I just discovered the band Jacula, a prog-rock Italian band made up of occultists and mediums.
You can find a MySpace page for the band, here (it seems like almost any band, no matter obscure these days has a MySpace page). Band member Antonio Bartoccetti went on to form the musical project Antonius Rex. The band seems to be named after a pulp-horror vampire character.
Two English reviews of Goldfrapp’s new album “Seventh Tree”, a work that is inspired by the idea of paganism, reference the cult film The Wicker Man and actress Britt Ekland (who performed a famous nude dance scene in the film).
“But does it really amount to a folk album, “surreal” or otherwise? Well yes, if only in the impure sense understood by people who barely knew their trad arrs from their elbows when they first saw Britt Eckland’s stunt double disrobing amid the pagan weirdness of The Wicker Man. You can quibble over terms later. But while Seventh Tree is playing, you’ll want to do little other than bask. “
“Seventh Tree’s accompanying blurb depicts Goldfrapp and Gregory, secluded in Somerset, coming up with the notion of making a Wicker Man-influenced psychedelic folk album. This seems a bit much, given the legions of artists that have made Wicker Man-influenced psychedelic folk albums in recent years: walk into any new-folk club and you risk being deafened by the slap of twigs on Britt Ekland’s bum. “
So does pagan-influenced in England automatically call up that classic cult film? It should be interesting to see what other parallels reviewers make in the near future.
Check out this live clip of Trobar de Morte performing “Morrigan” from their brand new album “Legends of Blood and Light”, available now from Prikosnovenie.
You can also hear the song on this week’s episode of “A Darker Shade of Pagan”.
TradWitch, a web site servicing Traditionalist Witches/Wiccans, has posted clips from a “lost” recording of groundbreaking Pagan singer/songwriter Gwydion Pendderwen.
“The Late Gwydion Pendderwen performed a rare live concert at the 1980 Pan Pagan Festival held in Hammond Indiana. I recorded that event with Gwydions permission and believe that my tape of it is one of the few which was made. I am in process of digitizing it and trying to clean it up as best i can. “
You can find clips of “I’ll Be Reborn” and “Trees of Annywn” at the site. If you have never heard of Gwydion, be sure to check out my review of Gwydion’s re-released albums.
Alison Goldfrapp’s new album “Seventh Tree” (out February 25th) leaves aside the electro-glam trappings for a foray into “weird” folk and psychedelic sounds. Goldfrapp recently told an interviewer that the new album was inspired by “paganism”.
“Describing the material as psychedelic, she explained: ‘We’ve been inspired by this idea of paganism and the surreal themes in traditional English children’s books.’”
You can see this new Pagan-inspired esthetic in the video for the first single from “Seventh Tree”: “A&E”, which features dancing figures made of leaves and greenery, with Alison Goldfrapp as a goddess-like figure of worship in flowing white.
I’m very much looking forward to hearing (and seeing) more of this. You can expect tracks from “Seventh Tree” to pop up on “A Darker Shade of Pagan” in the near-future.
In other Pagan-inspired news, today is the start of Pantheacon, the largest indoor Pagan-oriented convention on the west coast (just in time to celebrate Lupercalia). If you are attending, be sure to stop by Anne Hill’s Serpentine Music booth where you’ll find some great A Darker Shade of Pagan-approved merchandise and swag. Including copies of Monica Richard’s masterful “InfraWarrior” CD, and a chance to pre-order a physical copy of the amazing “John Barleycorn Reborn” compilation. Plus, if you give the “secret blog-reader handshake” Anne may show you my list of music recommendations!
A nice video of The Moon and The Nightspirit performing live at @ Lyon’s hall.
Downloads: The Moon and The Nightspirit - Rego Rejtem
(from the album “Regõ Rejtem”)
Links: The Moon and The Nightspirit on MySpace
SF Weekly interviews goth/punk icon Siouxsie Sioux as she gears up for her forthcoming American tour.
“Siouxsie Sioux at 50 isn’t trying to sound like Siouxsie Sioux at 25. That’s partly because the notoriously strong-willed Siouxsie despises nostalgia. “I don’t do the ‘legacy’ thing,” she scoffed to the U.K.’s Guardian. “I just want to do what I do, and leave me the fuck alone.” And when a Mojo interviewer kept pestering her with Banshees questions, she stormed out, her tongue lashing back over her shoulder: “You’re that fucking close to getting a smack in the face.” Can she really expect to escape her iconhood, though?”
She may not do the “legacy thing”, but it certainly helps sell concert tickets.
Back in 2006 I reported that Robin Hardy, director of the 1973 cult-classic The Wicker Man, was “very committed” to making a musical production of the film for the stage. Now it looks like plans for a musical stage adaptation are well underway.
To make the production happen, The Motion Group is approaching funding in a unique manner. They are urging fans and supporters to purchase a piece of the play.
“We are selling “pieces” of the Wicker Man to you! Each “piece” (like a share) costs 100 pounds and could earn you a return on your investment based on later ticket sales.”
There are 400 shares/pieces available for purchase, those who buy ten shares or more will be invited to a pre-production party featuring stars from the film in attendance. The Motion Group says they are coming from a place of “sincere belief in the theatrical brilliance of the original movie”, so terrifying visions of a singing Nicolas Cage can be put aside.
In other Wicker Man-related news, actress Britt Ekland, who appeared in the original film as the free-spirited Willow, recently told television host Jonathan Ross that she regrets refusing to appear fully nude in The Wicker Man. Eklan’s resulting body double, now said to be a local stripper from Glasgow, had an inferior posterior according to the actress.
“‘I didn’t want to show my bottom but I shot myself in the foot,’ Ekland said on BBC1’s Friday Night With Jonathan Ross. ‘They put in the ugliest, biggest bottom in the world. Mine was much smaller and much nicer. I recently found out it was a stripper from Glasgow’ … 65-year-old Ekland said she was less than pleased with her mystery body double and wished she had felt confident enough to bare all.”
Ekland’s famous nude dance-scene has elicited quite a bit of speculation over who the body-double was. Many fans believe the double was a local by the name of Jane Jackson, while Gary Carpenter insists the double is Lorraine Peters, an actress who appeared elsewhere in the film.
In a final note, director Robin Hardy has released more information about his forthcoming “re-imagining” of The Wicker Man entitled Cowboys For Christ. Joan Collins has signed on to replace Vanessa Redgrave, and folk musician Keith Easdale has been tapped to produce music for the film.
Side-Line and Brainwashed report that Peter Christopherson, half of the legendary magickal/musical group Coil, is returning with a new musical project entitled SoiSong.
“Coil and Throbbing Gristle founder Peter Christopherson recently announced the birth of his latest musical project, SoiSong. Hinted at as being his next priority after Gristle and Coil, SoiSong is a collaborative effort between himself and longtime associate Ivan Pavlov, who also records under the moniker COH. According to Christopherson, SoiSong ‘will combine Ivan’s uncompromisingly-visceral computer based music with Sleazy’s decadent, dark and whimsical approach to artificial vocals and ‘South Seas’ instrumentation’. SoiSong’s live debut will occur in Japan this March, followed by live dates in Bangkok, Singapore, as well as some European appearances between May and July.”
SoiSong’s first ep “SOI-JIN-NO-HI” will be available for free download from Threshold House in March 2008. A Collector’s Specially Packaged edition will also be made available from the band at shows.
Erik Davis sings the praises of medieval music ensemble Sequentia, who have created several recordings directly inspired by The Poetic Edda.
“Thousands of acts these days attempt to create an atmosphere of European paganism in their music, from black metal bands to gothic ambient artists to neomedieval folk groups. I won’t say Sequentia’s Eddic music is the “real deal,” because it is heavily reconstructed, albeit at a rigorously intellectual level. But its uncanny turns, its eldritch but strangely familiar modes, and, yes, even its mild tedium, all conspire to create a rare musical vessel of the heathen imagination. The various renderings of the Völuspá scattered across both discs are without doubt the best way to encounter that great spectral poem—an apocalyptic sybil song that ranks with the ancienct “Thunder, Perfect Mind,” not to mention that creepy Cate Blanchett scene in The Fellowship of the Ring, in terms of its sacred-femme uncanniness and psychedelic fear factor.”
A list of the ensemble’s recordings can be found, here. I’ll certainly be investigating this group in the near future.
The NME talks to Bauhaus member David J. about the creative process behind Bauhaus’s upcoming (and by all accounts, final) album “Go Away White” (due for release on March 4th).
“Our chemistry was so volatile we actually split up … The record definitely feels like a final statement … Our music was a way of venting — it’s very expressive … explosive and volatile, which is constructive and destructive … The album is all about rebirth. It’s a musical conversation when language is not up to it.”
Let’s hope it lives up to the “band’s final statement” hype.
There are a number of reasons why I like Tilly and the Wall. They use a tapdancer for percussion, they hail from my hometown of Omaha, Nebraska, they are incredibly energetic live, and they write infectious pop songs that you want to play over and over. I received a recent e-mail from Fanatic Promotion about their recently announced 2008 American tour, and figured that was a good a reason as any to sing their praises. I think the following quote from a Pitchfork review sums up the band quite well:
Tilly and the Wall’s music is childlike in the sense that it celebrates the tactile and emotional world with the verve of unjaded perception; organs of pure sense probe the enticing recesses of the night. Their music is a prism that refracts the wonder of the human pageant from various angles, making familiar colors bend fantastically. It doesn’t deny harsh realties– Tilly’s world of teenage knife fights and drunken bra-clasp fumblings doesn’t elide homeless women walking the snow; a prostitute with “money spilling out of her hands;” “the newly born crying, realizing what life is” or a grandfather’s weathered eyes. Tilly blurs them all into a giddy compendium of humanity, at once acknowledging and renouncing the possibility of despair: “The world is big and it’s got a loose heart/ So you either start screaming or start singing.”
To me, Tilly and the Wall sometimes seems like an awesome fictional band come to life. The rag-tag group of kids pulling together to make good (complete with unique instrumentation). You really have to see them live to understand the joyful vibe they transmit. So if they are coming to your town, do yourself a favor and check them out.
Downloads: Tilly and the Wall - “The Freest Man”, “The Freest Man (CSS Remix)”
Also, be sure to check out exclusive cuts from their forthcoming album at Daytrotter.
Links: Tilly and the Wall on MySpace, Tilly and the Wall at The Hype Machine
