I may have missed earlier discussion on this one -- has anyone seen the new paperback version of "Unlocking the Groove," Mark Butler's Indiana University Ph.D. dissertation. I happened to find a copy of it tonight and am already pretty impressed. No credit for the cover photo but it looks like Kenny Larkin's 2004 set at the DEMF (a real stormer, as those who were there will recall), the first paragraph of the introduction namechecks this list -- take a bow, y'all -- and the first page of the book sets the scene with Stacey Pullen's ground-breaking set at the first DEMF in 2000. A pretty good way to start :)
The transcriptions that underpin the book harken back to the classicist tradition of academic ethnomusicology but Mark Butler extends way beyond that conventionally very dry approach. So there is the presentation in proper music notation form of "How to Play Our Music" and lots of other stuff that provides a good academic context without being stuffy. The basic thesis is about the rhythmic structure of electronic dance music and how that functions with complexity and ambiguity rather than monotony. Which of course we all know but it's good to see that in print :) I'm only three pages into this and already it looks excellent, maybe a classic. http://www.iupress.indiana.edu/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=22615 fh
