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BOOK REVIEW! NEUMUSIK - THE COMPLETE EDITION BY DAVID ELLIOTT (Korm Plastics, 2023)

As with PULL DOWN THE SHADES I got this 'un if only for the "fanzine experience" as Brad Kohler so succinctly put it. As far as that fanzine experience goes (or at least went), NEUMUSIK had a whole lot goin' for it from clear enough to read type, knowledgably and thoughtfully written content and a pretty good (maybe even "professional") layout compared with a few of them home project crudzines that were up and about on the market way back when. But for being a rag devoted to the European mail order and import bin realm well...

Tis a good enough settle down and read book true, but compared with some of the electronic/kraut/experimental music mags of the day from EUROCK to FACE OUT I must admit NEUMUSIK pales if only a tad. Now, serious fans of late-seventies specialty shop searching will undoubtedly like NEUMUSIK's coverage of the then-contemporary beyond the avgarde music scene, but them other mags were conceived by rabid rockers who, besides being up and front fans of the "space rock" realm, were born and bred of the same late-sixties/early-seventies soundsquall that set the pace for a good portion of what was decent and worthy of your ears for the next decade or so. After all, it's more'n just plain obvious that EUROCK's Archie Patterson cut his teeth on the Velvets/Stooges axis of musical deconstruction and poured through more'n just a little of the Lester Bangs and Greg Shaw font of musical knowledge, while the guys at FACE OUT could make a clear connection between the works of --- say --- Can and Faust and connect it with the early electronic punk sproutings that were to be found elsewhere on the globe. However, there seems to be somewhat of a staidness to NEUMUSIK which was not so evident in the competition. It might not bother the true blue fans who are in it for the space/prog information and information  only, but for a fanabla like myself well...  I find that there's something that's shallIsay "missing" as far as literary jam kickouts go --- maybe it's just that I like to read about music filtered through a Meltzer or Nick Kent attitude and that credo just didn't suit editor David Elliott one iota. And as we all know, THAT'S HIS OWN BUSINESS!!!

Eh, why should I pick nits over this 'un anyway. NEUMUSIK was an exemplary endeavor covering the music that Elliott loved, and even if he didn't have a "gonz" outlook or spend every other paragraph waxing on about alla our punk rock faveraves and how their vibes resonated in the music at hand he sure did put out a good fanzine that looks and reads swell fortysome years after the fact. Elliott had a mission (covering the various electronic/experimental musings both local and abroad) and he sure did it swell sans the literary cereal filler within the six issues that came out, all unleashed within the span of a rather short three years at that!

If you like the entire concept of fanzines then swell, get it. If you're seeking the same spirit of nose-thumbing under-the-counterculture ravings of a CREEM or DENIM DELINQUENT you'd be best to save your shells. As for me I'm glad I snatched this 'un up even if it doesn't have any of that sainted nose thumbing mayhem or paens to punk glories past to be found within its pages. But like I once said eh! --- can't have everything handed to me on a silver platter y'know.