Epinions Recent Reviews for Nedster69

Yasunari Kawabata - The Master of Go: A Book As Elegant As The Game It Describes

Mon, 14 May 2001 16:26:58 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author Nedster69 - The Master Of Go is what the Japanese call a 'chronicle novel', a mixture of fact and fiction. The author, Yasunari Kawabata, bases the events strongly on fact and even uses genuine newspaper articles as part of the narrative, but he allows a depth of...

China Mieville - King Rat: A Great Piece Of Gothic Urban Fantasy

Fri, 13 Apr 2001 16:27:24 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author Nedster69 - For a couple of years in the late nineties, drum and bass was the soundtrack of London. It combined stylistic influences of reggae and hip hop with a rougher and more aggressive digital beat. It was easy to make and easy to dance to.

Since...

A Much Better Tomorrow [EP] - Dan The Automator: Inconsistent Hip-Hop Explorations By A Gifted Producer

Tue, 10 Apr 2001 15:33:22 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author Nedster69 - Dan 'The Automator' Nakamura is one of the coolest hip-hop producers around. In 1996 he recorded a short record called A Better Tomorrow with rapper Sinister 6000. Recently he was the 'producer, arranger, mixer and composer' on the stunning hip-hop...

The Red Thread by Arab Strap: Depressing Scottish Rock

Wed, 28 Mar 2001 14:14:45 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Nedster69 - Arab Strap are Adrian Moffat and Malcom Middleton. The Red Thread is their fifth album. They're popular in the UK, and are getting mainstream recognition for their music, which is rare for a band as uncommercial and alternative as this.

...

Warren Ellis et al - All over the World and Other Stories: Breath-Taking Paranormal Exploits

Wed, 28 Mar 2001 13:08:17 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Nedster69 - 'It's a strange world- let's keep it that way.'

Jakita Wagner, issue 1

Planetary is created and written by uber-genius comic writer Warren Ellis, the prolific author of Transmetropolitan, Stormwatch, and the Authority, and the plot for...

Warren Ellis et al - The Authority: Under New Management: Warren Ellis has fun writing superheroes

Tue, 13 Mar 2001 12:46:10 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author Nedster69 - Warren Ellis is one of the major figures of modern comics, and I will love him forever just because he created Transmetropolitan. That series, now on its fifth trade paperback, follows Spider Jerusalem, one of the most hilarious and compelling...

Alan Moore, Stephen Bissette, John Totleben - Saga of the Swamp Thing: Alan Moore makes the Swamp Thing his own

Mon, 12 Mar 2001 07:34:09 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author Nedster69 - Alan Moore has been called the James Joyce of comics, for his reinvention and revitalising of the medium. His great work is Watchmen, a post-modern classic which finally made superheroes seem believable and human. He's also written V For Vendetta, a...

Perdido Street Station: A Stunning Epic Of Magic And Technology

Wed, 21 Feb 2001 17:57:03 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author Nedster69 - Perdido Street Station is built on sweeping themes. Everything in the book springs from clash and conflict; the uncontrollable energy when two opposing forces meet and create a strange paradox. The hero of the novel, the unconventional scientist Isaac...

Solesides Greatest Bumps: Stylish, Clever, Funky Rap

Sat, 20 Jan 2001 12:40:43 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author Nedster69 - Solesides is a semi-underground rap collective set up in 1993, now mutated into Quannum Projects. Its distinguished alumni include Lyrics Born, Lateef, the Gift of Gab, Chief Xcel, and the truly fantastic DJ Shadow. This compilation, under the Xen Cuts...

It's Tomorrow Already * by Irresistible Force: Chronically Relaxed Ambient Sounds

Sat, 6 Jan 2001 12:34:48 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author Nedster69 - The Irresistible Force has been making music under various guises for more than a decade now, and when he started he was avant-garde, but now the electronic world has caught up with him and It's Tomorrow Already, under the fantastic Ninja Tune label,...

Love In The Time Of Science by Emiliana Torrini: A Wonderful Album

Mon, 1 Jan 2001 15:08:25 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author Nedster69 - Emiliana Torrini's first album is a beautiful creation. Love In The Time Of Science has eleven excellent tracks, all in a spaced out, trip-hop style. About half the eleven tracks are written by Emiliana herself. I'll tell you about some of the...

Chris Bunch and Allan Cole - Sten: Clunky, Derivative SF Heroism

Fri, 29 Dec 2000 14:13:30 GMT

rating: 1/5 by: Epinions Author Nedster69 - Sten was published nearly two decades ago and has since had three sequels, all written by Chris Bunch and Allan Cole. Chris Bunch is apparently one of the few science fiction writers to have served in Vietnam. But does his time in the army make him any...

Matt Beaumont - E: A Novel: Mildly Amusing Email Saga

Fri, 29 Dec 2000 13:23:19 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author Nedster69 - The concisely titled 'e' by Matt Beaumont is a comic novel told exclusively in emails and set in a London advertising agency over the course of a few mad days.

It does not begin well. Beaumont's first attempt at humour is an absurdly...

Rated R by Queens Of The Stone Age: Exuberant, Narcotic Rock

Sat, 7 Oct 2000 16:59:52 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Nedster69 - Queens Of The Stone Age are escapees from some very influential psychadelic rock bands, and are inevitably heavy drug users, but their music doesn't seem to suffer all that much.

The first track, Feel Good Hit Of The Summer, sets the tone for...

Pixel Juice: Brilliantly Esoteric Short Stories

Sat, 7 Oct 2000 15:39:30 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author Nedster69 - Pixel Juice is the first collection of short (in this case very short- the average is about 7 pages) stories by Jeff Noon. In the past he's always been constrained by linear plotlines, and his ideas only really flourished in the flawed Automated Alice,...

Liquid by Recoil: Off-Beat Electronica

Fri, 6 Oct 2000 11:23:35 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Nedster69 - Recoil is Alan Wilder, a refugee from late 80's electronic band Depeche Mode, who started it as a side project while he was still with them. Liquid is his fourth album. Recoil plays with the subtle, sinister qualities of the human voice, and has some...

Leftism by Leftfield: Understandably Influential

Tue, 8 Aug 2000 18:33:46 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author Nedster69 - First, something needs to be corrected: this album is not 'Hip Hop and R&B', far from it. It's dance, with only hints of genre-crossover. When it was first released five years ago, it was hailed as one of the most seminal works this type of music had...

J. D. Illiad Frazer - User Friendly: User Friendly in dead-tree form for the first time!

Sat, 8 Jul 2000 19:10:56 GMT

rating: 5/5 by: Epinions Author Nedster69 - User Friendly doesn't really change: it's always been funny, it always will be. The only thing that's really changed is that the speech has gone to uppercase and Quake has had two

These strips start from the first moments of the birth of Erwin...

Early Underground by Moby: Electronic brilliance

Sat, 8 Jul 2000 18:18:50 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Nedster69 - After buying Moby's Play based entirely on its popularity, I decided to get some of his other stuff- how could you not, after the beautiful, unforgettable, soul-soaked beats of that album? So I got the remixed version of Everything Is Wrong (a double CD,...

Stones by Addict: Good but repetitive rock

Thu, 6 Jul 2000 18:23:05 GMT

rating: 3/5 by: Epinions Author Nedster69 - The first thing that strikes you when you put on Stones is the voice of Mark Aston, Addict's lead singer. It's beautifully husky, but with seems disappointingly unemotional until you get a feel for the understated expression and well-used vocal range. Of...

Much Against Everyone's Advice [ECD] - Soulwax: Much Against Everyone's Advice

Sun, 2 Jul 2000 17:10:53 GMT

rating: 4/5 by: Epinions Author Nedster69 - This is a great album, which really stands up to repeated listening. It's polished, morose rock, with some really fantastic moments.

The album starts of well, with the insidiously catchy Conversation Intercom, whose wailing lyrics can't fail to...