Representative Albums: "Black Chamber," "Sugar and Poison," "Ocean of Sound, Vol. 4: Guitars on Mars"
Representative Songs: "Bodies of Water," "Living Dust," "An Arthropod Raising Its Head"
Biography
Although British writer and composer David Toop's recorded output has included everything from experimental rock and jazz to musique concrete, the bulk of his solo and recent collaborative works have been in the vein of experimental ambient. Better known perhaps as a journalist and music historiographer, Toop is the author of a pair of widely hailed books -- Rap Attack and Ocean of Sound (both Serpents Tail) -- as well as a contributing editor and columnist for U.K. experimental music magazine The Wire. Recording since the early '70s, Toop's list of musical collaborators include everyone from Derek Bailey and John Zorn to Brian Eno and Prince Far I. However, it's his work as a solo composer and in combination with multi-instrumentalist Max Eastley, that have earned him highest marks. Toop and Eastley's 1994 collaboration, Buried Dreams, is a widely-hailed document of experimental environmental composition. A dizzying blend of found sounds, field recordings, electro-acoustics, and digital manipulation, its success (and critical popularity) also helped set the tone for Toop's subsequent solo work, Screen Ceremonies, released in 1996 on the Wire Editions label, as well as one-off tracks included on compilations released through Sound Effects and Time Recordings. He returned in 1999 with the mix album Hot Pants Idol. ~ Sean Cooper, All Music Guide
Toop published his pioneering book on hip hop, Rap Attack, in 1984. Eleven years later, Ocean of Sound appeared, described as Toop's "poetic survey of contemporary musical life from Debussy through Ambient, Techno, and drum 'n' bass."[1] Since the 1970s, Toop has also been a significant presence on the British experimental and improvised music scene, collaborating with Max Eastley, Brian Eno, Scanner, and others. In 2001, Toop curated the sound art exhibition Sonic Boom, and the following year, he curated a 2-CD collection entitled Not Necessarily Enough English Music: A Collection of Experimental Music from Great Britain, 1960-1977.
Bibliography
Rap Attack: African Jive to New York Hip Hop (1984) ISBN 0-89608-238-5 - republished with additional chapters as
