David Toop

by Sean Cooper
Although British writer and composer David Toops recorded output has included everything from experimental rock and jazz to musique concrete, the bulk of his solo and recent collaborative works have been in the vein of experimental ambient. Better known perhaps as a journalist and music historiographer, Toop is the author of a pair of widely hailed books — Rap Attack and Ocean of Sound (both Serpents Tail) — as well as a contributing editor and columnist for U.K. experimental music magazine The Wire. Recording since the early 70s, Toops list of musical collaborators include everyone from Derek Bailey and John Zorn to Brian Eno and Prince Far I. However, its his work as a solo composer and in combination with multi-instrumentalist Max Eastley, that have earned him highest marks. Toop and Eastleys 1994 collaboration, Buried Dreams, is a widely-hailed of experimental environmental composition. A dizzying blend of found sounds, field recordings, electro-acoustics, and digital manipulation, its success (and critical popularity) also helped set the tone for Toops subsequent solo work, Screen Ceremonies, released in 1996 on the Wire Editions label, as well as one-off tracks included on compilations released through Sound Effects and Time Recordings. He returned in 1999 with the mix album Hot Pants Idol.