OK - before the planet recycles itself in the coming decade, I’d like to record with appreciation a couple of recent online mentions that have been brought to my attention. The first is from the fabulous Warren Ellis – always a useful man to have around in times of imminent disaster – who included an entry for The Transactional Dharma of Roj in his ‘Music I Liked in 2009’ roundup, giving a special mention of the CD booklet:
‘You really need the CD of this,’ he writes, ‘not least because of the gorgeous booklet written by Ken Hollings and designed by Julian House. This is a Ghost Box record, and as such has its roots in the cosmic hauntological weird. DHARMA, however, is a lot more about rhythm than most Ghost Box records. And it’s frequently absolutely gorgeous. It’s still coming out of that box of strangeness, don’t get me wrong. But it’s less concerned with building a sonic friction and weirding you out than it is with conjuring an interplanetary drum seance. And an interplanetary drum seance should first be beautiful.’
And just in from WFMU, America’s favourite early warning system, comes a shout out for Welcome to Mars in their top ten of 2009 lists. Straight in at number 10, in a competitive field of twenty, comes this superfine recommendation from The Inflatable Squirrel Carcass:
‘10. Welcome To Mars - Ken Hollings and Welcome To Mars soundtrack CD - Simon James (Strange Attractor Press) - Welcome To Mars started out as a radio show on Resonance-FM. Now it's a book. Both take a look at America, science and all the wackiness that was going on from 1947-1959. So you get UFOs, LSD, CIA, atomic weapons, suburbia, psychology, post-war science fiction films, cults, the cold war, the space race, Disney and more in a nicely woven essay, each year receiving a chapter. Plus for a limited time the book came with the soundtrack to the radio show which is filled with nice BBC-like, science fiction ambience.’
One real pleasure for any writer is to receive the occasional message back from their works after they’ve gone out into the world, and to hear good things about it makes that pleasure an absolute delight. My thanks and best wishes to readers and bloggers everywhere this Xmas. See you all in the New Year I hope.
Pictured above: original poster art for Toho’s Monster Zero, AKA Invasion of the Astro Monsters, a favourite movie of mine each and every year, courtesy of Fred’s Kaiju Eiga page on Flickr.
‘You really need the CD of this,’ he writes, ‘not least because of the gorgeous booklet written by Ken Hollings and designed by Julian House. This is a Ghost Box record, and as such has its roots in the cosmic hauntological weird. DHARMA, however, is a lot more about rhythm than most Ghost Box records. And it’s frequently absolutely gorgeous. It’s still coming out of that box of strangeness, don’t get me wrong. But it’s less concerned with building a sonic friction and weirding you out than it is with conjuring an interplanetary drum seance. And an interplanetary drum seance should first be beautiful.’
And just in from WFMU, America’s favourite early warning system, comes a shout out for Welcome to Mars in their top ten of 2009 lists. Straight in at number 10, in a competitive field of twenty, comes this superfine recommendation from The Inflatable Squirrel Carcass:
‘10. Welcome To Mars - Ken Hollings and Welcome To Mars soundtrack CD - Simon James (Strange Attractor Press) - Welcome To Mars started out as a radio show on Resonance-FM. Now it's a book. Both take a look at America, science and all the wackiness that was going on from 1947-1959. So you get UFOs, LSD, CIA, atomic weapons, suburbia, psychology, post-war science fiction films, cults, the cold war, the space race, Disney and more in a nicely woven essay, each year receiving a chapter. Plus for a limited time the book came with the soundtrack to the radio show which is filled with nice BBC-like, science fiction ambience.’
One real pleasure for any writer is to receive the occasional message back from their works after they’ve gone out into the world, and to hear good things about it makes that pleasure an absolute delight. My thanks and best wishes to readers and bloggers everywhere this Xmas. See you all in the New Year I hope.
Pictured above: original poster art for Toho’s Monster Zero, AKA Invasion of the Astro Monsters, a favourite movie of mine each and every year, courtesy of Fred’s Kaiju Eiga page on Flickr.
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