Hits the Fan blog

My friends electric: 2018’s under the radar ambient music roundup

This isn’t the usual best ambient releases of 2018 or the year end review of electronic music’s greatest hits or whatever but rather a few emerging artists who have got in touch to me directly with new material that I would like to pass back on to you.

Review: Childhood – Two Novellas by Gerard Reve

Pushkin Press helped bring Reve’s masterwork The Evenings to wider attention and now they’ve followed it up with another beautifully artworked addition for your European literature shelf.

Margaret Millar’s lost crime novel Vanish in an Instant has returned and it’s a killer read

What I love about Margaret Millar is that you know she’s playing with you but she only lets you get close enough to see the shadows of her deception.

Short story lovers must read this beautifully devastating new Akiyuki Nosaka collection

There is a paradox in all great short stories: they leave large marks that bely their stature. Like a tiny comet crashing to Earth, they are brilliantly devastating forces of nature that make a hell of a profound impact.

Debussy’s Clair de lune – my extended ambient piano rework MUSIC VIDEO

I’ve slowed down the tempo significantly in an experiment to see if I could create a new soundscape out of something familiar. Hopefully someone finds it relaxing!

Book review: Frédéric Dard’s vintage noir The Gravediggers’ Bread is begging to be exhumed

Dard is brilliant at describing the unspoken tones of noir – the creeping dread, the red-blooded lust and the vein-bulging tell-tale signs of sin’s smothering aftermaths.