Just Finished Reading: Kraftwerk: Future Music from Germany by Uwe Schutte (FP: 2020) [286pp] 

Reading about Music isn’t something I usually do. Music, in my mind, is for listening and I’ve never really been that interested in the people who made it, produced it or distributed it – nor those who write about it. But I say this chunky little boy sitting there in my fave Indie bookshop on a recent visit and I thought it was worth a ‘punt’ as something different to read about. 

I think my first exposure to the German electronic ‘rock’ band was hearing parts of and then buying ‘Man Machine’ in 1978. As far as I can remember I had already been ‘exposed’ to electronic music in the guise of Tomita’s 1974 album ‘Snowflakes are Dancing’ (which incidentally made me a life-long lover of Debussy) and some of Vangelis's earlier works such as ‘Albedo 0.39’ (1976) and ‘Beaubourg’ (1978), so I don’t think I was a complete ‘noob’ on the subject. Even so, I instantly LOVED Kraftwerk’s industrial electronic sound and have loved them ever since. I remember buying their later album ‘Computer World’ (1981) (everything on cassette in those days) and then backtracked to listen to some of their earlier stuff such as ‘Autobahn’ (1974) and ‘Trans-Europe Express’ (1977). Of course, what I didn’t know anything about – at the time – was where the band had emerged from and why they produced the sounds that they did. It’s an interesting story! 

Growing up in Dusseldorf in the post-war, Cold War era surrounded by American Rock music the two core band members Ralf Hutter and Florian Schneider founded Kraftwerk (meaning power station or powerplant) in 1970 as both a reaction to the era they had grown up in, the Nazi past that no one wanted to talk about and a desire to produced authentic German music from their heavily industrialised region. Strangely their earliest music seemed to have little appeal locally but was growing in popularity in the UK and especially France. An American tour following the release of ‘Autobahn’, where the album reached No 5 in the Billboard charts, made them a world phenomenon. The rest as they say is history! Kraftwerk’s output had a HUGE influence on the infancy of electronic music not only across Europe but also in the US (the band were surprised at how much of their music influenced not only electro-pop but also Hip-hop and much else besides in Black Music) and the Far East. 

Not having read much (if anything) like this before I wasn’t really sure what to expect. What I found was very often fascinating and it both made me appreciate the music more and, inevitably, buy ALL their albums again on CD – which I’ll do at some point when I get a new CD player/system. It’s also interested me in reading more music related books of which I already had a few in a small stack awaiting their turn. This is definitely a worthy read for anyone interested in or a fan of Kraftwerk or the origins and influences of electronic music on the rest of the world. Recommended.  

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Recycling Fever!!

The D-Day Landings... 79 Years ago, TODAY.

Just Finished Reading: Paper Ghosts by Julia Heaberlin (FP: 2018) [375pp] 

Texas, Present Day. She was certain it was him. Well, almost certain. At least as certain as anyone could be... Probably. After all, she had done her research. Years of it. Painstakingly reading the trail notes, checking alibies, interviewing the cops. So, pretty certain. But, as always, there was only ONE way to be sure – a confession for preference, with or without a gun to his head. Either way he was going to spill. To tell her what happened to her older sister the day she disappeared, to tell her where her body was buried so that they could grieve for real and then, once she was satisfied, what then? Take him to the police, confession in hand? Or use that gun she had been training with and send him to the Hell he deserved, the Hell that he had put her and her parents through all those years ago. But she had to be sure, so she had to get him away from the facility he was staying in, supposedly suffering from dementia. Then it was road trip time, visiting the sites of his most infamous killings. If that didn’t break him out of his brain ‘fog’ she didn’t know what would. Then she’d be sure... But what if it wasn’t him? What if he wasn’t suffering from dementia? What if he knew exactly what she was doing to play along, to make his escape? What if she was simply giving him his next victim? 

As usual I picked this thriller up because it looked ‘different’, something beyond the normal and something above the usual, and very tired, Serial Killer genre. I was not disappointed. The protagonist, Gail we learn eventually, is the baby sister of an abduction and disappearance victim, rather than the usual hard-boiled cop or PI. That alone makes things interesting. Then there’s the apparent killer himself. Is he the killer she thinks he is? Is he just a different killer? Is he even dangerous or just strange, often very strange? How accurate is the information she’s acquired by hook or by crook? Has her privately funded training made her capable enough for the trip ahead or will something she never thought of knock her on her ass – or worse. LOTS of questions are posed in just under 400 pages (which flew by) and quite a few of them are answered – but not in the way either Gail or I expected. Gail herself is an interesting complex character, but so is the suspected Serial Killer and renowned photographer Carl Feldman. He’s most definitely creepy and ‘off’ but we’re kept guessing as to whether or not he’s a killer. My thoughts on the subject wavered more than once throughout the book, which I liked. 

Over all I thought this was a very clever crime thriller. Not only was it very well constructed (I had a few very minor niggles but nothing of note) with a good flow and some nice unexpected turns, the two main characters were excellently drawn and a fair few of the secondary characters had a strong presence in their scenes too. I was definitely invested in the question of Carl’s guilt from the very beginning but I hardly needed this tugging me along as I was enjoying the narrative throughout. So, if you don’t mind the subject matter too much as well as a bit of blood, some violence and a significantly creepy vibe this is definitely the read for you. Very much recommended to all crime/thriller lovers looking for something a bit different.

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Criminal Intent 

I was a fan of Crime Fiction long before I read my first crime-based novel. I had grown up on a diet of Film Noir and the classic crime series from the 1970’s and beyond. Even in the 1960’s I remember shows such as ‘Z-Cars’ as well as movie adaptations of Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie. Apart from the inevitable drama I loved the, all too often failed, attempts to create the perfect crime and especially the follow up investigation, the searching for clues, the putting together of evidence, the theories and ultimately the puzzle solving. 

But I was never a great one for other types of puzzles growing up. I never enjoyed crosswords or (much later) things like Sudoku. I did ‘play’ with jigsaws for a while, but only those my mother bought and never for long. What I did enjoy in crime shows and movies was the attempt to understand the human element in the puzzle that surrounded various crimes. Naturally, because of the drama element, most of these crime shows revolved around murder. The interesting bit was, I’m guessing for most people, a mixture of understand the motive (and maybe the ingenious methods) for the crime as well as the ingenious pattern of the investigation. The payoff, for me and no doubt many others, was always successfully detecting the killer (or perpetrator of the crime) before its revealed to the viewer/reader. That’s always very satisfying. Almost as satisfying, however, is a clever reveal that the viewer/reader did NOT get ahead of time. 

One of the major attractions of Crime fiction to me is the sheer variety out there. Not only is there the home grown and home-based contemporary crime fiction, but there’s crime fiction to be devoured from across the globe. Nordic noir used to be (and still is I think) big but now we’re having access to crime fiction from Africa and points East. There’s lots to choose from and that’s before we start digging into Historical crime fiction – from Roman times, post-Norman Invasion, Victorian, both World Wars and so on. Then there’s Classic crime – again these days from across the globe – and that’s before we start moving onto the more exotic types such as Sci-Fi Crime where the methods and investigations have strange (but hopefully believable) SF elements and even Fantasy crime where Magic is used both in the commission and resolution of criminal activity. Oh, and not forgetting the ever-fascinating sub-genre of Vampire detectives! 

The fact that Crime fiction seems endlessly inventive and (at least seemingly) endlessly expandable is a big selling point for me. As long as authors keep coming up with interesting ways to kill people and steal stuff and even more interesting ways (and detectives) to investigate and detect it I for one will be more than happy to lose myself in a good Crime thriller and hopefully beat the author/detective to the solution. MUCH more crime reading to come! 

Just Finished Reading: Pursuit – The Sinking of the Bismarck by Ludovic Kennedy (FP: 1974) [228pp] 

May, 1941. It was the Admiralties worse nightmare, the pride of the German Navy the battleship Bismarck had left port and was attempting to break out into the North Atlantic. If she managed to do that the whole of the Atlantic convoy system would be under threat and Britain would run the risk of starvation. Known to be accompanied by the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen, the two ships were seen off the coast of Norway and the Admiralty decided to cover all the bases. As the pair were highly unlikely to try a Channel dash, the northern approaches to the Atlantic were covered by available warships. The Denmark Straight, between Iceland and Greenland was covered by the cruisers HMS Suffolk and HMS Norfolk. On sighting the enemy units, they shadowed them using radar to keep contact and called for assistance. The navy’s two largest ships nearest to the pair were vectored into contact – HMS Prince of Wales (a new Battleship still experiencing teething troubles) and the venerable battlecruiser HMS Hood. The eventual encounter did not go well with Hood sunk (with only 3 of a crew of 1,433 surviving) and Prince of Wales forced to withdraw seriously damaged. It looked like the nightmare scenario was being played out in real-time.  

With the cruisers maintaining contact and with aircraft from Coastal Command also keeping close tabs on her location Bismarck was targeted for destruction, no matter the risk or consequences. Ships of all types were stripped from supporting convoys, left port half provisioned or ordered to change direction and steam at best possible speed to Bismarck's last known location. The only question remained was the Bismarck’s intentions. With so much focus now on her would she return to her base in Germany (doubtful), head for a base on the coast of France (possible) or try to head into the Atlantic (also still possible). As the hours ticked by it became increasingly clear that Bismarck was heading to the French coast. Unless, that is, the Royal Navy could catch her first and force a battle on her terms. It was going to be quite a stressful night for all concerned. 

To be honest, most of my knowledge of the events surrounding the pursuit of the Bismarck is based on the 1960 movie ‘Sink the Bismarck’ starring Kenneth Moore (based on the 1959 book by C S Forester). With some additional reading over the years, I thought I had a pretty good handle on the affair and so it was. But what this excellent small volume provided was some very interesting details. The fact that Bismarck’s captain failed (as was the British policy at the time) to top of her oil tanks when he had the opportunity in Norway which would have given him a much wider field of action when needed, the fact that four Royal Navy destroyers harassed Bismarck for hours during her last night including HMS Cossack which I built a model of as a boy, the fact that many of the Swordfish torpedo plane pilots who initially attacked Bismarck had never landed on an aircraft carrier before being sent on the mission, and the fact that several of the British ship commanders were almost court-martialled for their apparent lack of aggression during the encounter! 

As you can probably tell, I enjoyed this book very much indeed. Told with passion and understanding (the author was on HMS Tartar which witnessed the final destruction of Bismarck) this was an exciting read that didn’t shy away from the horrors of conflict on the unforgiving seas. Definitely worth the effort of sourcing a copy if you can and highly recommended for anyone interesting in the pursuit of Bismarck or the early years of naval conflict in WW2.  

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