Fantastic Metropolis

My yearly reviews tend to be rather wordy but this time I’ve been asked to keep it short. That’s probably a good thing for everyone. I won’t talk about films or theatre. As for fiction, I read books by Michael Moorcock, Flann O’Brien and Italo Calvino, my old favourites. Maybe I’m stuck in a rut but it doesn’t feel like that. I’ll just say that Calvino’s Difficult Loves is one of his finest volumes and a nice counterweight to his more cerebral work. However, my reading year was dominated by two new discoveries:

(1) B. S. Johnson…

A name I’d been aware of for a long time without feeling any burning desire to seek out his work. But when I started reading Albert Angelo, I was quickly impressed, despite the maudlin closing section. However, Christie Malry’s Own Double-Entry is an absolute masterpiece and confirms my opinion that the standard postmodern trick of inappropriate author intrusion is still funny. This is quite simply one of the best ten novels I’ve read, a darkly comic revenge fantasy in which the hero adapts the principles of double-entry bookkeeping to get even with society. I also read Johnson’s House Mother Normal: A Geriatric Comedy which is almost as brilliant.

(2) J. B. Morton…

John Clute recommended this author to me as a humorist to equal the likes of Maurice Richardson. I’m glad I didn’t discover Morton before now, because I fear his influence would otherwise have been too complete over me. Cram Me with Eels! is one of the funniest and cleverest books I’ve had the pleasure of sampling. Morton’s wit is multi-layered, his invention staggering, his ironies both subtle and savage. Apparently he was a major inspiration to Spike Milligan. Constant hilarity can be wearisome, of course, but the beauty of this volume is that it is ideal for dipping into and the ‘chapters’ can be read in any order.

Film of the year: I agreed not to say.

Cities of the year: Granada, Madrid, Lisbon.

Thackery of the year: Thackery T. Lambshead (disqualified: William Makepeace).

Music

A fabulous year for music… The WOMAD 2004 festival in Rivermead was a chance to immerse myself in three days of excellent music from around the world. Highlights included The Dhol Foundation, Faudel, Izzi Dunn, Malouma, Victor Hugo… But three acts in particular stood out and count as three of the best gigs I’ve seen, Souad Massi from Algeria, Sidestepper from Colombia, and the awesome Spanish group Amparanoia, a vehicle for the provocative talents of Amparo Sánchez. All four Amparanoia albums are worth seeking out but there’s a readily available compilation of selected songs entitled Rebeldía con Alegria which is definitely my candidate for album of the year.

As for other albums I enjoyed, I could help to keep things brief by simply recommending every album ever issued by my favourite music label, Putumayo, but the sad fact is that they have released one or two duff albums. Christmas Around the World, for instance, is only slightly less annoying than every other Christmas album in existence. Thankfully these failures are heavily outnumbered by the good stuff and albums such as Nuevo Latino, Latin Groove, ¡Mo’ Vida!, Rumba Flamenco, Sahara Lounge, etc., are discs of pure feelgood genius. Among the many, many talented acts on the Putumayo label I’ll mention just one, Ojos de Brujo, just because they spring to mind first… No, on second thoughts I’ll also mention Dissidenten (their ‘Lobster Song’ is exactly the sort of song I like best…)

There I’ve kept it short successfully, I think.

Just enough time for:

Flapjack of the year: black cherry.

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Rhys Hughes’s dazzling homage to Jorge Luis Borges, A New Universal History of Infamy, is published by the Ministry of Whimsy Press. A recent chapbook, The Skeleton of Contention is available from D-Press.