Ghostnotes: Music of the Unplayed

by B+

Music of the Unplayed is an extended photo essay with more than two hundred images that represent a mid-career retrospective of B+’s photography of hip-hop music and its influences. Taking its name from the unplayed sounds that exist between beats in a rhythm, the book creates a visual music, putting photos next to each other to evoke unseen images and create new histories. Like a DJ seamlessly overlapping and entangling disparate musics, Cross brings together LA Black Arts poetry and Jamaican dub, Brazilian samba and Ethiopian jazz, Cuban timba and Colombian cumbia. He links vendors of rare vinyl with iconic studio wizards, ranging from J Dilla and Brian Wilson to Leon Ware and George Clinton, David Axelrod to Shuggie Otis, Bill Withers to Ras Kass, Biggie Smalls to Timmy Thomas, DJ Shadow to Eugene McDaniels, and DJ Quik to Madlib. In this unique photographic mix tape, an extraordinary web of associations becomes apparent, revealing connections among people, cultures, and their creations.

Genres: Music

336 pages, Hardcover

Published December 7, 2017

Reviews

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a photography book, and while the intro by Jeff Chang is interesting, the other written sections don't add much, and this review is primarily aimed at the photos, which are fantastic.

Brian Cross is best known for the photos he took of DJ Shadow and other Hip Hop artists, but in this book we also see another side to his work. Through photos of Cuba, Jamaica, and many many other countries, Cross explores the far reach of music, from musicians, fans, and record dealers. There are some photos unrelated to music as well, but we are invited to find a link for our own.

For fans of Hip Hop and record digging this is a must look book, and it is 7"s so can fit alongside the rest of your collection nicely.