Rating: 
Summary: Electronic Music Pioneers is a must!
Review: "This book really goes into depth revealing the early explorations of electronic music and it's inventors. There are wonderful interviews and stories of those responsible for the initial innovations and creation of the instruments and music that have been the foundation for the electronic music of today. Electronic Music Pioneers is a must for anyone who wants an understanding of those roots."
Michael Stearns (http://www.....com/)
Rating:
Summary: Distinctive!
Review: "Ben's book is distinctive because he has captured first-hand accounts from the leaders of a remarkable cultural frontier, one that will be less and less accessible as it fades into history. If you didn't share in the excitement of the time, this document will bring it to life for you!"
Rating: 
Summary: "It's much better than I expected."
Review: "It's much better than I expected."
Klaus D. Mueller,
P.O.E.M. Musikverlag * Klaus Schulze Productions
Rating:
Summary: One of the best books on electronic music available today
Review: Electronic Music Pioneers is a beautifully presented book with excellent content. I even mostly agree with the choice of inventers and musicians interviewed. The book covers a time line from 1874 to the present but the focus is mainly from the early sixties onwards. A good read, that offers a reasonably balanced and non-technical view of the history. One of the best books on electronic music available today.
Rating:
Summary: its a wild and informative ride
Review: Electronic Music Pioneers is a rollercoaster through the history of electronic and computer music, careening off university research, screeching through commercial developments, and whipping past the perspectives of the musicians, from the academics of avant-garde electroclassic through the mullahs behind the modulars. Hold tightly onto those patchcords; its a wild and informative ride.
Dr. Joe Paradiso
Principal Research Scientist, MIT Media Lab
Technology Director, MIT Media Lab
Rating:
Summary: Immediately accessible
Review: I'd have to say that this book is perhaps one of the definitive studies on the marriage of electricity and music, covering the aesthetics, concepts, influences, directions, etc., of this growing musical field in a very inclusive and insightful style. Electronic Music Pioneers is an incredibly rich and detailed book, written in an immediately accessible style. It's a beautifully designed book with excellent content. Anyone interested in knowing more...either in scope, or deeper within the many paths of electronic music should purchase a copy of this book.
Rating:
Summary: Magnificent History!
Review: In this scholarly work , Kettlewell discusses the work of composers, inventors and performers who shifted the boundaries of music in regard to sound source, notation, time, space, and the roles of the composer, performer and audience. The author seeks to identify and explain a whole body of musical work that existed outside the classical tradition and the avant-garde orthodoxies that flowed from it. Many rare photographs enrich the text and the book concludes with a selected source bibliography, an exhaustive list of related websites, and a bibliography of publications since 1934. Dr. Joel Paradiso, the Director of the MIT MediaLab in Cambridge, Massachusetts has contributed an interesting foreword to this edition. The tome is a detailed account of a radical musical direction that has borne great fruit in the years since it was first analysed in this thorough and scholarly work.
Rating: 
Summary: needs more fact checking
Review: Poorly written and poorly researched. The book contains far too many factual errors to be taken seriously. Some examples: On page 224 the author refers to the Yamaha TG77 as an analog synthesizer, and incorrectly associates it as the sound generator for Akai analog wind controllers. In the chapter, "Affordable Sampling Emerges", he seems to believe the Kawai K5, a pure additive synth, was a sampler hybrid. He classifies the Korg Wavedrum, a physical modeling unit using an array of five microphones to turn the physical nuances of a performance directly into sound, as a MIDI drum controller. ...and so on... -=- Some curious omissions: with a copyright date of 2002, why would he mention Opcode's long dead Vision several times, but never mention the contributions of Performer - or the multi-port MIDI interface ... or organizational discontinuities - why lump drum machines - a topic that could easily have its own chapter, under the header 'percussion controllers'? Very odd. -=- Much of the time, the authors embellishment betrays certain prejudices, so the book comes off as more an opinion piece rather than a historical account of the subject. It is a good thing the interviews are there to break up the spotty writing. You'd be much better served by 'Electric Sound' by Joel Chadabe, who, ironically, is interviewed at the end of the book.
Rating:
Summary: Enlightening in a number of ways
Review: Published by ArtistPro Press, this is unquestionably a scholarly and serious work... yet at times it reads almost like a novel. Kudos to Kettlewell for making this material educational, accessible and enjoyable in all the right ways. As a "serious" collector of analog synthesizers, I found this book to be enlightening in a number of ways, clearing up many things I'd been wondering about. For anyone interested in "the invention and impact of the synthesizer," this book is a must. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent, Well Researched Book!
Review: The book provides excellent descriptions of historic electronic instruments as well as some terrific interviews with pioneering giants like Bob Moog, Tom Oberheim, Serge Teraphin, Don Buchla and Klaus Schulze. Meticulous attention is given to important historic information and the book includes a wonderful timeline going back over a hundred years to Elisha Gray and his electric telegraph. This is as close as you can get to personally being there when the instruments were first invented. Likely the best of eight electronic music books on my shelf.
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