I pretty much agree that the book is a fair amount of wanking, but at it's root it does a fairly good job expressing some of the (more freaked-out) aspects of techno, jazz fusion, hip-hop and funk that rarely get properly addressed by writers coming from either a more academic or pop-journalistic stance. and while his language is a bit goofy, I'll take it any day over dj spooky's post-structuralist lingua café. and yeah, the wire piece about BC woke a lot of people up to some groundbreaking sounds.
> [...] He has a tendency to throw a lot of stuff about, and > frankly a lot of it is more like an academic version of scat-poetry > than serious analysis. (I've always liked that he included "fiction" > in the subtitle -- it's appropriate.) > > But if you're willing to follow along, and excuse the sometimes > excessive dips into self-created jargon, he has some interesting > ideas. [...] > > And his attitude, which might not be great for hangin' out with, is > perfect for approaching Sun-Ra, and the Martian, or the pre-revealed > Drexciya. [...] > > At 11:11 AM +0000 11/25/02, Neil Wallace wrote: >> Ive always avoided this book as ive seen kodwo on a few music >> documentaries and he always seems to be completely up his own a$$ >
