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Synopsis
Winner of the British Fantasy Society award for Best Anthology 2007 What does music do for you? Is it an art form, mood enhancer, or just something to jump around to? As powerful memories trigger, it can be seductive yet soulful, energetic and prophetic. But the immediacy of music has rarely been exploited in literature. Until now: In these ten stories writers use music as a springboard for their fiction, their characters; lives entwined with the metaphorical music of the spheres as well as that played upon the stage. Like the mid-length EP, Extended Play allows these stories to be longer than average, permitting greater characterisation, depth of theme, and complexity of plot, whilst still benefiting from the conciseness of the story. The writers include: Marion Arnott, Andrew Humphrey, Nels Stanley, Becky Done, Emma Lee, Philip Raines and Harvey Welles, Tony Richards, Rosanne Rabinowitz, and Tim Nickels. This anthology brings new meaning to the phrase 'one hit wonders.' Accompanying the fiction, ten songwriters speculate on how fiction has influenced their music with an introduction from legendary Stranglers' bassist Jean-Jacques Burnel, and contributions from: Rebekah Delgado (Ciccone), Catherine and Susan Hay (The Tall Poppies), Lene Lovich, Gary Lightbody (Snow Patrol), Sean "Grasshopper" Mackowiak (Mercury Rev), Jof Owen (The Boy Least Likely To), Iain Ross (Bearsuit), Chris Stein (Blondie), Chris T-T.
To paraphrase one of the authors, the stories in Extended Play are eclectic, experimental, and though some are better than others, they are almost always interesting. Like its subject matter, Extended Play is a diverse book and the beauty of it is, that if you don't connect with a particular story in the collection, lift the needle and drop it on the next.Susan Tomaselli lives in Ireland where she edits the inimitable Dogmatika. To read the entire review please visit http://www.3ammagazine.com/buzzwordsblog/index.html
Susan Tomaselli
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