Academic | Writer | Editor | Musician

I am an independent music scholar and musician. I have published academic studies on electronic music, music history, music technology, punk and post-punk. I am currently researching topics in electronic music history and have thirty years experience in lecturing and curriculum development in popular music, media studies, and cultural, historical and contextual studies at UK universities and colleges.

I have co-edited the books Kraftwerk: Music Non Stop (2011), Brian Eno: Oblique Music (2016) and The Velvet Underground: What Goes On (2022) published by Bloomsbury Academic. A further academic book collection focusing on Talking Heads is currently in development. I am also contributing editor (Music Technology) for the Bloomsbury Encyclopaedia of Popular Music of the World.

I completed my practice-led PhD - Sounds of Future Past: the Poetics of Electronica - in 2013.

I produce ambient and experimental electronic music as ghost elektron and electronic post-punk/synthpop/dark wave as Nostalgia Deathstar (with fellow academic Martin James) released via the State of Bass label. I have also recently contributed to and mastered two 2xCD/Cassette compilations for the label featuring new electro pop, synthpop and electronic post-punk - Generation Blitz: Dusk to Dawn (2021) and Generation Blitz 2: Concrete and Chrome (2022).

Research Links - ResearchGate | Academia | OrcID | Google Scholar | LinkedIn

My current research interests include:

- early electronic music history before 1945
- Luigi Russolo's London concerts in June 1914
- Martin Taubmann and the Electronde
- the history of sound and music technology
- ambient, background and environmental musics
- electronic music 'waves' post-2000 and virtual music genres
- current electronic music production practices in the digital realm
- nostalgia and aging in music practice
- hauntology and music

I have an ongoing research interest in:

- post-punk
- German popular music
- practice-as-research in music production
- vinyl records
- music production analysis
- the history of music and sound recording formats
- the pasts and futures of electronic music
- liminality and music cultures

Research Publications:

Books

2011 - Albiez, S. and Pattie, D. (eds), Kraftwerk: Music Non-Stop. NY/London: Continuum/Bloomsbury.

2016 - Albiez, S. and Pattie, D. (eds), Brian Eno: Oblique Music. NY/London: Bloomsbury.

2022 - Albiez, S. and Pattie, D. (eds), The Velvet Underground: What Goes On. NY/London: Bloomsbury.

Book Chapters

2003 - 'Sounds of Future Past: from Neu! to Numan' in Phleps, T and von Appen, R (eds.) POP SOUNDS: Klangtexturen in der Pop- und Rockmusik. Bielefelder, Germany: Transcript-Verlag.

2004 - 'The Day the Music Died Laughing: Madonna & Country' in Hernandez, S F and Jarman, F (eds) Madonna's Drowned Worlds: New Approaches to Her Cultural Transformations. (1982-2002). Abingdon: Ashgate Publishing.

2006 - 'Print the Truth, Not the Legend: Sex Pistols, Lesser Free Trade Hall, Manchester, 4 June 1976’ in Inglis, I. (ed.), Performance and Popular Music: History, Place and Time. Abingdon: Ashgate Publishing. [2012 UPDATE VERSION]

2011 - with Kyrre Tromm Lindvig - 'Autobahn and Heimatklänge: soundtracking the FRG' in Albiez, S. and Pattie, D. (eds), Kraftwerk: Music Non-Stop. New York / London: Continuum International Publishing.

2011 - 'Europe Non-Stop: West Germany, Britain and the Rise of Synthpop 1975-1981' in Albiez, S. and Pattie, D. (eds), Kraftwerk: Music Non-Stop. New York / London: Continuum International Publishing.

2011 - 'Post Soul Futurama: African American cultural politics and early Detroit Techno' in Mark J. Butler (ed.), Electronica, Dance and Club Music [The Library of Essays on Popular Music]. Abingdon: Ashgate Publishing.

2016 - 'The Voice and/of Brian Eno' in Albiez, S. and Pattie, D. (eds), Brian Eno: Oblique Music. New York / London: Bloomsbury Publishing.

2016 - with Ruth Dockwray - 'Before and After Eno: Situating 'The Recording Studio as Compositional Tool' in Albiez, S. and Pattie, D. (eds), Brian Eno: Oblique Music. New York / London: Bloomsbury Publishing.

2022 - with Timor Kaul - 'Unfrozen Borderlines: Nico, John Cale and Brian Eno at the Berlin Nationalgalerie' in Albiez, S. and Pattie, D. (eds), The Velvet Underground: What Goes On. New York / London: Bloomsbury.

2022 - 'The Late Musical Voice: John Cale and Lou Reed in the Twenty-First century' in Albiez, S. and Pattie, D. (eds), The Velvet Underground: What Goes On. New York / London: Bloomsbury.

Unpublished - Punk After 'Punk' in the UK: 1978-1984 [an orphaned book chapter from a book that never saw the light of day]

Journal Articles

2003 - 'Know History! John Lydon, cultural capital and the prog/punk dialectic' in Popular Music. 22:3. November. Cambridge: Cambridge Uni Press.

2004 - 'Strands of the Future: France and the birth of electronica' in Volume!. 2004:1. Clermont-Ferrand, France: Editions Melanie Seteun.

2005 - ‘Post Soul Futurama: African American cultural politics and early Detroit Techno’ in European Journal of American Culture. 24:2.

Encyclopedia Contributions

2013 - 'Kraftwerk', 'Television', 'The Police', and 'Jonathan Richman' entries in Garrett, Charles Hiroshi (ed.), The Grove Dictionary of American Music (Second Edition), Oxford: Oxford University Press.

2017 - Avant Pop, Bleep, Chillout, Dubstep, Electronic Body Music (EBM), Glitch, Hardcore Rave, Hauntology, Hi-NRG, New Romantics, Synth Pop and Trance entries in Sheperd, J. and Horn, D. (eds), Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World: European Genres Volume 11. NY/London: Bloomsbury.

2019 - Cassette, Cassette Recorder, Compact Disc, Consumption, Digital Compact Cassette, Digital Recording, Eight-Track Cartridge, Laser Disc, Loudspeaker, Minidisc, MP3, Record, Record Manufacture, rpm, Shellac, Solid State, Tape Recorder, Video Disc and Vinyl [entry updates and extensive digital revisions] in Sheperd, J. and Horn, D. (eds), Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World [online]. NY/London: Bloomsbury.

2021 - Mixing, Producer, Recording, Scratching, Take [entry updates and extensive digital revisions] in Sheperd, J. and Horn, D. (eds), Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World [online]. NY/London: Bloomsbury.

Forthcoming 2023 - Electronic Music, Electronic Dance Music (EDM), Electronica, Minimal Wave, Techno, Trap, Vaporwave, Synthwave, Hypnagogic Pop, Coldwave, Chillwave and LoFi Hip Hop in Sheperd, J. and Horn, D. (eds), Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World. NY/London: Bloomsbury.

Forthcoming - Music Video and YouTube, Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World. NY/London: Bloomsbury.