FULL FLOWER MOON (17 May 2011)

The musick dedicated to this Esbat is:

ROSEMARY'S BABY

ANDREW WOODHOUSE


Original Issue: 1986 Ricerche Studi Babalon (RSB 3/7)

₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪

Margot-meter: 4,5 moons / 5

₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪

from L'Erba della Strega (Google automatic translation from Italian):

From the beginning of its work, RSB said to put the TOPY as a starting point and not necessarily of arrival.

This implied the fact that prior to putting in the fruit of his research could be of any type and not necessarily on one side or the other for stupid statement.

With the completion of this project, "Andrew Woodhouse is immediately and permanently ended the research studies Babalon and his work as TOPY Italian, also comes to an end the existence of Rosemary's Baby, a subsidiary of the music more complex project RSB : Babalon was researched and studied and, at the present time was recognized.

Below we publish the results.

RSB - July 1986



This is the statement that opens the book contained in the final production of Rosemary's Baby: The LP Andrew Woodhouse. After only a couple of years, as the group bids farewell to his supporters, admirers and followers, exalted, and not trendy. Print run 500 copies of the disc, 250 in free distribution. The title itself symbolizes the change took place in the group: in the film Rosemary Andrew is the name that would give his son, and will ultimately be called Adrian. Nearly a change of course.

Disk and the words contained in the booklet and in the letters that he wrote about Pierre, he could talk for pages, but I remember the premise made at the beginning of the article. I have uncovered the tomb where rests Rosemary's Baby, I tried to describe their past life, but I do not want to completely remove the veil that envelops the body. This we can do each of us if interested and with his head.

What is certain is that the project had actually worked well, the purpose of study and research had been fully pursued and at the time had come to maturity of the ideas with the point from which he had left had little to do. The results mentioned in the statement are not disclosed. Instead, they are presented as extracts from books by various authors, among which is expected to emphasize the preponderance of the quotations from the works of Rene Guenon: its opinions on the psyche and the magic, the modern world and human development.

The entire A side of the disc is occupied by an impressive cover of "The End" The Doors, re-run in a tribal, ethereal, dreamy, full of percussion and never disturbing and oppressive as it could be a "... The power of love." You find yourself floating in a smoky haze for the duration of the piece, even more exciting final for the registration of which the Rosemary's Baby have used some tools used by Tibetan monks for the last piece of the B-side The text is modified, you can read all handwritten in a copy of a calendar page dated July 3 (death of Jim Morrison ...), also attached to the disk. Text not changed at random, as Pierre explains in one of his last letters.

The B side is instead of three recordings. "ENI," Byzantine chant sung and celebrated in the Monastery of Xenophontos. "La ilaha illallah" Muslim who obsessively repeats the song title, which sounds like "There is no god but Allah." "Swayambunath" recording of a song made by Tibetan R'sB in the temple of Swayambhunath.

Pierre closes one of his last letters with the phrase "Seek the Lord." I believe that reflecting on this fact and the three songs that Rosemary's Baby have decided to include in the B side of the disc, you can guess what was the road that they were trying to take at that time.

EOSTRE (21 March 2011)

The musick dedicated to this Sabbat is:

TEATRO SATANICO

PAN IST TOD



Original Issue: 2007 Old Europa Cafe (OEMP 012) Buy it here!!!

₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪

Margot-meter: 5 moons / 5

To learn more about Teatro Satanico

₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪

from Old Europa Cafe :

Do you think you can foresee how will sound the new Teatro Satanico’s songs ?
Do you think Teatro Satanico plays only elektronic music ?
Do you think Teatro Satanico has not more trick-or-treat to play on you ?
Do you know that PETER PAN was a real soldier and that he is dead and buried ?
Do you know that his grave is located on a mountain in Veneto, the Italian region where Teatro Satanico’s guys live ?
Don’t you believe it? Well, look to the photo of his grave on the cover of the new Teatro Satanico PAN IST TOD album !
Hardly to expect it, but these Italian devils recorded some real neo-folk tunes with a marching, pop touch this time !
And due to its peculiar oddity it will become a very unique feature into the official Teatro Satanico’s discography, since here we are talking about “no-synthesizer musik”, the trademark of the previous Teatro Satanico releases.
Expect the unexpected ! Believe the unbelievable !
Once again Teatro Satanico proves to be one of the more original and unforeseeable contemporary post-industrial project in a post-industrial scene full of poseurs, fake-artists and obvious predictable releases.
Beware of Teatro Satanico, they do bite your certainty!

FULL WORM MOON (19 March 2011)

The musick dedicated to this Esbat is:

IN SLAUGHTER NATIVES

IN SLAUGHTER NATIVES


Original Issue: 1988 Cold Meat Industry (CMI-04)

₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪

Margot-meter: 4,5 moons / 5

₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪

Swedish industrial act, formed by Jouni Havukainen in 1985. ISN has used many different sounds over the years, from dark ambient soundscapes to martial industrial stompage to neoclassical orchestration.

FULL STRAWBERRY MOON (07 June 2009)

The musick dedicated to this Esbat is:

DEUTSCH NEPAL

TOLERANCE


Original Issue: 1994 Staalplaat (STCD 067)

₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪

Margot-meter: 4 moons / 5

Psycho-active musick!!! Handle with care

₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪

1 Horses Give Birth To Flies (7:54)
2 Tolerance 1 (2:25)
3 Manual To Utilization (6:03)
4 Tolerance 2 (2:59)
5 The Eagles Gift (13:39)
6 Tolerance 3 (4:48)
7 Nonexistance (10:14)
8 Tolerance 4 (2:07)
9 Chip Chop (7:11)
10 End Of Tolerance (3:36)
11 Deathmanners (0:07)

₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪

from Electric Shock Treatment:

I've been mildly fascinated by Deutsch Nepal's earlier work, but this is the business, where Lina's experiments have borne fruit to create a stunning disc of darkly brooding music.

Opener Horses Give Birth To Flies rides in on pounding hooves and disconnected horse whinnies, laid over ominous keyboards.

The rest of the album continues in a similar vein, with ocean-deep rumbles throbbing away beneath insect twitters and discordant electronic grinding noises. Voices echo in the distance, bass sequences turn inside out and upside down, drones swing around each other like stalking wolves. Such disturbing listening makes for interesting dreams.

BLUE MOON (musick by request)

COIL

MOON'S MILK (IN FOUR PHASES)


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

₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪

Margot-meter: 4,5 moons / 5

Francesco, this is for you!

₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪

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)

₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪

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.

BLUE MOON (musick by request)

AUTOPSIA/HUSSITE/KARL ROSSMAN/SPLENDOR SOLIS

PRAGER CODEX (Songs of Three Brotherhoods)


Original Issue: 1995 Discordia (DISC 050)

₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪

Margot-meter: 4 moons / 5

My personal homage to the genius of Autopsia, one the the most underrated and influential groups of the post (martial) industrial scene

₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪

1 Hussite - Haeresis (7:32)
2 Hussite - Interdikt (4:42)
3 Hussite - So Erschlugen Wir Ihn Im Vierten Jahr (3:40)
4 Splendor Solis - Destilatio (4:44)
5 Splendor Solis - Lux Aeterna (5:47)
6 Karl Rossmann - In Hora Mortis No.12 (4:25)
7 Autopsia - In Hora Mortis No.12 (Autopsia Arrangement) (4:10)
8 Autopsia - Crowd Together And Work Up At The Sky (10:21)

₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪

from Discogs:

Autopsia is depersonalized art project dealing with music and visual production. Autopsia gathers authors of different professions in realization of multimedia projects. Its art practice began in London in late '70ies of the last century, and continued, during '80ies in art centers of the former Yugoslavia. Since 1990, Autopsia acts from Prague. At the beginning of its activity Autopsia issued a dozen of MCs, in the period after 1989, twenty CDs were issued, at first for Staalplaat from Amsterdam, then for German label Hypnobeat and London's Gymnastic Records. Autopsia's music can be found on numerous compilations issued all over the world. One of its compositions is a part of the soundtrack for Peter Greenaway's film "Pillow Book". Music production of Autopsia is associated with a large graphic production which consists of original graphic objects, design of flyers, booklets, CDs and a Web Page autopsia.net, with its offsprings: Autopsia TV and Illuminating Technologies.

ALCHEMICAL MOON (transformation musick)

VOICE OF EYE

TRANSMIGRATION

Original Issue: 1995 Cyclotron Industries (CYCI CD - 333)

₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪

Margot-meter: 5 moons / 5

The first time (it was 1995) that I listened to this work, I was completely blown away...and the same nowadays!

Voice of Eye declared that: All sound sources are acoustic in origin, then processed through little black boxes to warp time and open the listener's perception.

Well, if these are the results, we all should buy a couple of these 'black boxes' and apply them to our auricles during everyday activities. Our boss voice would sound a lot better... ;-)

₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪

1 Transmigration (Bardo I) (19:22)
2 Transcendence (7:35)
3 Sirens (Bardo II) (6:16)
4 Tempest (5:39)
5 Garden Of Earthly Delights (4:45)
6 Oblivion (Bardo III) (23:51)

₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪

from (the late) Electric Shock Treatment:

₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪

from Spyderbites:

I waited a long time to hear this; it was worth the wait.

An all-acoustic recording which attains utterly surreal soundscapes. For 67.5 minutes, the tracks of Transmigration document the soul's mysterious afterlife journey, taking the listener through unbelievable sonic realms.

Not too many ethno/tribal influences really, though Transcendence pairs densely quivering violin strings with pounding jungle drums, which are eventually joined by tweedling Middle Eastern flute. That track segues into the blaringly resonant drones of Sirens (which I first fell in love with as part of the 3-Disc Storm of Drones comp).

Other notable passages include the multitudinous ghostly moans of the opening track, the whirlwind stratospherics of Tempest, and the murky festivities of Garden of Earthly Delights. Speaking of murky, it certainly gets that way in Oblivion (Bardo III), the almost-24-minute-long closing piece. Swirling soundclouds obscure everything else, eventually receding to leave a pristine silence which leads to further encounters I won't divulge here.

Find out for yourself, if you can find a copy.

LAMMAS (01 August 2008)

I'll be in the south of France for holidays starting from August, the 4th to August, the 23rd.
I will reply to your beloved comments as soon as I return!

If you are in Provence, Pays Cathare or Rennes-le-Château area, take a look around and be ready to say "Hello" if you see a pair of cute witches walking around...

Kisses & Hugs,
Margot

₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪

The Musick dedicated to this Sabbat is:

CRANIOCLAST

ICONCLASTAR (ICON I-VI)

Original Issue: 1992 Musica Maxima Magnetica (EEE 09) Buy it here!

₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪

Margot-meter: 4 moons / 5

₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪

1		Condom (11:00)
2		Radar Bowl (11:00)
3		Antibody (11:00)
4		Network (11:00)
5		Interface (11:00)
6		Onezerooneone (6:00)

₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪

from Musica Maxima Magnetica homepage:

'Iconclastar' is the most interesting project ever released by this two german conceptualists (Mr. Soltan Karik and Mr. Sankt Clario) founders of Cranioclast.

'Iconclastar' is a simoultaneosly released two-CD project with nearly identical graphic artwork in two different colors (green and blue) and accompanied by recipes for two (green spider & blue devil) drinks to be taken while listening to the music.

In 1992 Iconclastar - Icon I-VI came out on Musica Maxima Magnetica in Italy (the CD is now available again) and Iconclastar - Icon VI-XI on Dom America in the US.

Iconclastar- Icon I-VI, called also the green part (I), is the first half of 121 min iconclastaring soundtracks rudely interrupted by 55 sec of grey coded messages from unknown pressure groups.

The green part is accompained by the half of 36 iconclastaring photographic-text tableaux, sistematically penetrated by the grey vibres of a well known matrix - the 16 tableaux are dispalyed on a 360 x 360 mm poster printed two sided , bi-coloured.

.....Mr Coitra leaned back. As he looked up from the greenish and bluish tableaux he met Clara K.Tonsi's wide-open eyes. "Well, I don't agree that Sankt Klario and Soltan Karik obscured the purity of the structures and relations by their additions. You see - if you drop the peppermint from a 'Green Spider' and the curacao blue from a 'Blue Devil' you'll get an almost pure Vodka Soda and Gin Sour. You'll get a good drink anyway, maybe you'll get drunk also - anyway".

FULL BUCK MOON (18 July 2008)

The Musick dedicated to this Esbat is:

ARTEMIEV EDWARD & OVCHINNIKOV VYACHESLAV

VOLUME 3: SOLARIS (a film by Andrey Tarkovsky)

Original Issue: 1995 Toei Music (TMP 2003)

₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪

Margot-meter: 5 moons / 5

Lucky owners of Volume 1 (Ivanovo Detstvo) and Volume 2 (Andrey Rublyov), PLEASE CONTACT ME!!!

IMO, together with "Eraserhead", this is the most radical soundtrack ever created in film history. A true jewel and a must for any serious lover of thee dark side.

₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪

17 Untitled tracks

₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪₪

from All Music:

This is the soundtrack to one of the slowest moving, fascinating, and maddening science fiction films ever made. Directed by Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky and based on the novel of the same name by Polish writer Stanislaw Lem, Solaris as a film mesmerized virtually all who saw it with its bright colors, shape-shifting orbs, and hallucinatory frame sequences. Remember though, for all those high-tech sci-fi fans, this was Soviet sci-fi, no special effects that couldn't be made of cardboard, wood, or rubber. This isn't low tech; it's no tech.

One of the things that made the film such a freakout was the soundtrack -- though no one could tell that when they were watching it. It's only now that the music is available as a stand-alone text that this becomes possible. Edward Artemiev and Vyacheslav Ovchinnikov took a spaced-out film and authored a dense yet spacious score.

Heavy on the droning pipe organ and tape-edited effects, the score opens slowly as a conventional theme and drifts very quickly into a music that cannot be named. Electrical sounds of wires shorting out, bubbling noises, and the ever present eeriness of the organ haunting the backdrop make this claustrophobic at times and creepy beyond belief at others. Perhaps the reason is, though, that this is music to give birth to in unknown places (referring directly to the novel and film) and alien spaces.

For contemporary listeners, the reference point might be the long-reverb location and sound-collection methods used by the industrial unit Organum in the late '70s and early '80s as well as 23 Skidoo Nurse With Wound and others. As electronic sound sculptor Hrvatski has stated, Solaris "comes as close to recreating in sound the whole 'space' experience as thought possible." He's not far off, on the music, but the music is way off the map. Awesome.

Thom Jurek

FULL STRAWBERRY MOON (18 June 2008)

The Musick dedicated to this Esbat is:

ZOVIET FRANCE

WHAT IS NOT TRUE

Original Issue: 1993 Charrm (CHARRMCD17)

Margot-meter: 5 moons / 5

I've been often asked about my favorite-all-times-album; as you can imagine it is somewhat impossible provide a credible answer to such a request; when one's has listened to thousands of records it is a true nightmare trying to put them in any sequential order.

Without any doubt the same question, formulated once a day for one year, would receive 365 different answers.

Anyway Zoviet France's "What is not true" is for sure one of my favorite because it is made of my own essence - dark, ritual, ethereal, esoteric, mysterious - and has provided me with excellent out-of-body-experiences during all these years.

One record that MUST be present in every DEEP LISTENER's collection.

1 Public Service Announcement
2 Not Just What To Say
3 Cyclonic Sub Alien

from group website:

:z*f:'s live masterpiece, combining samples and atmospheric electronics into a work of what Phil England described as "unreserved beauty" (The Wire July 95). The extended, awe-inspiring Cyclonic Sub Alien, which accounts for two-thirds of the total duration of the CD ends the disc as it began - with a distant Shipping Forecast - over an endless, shifting drone: a truly transcendental experience!

from Trouser Press:

The far superior (respect to "Vienna") "What Is Not True" assembles three long tracks from shows in Sheffield and Nottingham into a work of album-like cohesion. The 54-minute closer "Cyclonic Sub Alien" is a masterpiece of shifting drones that develop slowly into an ungodly cavern of noise before ending with the ghostly floating voices of a distant broadcast. Magnificent head music, to say the least.

Scott Lewis / Jesse Simon

CRAZY MOON (incredibly strange musick)

ZERO KAMA
THE SECRET EYE OF L.A.Y.L.A.H.

Original Issue: 1984 Nekrophile (NRC 07)

Reissue: 1991 Permis De Construire (PER 023)


Margot-meter: 4 moons / 5

1 Death Posture (3:12)
2 Atavism Dream (3:52)
3 Night Of Matter (3:21)
4 Inaguration Of The Pleasure Dome (3:55)
5 Love Alway Yieldeth (4:03)
6 Azure-Lidded Woman (Pregnant Womb Of Non) (3:50)
7 Hassan | Sabbah (4:03)
8 Starlit Mire (3:53)
9 Winged Eye Hadit (5:12)
10 Love Alway Hardeneth (3:58)
11 Town Of Pyramids (Night Of Pan) (3:28)

From Reissue Liner Notes

All instruments to be heard on this album were exclusively made from human bones and skulls by the hand of Zero Kama. They never have been used since the time of its recording, which took place at the Secret Temple of Laylah from 5th to 28th of May 1984 e.v.

Remixed at Psychonaut Studio Vienna in November 1987 e.v., and dedicated to the symbol of Laylah, meaning night and death, as well as to its numerical equivalent, Oz, a goat or unrestrained sexual force of creation, thus showing the identity of the basic two opposite forces in this generous universe of beauty and strength, in which the Lovers my find ecstasy in Pan. Who wishes to enter this world of darkness, in which the Great Goat dwelleth, may pass through the sigil of Oz given at the front of this Cover.

ANTITHESES MOON (yin-yang musick)

HAFLER TRIO (THE)
FUCK

Original Issue: 1992 Touch (TONE:3)


Margot-meter: 4,5 moons / 5

Even if this work's purpose is to concentrate male energy, I totally agree with what Mr. McKenzie points out in the liner notes of the CD: "Females of whatever sexual orientation may easily come to terms with the male forces operating within them by immersion herein". One of The Hafler Trio's finest releases.

To counterbalance the male energy at play here, I post (at the bottom) a ritual picture of Annie Sprinkle...post-porn modernist queen and McKenzie's muse.

1 - Untitled
2 - Untitled

from All Music Guide

Fuck is the second part of a projected trilogy that begins with Masturbatorium, and for which the third part has not been released as of early 2001. While Masturbatorium used sounds generated by performance artist Annie Sprinkle in a sonic investigation of female sexuality, Fuck concentrates on male sexual energies, using sounds leading to the brink of male orgasm from Andrew McKenzie, in addition to various atmospheric frequencies and field recordings. As with the trilogy's first part, the liner notes go into some detail about the sonic origins and the overall purpose of the piece, its specific practical intents, and its relationship to investigations into sexual energy.

Unusually, McKenzie directs that the recording be played at maximum volume, and that the CD player be in strict accordance with left and right channel connections. With the correct playback configuration, the ominous low drone opening shakes the room, and when the various fast rhythmic layers are added in, the piece takes on an overwhelming aura seldom found in other Hafler Trio releases.

A looped bass vocal alternates between the two channels in the second track, exercising the separation McKenzie mentions. Given the sexual intent of the piece, one might suppose that it would start slowly and build, but in fact the opposite is the case. The beginning is the loudest, densest, and fastest, with an overall tranquility and lightening as the piece progresses. Its unity of purpose makes it one of the better Hafler Trio releases, although the cover art and subject matter make it for mature listeners only.

Caleb Deupree

ALCHEMICAL MOON (transformation musick)

Alchemical process courtesy of Mr. Christoph Heemann

MERZBOW & HEEMANN CHRISTOPH
SLEEPER AWAKES ON THE EDGE OF THE ABYSS

Original Issue: 1993 Streamline (1003)

Margot-meter: 4,5 moons / 5

DO YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH MERZBOW "MUSIC"?
DO YOU THINK HE'S TOUCHED WITH GENIUS BUT YOU ARE NOT ABLE TO SUSTAIN THE ASSAULT OF HIS SOLO RECORDS?

WELL, MARGOT HAS THE SOLUTION: "SLEEPER AWAKES ON THE EDGE OF THE ABYSS" (wow, what a title!)

MERZBOW BLACK SOUL IS TRANSFIGURED BY HEEMANN THE CRAFTSMAN INTO A SONIC JOURNEY TOWARDS THE WITHIN!

01 - Tunneling
02 - Mandala
03 - Eagle
04 - Sleeper
05 - Doorstep

from Brainwashed:

In 1987 Masami Akita (aka Merzbow) mailed a cassette of sound material to Christoph Heemann (H.N.A.S., Current 93, Mirror, Mimir, etc.) which he then worked on for the next 6 years. The cd was originally released in 1993 (and has just now been reissued) by Streamline Germany.

Heemann restrains and refines Akita's normally brutal noise and adds his own collage of sounds: drones, washes, electronics and samples such as metals and chirping birds. Heemann truly paints with sound and here the Merzbow material is just another shade of audio color for his abstract and impressionist palette. He then shapes it all into five pieces, each with a particular character all it's own, ranging from 1 and 1/2 to 18 and 1/2 minutes for just over 41 minutes total. The end result is the same as everything else I've heard that involves Heemann: utterly beautiful.

Hypnotic passages of waterfall wash, layered electronic drone, metallic churnings, gurgling static and deep ambiance perfectly flow into one another. "Sleeper Awakes.." is superb and a very welcome reminder for me to get everything with Heemann's name in the credits from this day forward ...

BLUE MOON (musick by request)

VARIOUS ARTISTS

TERRA SERPENTES

Original Issue: 1996 World Serpent (WSDCD 016)

Margot-meter: 3,5 moons / 5

1-01 Arkkon T 2901E
1-02 Martyn Bates Bahnhofstrasse
1-03 Chris & Cosey One Minute More (Serpent Mix)
1-04 Coil Heartworms
1-05 Current 93 Frolicking
1-06 Bryin Dall May You Never Be Alone Like Me
1-07 Death In June Presents Kapo! Only Europa Knows
1-08 Roger Doyle Dark Scenery Court Games
1-09 Elijah's Mantle Wise Words Of Eve
1-10 In Gowan Ring Still Water Bonne
1-11 Lemon Kittens What The Cat Brought In
1-12 Loretta's Doll Love Is Regret
1-13 Moon Lay Hidden Beneath A Cloud, The Untitled

2-01 Nature And Organisation By A Foreign River (The Longing For Mercy And Happiness)
2-02 Neither/Neither World All's God's Dogs
2-03 Nurse With Wound Window Of Possible Organic Development
2-04 Orchis Come Unto Me
2-05 Boyd Rice Experience, The Music From The Movie Pearls Before Swine
2-06 Sand On The Corner (Alternative Version)
2-07 Death In June Presents Scorpion Wind Some Colossus
2-08 Shock Headed Peters Oblivion Extract
2-09 Sol Invictus Did You See
2-10 Somewhere In Europe Oblique Realities
2-11 Strength Through Joy Ways To Strength And Beauty
2-12 Tiny Tim The Garden Of Your Heart, Turn Back The Universe, You Can't Get Loving Where There Ain't Any Love, A Thousand Love Songs
2-13 Zone The Scavenging Soul

from Fluxeuropa:

Terra Serpentes is WSD's first compilation album. GREG BEAR writes: It seems I have been writing myself hoarse extolling the virtues of this fabulous British record label when I could merely have sat back and waited for this incredible release! 26 artists of considerable and varied talents are represented here in order to help you make your acquaintance with World Serpent.

Some names ought to be familiar: Chris and Cosey, Coil, Current 93, Nurse With Wound, Sol Invictus and even the inimitable Tiny Tim are pretty much part of the contemporary musicologist's psyche.

Other artist's whose presence is included for those who have delved a little include: Martyn Bates, Elijah's Mantle, Lemon Kittens, Boyd Rice and the inevitable Death In June/Current 93/Sol Invictus associates: Kapo!, Nature And Organisation, Scorpion Wind, Somewhere in Europe and Strength Through Joy.

Some of the remainder of the bands inhabit the arcane end of the musical spectrum, and, as such are a learning experience for this journalist: Arkkon (an exercise in drones), Bryin Dall (an acoustic piece of moribund beauty), Roger Doyle (a collage of quiet noises) et al.

As all the tracks are "previously unheard and unreleased" completists will simply have to own Coil's excellent 'Heartworms', Current 93's sublime 'Frolicking' or the Shock Headed Peters' 'Oblivion Extract', with its unrepentant boisterous rockism.

YULE (21 December 2007)

The Musick dedicated to this Sabbat is:

P-ORRIDGE GENESIS & HAFLER TRIO (THE)
ALAURA/SLAVE PRIEST

Original Issue: 1990 Stampa Alternativa (CD.170)


Margot-meter: 4 moons / 5

01 - Alaura
02 - Slave Priest

3" CD accompanying Psychic TV/Genesis P-Orridge Lyrics Book

FULL HUNTER'S MOON (26 October 2007)

The Musick dedicated to this Esbat is:

COIL
THE REMOTE VIEWER

Original Issue: 2002 Threshold House (No Number - Limited to 500 Copies)

Reissue: 2006 Threshold House (thbkk 01) Buy It


Margot-meter: 4,5 moons / 5

01 - Remote Viewing 1
02 - Remote Viewing 2
03 - Remote Viewing 3

My respects to the late Jhon Balance for changing my life forever with his chanting.

A Review :

More in the vein of Coil's epic ambient work than their techno and industrial experiments, these tracks are nonetheless more dynamic than the extended drone pieces of ANS or Time Machines. In addition to the electronic experimentation and studio remixing of founding members Jhonn Balance and Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson and regular collaborators Simon Norris, Thighpaulsandra, and Danny Hyde, The Remote Viewer also includes contributions by Celtic folk musicians Cliff Stapleton (on the hurdy-gurdy, a sort of mechanical fiddle) and Mike York (on the Breton bagpipes).

It is these hauntingly weird but organic groans and wails that give this such a unique feel, a bittersweet and timeless melancholy that transcends the more clinical abstraction of purely electronic music.

"Remote Viewing One" is the most straightforward of this album's original offerings, a 20-minute meditation of looping scrapes, drones, and buzzes that gradually wander between gentle dissonance and otherworldly harmony. After "Remote Viewing 2," a sort of sound collage of slurping and scraping, the pipes and hurdy-gurdy return on "Remote Viewing 3" in a reprise of the first track, but this time more chaotic and rhythmic elements weave their way into the mix with high-pitched squeaks and chirps, while a subtle tribal drumbeat drives things from beneath.

...

A brilliant example of Coil's instrumental work, The Remote Viewer is a masterful blend of ambient folk atmosphere and postmodernist electronic psychedelia.

Matthew Johnson - Re:Gen Magazine - 2006

FULL HARVEST MOON (26 September 2007)

The Musick dedicated to this Esbat is:

IN SLAUGHTER NATIVES / DEUTSCH NEPAL
MORT AUX VACHES

Original Issue: 1995 Staalplaat (No Number - Limited to 1000 Copies)



Margot-meter: 4 moons / 5

01 In Slaughter Natives Mort Aux Vaches
a) In Slaughter Natives Awakening Clean Cathedral
b) In Slaughter Natives Pure Sacred Worms
c) In Slaughter Natives To Mega Therion
d) In Slaughter Natives Death Just Only Death
e) In Slaughter Natives Skin Sore Eyes

02 Deutsch Nepal Mort Aux Vaches
a) Deutsch Nepal Father
b) Deutsch Nepal 29 Needles
c) Deutsch Nepal Horses Give Birth To Flies
d) Deutsch Nepal October Lund-Home

A Review:

Dronology #2: where Industrial Churning merges with Goth gurning.

In Slaughter Natives' descriptively titled "Awakening Clean Cathedral" is a wonderful hokum of deep, lowing crypt sounds, tolling bells, circling vulture squeals, disembodied choir, severed finger piano exercises and Gregorian moans.

...

Dronology #3: Deutsch Nepal's miasma of mesmerisms is confounded from voiceloops, souk atmospherics and yo-yo sample trickery. Their barren dronescapes work up emotive elegies evocative of some lost land.

Biba Kopf - The Wire 134 - April 1995