David Toop

Soon after Toop's birth, his parents moved to Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire, where he grew up. He was educated at Broxbourne Grammar School, which he left in 1967 to study at Hornsey College of Art and Watford School of Art.

In 1974 Toop edited and co-published the book, New/Rediscovered Musical Instruments, featuring the work of Max Eastley, Hugh Davies, Evan Parker, Paul Lytton, Paul Burwell and himself. He was a founder member of the London Musicians Collective, Musics magazine and Collusion magazine, and in 1977 founded his record label, Quartz Publications. He published a book on hip hop, Rap Attack, in 1984.{{Cite journal|last=Fikentscher|first=Kai|date=1994|title=Review of Rap Attack 2: African Rap to Global Hip Hop; The Emergency of Black and the Emergence of Rap. A Special Issue of Black Sacred Music: A Journal of Theomusicology|journal=Ethnomusicology|volume=38|issue=2|pages=349–351|doi=10.2307/851745|jstor=851745|issn=0014-1836}} Eleven years later, Ocean of Sound was published, described as Toop's "poetic survey of contemporary musical life from Debussy through Ambient, Techno, and drum 'n' bass."Audio Culture: Readings in Modern Music, p. 355. Subsequent books include Exotica, a winner of the American Book Awards in 2000, Sinister Resonance (2010),{{Cite journal|last=Dixon|first=Martin Parker|date=2013|title=Review of Sinister Resonance|journal=Popular Music|volume=32|issue=2|pages=315–318|doi=10.1017/S0261143013000135|jstor=24736765|s2cid=162013482|issn=0261-1430}} and Into the Maelstrom,{{Cite journal|last=Studies|first=Journal of Sonic|date=2021-03-24|title=JSS Book reviews|url=https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/558982/559029|journal=Journal of Sonic Studies}} his survey of free improvisation shortlisted for the Penderyn Music Book prize in 2017.

He was a regular contributor to British music magazine The Wire and the British magazine The Face.

Since the early 1970s, Toop has also been a presence on the British experimental and improvised music scene, collaborating with Paul Burwell (playing guitar and flutes in their duo, Rain in the Face), Bob Cobbing with the group abAna, Hugh Davies, Max Eastley, Brian Eno, and others, more recently performing with Rie Nakajima, Thurston Moore, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Sidsel Endresen, Camille Norment, Akio Suzuki and Elaine Mitchener. He was a member of the Flying Lizards. He is a member of the improvising, genre-hopping quartet Alterations, active from 1977 to 1986 and reforming in 2015.{{Cite web|url=http://www.thewire.co.uk/in-writing/essays/clive-bell_what_s-so-funny_bout-british-improvising_|title=Clive Bell: What's so funny 'bout British improvising? – The Wire|last=Bell|first=Clive|website=The Wire Magazine – Adventures in Modern Music|access-date=2016-05-17}}

In 2000, Toop curated the sound art exhibition Sonic Boom, and the following year, he curated a 2-CD collection entitled Not Necessarily English Music: A Collection of Experimental Music from Great Britain, 1960–1977. More experimentally, Toop has also actively engaged with 'sounding objects' from a range of museums.{{cite journal |last= Toop |first= David |date= 1 October 2012|title=Sounding the Object: a Timebase Archive |journal=Journal of Conservation and Museum Studies |volume= 10 |issue= 1 |pages= 39–43 |doi=10.5334/jcms.1011203|doi-access= free }} His opera Star-shaped Biscuit was performed as a Faster Than Sound Project at Aldeburgh in 2012.{{cite web |last1=Burnett |first1=Joseph |title=David Toop's Star-Shaped Biscuit |url=https://thequietus.com/articles/10139-star-shaped-biscuit-david-toop-opera-review |website=The Quietus |date=24 September 2012 |access-date=25 April 2021}}

From 2013 to 2021 he was professor of audio culture and improvisation at the London College of Communication where he now holds emeritus status.{{cite web |last1=Toop |first1=David |title=University of the Arts Biography |url=https://researchers.arts.ac.uk/994-david-toop |publisher=University of the Arts |access-date=6 August 2024}}

• Rap Attack: African Jive to New York Hip Hop (1984) {{ISBN|0-89608-238-5}} – republished with additional chapters as
• Rap Attack 2: African Rap To Global Hip Hop (1992) {{ISBN|1-85242-243-2}}
• Rap Attack 3 (2000) {{ISBN|1-85242-627-6}}
• Ocean of Sound: Aether Talk, Ambient Sound and Imaginary Worlds (1995) {{ISBN|1-85242-743-4}}
• Exotica: Fabricated Soundscapes in a Real World (1999) {{ISBN|1-85242-595-4}}
• Sonic Boom: The Art of Sound (2000) ISBN 1-85332-208-3 – exhibition catalogue
• Haunted Weather: Music, Silence, and Memory (2004) {{ISBN|1-85242-812-0}}
• Sinister Resonance: The Mediumship of the Listener (2010) {{ISBN|1-4411-4972-4}}
• Into the Maelstrom: Music, Improvisation and the Dream of Freedom, Before 1970 (2016) {{ISBN|978-1-6289-2769-6}}
• Flutter Echo (2017) in Japanese {{ISBN|978-4866470115}}
• Flutter Echo (2019) in English {{ISBN|978-1-78760-152-9}}
• Inflamed Invisible: Collected Writings on Art and Sound 1976-2018 (2019) {{ISBN|9781912685165}}
• Two-Headed Doctor: Listening For Ghosts in Dr. John's Gris-Gris (2024) {{ISBN|978-1913689605}}

• 1975 – New and Rediscovered Musical Instruments (with Max Eastley)
• 1979 – Wounds (with Paul Burwell)
• 1980 – Whirled Music (with Max Eastley, Paul Burwell, Steve Beresford)
• 1994 – Buried Dreams (with Max Eastley)
• 1995 – Ancient Lights and the Blackcore (with Scorn, Seefeel, Timothy Leary/Dj Ched I Sabbah)
• 1995 – Screen Ceremonies
• 1996 – Pink Noir
• 1997 – Spirit World
• 1999 – Hot Pants Idol
• 1999 – Museum of Fruit
• 2000 – Needle in the Groove (with Jeff Noon)
• 2003 – Black Chamber
• 2003 – Breath-Taking (with Akio Suzuki)
• 2004 – 37th Floor at Sunset
• 2004 – Doll Creature (with Max Eastley)
• 2007 – Sound Body
• 2010 – Wunderkammern (with Rhodri Davies and Lee Patterson)
• 2013 – Lost Shadows: In Defence Of The Soul (Yanomami Shamanism, Songs, Ritual)
• 2015 – The Myriad Creatures will be Transformed of their own accord
• 2016 – Entities Inertias Faint Beings
• 2017 – Dirty Songs Play Dirty Songs
• 2020 – Apparition Paintings
• 2020 – Field Recordings and Fox Spirits
• 2020 – On White, Indigo and Lamp Black (with Avsluta)
• 2021 – Until the Night Melts Away (with John Butcher and Sharon Gal)
• 2021 – Garden of Shadows And Light (with Ryuichi Sakamoto)
• 2021 – Breathing Spirit Forms (with Akio Suzuki and Lawrence English)

• Ocean of Sound (1996) – (2-CD set intended to accompany his book)
• Crooning on Venus (1996)
• Sugar & Poison: Tru-Life Soul Ballads for Sentients, Cynics, Sex Machines & Sybarites (1996)
• Booming on Pluto: Electro for Droids (1997)
• Guitars on Mars (1997)
• Sonic Boom: The Art of Sound (2000) – (2-CD set accompanying exhibition catalog)
• Not Necessarily "English Music" (2001)
• Haunted Weather : Music, Silence, and Memory (2004) – (2-CD set intended to accompany his book)

{{Reflist}}

{{Wikiquote}}

• {{Official website|davidtoopblog.com}}
• [http://www.furious.com/perfect/toop.html Perfect Sound Forever interview (08/1997)]
• [http://www.vimeo.com/4863417 Short film on Unknown Devices, the laptop orchestra]
• [https://headphonecommute.com/2020/08/11/in-the-studio-with-david-toop/ Headphone Commute interview (2020)]
• [https://toneglow.substack.com/p/037-david-toop Tone Glow interview (10/2020)]

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Category:Free improvisation

Category:English writers about music

Category:English experimental musicians

Category:1949 births

Category:Musicians from the London Borough of Enfield

Category:People from Waltham Cross

Category:Virgin Records artists

Category:Samadhi Sound artists

Category:Living people

Category:The Wire (magazine) writers

Category:American Book Award winners

Category:Incus Records artists

Category:Sub Rosa Records artists

Category:Academics of the London College of Communication

Category:Writers from the London Borough of Enfield