Blissard book by Johan Harstad

[falck@ccrecords.com]

Since you seem like you’re over avarage interested in Motorpsycho, I just want to say that I’m releasing TWO different MP-books in October. They’re both in English.

One is a book about “Blissard” (it won several awards in Norway 2012) and one is comissioned by the band, and is an anthology with 15 different famous authors, music journalists and musicians contributing with one essay each, AND the largest MP-discography ever.

You can preorder them here.

http://www.newjelly.com/Projects/2-MOTORPSYCHO-BOOKS-IN-ENGLISH/

Kind regards Christer Falck

[Punj Lizard]

I was just gifted a few MP items for my birthday, one of which was the Engllish translation of the Blissard book by Johan Harstad. I just started it. After a couple of pages it seemed to me that Harstad has a style similar to David Foster Wallace, in particular with all the notes and notes to notes. Interestingly last week I also noticed, in the film of the making of En Konsert For Folk Flest, a copy of Wallace's brilliant Infinite Jest on the bookshelf behind the author of the Manifest on which the Konsert piece draws. It wasn't until I came to write this post that I realised it was also Harstad who wrote the Manifest!

[Punj Lizard]

So I've finished this book now. What a great read. My appreciation of the album Blissard had already changed before I read the book. When I first listened to it, I was not that impressed. Then one day, walking down the road with headphones on, the sonic brilliance and songwriting suddenly came to life. There are some tracks I prefer over others – my favourites being "Drug Thing" (which is just superb to these ears), Greener, S.T.G. and Manmower.

So I was ripe for reading this book, which just added so much more to my appreciation of the album, in particular in its place in the band's early history, as well as from the perspective of someone who has been listening to the band from a much earlier age than me and from an earlier period in the band's life.

A great fan book.

PS. As I don't yet have a physical copy of the album (I bought it as a download), I was unaware of the fact that it has "Into the void we have to travel" on the spine of the CD. As a long-time Hawkwind fan, to find this out really tickled me

[Author]

Posts