Smashbomb

"Tonto's Expanding Head Band were very early synth adopters. Tonto was an acronym for The Original New Timbral Orchestra which was a reference to what they worked on: the biggest polyphonic analogue synth in the world. Tonto was almost like a cockpit of synths arranged in a horseshoe shape. When they played it, they were inside the machine. Zero Time was hugely influential, most notably on Stevie Wonder who heard it, freaked out and asked them to produce his records. They ended up doing Music Of My Mind, Talking Book, Innervisions and Fulfillingness' First Finale. They also did a load of Isley Brothers records, including 3 + 3. Zero Time borders on New Age in a way. I'd never really heard music like this before – totally instrumental, the whole record composed on synths. I saw them live when they played at the Big Chill festival in 2006. I hadn't known they were playing [a line-up consisting of the band's Malcolm Cecil and his son, DJ Moonpup, with a portable version of Tonto performed]. It was amazing, even if it was a bit odd because they interspersed songs with educational stuff, little bits of interviews with Stevie Wonder and other people they'd worked with. It worked though – what a show!"

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Hazel (2934 KP) rated Dog Rose Dirt in Books

Jul 25, 2021

Dog Rose Dirt

Jen Williams | 2021 | Crime, Horror, Mystery, Thriller

8.0

(2 Ratings)

Book Rating

This is an interesting mystery/thriller that's pretty dark and creepy with some scenes that some may find disturbing.

I'm finding this a difficult one to review because whilst overall, I think I enjoyed it, it did seem to take a long time to get there and there were times when I said to myself "oh, just get on with it!"

The plot of the book is intriguing and the tension is a constant throughout but it just seemed to be dragged out a little; it started great and I was hooked, the middle was slow and the ending was fast paced if a little OTT. The characters are well developed and interesting but Heather was a little tedious at times and I didn't really become invested in her much; some of her actions also seemed implausible to me.

The parts I did like were the "before" sections, the links to the Grimm Brothers stories, the scenes when Heather went to see Michael in prison and the general creepiness that was ever present but there was just something that I can't put my finger on properly that resulted in me not loving it.

Thank you to HarperCollins UK / HarperFiction and NetGalley for my copy in return for an honest, unbiased and unedited review.

Kudos

Leanne Crabtree (480 KP) rated The Nothingness of Ben (The Austin Trilogy, #1) in Books

Sep 6, 2019

3.5 stars.

I don't know how to review this. There was stuff I liked and stuff I wasn't so keen on.

Let's start with the pros:

1) The developing relationship between the brothers; the younger three were close and seeing them grow closer to their older sibling was really cute.
2) Ben's willingness to change; even if it did take a while.
3) The camaraderie between many of the characters; Ben and Colin; Cade and Travis; Colin and Jason, the list goes on.

Cons:

1) The length of time for Ben and Travis' relationship to bloom; it seemed a bit too quick in some respects, although Travis was very willing once he came around to the idea.
2) This is not necessarily about the book itself, but some of the characters: How they treated Travis at the dinner party.

I have come to notice that I like to read books that involve children in my m/m romances ([b:One Small Thing|13186809|One Small Thing (One Thing, #1)|Piper Vaughn|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1327464763s/13186809.jpg|18367666]) and that really helped me in this. They were all really great kids and I liked how they all grew and ended up really happy.