Unknown Pleasures # 5 

I've never liked the notion of “guilty pleasures”, especially when applied to music. It implies a snobbery, not merely that one's taste is too refined to enjoy such base things but that one is superior to those who do. That it's usually used to talk about music that is very popular doesn't help matters either.

 

It was for these reasons that I named this series of posts “Unknown” rather than “Guilty” “Pleasures”, although some people might classify them as the latter. Of course, the former's association with one of my most-loved bands also steered my hand.

 

 

Nexus [v.iv] 

I've revised the Nexus track listing to include tracks from my recently released album Left At The Luna Mansion:-

 

01. He Knows The Use Of Ashes (3:56)

02. 4581 Asclepius (2:29)

03. Calm Like Agent Insects (2:31)

04. Black Olives (4:02)

05. The Sound (3:13)

06. Fissure King (6:11)

07. The Puppet Has No Master (3:17)

08. God, Love, Money & Other Snares (4:47)

09. White Noiz (0:51)

10. 1995 [The Empire Never Ended] (1:42)

11. Waverer (1:24)

12. Scarecrow (6:49)

13. Signifying Mother (2:05)

14. 1969 & Nowhere (2:43)

15. The Hills Are Alive (5:48)

16. I Left Her In Xibalba (2:16)

17. Here To Here (2:25)

18. The Ten Thousand Ontological Uses Of The Word 'Fuck' (2:22)

19. Cygnusolar (2:41)

20. Hometime (1:30)

21. Three Days (1:28)

22. K & I [Panthalassa Shoreline] (3:17)

23. Sandman (2:28)

24. West Ramona Spiders (1:22)

25. Her Constellation (3:35)

 

Black Olives, Fissure King, God, Love, Money & Other Snares, Scarecrow, The Hills Are Alive, are taken from my album God Thing.

 

4581 Asclepius, The Puppet Has No Master, 1995 [The Empire Never Ended], Cygnusolar, K & I [Panthalassa Shoreline], Her Constellation, are taken from my album Future Ghosts.

 

Here To Here is taken from my album Uforia.

 

Calm Like Agent Insects, Waverer, 1969 & Nowhere, I Left Her In Xibalba, Three Days, are taken from my album Open The Dog.

 

White Noiz, Signifying Mother, The Ten Thousand Ontological Uses Of The Word 'Fuck', Hometime, Sandman, West Ramona Spiders, are taken from my album Left At The Luna Mansion.

 

He Knows The Use Of Ashes, The Sound, could perhaps be considered 'bonus tracks'; both are previously unreleased, and taken from my in-progress album All Things Left On Earth.

 

Currently reading: Across The Sea Of Suns - Gregory Benford

Currently listening: Luminous Darkness - Cyclobe

Currently playing: The Elder Scrolls Online

Left At The Luna Mansion album update 

My album Left At The Luna Mansion will be released on 31 October 2016. Here's the track listing:

 

01: Ra Hide Away (1.28)

02: A Pocketful Of Bullets (1.10)

03: Bass Strings (1.10)

04: White Noiz (0.51)

05: Buddha's Mistake (1.23)

06: Coelacanth (1.47)

07: Signifying Mother (2.05)

08: The Books I Haven't Read (1.35)

09: Klaxons (0.41)

10: The Ten Thousand Ontological Use Of The Word 'Fuck' (2.22)

11: Hometime (1.31)

12: You Cannot Wait While In The Air (1.53)

13: Bone Thing (1.13)

14: Rebis (1.18)

15: Ahh Bitte (2.25)

16: Sandman (2.29)

17: West Ramona Spiders (1.23)

18: Heavy Peace (2.00)

 

Currently reading: Terror In The Name Of God: Why Religious Militants Kill - Jessica Stern

Currently listening: Tim Buckley - Tim Buckley

Unknown Pleasures # 4 

[I know I have a bit of a reputation - in terms of music taste - for loving dodgy goth shite, wayward industrial dins, self-hacking soundtracks, and guitar-based songs with vocals the depths of which you need a bathysphere to penetrate; this occasional series presents music I love very much despite what you may expect.]

 

 

Like most guys my age, I had something of a crush on Alanis Morisette when this album was released. She reminded me a lot of my taste in girlfriends. Long dark hair, cute and kooky, passionate about life but scatty to hell. I owned this album at one point. And – perhaps like said girlfriends – I adored parts of it but couldn't be doing with the rest. All I Really Want was my favourite track; I could happily fall in love with and shack up with the Alanis who sings that song. Unfortunately, the rest of the album is rather dreary – a couple of other tracks aside (for example, You Oughta Know, Hand In My Pocket) – and perhaps give an indication of how that relationship would turn out. As indeed, did many of mine.

 

Currently listening: After Bathing At Baxter's - Jefferson Airplane

Currently reading: Solaris - Stanislaw Lem

Open The Dog / Nexus 

After a brief delay, my album Open The Dog is now available to download; you can stream and / or download on the album's dedicated page on this site here. I've also updated the Nexus track listing to include a selection of tracks.

 

Currently reading: Big Sur - Jack Kerouac

Currently listening: Phaedra - Tangerine Dream

Currently playing: The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt

Open The Dog album update 

Unfortunately my new album Open The Dog has been delayed due to the demise of my laptop hard drive. I hope to finalise it this coming weekend. In the meantime, here are two further preliminary mixes of tracks recently posted to my soundcloud page.

 

Currently reading: Blood Year: Islamic State & The Failures Of The War On Terror - David Kilcullen

Currently listening: The Leon Suites - David Bowie

Last 

A short text of mine named Last has been published in the September 2016 edition of Moonglasses Magazine. Go here to read it. I have already recorded a spoken-with-music version of this piece, which is scheduled to appear on my forthcoming All Things Left On Earth album.

 

Currently listening: Open The Dog - Darren Francis (over and over; finishing the mix)

Currently reading: The Lost Weekend - Charles Jackson

Open The Dog 

My next spoken word album, named Open The Dog, will be released on 21 September 2016. Here's the track listing:-

 

01: Glowworms (0.57)

02: Calm Like Agent Insects (2.31)

03: Cycler # 1 (1.07)

04: Closer (4.17)

05: 1969 & Nowhere (2.41)

06: Cycler # 2 (1.29)

07; I Left Her In Xibalba (2.15)

08: Cycler # 3 (1.04)

09: Three Days (1.51)

10: Tell The Bees (2.02)

 

All tracks were created in the first two weeks of September 2016 and comprise only voice and acoustic guitar. As such the album has a sparseness and brief fragility to it which reminds me of Nick Drake's Pink Moon. Track timings are approximate, and may change once I finalise the mix.

 

I'll post a more substantive update closer to the time of release. In the meantime here's a preview of one of the tracks, posted to my soundcloud page:-

 

 

Currently reading: The New Middle East: The World After Arab Spring - Paul Danhar

Currently listening: Dust - Peter Murphy

Currently playing: Resident Evil Revelations 2

Her Constellation 

The final track from my album Future Ghosts.

 

 

all matter is bones

of dead demons

 

every time has

already happened

 

all deed she do

is echo; aftershock

 

we are just

passing through

 

-

 

no breath of god

but us

 

we kiss against sidereal

couple in space of reason

 

which asterism

shape we?

 

what starllit stitch

through black grass?

 

-

 

i don't miss her

i miss myself

 

the once i was

she made me

 

slippery heat

of memory

 

electric din

of what we were

 

we feathered ghosts

how we moved

 

what binary spin

gave we

 

-

 

set to side

turned to drift

in search of

her constellation

 

sheared night

torn breath

taut hands

blush skin

 

no further words

are wanted

 

This dates from early 2015 (except for the last two sections, which were written April 2014). Though I don't consider it a particularly difficult text to decipher, the reader is invited to note that the 'she' herein is not necessarily a universal she and to also note the varying use of 'she'/'her' and 'you' throughout the Future Ghosts text; in each case this is deliberate, referring to two separate people.

 

Currently reading: The End Of Iraq: How American Incompetence Created A War Without End - Peter W Galbraith

Currently listening: The Head On The Door - The Cure

Currently playing: Resident Evil Revelations 2

Circulating EP 

My new EP Circulating is available to download on a free (or pay what you want if you're feeling generous!) basis. It contains three tracks; an edited version of the track Circulating from my album Uforia, a remix by Manmademan of the track Will I Dream, which originally appeared on God Thing, and Outerlude, an extended instrumental version of the various Interlude tracks from Uforia. Stream or download below.

 

 

Currently listening: Ego:X - Diary Of Dreams

Currently reading: Jihad Academy: The Misperceptions Of Islamic State And Their Consequences - Nicholas Henin

Currently playing: Far Cry 3