[Column] David Toop and genre-less musical thinking - Exploration of sounds by era

Column en Ambient Field Recording Hiphop

18 Sep 2025

David Toop and genre-less musical thinking - Exploration of sounds by era

Text: mmr｜Theme: Examining David Toop’s musical exploration by age from the 1970s to the present

A look back at David Toop’s attitude as a critic and musician that transcends genres, along with his representative works and works.

An ear that transcends genres: David Toop Changes in musical thinking

“Music shouldn’t be confined to genres. If you open your ears, everything becomes music.” ― David Toop

1970s - Between improvisation and avant-garde

Having established himself in London’s free improvisation scene, Toop began his career as a critic while performing as a guitarist. For him, music was not a form or style, but the act of listening itself. During this period, he had already developed an attitude of transcending genre boundaries.

Year	Featured sound sources/artists	Commentary
1970s	AMM, Derek Bailey	A symbol of the London improvisation scene. Toop strongly praises their “freedom of sound.”
1975	New and Rediscovered Musical Instruments (Toop & Max Eastley)	Experimental recording in which Toop himself participated. An attempt to expand the possibilities of musical instruments themselves.

1980s - Field recordings and world music

He explores environmental sounds and traditional music from various regions, and presents the sounds themselves as “works.”

He explores environmental sounds and traditional music from various regions, and presents the sounds themselves as “works.” Against the backdrop of the world music boom, Toop proposed cross-cultural listening. Rather than consuming other cultures as “decoration,” a methodology has emerged that expands the experience of sound. He truly viewed music as a ““sound map of the world.’’

Year	Featured sound sources/artists	Commentary
1981	Environmental Sound Recordings	Introducing an approach to presenting natural and urban sounds as music.
1983	Jon Hassell – Fourth World Vol.1	Toop critically supports “Fourth World music” that fuses Western and non-Western music.
Late 80s	Field recording/archive works	Reevaluated as “sound documents” rather than mere records.

1990s - “Rap Attack” and critique of urban culture

Rap Attack is an innovative book that not only chronicles the dawn of hip-hop, but also connects music, urban culture, and media phenomena. Around the same time, he discussed ambient and jungle, and was actively involved in cultural criticism of electronic music. It can be said that this was the era when Toop’s style, which combines criticism and a sense of the field, was established.

Year	Featured sound sources/artists	Commentary
1984–1991	Rap Attack (various editions)	Interpreting Grandmaster Flash and Run-DMC in the context of urban culture.
1994	Aphex Twin – Selected Ambient Works Vol. II	Mentioned as a “redefinition of ambient” and discusses the relationship between environment and music.
1996	Goldie – Timeless	Drum & Bass is evaluated as the “soundscape of the city of the future.”

2000s - Ocean of Sound and sensory liberation

"”Ocean of Sound,” known for its metaphor of ““sea of sound,” contained insights that anticipated the spread of streaming. The text, which is a fusion of essays, criticism, and literature, goes beyond the framework of a music book and functions as ““aural literature.’’ His ambient works also presented a world of soft and diffused sounds.

Year	Featured sound sources/artists	Commentary
2001	Brian Eno – Ambient 1: Music for Airports (Re-evaluation)	Reconsidering the relationship between the environment and hearing as “drifting sound.”
2004	Haunted Weather	Criticism relating electronic music and meteorological sensations.
Mid 2000s	Glitch music such as Oval, Fennesz	Affirms the “lack of sound” in the digital age as an aesthetic.

Since the 2010s - Sound Art and the Archeology of Memory

In works such as ““Sinister Resonance,” he explores musings on ““things that cannot be heard” and ““reverberation.’’ He has expanded his activities to the field of fine art and sound art, expanding music criticism into spatial and philosophical practice. Through themes such as memory, silence, and blank space, he reconsiders the sense of the ear from its roots.

Year	Featured sound sources/artists	Commentary
2010	Sinister Resonance	A philosophical exploration of the “invisible shadow of sound.”
2016	Entities Inertias Faint Beings	Own work. A tranquil sound world that combines ambient and improvisation.
Late 2010s	Sound installation work	A practical project that questions the relationship between music and space.

Conclusion - Genreless Practitioner

David Toop’s trajectory is a half-century-long exploration of how to listen to music. Jazz, hip-hop, ambient, sound art - he doesn’t fit into any of them, but rather continues to expand the ““possibilities of sound itself’’ by transcending these boundaries.

List of reference works

Author
Rap Attack (1984 / 1991 / 2000 revised edition)
Ocean of Sound (1995)
Haunted Weather (2004)
Sinister Resonance (2010)
Music works
New and Rediscovered Musical Instruments (with Max Eastley, 1975)
Screen Ceremonies (1990)
Museum of Fruit (1996)
Entities Inertias Faint Beings (2016)

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