FULL BUCK MOON (15 July 2011)

The musick dedicated to this Esbat is:

PALESTINE CHARLEMAGNE & HEEMANN CHRISTOPH

SAITEN IN FLAMMEN


Original Issue: 2009 Streamline (STREAMLINE 1026)

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Margot-meter: 4,5 moons / 5

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Do not forget to take a look at the comments section :-)

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from Soundohm:

Saiten In Flammen, a new album by Charlemagne Palestine and Christoph Heemann follows their collaborative work on Palestine's heavy-metal-piano workout The Apocalypse Will Blossom with a more textural approach. As on The Apocalypse... the only sound source used throughout these two electro-acoustic explorations of the lower depths is the Bösendorfer Imperial Grand Piano, notorious for its unique resonant qualities.

The title is a German translation of 'strings aflame.' ...looking directly at the cloud, he saw that it was not a cloud, although what it was he did not know. It was a massive wall of utter blackness that rose from where it met the surface of the downward sloping sand far into the sky, so that he was forced to crane his neck to see the top of it. Lightning bolts still slashed across its face with devastating ferocity, and thunder crashed and rumbled.

The wall, he saw or thought he'd saw, was a monstrous dam raised against the sky, and over the lip of it was pouring something that was not water, a gigantic waterfall of blackness that was not water, crashing down across the face of it, a waterfall so solid and unbroken that he did not see the actual falling of it, but only had the hypnotic sense of its falling.

Watching it, he realized that it was not only thunder he heard, but the deep, awful roar of whatever was falling over the lip of the dam, the Niagara-like rushing sound of something falling down from great height, falling from the unknown into the unknown. It seemed to him that the very ground beneath him was trembling with the roar.'

BELTANE (01 May 2011)

The musick dedicated to this Sabbat is:

AQUILAR ILDEFONSO

Erosión


Original Issue: 1985 Ja-Ja (Ja-Ja-6)

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Margot-meter: 4,5 moons / 5

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from Progarchives :

Not only an electronic artist, but a dedicated photographer and painter as well, ILDEFONSO AGUILAR seems to state a small late pioneering into Spanish electronic music by just an album, "Erosion" (released 1978, later rehashed into more complete music). After studying Beautiful and Applied Arts, he makes several audio-visual experimentations, plus, between 1978 -1980, he makes impressions and recordings out of journeys taken in different countries.

His devotion in this figment goes towards the soft electronic machinery, as well as guitar mastering. Dedicated, from 1986, only towards the artistic activity, his little reached record production becomes palliated, despite being a fan artist and being the collaborator with the most impelling work for the Visual Music festival, that is celebrated since 1989, and that takes place in natural scenes of his native island Lanzarote. (and that, although it is not a contest centered exclusively in electronic music, has welcomed in musicians of the stature of Constance Demby, Steve Roach, Robert Rich or Brian Eno). He also appeared, recently, on a Russell Mills wide collaboration-album, along royal (read: imposant) names.

Ildefonso Aguilar's studies interact with the natural compelling, covering the sound motemp or the analog synthetism. Whilst his photography has the landscaping, ortographic and consumating look appeal, so is the music sheet able to, in general, spire placid work, beauty and sensitivity, rescriben privacy, ebeautiful levation in impression. It's taken as an ancient and work of rarefact and isolationist ambient music. Also as a conceptual point of electronism in opposite of a real and truthful rock vein. Cosmic music reveales a loose symphonic synth solvent. Mystical, instrumental of a new compulsory attitude and ober-toned. Inside the logic, "Erosion" can be conceived as concept blatant affinity. The adventurous synth escapade of it recommends, somehow flawlessly, the hints of drone aftertaste, or the natural omuses like Edgar W. Froese's "Aqua".

Ildelfonso Aguilar seems both the complete artist and the personality with the heart of an artist. In the short term of music, his album is a concrete result of his studies, dedicated equivocally to landscaping, to finding the ambient inside the world, to measuring the scales of a music fade. His album is rare, consequently intentional.

FULL COLD MOON (21 December 2010)

The musick dedicated to this Esbat is:

NERELL LOREN

LILIN DEWA


Original Issue: 1996 Soleilmoon (DFX 26) Buy it here!!!

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Margot-meter: 4,5 moons / 5

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from http://home.earthlink.net/~lnerell/ldreviews.html:

Option May-June 1997

Nerells' chops as both a synthesizer expert and a student of the gamelan allow him to explore the border region between electronics and one of the world's most highly developed acoustic orchestras -- not that this hasn't been done before. But Nerell takes the gamelan into ambient realms, where-as many of the other fusions of Western musics with gamelan have turned on gamelan's rhythmic elements, Nerell uses gamelan in combination with synths, but also electronically morphs the gamelans into subtle, delicate resonant spaces, where just traces of the originals loop through the composition. At times reminiscent of Jon Hassell and the darker soundscapes of Steve Roach, Nerell's music shows a delicate touch of great beauty, and his understanding and love of gamelan never leave you feeling even the hint of appropriation. John Baxter

Alternative Press May 1997

(four fingers out of five meaning: well done).
Nerell is an American who became spellbound by Bali and Java's gamelan music after a chance encounter with it 15 years ago. He merges field recordings of said music with his own studio manipulaitons (via synths and samplers), but only skilled ears could tell which is which. Nerell's tools include various Indonesian gongs, rain-stick, dholak and slenthem.

Lilin Dewa should strike a resonant chord with Westerners receptive to contemplative musics, even if they don't have a clue about gamelan. The moan-and-groan drone of Galungan has ritualistic overtones that induce an uneasy, peaceful feeling, like being isloated in a desert, Borobudur 4AM is akin to Paul Schutze's cinematic take on Souteastern Asian ambience. Muted chanting and cricketsong add to the song's mesmerizing chill. Bamboo, Iron, Resin, Bronze is one of the most gorgeous and euphoric peices of music since Don Cherry's "brown Rice" (1975), conjuring the image of a stately glide down an Indoesian river. Dave Segal

Interface version 4.1

It seems as though everytime you turn around, Portland-based Soleilmoon Recordings puts out another batch of reissues, collections, anthologies and new releases that transcend the usual glut of meaningless industrial anthem rock, and define a whole other, more sincere world of ambient sounds and settings. Quickly becoming the grandfather of Industrial World Music, Soleilmoon must rank at the top of the list for any aficionado of textual sound canvases and internationally-mixed keyboard cacophonies. This latest batch of exceptional ambient releases all arrived at my door within the last few months, and they are collectively better than the junk-mail singles collections substituting for albums that clutter major labels, release schedules for an entire year.....Nerell and Muzlimgauze offer enchanting forays into the realm of world music with their new releases....all are superior and recommended trance music for the thinking man. Anais

Camera Obscura

Nerell, originally awakened by Tangerine Dream's Rubycon, also took an early liking to gamelan music, tape manipulation, and electronic sound generation. He's been known for his work with Steve Roach, Djam Karet, Kronos Quartet, Paul Haslinger, and others. Why he's taken so long to release his first solo is a mystery, but some artists only do things when they consider the time is exactly right. Lilin Dewa is a slow, brooding, swirling, mysterious quintet of nighted murals. A cross between Vidna Obmana, Alain Kremski, and a somnabulistic Steve Reich, it demands liquid patience from the listener and displays a debt to Harry Partch that only the initiated will understand. It also requires a breadth of experience, attention, and, at least initially, non-judgementalism. The opening track, Irama, is deceptive, seeming somewhat more minimal than necessary, and perhaps a tad paradoxically World Music-y in this fad-time of politically correct obeisance to imaginary social demands from art (of all things). It is, however, a preparation agent and owes no uncivil subordination to current contexts and trends. It slows the listener and thickens the listening environment, and is important to the fourth track, Hiasan (Ornament), which contains very subtle information and is an epic (20:00) of quietude, joining such masterpieces as Eno's 2/2, John Abercrombie's Still, and a much-too-small body of sublime quiet-art. It also has latencies of the On Land work.

The closer, Borobudur 4AM, carries on Hiasan's mission, but as terrenely alien electronics within a rain forest (the ambients were recorded at Borobudur, in Java, site of the largest Buddhist stupa in the world) counterpointed by a distanced ceremonial event. And neither Nerell nor the label indicate whether there was an intention for the bird song and insects to act as natural music, but they do, giving a bit of an exposure to the coincidental experience of nature as an unrecognized music "form". Given the savantry displayed and Nerell's immersion in the culture (he played in-country with native bands) bounced against his American birth, I'd wager he knew exactly what he was doing yet got more than he intended. The degree of identification with this environment is almost unsettling, creating the transference for the wet loamy fecundity of the jungle to seep slowly into the listener's bones......through the ears.

This cd will not be for everyone, of course. It requires more than a modicum of culture and serenity of mind and spirit. Many who essay it unprepared will soon be clawing to crawl out of their skins and toss on some Metallica. But, for the connoisseur, it will sit on the shelf of outre musics for slightly twisted ears. And once you've finished listening, the answer to my curiosity (as to why he took so long to go solo) should become obvious. Marc Tucker

Exposé No. 14, Winter 1998

Here is a composer who has been busy working to put Indonesia on the map as the next landing point in the trek in search of inspiration. In his music Loren Nerell has always shown the explorer spirit, and Lilin Dewa reflects the fruits of his study of ancient and rare forms of Balinese gamelan. This he uses as source material to create ethnic-drone hybrid material that you could safely say has precedence in Brian Eno's seminal On Land. Reference points to the techno-tribal or Berlin-style space music directions taken on his previous cassettes (not to mention other influences such as Harry Partch) are scant, if existent at all, on this (his third) release. Far and away the standout track for me was the evocatively titled, Bamboo, Iron, Resin, Bronze, with its simple but very effective hints at gamelan. Such a beautiful blending of authentic instrumentation flanked by a synthetic layering - you wish it would go on much longer. Hiasan is a sedate meditation constructed around motives played on the kempul (a row of highly vibrant, tuned Javanese gongs). If their resonance seems to beckon one to the imperial courts of Jogyakarta, then the Roach-like drone of Galungan bids one to stay and soak in the ceremonial atmosphere the work evinces. Voices and flute creep into the menacing admixture ever so subtly. The ambient drone supporting Borubudur 4AM is based around field recordings made near the Borubudur temple in Java. It is the next best thing to being there I'm sure, but given its fifteen-minute length you might wish for the intrusion of some more prominent instrumentation. The CD closes there, however, leaving us to ponder what may follow. That this one-time Djam Karet collaborator has few peers in the subgenre lends a sense of limitlessness which I hope Loren will exploit further in the future. Mike Ezzo

Wind & Wire Issue 7 July/August 1998


Genre: Gamelan (Ambient/Trance/World)

Music that invites the deepest of listenings are few and far between when one reviews music as much as I do. Loren Nerell's recording Lilin Dewa is music that merits it, though. Seldom do I hear a work that almost literally jumps into my head and says, "Listen, dammit. I have something important to say." But, after hearing just the first several minutes of this CD, listen (and very intently) is just what I did. It was time well spent.

Lilin Dewa could very well be the sequel to Robert Rich's superlative 1989 recording, Rainforest. Both are heavily influenced (and in the case of Loren, very directly so) by the gamelan music of Bali. To put this CD in the same league of Robert's is, coming from me, very heady praise. To me, Rainforest is a literally essential CD and may be Robert's best work. That Lilin Dewa stands toe-to-toe with it and even expands on some of that release's work is quite a feat.

Using an assortment of Indonesian gongs and kempuls, Balinese suling and gambuh, plus many other instruments that not only do I not know what they are but probably can't even pronounce them, along with wonderful synth and sampler textures, Loren has produced a work of feeling, mystery, depth, and beauty. I want to submerge myself in this CD and let my mind drift away to distant lands. This is not ambient music in that it should not be ignored. Or, if you treat it as such, you are missing the point. Which is not to say that you can't play this in the background. God knows it's beautifully unobtrusive at times. But, be prepared to pay attention and allow the music to work its magic on you.

The album opens with Irama which uses gongs and percussion to sound a steady rhythm which should immediately make those comparisons to Rainforest evident to anyone who knows the recording. But on the next cut, Galungan, the CD shifts gears abruptly into trance and drone-mode. Galungan, per the liner notes, is a ceremony practiced in Bali to commemorate the beginning of a new year. The ceremony must be very spiritual because this is not "Auld Lang Syne!"

With the exception of the third cut, Bamboo, Iron, Resin, Bronze which is just over six minutes long and is a wonderful excursion into dense polyrhythms, the other four songs are all at least ten minutes long (one clocks in at twenty minutes!). This is music that breathes. It is patient and develops over time. For example, the last two songs on the CD are wonderfully evocative and atmospheric. But the listener must commit themselves to really listening to this music. Again, this may not mean sitting still. It depends on how skillful a listener you are. For me, I simply had to pay attention to this music.

Loren is deeply committed to gamelan music and has spent the better part of this decade studying it first-hand. Lilin Dewa is a recording that shows what happens when an artist becomes not just inspired but even consumed by his or her love of music. Loren has created a work deeply enmeshed with this other culture. I admire not just his craft and his devotion, but also his conviction. For those interested in gamelan music and/or recordings that truly draw the listener into the experience of the music, I recommend spending some time with Lilin Dewa. Bill Binkelman

Dreams Word

I always love it when an artist successfully blends different styles of music into a unique listening experience. Combining modern dark ambient and ages old gamelan music may not seem an easy task, but in the hands of Loren Nerell, it feels that way on Lilin Dewa. Dark drones open Irama, but are soon joined by metallic chimes of ancient instruments. Beginning slowly, the beats gradually pick up speed and musical intensity. Just when it seems things will build to a crescendo, the music slows down again. Ah, but wait, here it goes again. Irama rides a musical wave up and down, then finally crests and falls. On listening, the musical pattern seems deceptively simple, though it is probably not easily achieved. Primitive influences continue with Galungan, an 18-minute journey into long forgotten cultures, again blending traditional instruments and synthesizers, this time with chants added as well. I must confess to a Western world bias against too much chanting in my music, but it is not too distracting here, and definitely fits with the overall mood.

Each of the five tracks range from ten to twenty minutes, with the exception of the six-minute Bamboo, Iron, Resin, Bronze, named for the four primary materials used in the recording. This is a fascinating sound collage, and should appeal to fans of Steve Roach's albums Artifacts and Origins.

The CD is beautifully packaged, with detailed liner notes explaining how Lilin Dewa came into being, including the meaning, intent, and recording method behind each song. For example, it is explained that the 20-minute Hiasan is based on small knobbed gongs, called kempuls, which are featured. This minimal piece very effectively uses ancient instruments in the same way modern ambient artists use synthesizers to soothe and relax the listener.

Lilin Dewa rewards both passive and attentive listening, though I highly recommend the latter, to fully appreciate all its nuances and subleties. Though it seems like many are going for a tribal ambient sound these days, something about Lilin Dewa is very refreshing and original. Recommended, especially for fans of ambient with tribal overtones. Phil Derby

FULL BUCK MOON (25 July 2010)

The musick dedicated to this Esbat is:

BLACKSHAW JAMES

LOST PRAYERS AND MOTIONLESS DANCES


Original Issue: 2005 Digitalis (digi008) Buy it here!!!

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Margot-meter: 4,5 moons / 5

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1. Lost Prayers And Motionless Dances

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from Jazzloft:

An absolutely monumental recording, Lost Prayers and Motionless Dances re-examines many of the themes that were explored on Celeste and distills them into one brilliant 35-minute composition that is full of excitement and surprise. The piece begins with a harmonium drone and acoustic 12-string, tuned to the guitar-unfriendly C-F-C-F-C-F (I can't find any examples of this tuning being used elsewhere) and unfolds beautifully. Blackshaw moves effortlessly from Takoma-inspired picking into electroacoustic improvisation and concludes with 12-string, harmonium and ride cymbal falling into a blissed-out circular folk groove that is absolutely infectious.

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from Boomkat:

'Lost Prayers And Motionless Dances' is a single thirty-five minute composition, opening with droning harmonium passages and only revealing the guitar part - inevitably the ace up Blackshaw's sleeve - after a good eight minutes of toying with you. Thereafter, Blackshaw's fluency with Eastern modes and sitar-like figures becomes the central attraction, dressing the piece in an enormously elaborate display of fingerpicking, but eventually it all melts away into a state of drone, leaving only echoes, jangling bells and radio static. It's one of Blackshaw's more abstract moments, but soon the guitar returns for a coda at a more stately pace, supported by thudding kick drum, drawing the piece to a suitably regal close.

BELTANE (01 May 2010)

The musick dedicated to this Sabbat is:

MNORTHAM & JGRZINICH

THE STOMACH OF THE SKY


Original Issue: 1997 Staalplaat (STCD 115)

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Margot-meter: 5 moons / 5

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1 Eluvium - Separate Material Accumulations, Or At Least Only Shifted By The Wind
2 Remanent Magnetism - The Memory Of C. Kelvin Physically Manifested In The Structure Of A Leaf
3 Geochronologic Formation - This Eye Can Only Be Seen By A Change Of Perception

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from Aquarius Records:

MNortham (who has previously been sighted on the fantastic Ora album Anagram and in recent collaboration with Francisco Lopez) and JGrzinich are sound artists investigating the properties of various organic acoustic forms, making use of long wire devices, found materials, assembled devices, aeolian wind harps, and a field recordings. Culled from years of collaborative recordings, The Stomach Of The Sky begins with extended rumble of densely layered sounds -- very much like the latest Lopez field recording work. Then the duo introduces a delicate metallic drones / scrapes / gurgles which could come from the Organum / Andrew Chalk school of bowed cymbals and gongs or from a processed field recording of water running through copper pipes. Either way, it's a beautiful magnetic tone.

FULL HUNTER'S MOON (02 November 2009)

The musick dedicated to this Esbat is:

FROST BEN

THEORY OF MACHINES


Original Issue: 2006 Bedroom Community (HVALUR 2) (Buy it here!!!)

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Margot-meter: 5 moons / 5

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1 Theory Of Machines 9:30
2 Stomp 8:26
3 We Love You Michael Gira 7:49
4 ...Coda 1:42
5 Forgetting You Is Like Breathing Water 11:13

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from Almostcool.org:

When readers of this site kept recommending Ben Frost, I knew that it was an artist I should seek out (as my readers most often know more than I do), and after hearing his album Theory Of Machines, I'm glad that I did. The second release on the fledgling Bedroom Community label, it's also the third release from Frost, and finds him pushing even further into powerful audio explorations that sounds something like Tim Hecker with occasionally punishing rhythms. He examines textures and timbres in lovely, and sometimes disturbing ways over the course of five tracks and just under forty minutes, mixing pastoral beauty with gut-churning blasts in other places.

The album-titled opener "Theory Of Machines" sets the tone with a super-slow build of filtered guitar that's almost crystalline in places. Eventually, slow-morphing sludgy bass enters the mix and the track builds to a powerful climax of screaming guitars and overdriven beats about two-thirds of the way through before melting into ambience again. "Stomp" follows, and takes a slightly different direction, with programmed beat thumps banging across a more barren landscape while distance waves of noise only creep into the foreground during a crunchy ending.

"We Love You Michael Gira" conveys a similar sense of dread as many tracks on the album, and this time Frost pulls it off by again barely keeping waves of feedback under control for the first half of the track before letting loose with a repeating high tone (that resembles a medical device warning sound) and some beats that are absolutely coated in feedback and on the verge of breaking down. A string coda at the end of the song does nothing to lighten the mood.

If the former track was barely-contained violence, then "Coda" is where things let loose with any pent up energy. The two-minute track is all scorching guitar noise, red-lined bass pulses, and hammering drums that finally blur out at the end. Given all that came before it, it seems only fitting that the closer of "Forgetting You Is Like Breathing Water" takes things down a great deal to warm repeated tones, filtered drones, and some subtle strings that sound something like a more layered version of the minimal pulse-tone work that Oren Ambarchi has mastered. Even though it's a shorter album, Theory Of Machines is by no means a light listen. With several moments that will make your hair stand up on end (both for sheer beauty and dread), this is definitely worth seeking out.

FULL CORN MOON (04 September 2009)

The musick dedicated to this Esbat is:

NIJIUMU

LIVE

Original Issue: 1997 Big Cat (ABB 1000/2CD)

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Margot-meter: 5 moons / 5

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01 Untitled (3:11)
02 Untitled (49:38)
03 Untitled (12:29)

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from The Sound Projector:

Top of the range is Nijiumu, one of Keiji Haino’s quieter musical hats, and for sheer pathos this live recording worth your entry money by itself; to call this slice of sheer emotion tear-inducing is not enough. You will weep!

FULL PINK MOON (09 April 2009)

The musick dedicated to this Esbat is:

TIME MACHINES

TIME MACHINES


Original Issue: 1998 Eskaton (ESKATON 010)

Reissue: 2001 Eskaton (ESKATON 028)

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Margot-meter: 4,5 moons / 5

Psycho-active musick!!! Handle with care

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1 7-Methoxy-ß-Carboline: (Telepathine) (23:10)
2 2,5-Dimethoxy-4-Ethyl-Amphetamine: (DOET/Hecate) (13:28)
3 5-Methoxy-N,N-Dimethyl: (5-MeO-DMT) (10:02)
4 4-Indolol,3-[2-(Dimethylamino)Ethyl],Phosphate Ester: (Psilocybin) (26:51)

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from Wikipedia:

Time Machines is Coil's landmark drone music album, released under the alias Time Machines. It consists of 4 tracks which are composed of a single tone, called a drone. Each tone represents a certain hallucinogenic chemical (see track titles).

It is similar to Brian Eno's early ambient albums, but more functional in that, instead of creating an atmosphere of calm, it facilitates time travel, according to band founder John Balance. Each tone was tested and retested in the studio for maximum narcotic potency. John Balance described the album as an attempt to "dissolve time".

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from Almost Cool Music Reviews:

Since I've never taken any sort of hallucinatory drugs, I'm probably the wrong person to be reviewing this album, but I'm going to take a stab at it anyway. This album is a concept album of sorts in that there are 4 tracks (varying in length from 10 to 27 minutes) of strictly tonal qualities that have been constructed to "facilitate travel through time." As if that weren't enough, instead of track titles, the four pieces are named as chemical structures of hallucinatory drugs (track 2 is "2,5-Dimethoxy-4-Ethyl-Amphetamine:(DOET/Hecate)").

If you're a fan of Coils previous work, this album may even take some work for you to get through. Quite simply, it is the most minimal piece of work that they have ever done. The tracks on this disc are droning and long and change only slightly throughout their duration. If you've ever listened to music of this sort (as I have quite a bit), you'll know that it's best to either leave it on in the foreground and let yourself completely be consumed by it (as in meditation), or put it on a little more quietly in the background and let it blend in with lots of other things that are going on around you. As it says in the cover, "Artifacts generated by your listening environment are an intrinsic part of the experience." Be it police sirens, the hum of your refridgerator, or the clink-clank of dishes as you wash them, almost every noise will seem to blend into the the background tone that is this recording.

As with other Coil releases, the packaging on the disc is very cool. The first 2,000 copies printed come with 6 brightly colored stickers that, when overlayed (which you really can't do without messing them up) create a new symbol. As explained above, the music is very trying, especially if you have a short attention span. It's very minimal and kind of creepy, but if you let it, it will suck you in. It's probably even better on hallucinatory drugs, but I'll stick to listening to it while I'm doing yoga.

FULL SNOW MOON (9 February 2009)

The musick dedicated to this Esbat is:

SECLUSION

YUKIGAFURU (PART I-IV)


Original Issue: 1993 Some Fine Legacy (SFL 001)

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Margot-meter: 5 moons / 5

Another mind bending masterpiece by the likes of Christoph Heemann and the members of Jack or Jive!

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1 Yukigafuru (Parts 1-3) (20:51)
2 Yukigafuru (Part 4) (8:39)

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from Incursion.org:

Seclusion is Makoto Hattori, Chako and Christoph Heemann. From the moment I put this in my player I was stopped dead in my tracks. This music on this 30 minute EP has an overwhelming power, and I find myself returning to it time and time again.

It opens with a quiet drone, interspersed with drops of crystalline sound, as gentle as the gentlest snowfall (this first visual effect is suggested by the superb cover art). As I have come to expect from any project with Heemann in its personnel, the production work here is incredible; these sounds breathe a life of their own that is truly remarkable. Deep into the drones of the opening sequences, immersed in their depth and beauty, there comes a gentle voice strained in song, later accompanied by the quiet and deep intonations of an organ. You encounter her voice as you would a pool of clear cool water in a tranquil wilderness; as still as sadness itself, a scene for contemplation and reflection, a place of infinite beauty that pulls you to stillness.

Please excuse my liberties here: I can only speak of this music, itself so very poetical, in terms of analogy and metaphor. Needless to say, this record comes highly highly recommended.

Richard Di Santo

YULE (21 December 2008)

The musick dedicated to this Sabbat is:

IDITAROD (THE)

THE GHOST, THE ELF, THE CAT AND THE ANGEL

Original Issue: 2002 Bluesanct (INRI 065)

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Margot-meter: 4,5 moons / 5

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1 The Roots Of The Butterfly Bush (3:31)
2 Black Strung Bow (1:00)
3 Afternoons Like This Are Hard To Come By (7:22)
4 Raga (In D#) (6:44)
5 Cycle Circle (4:40)
6 The Falling Of The Pine (9:54)
7 Ich Tanzte Weit (2:09)
8 New Magic In A Dusty World (1:58)
9 Let No Man Steal Your Thyme (3:55)
10 The Nameless One (4:08)
11 Unfortunate Lass (5:40)

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from All Music Guide:

Though they're from Rhode Island, the duo comprising Iditarod (Carin Wagner and Jeffrey Alexander) sound quite a bit like a British psychedelic-tinged folk or folk-rock act.

Those enamored of the sound of vintage artists in that tributary, like Donovan, the Incredible String Band, and Pentangle -- and of more recent artists that obviously owe something to that style, like Robyn Hitchcock and (far more obscurely) Damien Youth -- might well be inclined to enjoy this record, though it's not explicitly imitative of any of those artists.

While the music's often acoustic guitar-based, the pair play a pretty impressive range of instruments on this CD, from moog and wine glasses to tamboura, singing bowl, and chimes, with some other musicians adding touches on cello, recorder, bouzouki, and more. As the title indicates, there's a mythological-stroll-in-the-forest tinge to their approach, with some electronic effects and backwards-distorted guitar lines adding a bit of psychedelia, without ever submerging the essentially folky ambience.

They may be mood-setters more than they are songwriters, but the mood's a good one: melancholy, subdued, and slightly eerie folk-rock, with quite a bit of varied texture, and an avoidance of the drone and monotony that afflict many other bands working similar territory. The vocals, as befits such material, are suitably fragile and wistful, if not exceptional, broken up by haunting instrumentals that have a touch of exotic (sometimes Indian) mystery.

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from Dusted Reviews:

The Iditarod, a pagan folk-psych duo (Carin Wagner and Jeffrey Alexander) from Providence, Rhode Island, is group of such artists. Their latest full-length The Ghost, The Elf, The Cat, and The Angel combines eclectic acoustic instrumentation (acoustic guitars, tamboura, dulcimers, bongos, bells, singing bowls, musical saws) with electronics (moogs, turntables, phonographs) in meandering arrangements and ambient treatments of medieval folk songs.

Titles like "The Roots of The Butterfly Bush", "Afternoons Like This Are Hard To Come By", and "New Magic in a Dusty World" might lead one to think that The Ghost, The Elf, The Cat, and The Angel should be catalogued along side the Brit-folk romps of The Pentangle, Fairport Convention, and The Incredible String Band, but this is not the case.

Electronic drones and layers of low-end strings expand the songs and turn them into brooding pieces of ambient bad vibe. Although the influence of 60's British folk is clearly evident on their cover of the traditional "Let No Man Steal Your Thyme" (a song that Pentangle made famous in '68) The Iditarod's somber approach gives the song a hollow funereal feel that sounds like it is being sung by heavily sedated Nico or a half-asleep Mary Timony.

These comparisons could be compliments or insults depending on your politics, either way I don't believe The Iditarod have hit their stride yet. The ever present Grimm's fairy tale and druid aesthetic wears thin after a couple of minutes and the band too often sacrifices the subtleties of songcraft in favor of dark atmospherics (a fate I'm afraid too many psych-bands succumb to).

Fans of Loren Mazzacane Connors and Ghost (two Terrastock faves) may enjoy The Ghost, The Elf, The Cat, and The Angel, but I only say this because the patience I lose with The Iditarod is the same patience I lose with them. Too much attention to texture and mood simply leaves the songs self-conscious and unmoving. Mixing the detached ethereality of great British folk with the tones and textures of the contemporary avant-garde can be a match made in psych-heaven, but more often than naught, it comes across as forced and transparent.

If you really need such a thing to get you through the night, you might do better by P.G. Six's recent Parlor Tricks And Porch Favorites, the Tower Recordings re-issue of Folkscene, Appendix Out's The Night Is Advancing, or even Alastair Galbraith's Cry.

BLUE MOON (musick by request)

COIL

MOON'S MILK (IN FOUR PHASES)


Original Issue: 2001 Eskaton (ESKATON 23) Buy it here and here!!!

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Margot-meter: 4,5 moons / 5

Francesco, this is for you!

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First Phase: Spring Equinox

1-01 Moon's Milk Or Under An Unquiet Skull (Part One) (8:29)
1-02 Moon's Milk Or Under An Unquiet Skull (Part Two) (8:09)

Second Phase: Summer Solstice

1-03 Bee Stings (4:55)
1-04 Glowworms/Waveforms (5:54)
1-05 Summer Substructures (8:07)
1-06.1 A Warning From The Sun (For Fritz) (4:57)
1-06.2 Untitled (5:03)
1-06.3 Amethyst Deceivers (Live In Europe 2001) (6:33)

Third Phase: Autumn Equinox

2-01 Regel (1:15)
2-02 Rosa Decidua (4:53)
2-03 Switches (4:43)
2-04 The Auto-Asphyxiating Hierophant (5:55)
2-05 Amethyst Deceivers (6:42)

Fourth Phase: Winter Solstice

2-06 A White Rainbow (8:52)
2-07 North (3:46)
2-08 Magnetic North (8:50)
2-09 Christmas Is Now Drawing Near (3:26)

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from Amazon:

It has always been very difficult to pin down Coil stylistically, since their blend of John Balance's dark-wave-ish vocals and the band's vast musical background, which included everything from neo-classical music to the most brutally distorted noisescapes, threw shapes too strange for most listeners.

One had seen hints of what was to come with the more ambient-oriented nature of the band's mid-'90s output, but little could have prepared the average Coil listener for the stunning „Solstice and Equinox" series back in 1998. Four years later, „Moon's milk" finally does the logical thing of combining the four individual and now out-of-print EPs into one fantastically packaged and attractively priced double-disc set. There's not only no other Coil album quite like „Moon's milk", the music also has very few comparisons to anybody else's work, perhaps apart from Dead Can Dance's late-'80s output and In The Nursery's more recent ventures. Despite the quite predominant images of suicide („A warning from the sun", for example, is dedicated to a friend of the band who took his own life), darkness, loneliness, pain and despair, the overwhelming pattern throughout the four parts of the series is a sort of meditative flow - not in a particularly relaxing but rather otherworldly and spiritual way.

Indeed, if „Black light district" were the calm before the storm, then „Moon's milk" is the closest we have to a post-apocalyptic soundtrack!

Disc 1 opens with two 8-minute pieces from the „Spring Equinox" release, and although the combination of dirge-like atmospherics, churchy organs, choir-like vocals by John Balance, and William Breeze's web-like violin lines is pretty fascinating when you're in the right mood, it's musically the weakest and most unadventurous part of the series. Admittedly, a better name would be „Season of Death".

Fortunately, the „Summer Solstice" EP with its four tracks brings energy and liveliness to this album, serving a dreamy though shadowy panorama of ambient soundforms. „Bee stings" sets the scene wonderfully; it's built around a humming noise loop which shimmers deep in the background while John's excellent vocals bring further suspense to the piece. „Glowworms/Waveforms" works in a quite similar vein as John recites an endless series of questions over dark droning layers of electronics. The 8-minute „Summer substructues" is a little more dramatic in comparison, with John narrating a text that seems to focus on feelings of longing and Breeze playing some truly beautiful violin parts towards the end. By complete contrast, the already mentioned „A warning..." brings out much more randomness: Violent sweeps and and electric buzzings which almost sound like a radiation storm rush across the scene, coupled with some really overdone vocals and bright harmonics which seems to come from a processed slide guitar - a vast sea of rolling turbulence which is nevertheless strangely engrossing.

From here, things become even more interesting and abstract with the 5-track EP „Amethyst deceivers": In „Switches", fountains of white noise periodically erupt from a sea of electronic burblings and are then swept away on the soundstream. „The auto-asphy..." is also pretty fascinating with its massive, almost medieval drum pounds (quite reminiscent of Dead Can Dance's „Enigma of the absolute"), while the slow-cooking „Rosa decidua" offers a hauntingly beautiful Balance/McDowall duet. The real highlight, though, is the the 7-minute title track - it's utterly unlike anything I've ever listened to: The pieces builds very well, from its slight beginning to a fragile acoustic guitar line, which is soon joined by a swooshing synth loop, melodic synth chords, and processed vocals.

The remainder of Disc 2 is taken from the „Winter Solstice" EP and returns to the overall sound design of the „Summer Solstice" entry; true to their avant-garde roots, Coil seldom establish a melodic threat, but instead add touches of harmony and a delicate tranquility to such pieces as the 9-minute „Magnetic north" and the McDowall-sung „Christmas...". The hidden bonus track on Disc 1 features a live performance of „Amethyst deceivers" which differs radically from the studio version in that it eschews the great instrumental interplay in favor of some slightly outdated sequencer patterns.

Overall, those with an interest in experimental ambient music will more than likely be familiar with Coil already, but otherwise you should rush out and buy this disc set immediately. Like many other Coil discs, „Moon's milk" is proof that John Balance and Peter Christopherson explore the outer extremes of sound-exploitation with their musical partners-in-crime, but rarely have they produced an album which is so consistently exciting and fascinating from start to finish.

Utterly essential.

BLACK MOON (the dark side of musick)

HARRIS M.J. & BATES MARTYN

MURDER BALLADS (DRIFT)


Original Issue: 1994 Musica Maxima Magnetica (EEE 26) Buy it here!!!

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Margot-meter: 5 moons / 5

...when, in "The Death of Polly", Martyn sings "leaving nothing behind but the wild birds to moan" he reaches, imho, one of the finest moments ever captured on record. UNFORGETTABLE IMAGINATIVE MASTERPIECE, for sure in my top five.

Polly, pretty Polly, come go along with me

Polly, pretty Polly, come go along with me

Before we get married some pleasure to see

She got up behind him and away they did ride

She got up behind him and away they did ride

Over the hills and the valleys so wide

They rode a little further and what did they spy

They rode a little further and what did they spy

But a new-dug grave with a spade lying by

Oh Willy, oh Willy, I'm scared of your ways

Oh Willy, oh Willy, I'm scared of your ways

Scared you might lead my poor body astray

Polly, pretty Polly, you've guessed just about right

Polly, pretty Polly, you've guessed just about right

I've dug on your grave the best part of last night

And he stabbed her in the heart and the heart-blood did flow

And he stabbed her in the heart and the heart-blood did flow

Into her grave pretty Polly did go

He threw a little dirt over her and started for home

He threw a little dirt over her and started for home

Leaving nothing behind but the wild birds to moan

And it's debt to the devil, and Willy must pay

And it's debt to the devil, and Willy must pay

For killing pretty Polly and running away.

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1 The Death Of Polly (14:10)
2 The Fowler (18:31)
3 Lucy Wan (14:40)
4 Long Lankin (16:04)

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from The Wire:

If the theorists of modern-primitivism ever get round to constructing a world that can really accommodate the computer and the campfire, they will have a ready made soundtrack in the shape of Murder Ballads (Drift), a studio collaboration between vocalist Martyn Bates and Lull’s Mick Harris.

Across the record’s four tracks, Harris synthesises a digital simulacrum of rolling weather systems and glacial shifts as a context for Bates’ high, plaintive voice to relate a series of arcane texts drawn from England’s oral folk traditions – long buried tales that speak of ancient taboos: incest, paganism, murder most foul.

“It might seem like an odd combination,” says Bates, “but a murder ballad is a song in longform and repetitive; it’s formless but it has these little motifs buried within it. There is a correlation because the ballads have their own set of internal rhymes and effects. As soon as I heard the first Lull album I could hear all these dark tales of woe working against it.”

Bates proposes another correlation: that the sense of total abstraction inherent in Harris’s approach to digital synthesis applies equally to our contemporary perception of these distant texts. “Because these songs come from an ancient oral tradition, a lot of the original meaning has been lost or transposed. They don’t speak to us directly – they speak to our buried subconscious.”

Since the early 80s, Bates has been attempting to resurrect the English folk song tradition by relocating it in new, unfamiliar contexts, whether as a member of Eyeless In Gaza, or in solo projects such as the recent Chamber Music (Sub Rosa), where he set some of James Joyce’s poetry adrift in limpid electro-pools. “The oral folk tradition needs rescuing from the purist approach. These songs are part of our collective unconscious, our national identity. It’s all tucked away in there, at one remove”.

Tony Herrington

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from Metamorphic Journeyman:

First chapter in the Murder Ballads series – dark, rolling tones & chillingly dream-state voices tell four tales of cruelty. A series much lauded & deservedly so.The ‘tune’ to ‘Polly’ is perhaps the most distinctive among these first four of unlucky (for the characters concerned) thirteen. With is scrawling metal claws scratching the stratosphere. As with all in this series, the songs come from times gone by, bringing murderers and their victims out from a darkness thankfully distant enough to at least let us sleep at night. BATES – angel-voiced as someone once suggested to me – here lurks in the stygian shadows of HARRIS’s noise-scapes, following the acts of dark minds, in the case of this collection, probably fictional.

The success of this series is little to puzzle at – no one had gone quite this far in the field of dark ambient music – oh, CURRENT 93 suggested some dark, mysterious, slightly occult goings on, and the likes of CONTRASTATE has woven imaginary lands where evil seemed to lurk ever present, ever near. But no-one had managed to combine the wicked deeds which invariably ended up with one character in a shallow grave (and usually portrayed as an innocent) and usually the other hanging from a gibbet, with such a doomy, funeral pall backdrop of sound.

The second track, one of probably only two in this series where a certain sympathy lies with the murderer, the Fowler in question mistakenly (we are led to believe) shoots his ‘true love’ mistaking her for a Swan. Here MICK HARRIS creates a structured backing which could be a loop of bones moving around in an ossary, scapula scrapes against femur disquiet at the injustice of early death.

The third, an escapee from the third Incest Songs collection, has brother Geordie finding out his sister Lucy is with child and he is the Father. He quicky covers this fact from the world with help from his ‘broad sword’. The sounds behind MARTYN’s voice churn and swirl slowly like a gentle but final maelstrom which will right the wrong done on the girl’s Father’s doorstep. The final track here is by far the strangest of the entire collection concerning a character called Long Lankin who mysteriously enters the house of a Lady and, with the help of the ‘False Nurse’ and a needle to torture the Lady’s offspring, lure her to her bloody death. This story reminds me of the gruesome tales you used to find in the old PAN Horror books. This is set to a peristaltic roar, churning with foul dread, perfectly portraying the dark tale, adding deep shadows at the bottom of the stairs where the two murderers lay in wait.

Dark and dreadful, this first album seems a logical starting point for your journey through the Murderous past, to witness the blood spill and smell the freshly turned soil from each shallow grave.

Antony Burnham

FULL HUNTER'S MOON (14 October 2008)

The Musick dedicated to this Esbat is:

VELVET UNDERGROUND (THE)

APRIL 1966, SCEPTER STUDIOS (NORMAN DOLPH ACETATE)


Original Issue: 1966

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Margot-meter: 5 moons / 5

Dedicated to all my dear male followers...from Margot, your "Venus in furs" ;-)

shiny, shiny, shiny boots of leather

whiplash girlchild in the dark

comes in bells, your servant, don't forsake him

strike, dear mistress, and cure his heart


downy sins of streetlight fancies

chase the costumes she shall wear

ermine furs adorn the imperious

severin, severin awaits you there


i am tired, i am weary

i could sleep for a thousand years

a thousand dreams that would awake me

different colors made of tears


kiss the boot of shiny, shiny leather

shiny leather in the dark

tongue of thongs, the belt that does await you

strike, dear mistress, and cure his heart


severin, severin, speak so slightly

severin, down on your bended knee

taste the whip, in love not given lightly

taste the whip, now plead for me


i am tired, i am weary

i could sleep for a thousand years

a thousand dreams that would awake me

different colors made of tears


shiny, shiny, shiny boots of leather

whiplash girlchild in the dark

severin, your servant comes in bells, please don't forsake him

strike, dear mistress, and cure his heart

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1 European Son
2 The Black Angel's Death Song
3 All Tomorrow's Parties
4 I'll Be Your Mirror
5 Heroin
6 Femme Fatale
7 Venus In Furs
8 I'm Waiting For The Man
9 Run Run Run

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from the E-Bay auction:

This auction is for a unique 12" LP acetate whose unearthing has been storied in several underground/label international news features, periodicals and a documentary over the last several years including Rolling Stone Magazine (December 30, 2004), Mojo Magazine (May 2005), U.K. Record Collector Magazine (May 2005), Goldmine Magazine (December 8, 2006), The Globe & Mail (May 28, 2005 and January 14, 2006), and the 2006 Documentary "Velvet Underground Under Review (An Independent Critical Analysis)".

Following is excerpted and adapted (with the author's approval) from the article written by Eric Isaacson of Mississippi Records in Portland Oregon which is featured in the December 8, 2006 issue of Goldmine Magazine currently on news-stands through mid December:

THE MYSTERY OF THE VELVET UNDERGROUND'S "REAL FIRST RECORD" (AND HOW THE ONLY EXISTING COPY WAS BOUGHT FOR 75 CENTS)

In September of 2002 Warren Hill of Montreal Canada was perusing a box of records at a Chelsea, New York street sale when he happened upon a nice Leadbelly 10" on Folkways, a water damaged copy of the first Modern Lovers LP on Beserkely, and a brittle 12" piece of acetone-covered aluminum with the words "Velvet Underground. 4-25-66. Att N. Dolph" written on the label. He purchased the three records for 75 cents each.

As I have a small knowledge of records and am an old friend of Warren's, I got a call from him the next day in which he described the acetate. Because of the date and the unique type of pressing, we both agreed that it was probably an in-studio acetate made during the recording of the first Velvet Underground LP back in 1966 (I had heard that they occasionally would have a vinyl cutting lathe in the studio to cut records of the day's recordings for the artists and/or producers to take home for review). Warren didn't want to play the mysterious platter due to the fragile nature of acetates, and the cheap nature of his record needle, so we agreed that the next time he was visiting me in Portland we would check it out together. If it turned out to be what we thought it was, maybe we could sell it at Mississippi Records, the small neighbourhood record store in Portland that I work at. Sight unseen and sound unheard, I assumed that it was likely an acetate pressing of the recording which would be eventually be released as the group's first album, "The Velvet Underground & Nico".

It took awhile for Warren to visit, but when he did he brought along the acetate. We cued it up and were stunned -- the first song was not "Sunday Morning" as on the "Velvet Underground & Nico" Verve LP, but rather it was "European Son"- the song that is last on that LP, and it was a version neither of us had ever heard before! It was less bombastic and more bluesy than the released version, and it clocked in at a full two minutes longer. I immediately took the needle off the record, and realized that we had something special. Between the two of us we had heard many Velvets outtakes on both official and less than official releases, but the present material had never been heard by either of us.

The next few days found us scrambling for clues and information about what to make of this find; calling every record collector/historian we knew and reading everything we could find concerning the early recordings of the VU. We pieced together that this was probably a surviving copy of the legendary Scepter studios recordings which had been regarded as lost (hence the epic moniker "the lost scepter studios recordings" applied to these unheard sessions over the years). The recording is comprised of the primitive first "finished" version of the LP that Andy Warhol had shopped to Columbia as a ready-to-release debut album by his protege collective "The Velvet Underground".

This acetate, which is possibly the only surviving copy, represents the first Velvet Underground album as Andy Warhol intended it to be released.

Though the same compositions and even a few of the same "takes" (albeit in different mixes) were used on the subsequent commercial release, that which was eventually issued as their debut album on Verve, "The Velvet Underground & Nico", was a significantly different creation. I had heard of these nascent recordings before... it was said by some that the master tapes had burned in a fire, by others that all of those recordings ended up being on the released album, and still by others that the only existing copy of that material was on an acetate owned by David Bowie, and that he was known to tout it as his most prized possession.

The truth about what we held was fuzzy until Warren managed to track down the N. Dolph referred to on the label for an interview.

Norman Dolph was a perennial in the New York art & music scene of the 1960's. He worked as a sales representative at Columbia Records through 1967, and was deeply involved with different facets of the independent music world on the side. Andy Warhol, who was managing the Velvets at the time, contacted Dolph & offered him a painting in exchange for services as "ghost" (uncredited) producer for the Velvet's first recording session. Warhol wanted to record a Velvets album before they had a record company behind them as this would tend to minimize meddling label executives' mobility in compromising the musical arrangement's distraught primal force, not to mention the unprecedented taboo lyrics which openly address sex, drugs, and depravity. Warhol's plan was to have Dolph record it and then shop it around to labels (first & foremost Columbia) as a finished recording.

...and so Dolph rented out Scepter studios, and with an engineer named John Licata by his side, they recorded the Velvets for four days. At the time Scepter studios was between reconstruction and demolition with walls falling over and holes in the floor. Velvets' bass & viola player John Cale would later recall the environment as "Post-Apocalyptic".

Dolph took the master tapes made during this session to the Columbia building, which still had an in-house pressing plant, and cut the acetate "after hours" with people he knew on the inside. Dolph then sent the acetate to Columbia to see if they were interested in releasing it. It was returned promptly with a note that said something akin to "do you think we're out of our f**king minds?" Dolph then gave the acetate to Andy Warhol or John Cale, he cannot remember which.

Six of the songs recorded during the Scepter session made it on to the "Velvet Underground & Nico" LP, albeit with radically different mixes. The other four songs were re-recorded in LA by Tom Wilson. As far as we know, the only listenable copy of the original versions of Heroin, Venus In Furs, I'm Waiting For The Man, and European Son exist on the acetate that Warren found. (A Japanese bootleg of the same material did appear, but in poor, arguably ‘unlistenable' sound quality. It is possible that the source tape for the Japanese bootleg was made from this very acetate decades ago when it was in different hands. Who knows?) We have since realized that we are in possession of a likely one of a kind artifact - the first recordings by one of the most influential rock bands of all time!

After establishing the authenticity of Warren's find we photographed the item and made a high quality digital back-up copy of the material. A media frenzy ensued, with articles appearing in Rolling Stone, Mojo, Record Collector, The Globe & Mail, and many other news sources. Calls started flooding in from people interested in buying the acetate, as well as record companies interested in releasing the songs on it. After much consideration, we decided that it would be best to release it to the highest bidder through an auction facilitated by our good friends at Saturn Records in Oakland, California (a store that has a well-established presence in the international vinyl collecting community, and an excellent reputation on the internet).

As to the most interesting mystery brought up by the appearance of this item - how did such an important artifact disappear for 37 years & end up at a Chelsea New York yard sale priced at 75 cents? ...We have no answer.

The track differences between the acetate versions and the commercial recordings on "The Velvet Underground & Nico" are detailed as follows:

1.European Son- completely different version,. Guitar solo is much bluesier. Less noisy and experimental. Longer by 2 minutes or so.

2.Black Angel's Death Song-Same take as released version. Different mix.

3.All Tomorrow's Parties- Same take as released version. Different mix.

4.I'll Be Your Mirror-Same take as released version. Radically different mix. No echo on Nico's vocals. Background vocals on end of song are more subdued.

5.Heroin-Completely different take than released version. Guitar line is different. Vocal inflections different, and a few different lyrics. Drumming is more primitive & off kilter. There is a tambourine dragging throughout the song.

6.Femme Fatale- Same take as released version. Radically different mix. Percussion more prominent. Alternate take on background vocals. Much more "poppy".

7.Venus In Furs- Different take than released version. Vocal inflections completely different. Instrumentation more based around Cales' violin than the guitar as in the released version.

8.I'm Waiting For The Man- Different take than released version. Guitar line is completely different. Vocal inflections different, and a few different lyrics. No drums, just tambourine. Bluesy guitar solo.

9.Run Run Run- Same take as released version. Different mix.