INTO THE GROOVE

Chronicling sound recording from its 19th-century origins to the present day.

An audio geek’s delight, this engrossing history of music and voice recording is as wide-ranging and thorough as one could want. Though the sheer, exhaustive detail involving design, method, style, format, and contributions of the legions of those involved in research and development and invention can be daunting, it’s necessary to be complete. Scott, a respected music writer whose previous book was The Vinyl Frontier, builds on (and credits) the work of others—not least such books as Oliver Read and Walter L. Welch’s From Tin Foil to Stereo—but he has his own knack for doggedly unearthing crucial information and etching it into a vibrant, mostly linear narrative. Scott stresses the point that invention has as many versions as fathers, and he offers suggestions for late-19th- and early-20th-century recordings readers can find online. Although the author claims that his book is not “a comprehensive directory, dictionary, [and] glossary of the early recording industry,” which could fill several volumes, one suspects it will be more than enough for all but the most ardent high-fidelity aficionado. Scott concludes with an expansive, 40-page section, “Miscellany of the Groove,” that should satisfy die-hard crate diggers and audiophiles. The author, who has been collecting records since he was 7, concurs with the conviction of all those who grew up with vinyl LPs that analog sound remains warmer, richer, and more soul-stirring than any digital marvel, for all their convenience, could ever be. Vinyl, he insists, is the format for engaging with music in a deeper way, for immersion, for listening and doing nothing else. He notes the irony that, “in a sense…digital technology [is] trying ever harder to recreate analog sound,” but he concludes that, ultimately, format doesn’t matter. Only the music does.

Scott spins a history told with near-perfect pitch.