Listening To The Music The Machines Make by Richard Evans

The Book

The subtitle of this book is Inventing Electronic Pop 1978 – 1983, and if that was all that Richard Evans did, the book would be excellent, but he covers so much more ground, putting the music in it’s correct musical, cultural and historical context, that the book is absolutely indispensable for any serious music lover.

Evans begins with David Bowie who was clearly a massive influence on the generation of musicians that came of age in the late 70s and early 80s. The ‘Starman’ performance on Top of the Pops was seminal for so many reasons and Gary Numan, Gary Kemp of Spandau Ballet, Nick Rhodes of Duran Duran and Marc Almond of Soft Cell were all enthralled by Bowie’s stage craft and sound. All four, of course, became major contributors to the electronic music boom of the late 70s and early 80s. It is early on that the real strength of the book becomes clear. There are very few new recollections, and the primary sources include music magazines whose contemporary interviews and record reviews give a fascinating insight into how the developing genre was regarded at the time. Numan himself got a thorough critical mauling pretty much from day 1 as most of the critics fell over themselves to make snide jokes and to dismiss him as lucky or fraudulent. He wouldn’t be the last to be completely misrepresented by Melody Maker and NME in particular. The great thing to reflect on is that reviewers like Sunie, Pete Silverton and Tony Rayns, to take random examples from the many quoted in the book, have disappeared into well merited obscurity whilst the acts they pilloried week after week have delighted millions across the globe. This reliance on primary sources is what makes this book so good. This is not opinion dressed up as fact, nor is it reliant on unreliable memories of 40 or 50 years ago, it is historically and culturally accurate and takes the reader back to the original events and reactions as they happened.

As you read through the book, old memories are rekindled of course, but much more often I found myself saying, ‘I didn’t know that’ or ‘I don’t remember that track’ or ‘I don’t remember that band at all’! It was a delight for me as a massive electronic music fan to find out how much I had no idea of. It makes this an absolute delight of a read for even an armchair ‘expert’ which you quickly realise you definitely are not! The writing is accessible, enjoyable, surprising, amusing and takes what could be a very dry reeling off of facts and figures and gives us more twists and turns than many fiction books. Even if you are not a reader of music books, because you prefer to listen to it rather than understand the context, and I know plenty of music lovers who are not interested in anything from this genre, please give ‘Listening To The Music The Machines Make’ a go. I can’t guarantee Richard Evans will change your mind, but he will give it more of a go than pretty much any music writer I have ever read.

The Playlist

I was at the end of the first couple of chapters when I thought that I could have a go at making a playlist for the book. It’s something I enjoy doing in a variety of situations, but this is definitely a first for a book. Originally, I was just thinking of picking out songs I enjoyed, but then I realised that the whole book was a voyage of discovery so the playlist must be as well. Accordingly, I chose no less than 80 tracks, 16 of which (20%) were songs I had never listened to. When I listen to these songs for the first time I will be broadening my horizons musically in a way I never anticipated. The playlist is just under 6 hours long and follows the book, very largely, on its journey, only choosing the tracks specifically mentioned in the text and with only a couple of exceptions mirror their order in the text. The playlist covers exactly 60 years with the earliest track being Telstar by The Tornados from 1962, and the latest being The Purple Zone by Soft Cell and Pet Shop Boys from 2022! The Spotify link is below, so please feel free to save it, like it and share it, but most of all enjoy it.