Riding the Waves to Eternity: Hangin’ with the Cosmic Surfer

envelope icon      sao instagram icon

Neverwhere again

Oct 17, 2009 | Music

Neverwhere2I’ve just enjoyed the three final episodes of Neverwhere and found them to be very satisfying.  Interestingly I thought that the ending was a bit of a precursor to the way that, several years later, Life on Mars was resolved, although when I come to think of it it is not such an unusual way to finish.

I’m really pleased that it didn’t turn out to be dreadful as fondly remembered programmes often do on rewatching.  In fact, if anything, it was better than I remembered it to be.  It is not without it’s problems but then it was a relatively low budget BBC TV show from the eighties.  It is a cliché, I know, but the quality of the imagination carries it through any budgetary longueurs (and the duff “beast” at the end).

There is some fine acting in it too – I’ve already mentioned Hywell Bennett but there are good turns by Tamsin Greig and Clive Russell and the leads -Laura Fraser and Gary Bakewell- are fine throughout.  Peter Capaldi steals the show as the Angel Islington whenever he is on screen.

I remember when it was first on being vaguely amused at the literalness of some of the characters and the interpretation of the name of the stations on the London Underground into characters.  Looked at now it doesn’t seem so ridiculous and looks more like an imaginative elaboration on a whimsical conceit – and life without whimsy is nothing more than plain old dull existing I find.

Froese - EpsilonA couple of posts ago I extolled the virtues of Tangerine Dream’s Zeit. As a response to that a friend in Dundee let me hear Edgar Froese’s “Epsilon in Malaysian Pale” which he released between the Tangerine Dream releases of Phaedra and Rubicon.  Brian said that he thinks it to be “the greatest mellotron album ever made”.  That title is usually accorded to King Crimson’s “In the Court of the Crimson King” but he has a point.   It presages somewhat where Tangerine Dream went with Rubicon – a musique concrete/mellotron drenched intro giving way to a sequencer driven improvisation which kicks off about 5 minutes into track 2 (or side 2 as I fondly and fogeyishly pefer to call it).  Much as I like Rubicon, though, I think Epsilon in Malaysian Pale is better insofar as it is both more musical and closer to the experimental.

The verson I am listening to is the 1975 original and not the remixed version which is currently available on cd.

Neverwhere

Oct 17, 2009 | Uncategorized

Back in 1996 I remember watching a BBC programme called Neverwhere, co-created by Neil Gaiman and Lenny Henry and set in London both overground and underground.  At the time I remember enjoying it but being a little disappointed nonetheless.

Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemar

Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemar

Later I read Neil Gaiman’s novel which was a developed version of the TV story and enjoyed it a lot, although not as much as some of his other novels.  Nevertheless I was intrigued to get hold of a copy of the TV series to see how it fared on a second viewing.  I was dissapointed to find that it had not been released on DVD and that old VHS copies were hard to come by.

I missed the news that it had been released on DVD and was browsing Amazon the other night when I spotted not only that the DVD was out but that it was on sale for £3.

I’ve just watched the first couple of episodes and it is great.  It is dark, intriguing, with a story that whips along and – something I had forgotten – has music by Brian Eno.  I had also forgotten the wonderful performances of the menacing Mr Croup and Mr Valdemar, Hywel Bennett as Mr Croup being particularly creepy.

On an entirely separate note, Kirstin and I went to se Up! at the cinema on Thursday night.  If you haven’t yet seen it, you should.  It is excellent.