Ian Hocking Love And Other Near Death Experiences – Mil Millington See all books by Mil Millington at Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com British author Mil Millington found success with his first book, ‘Things My Girlfriend And I Have Argued About’, which drew upon his so-named cult website. This book set the trend for his next two, […]
Trainspotting The Play: Harry Gibson: 10 Years On
“…Trainspotting keeps bringing new people into theatres; theatre managers cry out happily, ‘We’ve never sold so much lager’…”
The Fall : Fall Heads Roll
Ben Granger Fall Heads Roll – The Fall See all music by The Fall at Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com It’s time again for the Seer of Salford to blast forth his enchanted bombast. With more albums now than anyone can count, and with its title surely a sly reference to the number of foot-soldiers fallen from […]
Boards Of Canada : The Campfire Headphase
Nick Mitchell The Campfire Headphase – Boards Of Canada See all albums by Boards Of Canada at Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com There is something oddly addictive about the music of Boards of Canada. Not only are they one of the rare ‘electronica’ outfits with definite crossover appeal, but one listen to their music (usually via the […]
Joshua Davis: The Underdog: How I Survived The World’s Most Outlandish Competitions
Chris Mitchell The Underdog: How I Survived The World’s Most Outlandish Competitions – Joshua Davis See all books by Joshua Davis at Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com Joshua Davis set out to win. At anything. Living in a crappy apartment with a crappy job and a loving but long suffering wife, Davis set out to prove himself. […]
Suhayl Saadi: Psychoraag
Nick Mitchell Psychoraag – Suhayl Saadi See all books by Suhayl Saadi at Amazon.co.uk | Amazon.com Psychoraag is Suhayl Saadi’s first novel and possibly the first ever novel of Scottish-Asian identity. It was short-listed for the James Tait Black award earlier this year, eventually losing out to Ronan Bennett’s Havoc, in its First Year. Psychoraag […]
Nic Dunlop: The Lost Executioner
Chris Mitchell The Lost Executioner is my Book of the Year. Like my pick for last year, Emma Larkin’s Secret Histories: Finding George Orwell in A Burmese Teashop, The Lost Executioner is a personal travelogue into a country that tries to understand its recent, disastrous politics. Where Secret Histories documents Burma’s slide into a real-life […]
Half Man Half Biscuit : Achtung Bono
Ben Granger I may as well declare my stance at the outset. Half Man Half Biscuit are Britain’s most under-rated band, and their singer/writer Nigel Blackwell is not only one of the land’s finest humourists and satirists, but also a chronicler of the tawdriness of modern British life whose vision is shot through with true […]
Marina Lewycka: A Short History Of Tractors in Ukrainian
Ian Hocking The marketing executives at Viking must have tapped pens thoughtfully against teeth before agreeing to the title, A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian. Helpfully, the book is subtitled “a novel”. The cover is nicely east European: duotone block print. Its author is Marina Lewycka, a lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University. Her own […]
Carly Milne – Naked Ambition: Women Who Are Changing Porn
Chris Mitchell A collection of essays from women working in the US porn industry and women consuming porn outside it, Naked Ambition is an intelligent and provocative survey of pro-porn female opinions. There’s little in the way of gushing praise about the industry itself – most of the writers agree that newcomers get eaten alive […]
Magnus : Sleepwalker
Chris Mitchell These days I’m reduced to randomly choosing new music at the bootleg CD stalls on Bangkok’s streets. I don’t bother with the music press anymore so I have no idea who’s up and coming, who to find out about, who to watch – these days I just pick albums on whether I like […]
Ralph Steadman: Gonzo: The Art
“Bloodsucking business men, venal politicians, dollar drugged gamblers, archetypal beholders of negation and power transmogrified into grinning reptilia… In the ferocious stroke of a few simple lines Steadman trans-atlantically expresses all the negative facets of the human condition to a terrifyingly hilarious degree.”
The White Stripes : Get Behind Me Satan
Ben Granger They may have been going for years beforehand but it was in 2001 that weirdo-duo The White Stripes became known to the world, arriving in fine feral style with their supercharged brand of primeval punk blues. They were hyped to the max with their red and white uniforms and carefully contrived sister/brother/lover cartoon […]
Aisle 16: Live From The Hellfire Club
Edmund Hardy There is power and its modes, the democratic nature of speech, and the politics of wit; thus, satire. Aisle16 are a collective of six stand-up poets, “poetry’s boyband”, and their book hopes to be “The poetry book it’s not embarrassing to be seen carrying.” It collects over fifty of their poems. When we […]
Gert Hofmann: Parable Of The Blind
Edmund Hardy The Knocker knocks on the barn door and six men stumble around, trying to get up. The novel opens: “On the day when we’re to be painted – yet another new day! – a knocking on the barn door drags us out of our sleep. No, the knocking isn’t inside us, it’s outside, […]
Fritz Lang : Spione
Ismo Santala on the subversive pulp fiction of Lang’s 1928 silent thriller The quick-paced opening sequence of Fritz Lang’s silent thriller Spione (1928) counterpoints a carefully orchestrated crime spree with the gross incompetence of the law. After a series of assassinations and thefts, an agent rushes into the office of a trim government official. Gasping […]
Steven Jay Gould: Rocks Of Ages
Ian Hocking In his book Rocks of Ages, the late Stephen Jay Gould, who had Harvard professorships in both zoology and geology, presents a philosophical thesis on the relationship between science and religion. Chestnuts don’t come much older. Some background on Gould first. He wrote much on the influence of geological events on the evolution […]
John Battelle – The Search: How Google And Its Rivals Rewrote The Rules Of Business And Transformed Our Culture
Chris Mitchell John Battelle’s The Search is more than just a potted history of Google, although that company looms large throughout his book; rather, it’s a book which takes stock of Google’s giddy rise, the search engine wars between Google, Yahoo! and MSN, and the arrival of online contextual advertising which has irrevocably changed the […]
Ron Callari, Jack Pittman: Uncle Dubya’s Jihad Jamboree
Ben Granger It’s so very easy to get bored of the endless invective directed at the Bush White House. By turns bilious and sniggering, it’s all so very superior isn`t it? It’s just so boring and obvious. Thomas Frank’s What`s The Matter With Kansas? showed recently that the Republicans have a key weapon to solidify […]
Raj Kamal Jha – If You Are Afraid Of Heights
Harpreet Singh Soorae Give yourself some time, he says, I will leave the pictures and the pieces of paper with you. Keep them carefully, whenever you are afraid, take them out, arrange them in whatever order you want and you will understand your parent’s stories. What stories? I ask. Of the dreams your father and […]
Kevin O’Hara – …Tell Someone?
Ben Granger The web has done wonders for democratising freedom of expression, with information more easily shared than ever before. When it comes to the old-fashioned medium of books however, a few major publishing houses continue their stranglehold on the market. It’s always good therefore to see a smaller indie publisher making an impact. …Tell […]
Erol Alkan: A Bugged Out Mix By Erol Alkan: Big Jesus Trash Can
“…Anarchic, eclectic and unique are some of the words used to describe dee-jay Erol Alkan, who’s been injecting his imagination and energies into his renowned club night Trash since January 1997…”
Christopher G. Moore: Gambling On Magic
“…I was at a bit of a disadvantage during our caffienated conversation as I have yet to read any of Moore’s books. He kindly gave me copies of the aforementioned Zero Hour, along with the Burma-set…”
Measles Mumps Rubella: “Fantastic Success”
Dreamy Cure meets Eno meets no-wave drives handshake track “Algorithm of Desire” in this indie-dance thesis, a somewhat generic effort at times but a welcome respite from (or throwback to) marginally more interesting times and sounds. “Hollow Bodies” fixates on a groove scrounged up by disco-izing Wire’s “Drill,” David Essex gets his in the echoing […]
Rob Reynolds: “Sightseeing”
Bar band jazz-pop smooth as a pina colada most of the time, depending on how much Reynolds is compelled to stick with Seal’s vocal sound. When he flexes his glottis he gets a Joe Cocker thing going on (the feisty, Chicago-esque horn section of “Sherry Man” is one instance in which he’s driven to that […]
