Rating: 
Summary: Missed opportunity!
Review: Upon merely skimming through the index, I came upon numerous errors, as have the other reviewers. I list a couple that I spotted with ease:Incredibly, there seems to be no mention at all of Isao Tomita, at least according to the contents and index. Wendy Carlos has never owned or used a Moog System 55. Giorgio Moroder didn't use a drum machine in anger until at last 1981, when the Linn LM-1 was released. The drums and percussion on all the groundbreaking 1970's Moroder/Bellotte recordings was provided by drummer Keith Forsey or through the use of Moog synthesizer modules. It was a tape loop of Forsey's kick drum that provided the only real drum sound on 'I Feel Love'. The inaccuracies in this book made me refrain from buying it, which was a shame since the effort was clearly well-intentioned. Roll on a properly error checked new edition!
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but could have more...
Review: Where's Throbbing Gristle? Where's Captain Beefheart(except for the very very small mention)? Although it has good enough backgrounds on many experimental composers of the early 20thC and electronic/avant innovators of the 60's & 70's, this book could have gone more in depth. It has a nice section on the Krautrock movement with all the major and minor players, though. I just don't know why Moby made it into the book and TG and Beefheart didn't.
Rating: 
Summary: an eclectic encyclopedia, not a coherent analysis
Review: Your evaluation of "The Ambient Century" will depend on what you're looking for. I expected serious analysis, and by that criteria would give it 1 star. If what you're interested in, though, is an eclectic encyclopedia of interesting 20th century musicians, loosely grouped by the theme of "ambience," which is never defined, then you might think this is great. (I can't comment on the fact-checking criticism, but to me it's a secondary point.) Prendergast moves from "high art" composers including Debussy and Stockhausen, to "minimalism," to rock, broken into categories such as psychedelic, krautrock and synthesizer music, to the 90s techno/house/drum&bass/ambient trend. However, his definition of "ambient" involves "music being deconstructed" by Mahler and Debussy (sounds really "postmodern," but what does it mean?), and developments in technology/electronics, along with an "interest in pure sound." He pronounces: "[T]he bleeding heart of electronic progress had by its very nature rendered all recorded music, by definition, Ambient." (4) Given this sort of cosmic perspective Prendergast could have included all music, and what he does include seems to be more or less "cool stuff that I like." Harsh, I know, but does Bob Dylan's "Knocking on Heaven's Door," by any stretch of the conceptual imagination, belong on a list of the Essential 100 Recordings of 20th Century Ambient Music? If so, our author fails to offer any explanation. How about Led Zeppelin IV (ie, ZOSO)? I'm at a loss. If the book was appropriately titled, I would have much less to criticize. But when you title a book "The Evolution of Sound in the Electronic Age," you lead the reader to expect some sort of theoretical analysis -- what sort of evolution? In what direction? What mechanisms are involved? But there is "no there there" if what is happening is just technological progress, and "an interest in pure sound" may characterize Cage's famous *4'33"* (the silent composition), but there is not even an attempt here to argue that it is the direction of 20th century music. If Prendergast really means to emphasize the use of music as background, where is his discussion of Muzak, and music in advertising? He doesn't develop his embryonic theme(s), but rather rushes headlong into profiles of musicians, which are strung together with little connecting analysis. Caveat emptor -- if you're looking for serious analysis, look elsewhere, but if you want a breezy journalistic encyclopedia of non-mainstream music (that is seen as cool by "The Wire" magazine) you might find this a useful reference work. (For a model of analysis of cutting edge music, check out Nyman's "Experimental Music." It also has a foreward by Brian Eno!)
Rating:
Summary: an eclectic encyclopedia, not a coherent analysis
Review: Your evaluation of "The Ambient Century" will depend on what you're looking for. I expected serious analysis, and by that criteria would give it 1 star. If what you're interested in, though, is an eclectic encyclopedia of interesting 20th century musicians, loosely grouped by the theme of "ambience," which is never defined, then you might think this is great. (I can't comment on the fact-checking criticism, but to me it's a secondary point.) Prendergast moves from "high art" composers including Debussy and Stockhausen, to "minimalism," to rock, broken into categories such as psychedelic, krautrock and synthesizer music, to the 90s techno/house/drum&bass/ambient trend. However, his definition of "ambient" involves "music being deconstructed" by Mahler and Debussy (sounds really "postmodern," but what does it mean?), and developments in technology/electronics, along with an "interest in pure sound." He pronounces: "[T]he bleeding heart of electronic progress had by its very nature rendered all recorded music, by definition, Ambient." (4) Given this sort of cosmic perspective Prendergast could have included all music, and what he does include seems to be more or less "cool stuff that I like." Harsh, I know, but does Bob Dylan's "Knocking on Heaven's Door," by any stretch of the conceptual imagination, belong on a list of the Essential 100 Recordings of 20th Century Ambient Music? If so, our author fails to offer any explanation. How about Led Zeppelin IV (ie, ZOSO)? I'm at a loss. If the book was appropriately titled, I would have much less to criticize. But when you title a book "The Evolution of Sound in the Electronic Age," you lead the reader to expect some sort of theoretical analysis -- what sort of evolution? In what direction? What mechanisms are involved? But there is "no there there" if what is happening is just technological progress, and "an interest in pure sound" may characterize Cage's famous *4'33"* (the silent composition), but there is not even an attempt here to argue that it is the direction of 20th century music. If Prendergast really means to emphasize the use of music as background, where is his discussion of Muzak, and music in advertising? He doesn't develop his embryonic theme(s), but rather rushes headlong into profiles of musicians, which are strung together with little connecting analysis. Caveat emptor -- if you're looking for serious analysis, look elsewhere, but if you want a breezy journalistic encyclopedia of non-mainstream music (that is seen as cool by "The Wire" magazine) you might find this a useful reference work. (For a model of analysis of cutting edge music, check out Nyman's "Experimental Music." It also has a foreward by Brian Eno!)
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