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A review by adam613
From Blue to Black by Joel Lane
3.0
"Nobody really belongs anywhere. I don't think we go where we belong when we die. It's more like...like the airwaves, messages drifting around. That's what left of us, messages."
The latest release from Influx Press is a reprint of the 2000 Joel Lane novel From Blue to Black. Taking place in Birmingham in the early 1990s, Triangle is a cult post-punk band led by singer-guitarist Karl who is haunted be ghosts and dangers. When David joins the band to play bass, it begins a passionate and torrid affair between the two with hazy lines that end in confusion and pain.
"Where do they go, where does their time belong? Swimming through the river underground. Past the stinking bodies and the photographs. Until there's nothing left except a sound."
Originally written over twenty years ago, From Blue to Black is a feverish blitz of the love and lust Karl and David. Along with the customary traps of a band trying to make it, Joel Lane tries to make sense of our relation to sound and mortality. There is a belief held by Karl that suspects that sounds constantly remain alive even when inaudible to the human ear. Much like an everlasting spirit that resonates and surrounds us on and on until the end of time. Perhaps this is why the artist creates, to live on in immortality no matter how micro a scope that would be. I wonder if Karl believed it to be for reasons of ego or our deep need to be connected and make sense of our world.
"The music can't die. But that's the really terrible thing. No sound ever dies. It echoes through the universe, breaking up. They're all floating around us. In mindless orbit. Some day, you'll hear them all again."
Far more than a run-of-the-mill story of rock fiction, From Blue to Black is filled with sex, drugs, rock n roll with a deeply felt humanity in its characters. Along with a wonderful descriptive world-building and a list of bands referred to, I found Joel Lane's reprinted debut to be a totally immersive read. I did find some of the parts hitting really close to home and the agony and pains of Karl and David's emotions written with immediacy and compassion. Joel Lane's From Blue to Black is definitely worth exploring as either a fan of rock n roll and/or literary fiction.
The latest release from Influx Press is a reprint of the 2000 Joel Lane novel From Blue to Black. Taking place in Birmingham in the early 1990s, Triangle is a cult post-punk band led by singer-guitarist Karl who is haunted be ghosts and dangers. When David joins the band to play bass, it begins a passionate and torrid affair between the two with hazy lines that end in confusion and pain.
"Where do they go, where does their time belong? Swimming through the river underground. Past the stinking bodies and the photographs. Until there's nothing left except a sound."
Originally written over twenty years ago, From Blue to Black is a feverish blitz of the love and lust Karl and David. Along with the customary traps of a band trying to make it, Joel Lane tries to make sense of our relation to sound and mortality. There is a belief held by Karl that suspects that sounds constantly remain alive even when inaudible to the human ear. Much like an everlasting spirit that resonates and surrounds us on and on until the end of time. Perhaps this is why the artist creates, to live on in immortality no matter how micro a scope that would be. I wonder if Karl believed it to be for reasons of ego or our deep need to be connected and make sense of our world.
"The music can't die. But that's the really terrible thing. No sound ever dies. It echoes through the universe, breaking up. They're all floating around us. In mindless orbit. Some day, you'll hear them all again."
Far more than a run-of-the-mill story of rock fiction, From Blue to Black is filled with sex, drugs, rock n roll with a deeply felt humanity in its characters. Along with a wonderful descriptive world-building and a list of bands referred to, I found Joel Lane's reprinted debut to be a totally immersive read. I did find some of the parts hitting really close to home and the agony and pains of Karl and David's emotions written with immediacy and compassion. Joel Lane's From Blue to Black is definitely worth exploring as either a fan of rock n roll and/or literary fiction.