8/30/2023 0 Comments Space age bachelor padOne of the band of gangsters, “a coelacanth of sorts,” sports a barely intelligible manner of speaking: “diction and enunciation were not among the components when he was sewn together in Dr. (Azania-Faust said in an interview he wanted to portray Edmonton because it had never been featured in a novel before his.) And Faust definitely has the gift of tongues: he has a linguist’s knack for putting down dialect in black and white, and a poet’s aptitude for hip, genre-conscious description. Hamza and Yehat, teamed up with Sherem, tangle with a truly nefarious group of gangsters, a black-white team of effete nerd brothers, delicious-sounding ethnic food and a couple CDs’ worth of underground hip-hop tunes.All of which is great: what a breath of fresh air to 1) read a science fiction novel set in Canada, and 2) a novel set in Black, immigrant Canada, at that. The question is, at least in Hamza’s mind (and when he stops to think), is she human or is she the sister from another planet? One thing’s for sure, though: she is, in the lingo, a playa. Most of the novel’s other characters are after this same gizmo, which is described in terms somewhere between William S. Hamza, for instance, says “Kot-TAM!” whenever he’s surprised or excited: as when he first meets Sherem, the book’s drop-dead (literally, if you cross her) gorgeous dark lady.Sherem is after a mysterious artifact, but she’s not alone. Each narrator has his or her unique voice and charming (or disgusting, depending on whether we’re reading the good guys or the bad guys) peccadilloes. If Faust is weak at moving the plot along, he’s brilliant with character. The narrative, though, rotates through eleven points of view, all in the first person. Comics fans (genre geeks in general) will love this pair for their vast knowledge of minutia. Sometimes it works, sometimes it’s just trivia. This pair of hip young black urbanites supplies a never-ending barrage of cultural trivia that doubles as psychological insight. If The Coyote Kings were about a third shorter it would be a page-turner as it stands, it reads like some strange (“post-modern”) exercise in linguistic ethnography.The action, such as it is, takes places in Edmonton’s Somali-Sudanese-Ethiopian-Eritrean neighborhood, which Faust calls “the Kush.” (Kush is the ancient name for the Horn of Africa.) Hamza, a smart, good-looking dishwasher who was “white-balled” out of college, and Yehat, a video-store clerk who invents outré stuff, are the central characters and the Coyote Kings of the title. Or it would be a page-turner if it didn’t have its feet stuck in cold-day molasses. Minister Faust’s (AKA Malcolm Azania) debut novel is a page-turning metaphysical-cum-science fiction thriller. MFP" prove that while Stereolab gained more polish and ambition on Space Age Bachelor Pad Music, the band didn't lose any of its kinetic edge.“Kot-TAM!” The Coyote Kings are here-or at least they’re in Edmonton, Canada. However, the immediacy of "We're Not Adult Orientated (Neu Wave Live)" and the hypnotic, fuzzy guitars on "U.H.F. Split into two sides - the gentle, intricate "Easy Listening" and the more upbeat "New Wave" - this eight-song "mini-LP" ranges from the bubbly keyboard piece "Space Age Bachelor Pad Music (Foamy)" to the defiant, driving groove of "We're Not Adult Orientated." The sweet, close harmonies on "Ronco Symphony" and "The Groop Play Chord X" edge closer to the sophisticated, lounge pop-inspired sound explored during the rest of Stereolab's career, while the vibes of "Avant Garde M.O.R." and the fizzy keyboards of "Space Age Bachelor Pad Music (Mellow)" spotlight the band's more texturally complex arrangements. Released in 1993, Space Age Bachelor Pad Music refined Stereolab's sound further and also showcased the increasingly experimental focus of the band's music.
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