Electro Shock!

 Groundbreakers of Synth Music

by Greg Rule (Miller Freeman Books)
by Lex Marburger

A few notes on Electro Shock!:

1. They don’t interview Eno or Gary Neuman, but they do interview Madonna Wayne Gacy from Marilyn Manson.

2. With the exception of samplers, all the musicians interviewed prefer keyboards made between 1970 and 1981. So who’s buying all the new stuff? Tech geeks who don’t know better, that’s who.

3. Pay attention, industrial wannabes. “I will say, though, that vocal distortion has become an incredibly cliché thing these days. It’s become overused and uninteresting.” – Trent Reznor, 1994.

4. The articles all read like clippings from a poorly-written magazine dedicated to synth nerds, with convenient product plugs. Wait a minute, they are.