kde nerozpráva o aktuálnom politickom dianí v detailoch, ale rozpráva o minulosti (osobnej aj o minulom režime), alebo budúcnosti. Na konci idú aj otázky trochu do stranena, keď sa v nich mladí novinári pýtaju na Havla, ktorý dnes (ako odpovedá sám Šimečka) už nie je najlepšou referenciou pre pochopenie dnešných problémov.

tele_well reviewed Infinite Detail by Tim Maughan

Tim Maughan: Infinite Detail (2019, MCD x FSG Originals)

BEFORE: In Bristol’s centre lies the Croft, a digital no-man’s-land cut off from the surveillance, …

Review of 'Infinite Detail' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

If you’re into soundsystems, Bristol, shipping-containers, post-abundance, surveillance capitalism, and how it all will look like after the crash of Internet... go read.

tele_well rated Gaming the Iron Curtain: 5 stars

Jaroslav Švelch: Gaming the Iron Curtain (Hardcover, 2018, The MIT Press)

Gaming the Iron Curtain by Jaroslav Švelch

tele_well reviewed Dead Precedents by Roy Christopher

Review of 'Dead Precedents' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

A bit of history, theory and hip-hop fiction. The stated aim of the book “to illustrate how hip-hop culture defines 21st century culture” is achieved only to a limited extent, the main points of the book sometimes read as a “montage of loosely assembled parts” (to quote a McLuhan quoted in the book), jumnping in between cyberpunk bits and hip-hop futurisms. Despite that, this is a thought provoking book, at it’s best when browsing in the history of both genres, curating lyrics and writings on hip-hop, cyberpunk characters and scenes, taking cues from media theory, free-flowing in between Tupac Shakur hologram at Coachella, Frankenstein, Electronic Voice Phenomena. If you’ve been following Christophers interviews on frontwheeldrive more than a decade ago (many of them quoted in the book - media theorists, hip hop artists, internet pioneers), you’ll enjoy this though hopping piece.

tele_well reviewed No Future : Punk, Politics and British Youth Culture, 1976-1984 by Matthew Worley

Matthew Worley: No Future : Punk, Politics and British Youth Culture, 1976-1984 (2017, Cambridge University Press)

Review of 'No Future : Punk, Politics and British Youth Culture, 1976-1984' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

The book is at its best when it puts punk in the historical and political context and goes deeper in explaining it (especially for someone who doesn’t know about British history in that time-period). What makes it dull at times is the need to enumerate (all the tracks, bands, clubs...) that deal with certain topic, instead of holding to fewer (tracks, bands, clubs...) and writing a story. Being less Cambridge University Press and more Faber & Faber would make it a much more enjoyable read, though this might not be something to expect from a Professor of Modern History (author of the book)