chiiiday frat

ah! it's finally arrived - been quite hectic with people staying over the past few weekends, so i'm looking forward to two exceptionally long lie-ins in bed!

I'm prob gonna write off most of the weekend reading "The Atrocity Archives" by Charles Stross, as thats what has happened with the past three of his novels i've read. MartinD, from my work, turned me on to Halting State, a crazed near-future sci-fi novel set about 10-15 years in the future, about a security breach in an online world which has very real offline implications. Really good and addictive stuff - then Martin lent me a few others of Charles Stross - Glass House and Accelerando - both of which completely blew me away, with much more elaborate and completely believeable tech set in a post-singularity world.
"The Atrocity Archives" is his first novel i believe, about the meeting point between mathematics and alternative universes, with a firm tongue in cheek humour. I only started it this morning, but i believe one phrase from the book may sum up the contents - "the Turning-Lovecraft theorem".
His style seems quite heavily influenced by one of other favorite authors, Neal Stephenson, who is acknowledged in the opening credits, but Charles Stross very much has a voice and style of his own.

I got quite a lot of new music this week which should see me through the weekend too:

Grievous Angel - Belief Is The Enemy
Received my copy of this yesterday - its a double CD with full versions of the album on disc one and a mixed second CD using dubs of the tracks. Had it on quite a bit yesterday, and its really fucking good. Its dubstep kinda, but just feels more for some reason. The sound palette makes me think more drum 'n' bass, bringing to mind Remarc for some reason. That prob gives the total wrong impression about the album if you haven't heard it - the tempo is way slower than d'n'b, but has more energy than yer average half-step, utilising quite a lot of break-beats and rolling basslines. It just seems really original - taking a bunch of influences from dubstep, d'n'b, bassline and ragga techno, and outputting just a really good electronic album.

Voltaic - Abyss EP 12"
Rustie's electro project alongside Martin Patton. I don't know enough about the history of this project to write any background on it, and as i only received it this morning can't comment on the music yet - its two tracks written by Rustie and one from Martin, and also meant to be their last under the Voltaic name. Their last EP, Oxidize was excellent, and from all reviews this one should be pretty ace.

SND - 4, 5, 6
Mat/Fisk turned me on to this the other day, and I'm well impressed. I expected a sort clicks and cuts glitchy record, and it does start off that way, bring to mind Oval's 'Do While' on the opening track, but soon getting into some very off-kilter rhythmic craziness. I was surprised by how berlin-techno like it sounds, and easily going to appeal to fans of the Berlin/Bristol axis style of dubstep, tho not perhaps to the dancefloor as such. Some of it sounds familiar from their recent support slot on the Autechre 'Quaristice' tour, which all sounded excellent at the time but it's good to be able to delve in for repeated listen on headphones.

aiight - laterzzzzzzzzzzz

Labels: books, charles stross, grievous angel, reviews, rustie, SND, voltaic, weekend