Smote – Genog

What even is a Genog?

Well, duh, Mr supposedly university-educated Flipdog, it’s the name of the new album by Smote. What else need it be?

I have an earlier one of theirs also on my wishlist. Maybe I should buy one of them, they is clearly amongst the Gods of music. Said wishlist has gone beyond the realms of ridiculous into new levels though.

SO yet another collection of music where there are no words – I mean that descriptively not in the instrumental sense. There are words, and they are chanted, in amanner that puts me in mind of the wonderful Crow Tongue album, Ghost Eye Seeker.

Trancey, meditative with a definite sense of journey. One with a heavy end.

AHRKH – Beams From a Spiritual Panorama

So my epic wishlist on Bandcamp has exploded since I re-discovered online radio late last year, but every now and again I need to remind myself of the stuff that’s been on there for absolutely ages.

So I was listening to the radio show that Golden Ratio Frequencies do, and it wasn’t doing a lot for me. It was full of the more new-age-bromide-y ambient music that I ultimately find a bit cloying. So I went to the aforementioned wishlist and scrolled right down to look for stuff that had been there ages and that I couldn’t really remember what it was, and I saw this, so I clicked on it and pressed play.

And got turned into a monged out vegetable. This is a very powerful piece of immersive and rather intense drone. I love it.

And then I noticed this was on the Golden Ratio Frequencies label, and I suspect is the man who does Golden Ratio Frequencies himself, who also is part of the Gnod family. They get everywhere!

Funny how circles close sometimes.

Kevin Drumm – MayorOfPosen

This piece does one thing and one thing only.

For 20 minutes.

It’s wonderful.

Julius Gabriel -ÆTHERHALLEN

So take the scars from your eyes and remove the bars
there is no cage except in your imagination

The objective truth can only be perceived subjectively

Thinking is subversive

Rumours of my exaggeration have now died

The best way to learn boundaries is to cross them
It’ll teach you how valuable they are

So God plugged the universe in. “Let there,” he began, “be sound.”
And he turned us on.

City of Djinn – self titled

The Universe/God/Random Coincidence (delete as appropriate to your deity of choice) doesn’t half have a sense of humour. The next album I find myself wanting to post is only a self titled album.

They’ve been on Soundbergs before, when they first put something out, back in the days when I had disposable income and bought it. If I had disposable income, I’d buy this too.

 

 

Rusty Souls – Tripnotic

Clarkson sold his soul
and was rewarded with a fast car
gave him such a thrill
that he thought that’s all there was
part of the deal he made
was in treating men with wither
if they happened to point out
that he’d been taken for a ride
but eventually he arrived at the end
of his sordid little pleasuredome
he had to put in concepts
all the scorn he’d sold in words
and he found that they were empty
he found that they were empty
albeit with invective
but it isn’t quite the same
where has your reward gone?
it’s stuck behind in this realm
and you could have taken riches
if you knew just what they were
life is not a lesson
it’s a song
and if you get the meaning wrong
you cannot hear the music
its underneath the engines
but above the darker ground
it could be in the air
try listening to the air
ears are more than just the holes in the side of your head
you need to know your song
its your passport to moving on

 

Timber Rattle – The Veil Beneath The Mountain Beneath The Veil

I’m sorry, I couldn’t be with you tonight to accept your sycophancy, I’ve sent my body as a substitute; I hope you find it adequate. First of all, I’d like to thank me for doing what I did, the universe for giving me a place in which to do what I did, and everything in it for tolerating my doing what I did. May I continue to say that those who were offended by some or all of the content were offended by intention, primarily their own, and I have no misgivings whatsoever about the nature of what I did, otherwise I wouldn’t have done it. Hindsight is simply an excuse in disguise, and therefore, does not exist, like so much else that doesn’t exist. And finally, I just want to ask why you’re all so keen to kiss my arse? It’s just an arse. Why not create your own stuff? Life isn’t a competition, it’s a festival. So, thank you again, for this award, I will now use it in a sculpture of meaninglessness. No, really, thank you.

Kato Apo To Dentro – Kato Apo To Dentro

Enter the drastic marathon in fading light the tortuous circuit
with no disregard for the losers in the crush of the titanics
semantics to battle, semantics do battle their eyelids
I’m not sure if I believe my eyes now as I know they’re only filters
descent begins, crawling at a time when there are no beginnings
and there are no times so relativity is perceptual
is anything actual? any thing total? anything factual?
this argument is a hologram and by its nature it’s perpetual

Cozmic Corridors- Cozmic Corridors

Is the collective unconsciousness conscious of itself? Does that not make it the collective consciousness?

“Good day at the office, dear?”

“Yes, ta. I managed to connect Jung, de Chardin and Lovelock in one concept leading to a Brahmanistic realisation – I could have imagined it being said by Alan Watts.”

Perhaps he did say it, but probably without all the name dropping.

Daniel Higgs – viv

What’s the definition of perfect pitch?

A banjo down a 40-foot hole without touching the sides!

At least, I used to think that was the pinnacle in musician jokes, but then the legendary Daniel Higgs had to go and start doing improvisations with a banjo, didn’t he? And now I like music with banjos in it.

This sort of music could be made anywhere, anywhen. I’m sure I’ve heard Indian ragas with this kind of feel, I’ve definitely heard Hamza el-Din doing stuff with this kind of feel, and probably all the zillion or so other cultures in the world also have their equivalents.

His previous band Lungfish did meditative and repetitive music, so you could argue his approach has been consistent all the way through. He’s done quite a few of this sort of thing solo, my other recent favourite being The Godward Way. The subject matter, when he does sing, is the perennial philosophy. This is the music of a man sitting down and letting the spirit move his fingers. I hesitate to use the word ‘shaman’ because it is a label that has been pinned on so many now and is probably a bit overused, and I’m also not overly confident that we use the term correctly anymore anyway. But, y’know, mystical and cosmic philosophies? Improvised meditative music? I’ll just make myself comfortable.