David Toop is an English
musicianA musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
and
authorAn author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
, and as of 2001 was visiting Research Fellow in the Media School at
London College of CommunicationThe London College of Communication is a constituent college of the University of the Arts London, located in Elephant and Castle. It has about 5,000 students on 60 courses in media and design courses preparing students for careers in the creative industries...
. He was notably a member of
The Flying LizardsThe Flying Lizards were an English experimental rock band, who were formed in 1976 in England. They are best remembered as New wave one-hit wonders, thanks to their deliberately eccentric cover of Barrett Strong's "Money", which became a UK and US chart success in 1979.-Career:Formed by and led by...
. He was a prominent contributor to the British magazine
The FaceThe Face was a British music, fashion and culture monthly magazine started in May 1980 by Nick Logan.-1980s:Logan had previously created the teen pop magazine Smash Hits, and had been an editor at the New Musical Express in the 1970s before launching The Face in 1980.The magazine was influential in...
. He is a regular contributor to
The WireThe Wire is a British avant garde music magazine, founded in 1982 by jazz promoter Anthony Wood and journalist Chrissie Murray. The magazine initially concentrated on contemporary jazz and improvised music, but branched out in the early 1990s to various types of experimental music...
, the U.K. based music magazine.
Early years
Soon after his birth, his parents moved to
Waltham CrossWaltham Cross is the most southeasterly town in Hertfordshire, England. It is 12 miles from the City of London and immediately north of the M25 motorway, forming part of the Greater London Urban Area and London commuter belt. Part of Waltham Cross is located within Greater London.-Geography:It is...
,
HertfordshireHertfordshire is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England. The county town is Hertford.The county is one of the Home Counties and lies inland, bordered by Greater London , Buckinghamshire , Bedfordshire , Cambridgeshire and...
, where he grew up. He was educated at Broxbourne Grammar School, which he left in 1967 to study at
Hornsey College of ArtHornsey College of Art is a former college centred in Crouch End, London, England. Since 2008, the building has been a part of Coleridge Primary School, upon its expansion to four form entry...
.
Career
Toop published his pioneering book on
hip hopHip hop is a form of musical expression and artistic culture that originated in African-American and Latino communities during the 1970s in New York City, specifically the Bronx. DJ Afrika Bambaataa outlined the four pillars of hip hop culture: MCing, DJing, breaking and graffiti writing...
,
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." Since the 1970s, Toop has also been a significant presence on the British experimental and improvised music scene, collaborating with
Max EastleyMax Eastley is a sound and visual artist. He is part of the Cape Farewell Climate Change project . He studied painting and graphic art at Newton Abbot Art School and then went on to gain a BA in Fine Art at Middlesex University . He is a sculptor , musician and composer...
,
Brian EnoBrian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...
,
ScannerRobin Rimbaud is an electronic musician who works under the name Scanner due to his use of cell phone and police scanners in live performance...
, 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.
Solo and Collaborative Albums
- New & Rediscovered Musical Instruments (with Max Eastley) (1975)
- Buried Dreams (with Max Eastley) (1994)
- Pink Noir (1996)
- Screen Ceremonies (1996)
- Spirit World (1997)
- Hot Pants Idol (1999)
- Museum of Fruit (1999)
- Needle in the Groove (with Jeff Noon
Jeff Noon is a novelist, short story writer and playwright whose works make extensive use of word play and fantasy. Noon's speculative fiction books have ties to the works of writers such as Lewis Carroll and Jorge Luis Borges...
) (2000)
- Black Chamber (2003)
- 37th Floor at Sunset (2004)
- Doll Creature (with Max Eastley) (2004)
- Sound Body (2007)
Curated albums
- Ocean of Sound (1996) - (2-CD set intended to accompany his book)
- Crooning on Venus (1996)
- Sugar & Poison: Tru-Life Soul Ballads for Sentients, Cynics, Sex Machines & Sybarites (1996)
- Booming on Pluto: Electro for Droids (1997)
- Guitars on Mars (1997)
- Haunted Weather : Music, Silence, and Memory (2004) - (2-CD set intended to accompany his book)
External links