Loops :
LOOPS edited by Lee Brackstone and Richard King (www.loopsjournal.com)
'At a time when music journalism is increasingly shackled to release schedules and constrained by shrinking word-counts, while the once promising blog circuit has largely succumbed to chronic syndromes of hype, snark, and solipsism, the arrival of Loops is a cause for rejoicing. Here at last is a haven for adventurous long-form music writing of every sort: ruminations and rhapsodies, reported investigations and critical essays, pieces that range widely across time, space and the genrescape, and others that focus intently on individual artists, songs, tiny moments of epiphany. As a writer and as a reader, I look forward to Loops with immense excitement.'
- Simon Reynolds, author of Rip It Up and Start Again and Energy Flash
'LOOPS is an opportunity for writers to step outside of the PR agenda and to discuss their passions at length and in depth.'
- Jon Savage, author of Teenage and England’s Dreaming
Editorial Advisory Board: Angus Cargill, Laurence Bell, John Dyer, John Harris, Hanif Kureishi, Jonathan Lethem, Simon Reynolds, Jon Savage
To be published: twice-yearly, ISSUE ONE in July 2009
Format: Short Royal Pb, 300pp, £12.99
Territories: World All Languages
THE JOURNAL
Faber and Faber and Domino Recording Co. - two of the UK’s leading and innovative independent media companies - are delighted to announce a joint publishing venture scheduled to hit the shops and the web in July 2009. Domino and Faber are combining resources, a deep love and working knowledge of pop music, pop culture and literature to publish a twice-yearly journal dedicated to contemporary writing about music.
LOOPS will offer a context for today’s exceptional writers to engage with the subjects, individuals and issues that colour all corners of the musical landscape.
Disregarding release schedules and PR copy, LOOPS will provide a space for artists to publish tour diaries, non-sequiturs and think pieces and an opportunity for writers to stretch out and go off-map and off-message to share their thoughts, intelligence and ideas.
Ideas for ISSUES ONE and TWO are now being solicited by Lee Brackstone at Faber and Richard King of Domino. Please contact leeb@faber.co.uk or by telephone on 0207 465 7581.
THE CONTENTS
Incoming notices of interest regarding LOOPS have been solicited and or received from the following: Simon Armitage, Michael Bracewell, Kitty Empire, John Harris, Richard T. Kelly, Nick Kent, Hanif Kureishi, Lavinia Greenlaw, Peter Guralnick, Hari Kunzru, Stephen Malkmus, Greil Marcus, Richard Milward, David Peace, Ian Rankin, Ben Sandmel, Alexis Taylor, Cathi Unsworth, Kodwo Eshun, Ben Thompson.
The list of ideas, subjects and individuals to tap-up, tap into and approach include the following: John Harris on Robert Palmer; Andrew Weatherhall on the summer of 1986; Colin Greenwood on Kraftwerk; Neil Tennant on the music scene in 1970s Newcastle; Jon Savage on the Warners Bros early 70s aesthetic; a Bonnie Prince Billy tour diary; Sam Davies on backpacks in hip-hop; Kazuo Ishiguro on the relationship between music and fiction; Marina Hyde on the celebrity contestant vocal style; Thurston Moore on Patty Waters; Ian Rankin on The Pleasures; Frances May Morgan on women in Krautrock; a photographic essay on Jamaican street music by Kevin Cummins; Stewart Home on the legacy of Riot Grrrl; Richard King on the productions of Dennis Bovell; David Peace on Jandek; Jennifer Herrama in conversation with Kim Fowley.
THE BIOGRAPHIES
Faber and Faber has been recognised as the major publishing home for engaged and challenging writing about pop culture since the late 1980s when Pete Townshend worked at the firm as a consultant editor. Townshend was the face behind the acquisition of Jon Savage’s England’s Dreaming: Sex Pistols and Punk Rock, The Faber Book of Pop (ed. Jon Savage and Hanif Kureishi) and Charles Shaar Murray’s peerless book on Hendrix, Crosstown Traffic.
Over the past decade Lee Brackstone has been Publishing Director in charge of pop culture titles at Faber. In that time Faber have published Simon Reynolds’ Rip It Up and Start Again: postpunk 1978-1984, Peter Shapiro’s Turn the Beat Around: A Secret History of Disco, Chuck Klosterman’s Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story, Coltrane: The Story of a Sound by Ben Ratliff, In the Country of Country: People and Places in American Music by Nicholas Dawidoff, Re-make/Re-model: Art, Pop, Fashion, and the Making of Roxy Music by Michael Bracewell, and a new edition of Nick Kent’s legendary book, The Dark Stuff.
The pop culture publishing programme at Faber continues to expand and over the following two years Faber will publish Barney Hoskyns biography of Tom Waits, Matt Thorne’s critical survey of the career of Prince, Rob Chapman’s biography of Syd Barret, Dorian Lynskey’s book on protest music since 1940, 33 Revolutions per Minute, Amanda Petrusich’s book on alt-country, It Still Moves, and Richard King’s overview of the independent music industry, moguls and mischief making, How Soon is Now.
Turning fifteen years old in 2008 Domino Recording Co. now finds itself established as one of the UK’s leading independents. Launched by Laurence Bell on the back of a £40 a week enterprise allowance scheme and sticking throughout to a commendable set of principles, Domino has long championed and nurtured the outsider whilst enjoying both critical and commercial success.
As worldwide home to Arctic Monkeys, Franz Ferdinand, Lightspeed Champion, The Kills and a host of iconoclastic and innovative artists Domino lies at the heart of the music industry whilst retaining the ability to operate solely on its own terms, tastes and mood. The title of 1993’s debut Domino release - Sebadoh’s single 'Soul And Fire' gave notice of both the label’s mission statement and its affinity with contemporary American music, a thread with runs through Royal Trux, Palace Music, Smog, Elliot Smith, Pavement in the 90s to Animal Collective, Bonnie Prince Billy, Cass McCombs and Junior Boys today.
At the end of the 90s as British music enjoyed a creative resurgence, Domino was in pole position to work with a new generation of UK artists: Four Tet, Clinic, James Yorkston, Archie Bronson Outfit, and Sons & Daughters have all released highly influential and critically acclaimed albums and continue to do so today. Perpetually hungry to unearth new forms of creativity, Bonde Do Role, (Brasil) Yo Majesty! (Florida) and Wild Beasts (Kendal) are amongst the label’s more recent signings.
The dynamic of Domino’s output both reflects the label’s tastes and its willingness to trust its instincts. Such a perspective means Arctic Monkeys and Robert Wyatt not only span four generations of maverick music making but share space on the same release schedule and in 2007, pole positions in the year end charts.
Lee Brackstone, Publishing Director, commented:
'This is a coming together of great independents from the worlds of music and books. This is an enormously exciting project with ambitions and scope beyond the physical form of the journal. LOOPS will, I hope, attract the best writers and musicians of the day to its pages.'
Richard King, Domino Records, commented:
'Street-level discourse, argument and informed opinion are sure signs that a record has really been heard. We look forward to covering all the angles on the pages of LOOPS in partnership with Faber.'