Will I love Electric Eden?

I am a movie, book, and culture fanatic, but the ultimate medium for me is music.

Hauntology and folk horror are both greatly informed by music and have subsequently resulted in music that is informed by the concepts of hauntology and folk horror. I focus a lot on this reciprocal relationship in my book, but no one has explored the connections between the music of the past and the music of the future in greater detail than Rob Young in Electric Eden.

Starting with the revival of folk music in England, this book ranges through psychedelic and acid folk,… show more.

I like books that take me via the scenic route. If I’m reading a history of folk music, I don’t just want dry old discographies and lists of bands and their lineups. I want a living, breathing account of where this all came from and what the modern era has inherited.

I want to know about the collectors and archivists and famous composers like Vaughan Williams and Holst who went from town to town and village to village getting information from people of my Grandad’s age about the songs that were passed down to them through the generations. I want… show more.

Young traces the history of Britain's visionary music from the Edwardian era to the end of the Seventies with such a powerful voice that he manages to re-enchant a lost landscape.

From the trove of folk songs collected by Cecil Sharpe's and Ralph Vaughn Williams' forays into the farmyards and fishing villages yet to be decimated by WWI to the melancholy, autumnal sunsets captured by Joe Boyd discoveries Nick Drake and The Incredible String Band, his luminous writing is as bewitching as it is informative.

It awoke memories of my own Seventies childhood and all its magical undercurrents – from… show more.