10 Great Musicians That Are Slowly Being Forgotten

6. The Books

The Books made difficult music that€™s easy to listen to. Made up of Nick Zammuto and Paul de Jong, their sound was densely packed together with intricate and brittle melodies with hundreds upon hundreds of obscure samples that will shatter if you get too close to them. These samples include soundbites of everyday background conversation, golf commentary and just plain random noises. You could probably even list space and silence as instruments in the album notes because The Books use them better than just about anyone. Their stuff is bleak yet brimming with content. The Books worked almost exclusively without a drum kit or machine, choosing instead to use filing cabinets, pots, pans and whatever else was close to hand to build a beat from and just loop it to infinity. It€™s subtle and absurd, whimsical and heart aching all at once. They made albums that you put on in April and the next thing you know it€™s the end of summer. The Books seemingly operated within their own cosmos throughout the noughties and if feels like their collection of incredible albums have been filed away, deep in the recesses of the music industry to gather dust. That being said, it€™s probably what The Books would€™ve wanted anyway.