Are Books The New Rock n roll?
January 28, 2007
In the interests of doing something different, I thought I’d bring together some book and rock criticism in this posting. (If you don’t like sci-fi skip the italics!)
Alastair Reynolds is one of my favourite sci-fi authors. A Welshman living in the Netherlands he mainly writes epic future histories with one series (named after his debut novel, ‘Revelation Space’) taking in 4 of his 6 novels published to date.
Towards the end of last year he had 2 collections of short fiction published. I sometimes think short stories are more like fast food than the gourmet experience of novels but both collections belie that notion. The one based in the RS universe, ‘Galactic North’ was the one I was most looking forward to and it is indeed an enjoyable collection which throws some light on the events in this sequence.
But in the end I enjoyed the other collection ‘Zima Blue and Other Stories’ more. There are different types of story in here from what could be called his usual style and it’s a very satisfying group of stories.
Reynolds is fond of peppering his stories with rock references, for example he has 2 published novellas entitled ‘Turqoise Days’ and ‘Diamond Dogs’. Initially I wasn’t 100% convinced that this wasn’t more than coincidence until I saw his website and he mentioned bands like Throwing Muses.
So I suspect he would probably like a fair portion of the bands featured on here. This has been confirmed by his occasional ‘Uncritical Raves’ on his website which have so far featured Grandaddy and the Chameleons.
Whilst perusing my 7” collection recently I dug out the one single I own by the latter band. (I have most of the LPs). Another Manchester band from the early 80’s they were one of the rockiest of the post Joy Division bands who carved their own niche without enjoying more than critical success. The LPs seemed to grow in maturity the longer the band went on and my favourite is probably ‘Strange Times’ from 1986 which for some reason I only have on cassette.
Today’s featured track though comes from a non-LP single, the double A sided ‘In Shreds/Nostalgia’ (I think it was a reissue). I’d defy anyone to listen to this and say that Daniel Kessler from Interpol had never heard of the Chameleons.
The Chameleons – Nostalgia
Semi-official Chameleons Myspace including ‘In Shreds’
Use here to help buy Al Reynolds books (including ‘Galactic North’) online. ‘Zima Blue’ is available from Nightshade Books.
But Chameleons records online here.
