A Sweeping Curve of Sound

Jimmy Page talks sigil magick with Guitar World magazine, and credits Led Zeppelin’s huge successes with the “alchemical process” of magick.

“You mean talismanic magick? Yes, I knew what I was doing. There’s no point in saying about it, because the more you discuss it, the more eccentric you appear to be. But the facts is - as far as I was concerned - it was working, so I used it. But it’s really no different then people who wear ribbons around their wrists: it’s a talismanic approach to something. Well let me amend that: it’s not exactly the same thing, but it is in the same realm. I’ll leave this subject by saying the four musical elements of Led Zeppelin making a fifth is magick into itself. That’s the alchemical process,”

Technoccult finds the bizarre Christian hate-site “God Hates Goths”.

“So let’s be straight here. Goths are the lowest form of human trash that has ever crawled upon this good clean earth. ‘Garbage people’ I call them, and I can assure you that is what they are. Freaks who worship the Devil, who take drugs and molest children, who have pre-marrital sex, who whore themselves, who are obsessed with Vampirism, and abuse handicapped kids, who promote cross-dressing and underaged homosexuality, who behave like wild violent animals that need to be put down, who cut themselves and try to get others to self harm, degrade themselves and attempt suicide and think it is acceptable behaviour.”

Pitchfork clues us in on the lunar-themed new album from A Silver Mt. Zion (coming in March).

Allow me, if I may, to blow your mind just a smidge: 13 Blues for Thirteen Moons, the forthcoming LP from Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band, doesn’t start with Track 1 like, uh, every other album ever. No, 13 Blues begins at Track 13, fittingly. (The first 12 tracks are brief continuous drones.) An unlucky omen from the post-rockers, or just a way to confuse the heck out of your iPod? You’ll find out March 25, when Constellation Records releases the album on CD and 180- gram double-LP.

Finally, you want to hear some brand-new Portishead? Here is some recent live footage:

Can’t wait for the new album!

Word is spreading that legendary trip-hop pioneers Portishead have almost finished their long-awaited third album:

From close, to, well, closer: in fact, as Geoff Barrow of Portishead tells it, the band’s third proper LP is just one day away from completion. Barrow, checking in on the band’s blog, says Portishead spent a few days in London finishing things up, but are back in Bristol making executive decisions regarding album art and plotting their return to the stage. “i think one more day messing about with it and it will be done,” Barrow writes. “then into the wonderful world of mastering.. [joke]” He doesn’t actually like mastering all that much, see.

Beth Gibbons of Portishead

This makes me very happy. Few bands from the 90s were more influential on darkly-tinged music, and it will be exciting to see what direction they will go now that it has been ten years since their last full-length album.

Links: Portishead on The Hype Machine, Portishead on MySpace