- Paperback: 288 pages
- Publisher: Black Swan; New edition edition (1 May 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0552999199
- ISBN-13: 978-0552999199
- Product Dimensions: 17.3 x 12.4 x 2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 65,440 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
| |||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Visit the Amazon.co.uk Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
we make music down there, all the week/and I have to say, away from the club, the band is even better/we make a noise like I've never known, just this one great stripped-raw channel of searching out/for the first time in years, I'm actually playing something/all the smalltown dregs of flair get magnified and yer know what, I can't help falling in love with the whole idea of being brilliant/to be myself at last, lost in the rhythmNeedle In The Groove, Jeff Noon's fifth novel, follows his short story collection Pixel Juice and confirms him as one of the most inventive and exciting of modern British writers. Set, like his previous books, in a slightly futuristic, reimagined Manchester (where, in this novel, streets are named after musicians and bands such as Joy Division, The Fall, 808 State and A Guy Called Gerald), the book follows Elliot Hill, a bass player and ex-junkie trudging the pub-rock circuit, who is invited to join a new band: fusing DJ artistry, voice and rhythm section, the group's hypnotic groove creation is augmented by a startling new recording technology. The band seems bound for success--until one of them vanishes. Elliot's subsequent search draws him into a secret history of music that stretches back 40 years and into his own past.
Noon's admitted affinity for music over literature as a source for inspiration takes concrete form here: the book takes the idea of the remix as it's formal--and thematic--principle. Where William Burroughs, in the 1950s and '60s, looked to collage--to formal innovation in the visual arts--as inspiration for his textual cut-ups, Noon's spur for rethinking modern prose is the revolution in music in the last two decades: the sample, the mix and the manipulation of sound provide the lexicon and grammar for his experiments with language. Although by no means the first to rethink writing in this way (Kodwo Eshun's "conceptual engineering" in More Brilliant than the Sun or Simon Reynolds' take on dance music in Energy Flash apply sonic invention and mixology to music criticism), Noon's use of musical techniques genuinely attempts to extend the possibilities of fiction. Love, desire, the metaphoric architecture of literature are all reimagined through his "liquid dub poetics": by taking near-clichés of fiction--the tensions between father and son, the (bizarre) love triangle--and subjecting them to the interference of linguistic experiment, Noon balances a compelling, straight narrative against the warped logic of the mix. It reads like a technologised, nervy version of Modernist stream of consciousness, punctuated by the backslash, that ubiquitous partitioner of URLs and familiar of Web-surfers everywhere. Pulp fiction meets dub? Just get into the groove. --Burhan Tufail --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Description
After years of playing in two-bit bands, Elliot gets his big chance - he meets a singer, a DJ and a drummer who seem to have everything. But just as their first dance record is climbing the charts, one of the band disappears.
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Compulsive chemical fiction must-read,
By
This review is from: Needle in the Groove (Paperback)
Y'know the old adage that writing about music is as pointless as dancing about architecture? It's a lie, and 'Needle in the Groove' is a near-perfect countermeasure to the cliché. There are moments in this book which capture the vitality of music accurately and beautifully, explaining why so many people love it with a surprising universality of insight. If you've ever played bass until your fingers bleed or just devoted hours of your life trying to find a particular record you think you heard in a club, 'Needle in the Groove' is necessary reading. In a sense it's like the music it describes; Noon's fluid 150 beats-per-minute style drives the story relentlessly onward, pulling the reader into the book in the same way that you can't not dance to certain records.Perhaps the themes of the characters' relationships aren't new, but there's never any sense of familiarity to Noon's writing. If he has to be categorised it should be part of the underground of young dynamic writers emerging in the territory between Irvine Welsh and Neal Stephenson, collected together in 'Disco Biscuits' and 'Disco 2000' [ed. Sarah Champion].
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Just Beautiful...,
By A Customer
This review is from: Needle in the Groove (Paperback)
Finally there comes a book which depicts modern music and it's culture in all their (somewhat dubious) glory. From chilled-out ambience and dub through to frenetic funk, banging house/garage and drum 'n bass, the text follows these styles as it is remixed.At first it is not easy to follow this radical new literary concept, but once you have slipped into James Joyce [on acid] mode, you won't be able to put the book down. Indeed - the narrative encourages the reader to lose themselves in just the same way as if they were losing themselves to the groove of a DJ tunes in a club... You can see it in their eyes, and one can't help but feel sorry that unlike a DJ, Jeff Noon can't see his readers eyes.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A great novel for beatheads,
By A Customer
This review is from: Needle in the Groove (Paperback)
Luckily I came to this novel free from any expectations, being largely new to Jeff Noon. And as a music lover somewhat bemused by how few good imaginative books ever seem to get written about music, I think it's got lots going for it.The style of writing is clipped and condensed yet powerfully resonant. The plot similarly so. Both of which allow the reader to spend time savouring the milieu - Manchester music and all that fuels it (drugs, misery, love, ambition). Ian McEwen it clearly ain't. This novel reads like it issues from a shady and undocumented part of the human psyche, and is packed with imagination as well as atmosphere... personally I suspect this is a bit of a classic.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews |
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
