Dust - A Dirt Track Odyssey

[chrisnz]

Has anybody else tried this?

It's a real weirdo. Two of the main players come from The Herbaliser which is a downtempo Hip Hop kind of outfit whose last album, Something Wicked.. bored the tits off me and was resold in a heartbeat. Odyssey is so different that it's disorientating. Perhaps the only thing that gives a clue to their background is that occasionally a rather thin idea is stretched out beyond breaking point for the sake of the groove.

So it's guitars then dude, acoustic, electric even some lubricious slide that wouldn't sound amiss on a Stones'y honk. Cinematic strings, Floydian/Beatlesian melodies and a vibe that recalls the most blissed out moments of Primal Screams - Screamadelica.

There's not a new idea to be had on the entire disc but as I type this, watching a thin winter rain through the window, it's a cruisy summer evening inside and that's a GOOD thing!

I can't find many reviews at all but there's this on AMG..

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p...=Ajsrc284l05na

Strange but good then.

Chris.

[Davey]

Has anybody else tried this?

Not me or anyone I know besides you, but it does sound kind of cool. Are the vocals a rap or singing? Anything with a Portishead reference in the description/review is worth exploring to me. I wonder if there will ever be another album from them. Guess not after this long.

[chrisnz]

Not me or anyone I know besides you, but it does sound kind of cool. Are the vocals a rap or singing? Anything with a Portishead reference in the description/review is worth exploring to me. I wonder if there will ever be another album from them. Guess not after this long.

It's singing, there's nothing on here that references hiphop at all. There's no jagged edges either which I usually like but what can I say it's just... nice :-) They've re-released it with a bonus disc of remixes, which I may check out, and AMG mentions good reviews but I can't find any.

NP Squarepusher - Ultravisitor and it sounds pretty good, much to my suprise.

PS. I just read the first SF book since I was about 21 and I thought of you. Pat Cadigan - Synners it was in a display at the library of readers favourites and I took a chance, not earth shattering but interesting. You got any recs? Not space cowboys!

Hang on, I have actually read some of Iain Banks' SF stories so not the first since I was 21. I've seen one in the bookshops, Neuromancer(?) that looked interesting.

Regards, Chris.

[Davey]

PS. I just read the first SF book since I was about 21 and I thought of you. Pat Cadigan - Synners it was in a display at the library of readers favourites and I took a chance, not earth shattering but interesting. You got any recs? Not space cowboys!

Hang on, I have actually read some of Iain Banks' SF stories so not the first since I was 21. I've seen one in the bookshops, Neuromancer(?) that looked interesting.

Regards, Chris.

Science Fiction! Alright, let me get out my nerd hat

I don't know what you've read in the past or what your taste might be, but in science fiction (and I guess fiction in general) my taste is somewhat similar to what I like in music and film, kind of dark and quirky with lots of strong imagery. You mentioned Iain Banks and he's written some really good novels in the last 15 years. The Neuromancer novel by William Gibson is very good and was what many point to as the beginning of the cyberpunk era of science fiction, something for which I think he should get both credit and blame. Really enjoyed it at the time but that type of story got old with me pretty quick. He wasn't really the first as people were jacking in for many years previously (including the excellent Samuel Delany Nova from the late 60s that I list below and which I sometimes claim is my favorite sci-fi novel) but that book was extremely popular and set the scene so well.

So here's a quick ten that come readily to mind spanning the last 50 years in roughly chronological order. Most of them are acknowledged classics, visionary and timeless, and I think they are all highly acclaimed so should be easy to find. Descriptions at amazon but I might recommend Dan Simmons Hyperion for a start. It's about 10 years old and is just a beautifully written book recounting the individual stories that brought a handful of diverse people together on their present monumental quest. Leaves you hanging at the end as it is the beginning of what became a 4-part series, but taken on its own it is one of the most memorable books I've ever read. The second part was a letdown for me and I didn't go any further, but I still love that first one.

Alfred Bester - The Stars My Destination
Walter M. Miller Jr. - A Canticle for Leibowitz
Samuel Delany - Nova
Joe Haldeman - The Forever War
John Brunner - Stand On Zanzibar
Orson Scott Card - Ender's Game
Iain M. Banks - Consider Phlebas
Dan Simmons - Hyperion
Jack McDevitt - A Talent for War
Vernor Vinge - A Deepness in the Sky




And here's a few more of my favorites for a better context....

Samuel Delany - Stars In My Pocket Like Grains of Sand
Isaac Asimov - The Gods Themselves
Isaac Asimov - Foundation
Ursula K. Le Guin - The Dispossessed
Frederick Pohl - Gateway
Michael Kube-McDowell - Alternaties
Arthur Clarke - Rendezvous With Rama
Roger Zelazny - Lord of Light
Greg Bear - Eon
A.A. Attanasio - Radix
Gregory Benford - Across the Sea of Suns
Norman Spinrad - Child of Fortune
Walter Tevis - The Man Who Fell to Earth
Robert A. Heinlein - The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
Neal Stephenson - The Diamond Age
Vernor Vinge - A Fire upon the Deep
Clifford D. Simak - Way Station
Iain M. Banks - The Player of Games
Iain M. Banks - Use of Weapons
Michael Flynn - The Wreck of the River of Stars
Hal Clement- Mission of Gravity
Jack Vance - Planet Adventure

[chrisnz]

I think it might be a little late in the game to be trying to convince anyone 'round here that your nerd hat would be removable with anything short of surgery :-)

Ok I've ordered Hyperion and Neuromancer. Looking through your list (printed out for future reference) there's quite a lot that I remember from the days when I used to inhale them in the 70's. Not that that's going to be a problem, I've just finished reading a book that I first read five years ago and aside from the vague notion that I'd already been there I could remember very little of it. I'm trying to put a brave spin on this worrying trend by thinking of all the money I'll save just rereading everything I've previously bought rather than shelling out for any new ones...

Chris.

[Dusty Chalk]

Thanks, Davey.

I love Greg Bear. I would think Heads would be a good place to start (being as it's short).

Ender's Game is everyone's favourite, but the problem with that is, it just makes you want to read everything else in that series (and if you include Ender's Shadow, it's two series). Enchantment or Songmaster are good stand-alone books that will get you started out just fine.

Good choice on Roger Zelazny -- whoa! Takes me back. First author that I considered my "favourite".

I would also recommend one of the Jerry Pournelle/Larry Niven collaborations -- Mote in God's Eye, Hammerfall, or Legacy of Heorot.