Rossum's Revenge

There is a mystery - right here in this very pod. A small, plastic robot which has been guarding the desk next to mine for some time has been mutilated and some of its dismembered parts stolen. Suspects have been identified and told that an eye is being kept on them. I will keep you posted.

Currently listening to Changes of Season from the album Withholding Pattern by John Surman which has at last been liberated from the dusty no-man's land of the garage. I bought this on a whim simply because it was on ECM (an icy and dark place full of crystal clear recordings with a heart of madness and unpredictability - I was 20 - I have an excuse). The track Changes of Season could be the unused soundtrack to The Wasp Factory or the film of an unwritten book set in the marshes of some southern sea coast. It tells of boredom set to music, rippling keyboards like a whimsical Philip Glass track, overlaid with sad Saxophone and nothing else. Elsewhere on the album we have dancing duets of Surman playing against a digital delay. It is like no other album I know including all the other John Surman albums. Get this and find yourself in a strangely-lit flatland, mud stretching to the sea or the horizon - clouds painted and immobile. You will find yourself calm and happy and knowing something deeper about the world.

I don't get paid for this you know.