Shystie - One Wish

Shystie - One Wish
A little dated, this one, as I've been listening to it a lot over the last couple of months, but I was flicking through a CD of mp3s on the train home last night and I ended up listening to this three or four times in a row; the bit that gets me is the verse where she rhymes about how "mans nowadays don't care when they kill", her voice lilting up to suggest paranoia and panic. So even when she gasps "to the families of lost ones I'm sorry, R.I.P to babies Jessica and Holly", which would probably sound tasteless elsewhere, it sounds full of conviction and surprisingly moving - like Ghostface when he gets all hyper on 'My Guitar', rapping

"Did you think I was playin'? When I told you before
You can't come back here, open you up like a pap smear
Actin' like you ain't got fear, nigga you get popped here!
Matter fact, I'm a street doctor, take the shot here!"

...like the world is ending around him. And like Ghostface, Shystie's lyric combusts over the most achingly beautiful backing, a scattershot, glimmering grime tune which sounds like a loop of a handful of diamonds clattering down onto a glass table.

Philip Pullman's The Subtle Knife

Philip Pullman's The Subtle Knife, which I am enjoying but, a little like Pete before me, just beginning to tire of. I read the first book in the series very quickly, surprised by how much I enjoyed it, although part of me couldn't shake the CS Lewis associations. The second book I thought was miles better; really rather brilliant in places and demonstrating considerable depth and a willlingness to introduce complicated ideas and concepts. The third I find a bit more trying, perhaps partly because it is more of a fantasy novel than the second, and partly because I've read the three books in such quick succession that I'm a little fatigued. All the same, they are better books than I had imagined.

The Television Personalities - Part-time Punks

The Television Personalities - Part-time Punks
Which is on the cover CD of this month's MOJO magazine, on a collection of tracks compiled by The Clash's Mick Jones and Paul Simonon. It's really good, by a band I've never really got round to trying out. But The Futureheads included a cover version of the TP's 'Picture of Dorian Gray' on their second single and it remains (apart from their version of 'Hounds of Love') my favourite thing they've recorded. So perhaps I'll have to seek some more stuff by them out.