D/B Artist Feature: The Books
Posted on | January 22, 2010 | Radu Lupo | No Comments
The Books are an American experimental music duo founded in New York City in 1999, consisting of guitarist and vocalist Nick Zammuto and cellist Paul de Jong. Their music is a mix of electronica, folk, and acoustic music, incorporating samples of sounds, speech and music.
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They have released three critically-acclaimed albums on the German label Tomlab, and currently reside in North Adams, Massachusetts, where they are working on an upcoming studio album.
The Books / smells like content
The Books are commonly cited by critics to be of a genre of their own, described by Nick Zammuto himself as collage music. Although they have said that their influences include Nirvana, David Bowie, Roxy Music as well as new wave and classical music, they do not show prominently in their music, though Zammuto was directly influenced by electronic musicians Squarepusher and Aphex Twin.
The Books’ music usually consists of acoustic instrumentation of folk melodies usually played on guitar, cello, banjo and more, combined with a diverse range of samples obtained from cassettes found in thrift stores, which are digitally processed and edited. They also do not use a drum kit in any recordings or performances, but instead using inanimate objects like children’s toys and filing cabinets, which are sampled and looped. Some observers contend that their music is aleatoric, but Zammuto disagrees, saying the music is very tightly controlled.
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Discography
Studio albums
Thought for Food (2002)
The Lemon of Pink (2003)
Lost and Safe (2005)
Music for a French Elevator and Other Short Format Oddities by the Books (EP, 2006)
http://www.myspace.com/thebooksmusicpage | http://www.thebooksmusic.com | http://www.tomlab.com
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You can buy this music physically in our recommended record store DENSE here in Berlin or in our favourite online store boomkat.com
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