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Futuromania

Electronic Dreams, Desiring Machines and Tomorrow’s Music Today

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About this listen

 Pre-order Simon Reynold's forthcoming Still in a Dream: Shoegaze, Slackers, and the Reinvention of Rock, 1984-1994, publishing June 2026.

Simon Reynolds's first book in eight years is a celebration of music that feels like a taste of tomorrow. Sounds that prefigure pop music's future - the vanguard genres and heroic innovators whose discoveries eventually get accepted by the wider mass audience. But it's also about the way music can stir anticipation for a thrillingly transformed world just around the corner: a future that might be utopian or dystopian, but at least will be radically changed and exhilaratingly other.

Starting with an extraordinary chapter on Giorgio Moroder and Donna Summer, taking in illuminating profiles of Ryuichi Sakamoto, Boards of Canada, Burial, and Daft Punk, and arguing for Auto-Tune as the defining sound of 21st century pop, Futuromania shapes over two-dozen essays and interviews into a chronological narrative of machine-music from the 1970s to now. Reynolds explores the interface between pop music and science fiction's utopian dreams and nightmare visions, always emphasising the quirky human individuals abusing the technology as much as the era-defining advances in electronic hardware and digital software.

A tapestry of the scenes and subcultures that have proliferated in that febrile, sexy and contested space where man meets machine, Futuromania is an enthused listening guide that will propel readers towards adventures in sound. There is a lifetime of electronic listening here.©2024 Simon Reynolds Music Technology

Critic reviews

A captivating celebration of the music that pushes us forward
Should be guaranteed a place on the bookshelf of everyone who claims to be a music lover
Read it and you will believe he believes in life after love
The deeper he digs, the better it gets - his explanation of Auto-tune is fascinating
Futuromania is a testament to our ever-changing imagination of what the future holds and whether radical sounds equate to radical politics
Beautiful, combining irresistible period detail with astute critical insight
All stars
Most relevant
I really love these musical overviews from Simon Reynolds. But every time he grabs my attention, he skips to different music(s). Yet I understand his ‘overview’ is already several hundreds of pages long, so his goal is reached: I simply want to learn more about my vinyl collection than he shares in his books!

Love the contents, sometimes too superficial

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Excellent book, lots of great takes on 90s electronica and beyond. I loved it, Simon’s writing is succinct and perfectly descriptive

90s rave nostalgia and much more

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This is a great overview of Electronic music, specifically because it goes beyond origins and 1970s to 1980s as most books on electronic music limit themselves to. There is a massive gap in the market for books like this on Electronic music from 2000 to today. The book is well-written and well-read, I hope Simon Reynolds publishes more on Electronic music in future.

Honestly the best book on Electronic music I've ever read

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