Exploring Futuromania and the Evolution of Music Writing

For millennial music journos like us, Simon Reynolds is one of the Goats. 

He’s a writer best known for his era-defining book on dance music, Energy Flash and the ultimate history of post-punk, Rip It Up And Start Again. But there’s barely a genre that Simon hasn’t touched, from hip-hop, shoegaze and glam rock to pivotal essays on Auto-Tune, “conceptronica” and the hardcore continuum.

Reynolds’ newest book is a collection of essays, interviews and reviews on the idea of “futuromania” –his word for electronic music’s obsession with the manifesting the future. Futuromania kicks off in 1977 with Donna Summer’s ‘I Feel Love’ and sweeps up half a century of electronic genius, with writing on household names (Kraftwerk, Daft Punk, Future), underground icons (Acen, The Mover, Omni Trio) and nebulous trends like the ambient revival.

Unsurprisingly, we couldn’t squeeze all of that in a single episode. But we did talk to Simon about the lure of accelerationism, dance music’s middle-aged desires, Daft Punk’s yearning for the “mass synchrony” of the ‘70s, the uncanniness of Boards of Canada, and how he learned to stop worrying about retromania and start loving Dry Cleaning. Plus: he gave us the scoop on his next book! We think it’s an exclusive!!

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