A Nation of Tinkerers: A History of Canadian Electronic Music from 1945–1985

For decades, the history of Canadian electronic music has existed in fragments—footnotes, anecdotes, and half-remembered stories preserved by enthusiasts and archivists. A Nation of Tinkerers gathers these scattered pieces into the first comprehensive account of how Canada helped shape the global evolution of electronic sound. Beginning in the post-war years and spanning four decades, the book uncovers a vibrant culture of invention, experimentation, and collaboration rarely acknowledged in mainstream histories.

Michael Rancic situates these developments within a broader story about technology, creativity, and politics. Drawing on archival research, interviews, and decades of music journalism, he reveals how early electronic music was shaped not only by breakthroughs in engineering but by collaborative communities spanning avant-garde composition, psychedelia, reggae, disco, hip-hop, and experimental pop. What appears, at first glance, as solitary tinkering emerges instead as a profoundly social practice rooted in shared curiosity, improvisation, and play.

The book also examines the pivotal moment when public support receded and the free market took hold, reshaping both the tools available to musicians and the visibility of Canada’s inventors on the world stage. This shift produced lasting consequences: instruments once made in university labs or independent workshops struggled to secure mass production, even as electronic sound became central to mainstream music.

By illuminating the work of overlooked engineers, composers, and scene-builders, Rancic shows how their innovations paved the way for contemporary electronic and pop artists—from Caribou and Grimes to The Halluci Nation and Kaytranada—and for the digital production environments that shape the music of Drake, The Weeknd, and Justin Bieber. In doing so, A Nation of Tinkerers reframes electronic music as a key site for understanding Canada’s cultural identity, technological imagination, and artistic legacy.

Expansive, incisive, and richly detailed, the book provides an essential account of how Canada’s early electronic musicians and inventors helped build the sonic world we now take for granted.

AuthorMichael Rancic

PublisherInvisible Publishing

Rough Description: Love Letters and Ghost Stories from a Life in Music

Rough Description: Love Letters and Ghost Stories from a Life in Music is Don Pyle’s tantalizing memoir, recalling first bands, the absurdity and incredible rewards of touring, and reflections on groups and situations he’s been in, most prominently as drummer and co-founder of Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet. He recounts friend and work relationships with musician Dallas Good, venerable producer/engineer Steve Albini, comedy troupe Kids In The Hall, whose series and theme music his group created, and more.

He describes experiences attending hair school, his evolving relationship with his mother, how the Ramones affected his young teen brain, a life-changing car accident, and other situations from a creative life lived fully, with a bit of dish. Hear how a punk rock penpal lead to a career in showbiz, and how to put out the same record over and over again.

Photography, performing and writing music in bands, recording and producing numerous other artists, writing about music, and scoring for film and TV, are all part of Pyle’s distinct observer’s eye that sees all creative media as aspects of the same stream.

AuthorDon Pyle

PublisherECW Press

Ways of Listening: Building a Deeper Relationship with Music in the Streaming Era

Ways of Listening is a love letter to music, a sharp analysis of our current cultural reality, and a joyful celebration of the artists who keep creating against all odds.

How has the internet changed the way we listen to, and love, the music that shapes our lives? Award-winning musician Rollie Pemberton (Cadence Weapon) interrogates our current musical landscape.

Music occupies a curious place in modern life, somehow omnipresent and disposable at the same time. Computers have democratized song creation. There is more music being produced now than at any point in human history and streaming platforms are the ultimate distribution model for this vast bounty.

But streaming relies on an algorithmic discovery system that guides the user’s choices and encourages them to listen passively to the company’s curation, while also dissuading the listener from searching for music and developing their own taste. Streamers offer meagre royalties to artists on their platforms, largely devaluing music in the public sphere. And social media companies have taught a whole generation of young listeners to perceive music as merely background noise for content.

This all adds up to a bleak landscape for the true fan, but there’s another way. Pemberton delves deep into his own music discovery process to present a gentle reminder of another path for the contemporary music lover. He explores the obsession with the “mysterious artist” archetype, studies Charli xcx’s groundbreaking Brat album rollout, assesses the magic of demo recordings, breaks down the Kendrick Lamar – Drake beef, and examines AI’s struggle to understand Italo disco’s strange balance of classic and cringe.

AuthorRollie Pemberton

PublisherPenguin Random House Canada (Mclelland & Stewart)

Accessibility Sponsor: Queen Books