Moody Boyz - perfect slice of soul/dubstep
OK, so I've been kicked out of a long drawn out creative block.
What I mean is this... once, a long time ago I had an ambition to write fiction. And then journalism took over my life and I watched my plans disappear into the far distance (or under loads of shit in a drawer to be more accurate). Then I turned my thoughts to academia and my early plans became crushed by theoretical rants. Fiction writing had gone... my unpublished work forever gathering dust in that drawer.
Then, out of the blue I was asked to contribute to a collection of short stories on the Urban theme. The book is called Hyperkinetic - High Velocity Tales From The Inner City and features some fantastic writers.
My story is called 'Marcus White Is...' and I'm really excited by it. Rough around the edges in parts, but I'm as proud right now as I was when my first book came out.
For the first time in years I feel released from the tyranny of the target market and audience grabbing intros. Suddenly I love writing again...
My story is about fluid identities and liquid geography. It was inspired in part by Dr Michael Bull's work on the iPod, Sound Moves. iPod Culture and Urban Experience (Routledge), where he proposes the concept of an 'auditory bubble' that surrounds people when they're plugged in to their iPods. The result is the creation of a private space in a public place, where you feel almost untouchable - floating through your own personal music video.
It was also inspired by an awesome soundtrack - most notably 'Freedom' by the Moody Boyz, which might just be the perfect slice of soul/dubstep. The Moody Boyz aka Tony Thorpe have been around for years of course. Although records have been pretty sporadic, they've always been worth the wait. This latest single though is a cut above everything Thorpe has done. After years of drawing on dub he's finally fully succumbed to the energy of the echo drop.
