In How To Wreck A Nice Beach, Dave Tompkins shares the incredible story of the vocoder - from how it was invented in 1928 to its usage by the military to guard from eavesdroppers during WW2, all the way to the 70's when it used by musicians and today when it is the ubiquitous voice of pop music. See this unlikely machine pop up in context next to JFK, Kubrick, popular science fiction, Nazis, and of course its musical context from Stevie Wonder, Herbie Hancock, Freestyle, Kraftwerk, Egyptian Lover, Cybotron, Afrika Bambaataa, Roger Troutman and Zapp. The history of the electronic voice (talk boxes, auto-tune, and even artifical larynges are covered as well) is traced in fascinating detail with tons of awesome photos & illustrations and entertaining personal anecdotes.
Oh, and if you're wondering about the title, it's actually how the author misheard a vocoder-rendered phrase "HOW TO RECOGNIZE SPEACH".
