got the book today.
it is beyond incredible. high quality paper,
tons of pictures, great text. worth every penny.
here is karls contribution.
karl hyde- musician with underworld
i've a vivid memory of hearing spirt of eden for the first time. it was in a rented
holden, driving through the australian outback with the windows down and a
hot summer wind in our faces, where we cracked open the jiffy bag from england.
out dropped a cassette. the accompanying note said:"i meant something like this.
have a great tour."
cassette slotted into the stereo, we lay back in our seats and listened. it was a radical
departure by a band i previously thought of as being 'good at pop'. the impact was kind of
terminal, the last straw. we'd just finished a record. something misguided and tepid as usual,
and had left england with our manager's unsettling advice: "you should make a radical album."
back home, acid house was pumping from pirate radio stations all over london, illegal raves were
the new ultra-punk, and here we were heading in the opposite direction, peddling clapped-out grooves.
thwack! a priority airmail smack in the teeth increased the doom on an already gloomy tour. a fresh
breath, a break from the constraints of tradition, nothing about the album paid lip service to the great
god 'pop'. it was a film score, a soundscape, an installation, stripped-down, interleaved series of
loose connections, shorthand fragments, half-heard snatches of words and melodies carried on the
wind. and when you looked for a structure, there was nothing there. brilliant!
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later
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