Charles Stross - "Iron Sunrise"

More than anything else Stross has written, "Iron Sunrise" is a pure genre novel: a sprawling, post-Singularity space opera epic.  Convention doesn't serve Stross well, though: he's best when he jams so many out-there ideas onto the page that the reader can barely keep up.  Stross's plotting and characterization have always been decent by SF standards, but they're clearly a vehicle for his mind-blowingly weird and strangely plausible visions of future society. 

"Iron Sunrise" follows a standard space opera template.  Page 1-100: introduce your characters and set up three or four plot threads.  In the second hundred pages, start to hint at a deep mystery, preferably of cosmological or eschatological significance.  Third, start weaving the plot threads and hint at a final confrontation, while leaving the central mystery unexplained.  In the last segment, wrap everything up in a really long passage of expository dialogue.  Recently, Stross admitted on his blog that he wanted to write such a novel: a reasonable goal, given that he was a new author and wanted to establish himself in the genre.  The problem is that space opera generally presents an inconsistent future: it's tough to imagine a society with all the trappings of the Singularity (nanotech, strong AI, biological modifications, maybe FTL travel, etc) but with mostly unaltered human characters (and token aliens that act like humans anyway).

Stross gets around this with the device of the Eschaton, the practically godlike AI from "Singularity Sky."  Without spoiling the details, it's a logically consistent way to bring conventional humanity to a space opera setting.  Unfortunately, it always felt like kind of a hack.  The details are glossed over in both "Singularity Sky" and "Iron Sunrise," which seems odd given the cataclysmic nature of humanity's transition to a spacefaring society.  It works in "Singularity Sky," though, since that novel is already packed tight with other concepts.  The Festival and its implications provide more than enough weirdness to keep the reader from worrying too much about the Eschaton.  "Iron Sky," by contrast, doesn't have anything else to really grab the reader's attention.  Stross used the Eschaton to allow himself to write a novel that doesn't play to his strengths.  It's decently executed, and fans like me will still have a decent time reading it, but it's far from Stross's best.

Trash Talk, Touche Amore, Envy: 9/28 at Harper's Ferry, Allston, MA

"This song's called 'Walking Disease.'  If you know the lyrics, get the fuck up front."  A squeal comes out of the amps, and the kids up front start getting restless.  Once the song begins, you realize the absurdity of vocalist Lee Spielman's exhortation.  The music is fast to the point of incomprehensibility: everything comes out as a giant slur.  But the crowd loves it.  There's a gigantic pit with bodies going every which way.  There's a stage dive every second or two.  People aren't screaming the lyrics back at the singer or even just being conscious of the whole thing.  None of this is voluntary.  Trash Talk aren't musicians: they're neuro-linguistic programmers.  They're tuning in to some deep and vital impulse, and it's awe inspring to watch.

Touche Amore is similar, though their music is a lot more traditional.  Musically and aesthetically, they're the heirs of the late Modern Life Is War.  They played well and the crowd enjoyed them, but it's harder for me to get into this kind of music.  Still, it's always fun to see people enjoying a show.  I mostly sat this one out.

Envy, on the other hand, was spectacular.  See my review of "Recitation" below for more information about the music.  The show had all the hallmarks of a great post-rock show: ear splitting volume, incredible emotional intensity, an all-encompassing guitar tone, and weird dudes twiddling knobs on their guitar pedals.  If you've been to one of these shows, you've been to them all, but somehow it never gets old.  It's tough to imagine someone getting into this if they're not already a fan of the genre -- but if you are, Envy absolutely deserves your attention.

Torche - "Songs For Singles"

Torche stays focused after 2008's "Meanderthal," one of my top three records of that year.  On "Songs For Singles," the songwriting is tighter, the tempos are faster, and the guitars are less heavy.  It even says on the cover: "it's just a bunch of radio rock bullshit."  If you're looking for a new Floor record, you're going to be pretty let down: there's no sign of Floor/Torche's former trademark dropped guitar tuning.  Fans of "Meanderthal" should be thrilled, though.  Standout track "Cast Into Unknown" captures the same feeling as "Across The Shields," the best track on their previous album.  Worth buying for that song alone.