Tag: reviews

review of new books by James Davies

I have reviewed two recent publications by James Davies for Stride magazine. Published by Ma Bibliothèque in their Good Reader series, The Ten Superstrata of Stockport J. Middleton, performs a series of ten variations on the opening page of Philip K. Dick’s 1965 novel, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. The sequence Forty-Four Poems and a Volta, published by Red Ceilings Press, is composed of forty-five short texts, each centered on its page, each of two parts, the second of which is in parentheses.

Both of Davies’ sequences work at the business of language, at its use in naming or making distinctions, separating same from different, the operation of the word as label, the functioning of a textual instance as example or test. Here Wittgenstein’s language games, language as function and operation, meet scanning errors and search results, language as sortable or reordered matter. Two books to read both for the (fragmentary) narratives they tell, and for the (novel) ways they deploy the stuff of writing.

Uncommon Attunement, review of David Toop anthology

Rupert Loydell has just uploaded a new review of mine to the Stride blog. The review comments and reflects on my reading of David Toop’s Inflamed Invisible: Collected Writings on Art and Sound 1976 – 2018 recently published by Goldsmiths Press.

“This is a noisy capacious book, bringing together Toop’s writing, from reviews, occasional texts, magazine articles, liner notes, blog posts and exhibition texts across more than four decades. […]

Each one of this selection might be linked to distinct fields, of music, of poetry, of film making, but Toop draws sonic and aural threads from each and winds them together in this collection. ”

The accompanying links and Spotify playlist are really great, and reminded me of things I’d forgotten as well as introducing me to new work.

review of new publication by Patrick Dubost

I have a review up on Stride Magazine blog, of Patrick Dubost’s new publication Manifesto for a Modern Theatre In 49 Interchangeable And Optional Articles. Published by Knives, Forks and Spoons Press, the work is translated from the French by Eleanor Margolies, and includes photocollage illustrations by Sylvie Villaume.

In much of Dubost’s wider practice he performs with musicians, where his vocal improvisation operates among and with other instruments in live sound events. These events are a mode of theatre, at work with language, sound, and meaning, with what can be heard, and what might be understood. The 49 articles in this Manifesto might be read as a guide or annotation for those performances. And as a prompt to performances by other readers.

You can read the review HERE.

review of new book on Dick Higgins

I have written a review of a new publication of collected writings by Dick Higgins which is now online at theInternational Times. Intermedia, Fluxus and the Something Else Press, edited by Stephen Clay and Ken Friedman, collects a number of essays, manifestos, catalogue texts, and other critical writings by Higgins in one well-designed and produced volume. Higgins’ writing were important to me when I began learning about hybrid and performative modes of poetry, so it was exciting to receive a volume that brought these diverse texts together.

Review of Rowan Evans’ Last Verses of Beccán

My review of Rowan Evans’ new publication from Guillemot Press, The Last Verses of Beccán is live now on the Stride website.

Lastness, lateness and the left behind are woven through this book, from the title, to references to last things (‘eschaton’), to grave slabs, cemeteries and remains within the shifting sounds and forms of its mix of languages. Here are heard the leftovers of poems written on the edge, in the far outposts of a Christian world, the last place before wide ocean, somewhere to go to escape your fate or to end your days.

Read the rest of the review HERE.

More details of the publication at Guillemot Press.