tag:darrenfrancis.co.uk,2005:/blogs/2015?p=120152022-04-17T04:19:27-07:00darren francisfalsetag:darrenfrancis.co.uk,2005:Post/61067102015-12-29T16:00:00-08:002016-01-06T07:05:45-08:00At The Speed Of Film
<p>Track 8 of <strong>Future Ghosts</strong>. </p>
<p> </p>
<p><iframe height="240" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=14487078/size=large/bgcol=333333/linkcol=0f91ff/tracklist=false/artwork=small/track=392440162/transparent=true/" style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;" width="320"></iframe></p>
<p> </p>
<p>london my lovesong</p>
<p>that ever sings itself</p>
<p> </p>
<p>what are my needs?</p>
<p> </p>
<p>laptop</p>
<p>sketch pad</p>
<p>wheat field</p>
<p>she curve</p>
<p> </p>
<p>nothing else a fret for</p>
<p> </p>
<p>plastic howl of</p>
<p>grave-bright stars</p>
<p>twin trees carve</p>
<p>their velveteen</p>
<p> </p>
<p>gimme stub and soil</p>
<p>peroxide time</p>
<p>your chic</p>
<p>eighteen hole shriek</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The music for this is taken from the unreleased <strong>Shamania</strong>-era <strong>Logos</strong> track<strong>[ / ]</strong> (yes, that was the title). It hasn't been released anywhere else in any form, though did appear on the <strong>Logos</strong> myspace player (and possibly other online music players - I don't recall) for a while. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>The text was written on 23 February 2014, on a train from Waterloo to Guildford, after an evening spent with my friend and co-writer <a href="http://www.simonlewiswriter.com" target="_blank" data-imported="1"><strong>Simon Lewis</strong></a>, discussing our book <strong>Jack Palmer & The Unspeakable Thing</strong>. I was born in London, lived there until ten years ago. I still spend a lot of time in the place and have a great fondness for it, but am glad I no longer live there. The text had no particular inspiration, merely some thoughts after a good evening with a good friend and a few beers as my train slid through the night. </p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Currently reading:</strong> The First Day On The Somme - Martin Middlebrook</p>
<p><strong>Currently listening:</strong> Bob Dylan - The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan</p>
darren francistag:darrenfrancis.co.uk,2005:Post/61067092015-12-13T16:00:00-08:002016-01-04T07:09:51-08:00dreamers with folded wings
<p>Track seven of <strong>Future Ghosts</strong>.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><iframe height="240" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=14487078/size=large/bgcol=333333/linkcol=0f91ff/tracklist=false/artwork=small/track=1992647348/transparent=true/" style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;" width="320"></iframe></p>
<p> </p>
<p>swept by</p>
<p>fingers sing</p>
<p>my should have been</p>
<p> </p>
<p>her taut</p>
<p>her stray</p>
<p>her season</p>
<p> </p>
<p>what wilds her</p>
<p>that's where</p>
<p>i want to be</p>
<p> </p>
<p>bind moon</p>
<p>sine swift</p>
<p>feral light</p>
<p> </p>
<p>where was she</p>
<p>when i was</p>
<p>for sale?</p>
<p> </p>
<p>-</p>
<p> </p>
<p>that page</p>
<p>that tinct</p>
<p>that nudge me to</p>
<p> </p>
<p>where's what i know</p>
<p>wide between</p>
<p>nine and what i do</p>
<p> </p>
<p>-</p>
<p> </p>
<p>come into</p>
<p>my breath</p>
<p>my name</p>
<p> </p>
<p>my no</p>
<p>my lieu</p>
<p>my lungs</p>
<p> </p>
<p>piscis-perfect</p>
<p>grade my light</p>
<p>field my occult vision</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The music here draws on the <a href="https://logosnexus.bandcamp.com/album/shamania" target="_blank" data-imported="1"><strong>Shamania</strong></a> track <a href="https://logosnexus.bandcamp.com/track/tesseract-deepblue2519-reprise" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Tesseract [deepblue2519 reprise]</a> and the <strong>Shamania</strong> out-take <strong>Sunday To Tuesday [No One Calls]</strong>. This latter track is otherwise unreleased in any form. As with the rest of <strong>Future Ghosts</strong>, all three sections of this text first appeared on <a href="http://www.twitter.com/darrenfrancis93" target="_blank" data-imported="1">my Twitter feed</a> on the days they were written. I frequently post new texts and ideas on Twitter, which is a good incentive for you to follow me if you wish. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>There's little I'd add by way of comment on the text, other than that it was largely inspired and influenced by <strong>Swans</strong>' 2014 album <strong>To Be Kind</strong>, in particular the track <strong>She Loves Us!</strong> It wasn't until later that I noticed I'd accidentally part-borrowed the latter's line 'come to my lungs'.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Currently reading:</strong> Richard J Evans - The Third Reich At War</p>
<p><strong>Currently listening:</strong> Bob Dylan - Highway 61 Revisited</p>
darren francistag:darrenfrancis.co.uk,2005:Post/61067082015-11-28T16:00:00-08:002016-01-03T08:50:57-08:00The Movements Of All Things
<p>Track six from <strong>Future Ghosts</strong>. </p>
<p> <iframe height="240" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=14487078/size=large/bgcol=333333/linkcol=0f91ff/tracklist=false/artwork=small/track=2842316476/transparent=true/" style="border: 0px; width: 100%; height: 120px;" width="320"></iframe></p>
<p> </p>
<p>night is collected in your room</p>
<p>you breathe its rhythm</p>
<p> </p>
<p>dead lots</p>
<p>moonsong</p>
<p> </p>
<p>taste</p>
<p>of your lips</p>
<p> </p>
<p>these memories</p>
<p>are no longer mine</p>
<p> </p>
<p>-</p>
<p> </p>
<p>you window-watch</p>
<p>out there;</p>
<p>trees</p>
<p>brick</p>
<p>lawn</p>
<p> </p>
<p>so still</p>
<p> </p>
<p>suburbia foxed</p>
<p>under streetlight</p>
<p>car beams</p>
<p>you blade-dig</p>
<p>for welcome blood</p>
<p> </p>
<p>-</p>
<p> </p>
<p>your skin tastes of tears</p>
<p>of could have been</p>
<p>of a life lived</p>
<p>in the passenger seat</p>
<p> </p>
<p>-</p>
<p> </p>
<p>when the cosmic joker</p>
<p>fucks with you</p>
<p>he never fails to do so</p>
<p>with style and a sense of irony</p>
<p> </p>
<p>-</p>
<p> </p>
<p>you finger-write your love</p>
<p>in a bus window's steam</p>
<p> </p>
<p>the bus pulls into depot</p>
<p>and all depart</p>
<p> </p>
<p>only your words remain</p>
<p>until the next rain</p>
<p> </p>
<p>-</p>
<p> </p>
<p>that murmur you hear</p>
<p>ever in the air</p>
<p>and which you mistake</p>
<p>for wind;</p>
<p>the sound of the universe</p>
<p>laughing at its own absurdity</p>
<p> </p>
<p>-</p>
<p> </p>
<p>'when you're a kid</p>
<p>your world is filled</p>
<p>with magic'</p>
<p>you say</p>
<p>'but as you</p>
<p>grow older</p>
<p>your soul dies</p>
<p>from the inside out'</p>
<p> </p>
<p>-</p>
<p> </p>
<p>i have no difficulty</p>
<p>picturing you</p>
<p>on a beach</p>
<p>alone</p>
<p> </p>
<p>undressing</p>
<p>stepping</p>
<p>into the waves</p>
<p>and never turning back</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Much of this text was initially written as sketches for a supporting character in a future fiction. Most-all of it appeared, piece by piece, on my <a href="http://www.twitter.com/darrenfrancis93" data-imported="1"><strong>Twitter</strong></a> feed as it was written. The title is from a mental health assessment of sometime Jack The Ripper suspect <strong>Aaron Kosminski</strong>: "he declares that he is guided & his movements altogether controlled by an instinct that informs his mind; he says that he knows the movements of all mankind..." My text does not concern the Whitechapel killings; I was more interested in Kosminski's mindset. Do I think he was the killer? Probably not.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>I cheated a little on this track, breaching my '<a href="https://logosnexus.bandcamp.com/album/shamania" target="_blank" data-imported="1"><strong>Shamania</strong></a> sessions' remit when creating the musical backing, since it draws very heavily from <strong>Jason Oliver</strong>'s remix of the track <strong>Bipolar Binary</strong>, which you can hear on the <strong>Logos</strong> remix album <a href="https://logosnexus.bandcamp.com/album/everything-under-the-sky" target="_blank" data-imported="1"><strong>Everything Under The Sky</strong></a>, and which was created some time after the <strong>Shamania</strong> album was finalised. It still counts, I think, since every aspect of that mix is found in the original. I did mess around with <strong>Jason</strong>'s version for <strong>Future Ghosts</strong> purposes, quite considerably albeit subtly. The coda is taken from the unreleased <strong>Shamania</strong>-period track <strong>Friends</strong>.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Some comments:-</p>
<p> </p>
<p>"night is collected in your room / you breathe its rhythm..." This line was likely inspired by the song Kosinski by The Angels Of Light (Everything Is Good Here/Please Come Home album, 2003).</p>
<p> </p>
<p>"london's dead lots" - See Preludes by T S Eliot: 'And now a gusty shower wraps / The grimy scraps / Of withered leaves about your feet / And newspapers from vacant lots.'</p>
<p> </p>
<p>"these memories are no longer mine" - see my text Fissure King, from God Thing: "Golden and ghost boy, where are you? Fool; you lived that life as if it were real. I don't recognise you any more. I don't recognise myself any more.'</p>
<p> </p>
<p>"suburbia foxed / under streetlight / car beams / you blade-dig for welcome blood" - In part a sketch for a new character in a new fiction, as mentioned above, in part an imagined memory of my ex-wife, at her parents' house as a late teen and before I met her.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>"your skin tastes of tears / of could have been / of a life lived in the passenger seat" - Have I changed at all? Has anything changed? All things are my property, yet never a part of me. This, perhaps, is the crux of the matter. All things my property yet never a part of me. Promise of ever now but nothing I can hold on to. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>"when the cosmic joker / fucks with you / he never fails / to do so / with style / and a sense of irony" - I wish I could remember which particular sequence of events inspired this.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>"you finger-write your love / in a bus window's steam..." This line was indeed written on the bus home from work, drawing my twisted sketches, listening to my iPod, and people-watching. Note to self: a moving vehicle is a poor choice of venue when trying to draw a perfect circle.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>"...stepping into the waves and never turning back." An imagined other, or autosuggestion? </p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Currently reading:</strong> Under The Black Flag - Sami Moubayed</p>
<p><strong>Currently listening:</strong> Hypnotise - System Of A Down</p>
darren francistag:darrenfrancis.co.uk,2005:Post/61067072015-11-07T16:00:00-08:002022-03-21T03:47:28-07:00God, Love, Money, & Other Snares
<p>My text <strong>God, Love, Money & Other Snares</strong> has been published at <a href="http://bougainvillearoadlitmag.blogspot.ca/" target="_blank" data-imported="1"><strong>Bougainvillea Road Lit Mag</strong></a>. Read it <a href="http://bougainvillearoadlitmag.blogspot.ca/2015/11/god-love-money-and-other-snares-by.html" target="_blank" data-imported="1">here</a>. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>You can also hear me reading this text, with music, here.</p>
<p> <iframe frameborder="no" height="166" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/47728886&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false" width="100%"></iframe></p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Currently reading:</strong> The Rise Of Islamic State - Patrick Cockburn</p>
<p><strong>Currently listening:</strong> Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon - Devendra Banhart</p>
darren francistag:darrenfrancis.co.uk,2005:Post/61067062015-10-28T17:00:00-07:002015-10-29T09:05:47-07:001995 [The Empire Never Ended]
<p>Track 5 of <a href="https://darrenfrancis.bandcamp.com/album/future-ghosts" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Future Ghosts</a>.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><iframe height="240" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=14487078/size=large/bgcol=333333/linkcol=0f91ff/tracklist=false/artwork=small/track=294174686/transparent=true/" style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;" width="320"></iframe></p>
<p> </p>
<p>she is 1995</p>
<p>a ribbon</p>
<p>a chime</p>
<p>a dust-cut mirror</p>
<p>silver-lined</p>
<p>as star-tips mine</p>
<p>my glass</p>
<p>in berlin time</p>
<p> </p>
<p>This was written 25 April 2014, and posted on <a href="http://www.twitter.com/darrenfrancis93" data-imported="1">my Twitter feed</a> that day. Musically, the primary source is the <strong>Logos</strong> track <a href="https://logosnexus.bandcamp.com/track/hypogirl" target="_blank" data-imported="1"><strong>Hyopgirl</strong></a> from <a href="https://logosnexus.bandcamp.com/album/shamania" target="_blank" data-imported="1"><strong>Shamania</strong></a>, though the coda is adopted from the unreleased <strong>Logos</strong> track <strong>Deep Time</strong>. I have little desire to elaborate on or clarify either text or title, though part of the title at least will be familiar to readers of <strong>Philip K Dick</strong>, in particular the book <strong>Valis</strong>. </p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Currently reading:</strong> Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte</p>
<p><strong>Currently listening:</strong> Ministry - Rio Grande Blood</p>
darren francistag:darrenfrancis.co.uk,2005:Post/61067052015-10-15T17:00:00-07:002015-10-29T09:08:24-07:00The Puppet Has No Master
<p>Track 4 of <a href="https://darrenfrancis.bandcamp.com/album/future-ghosts" target="_blank" data-imported="1"><strong>Future Ghosts</strong></a>. </p>
<p> </p>
<p><iframe height="240" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=14487078/size=large/bgcol=333333/linkcol=0f91ff/tracklist=false/artwork=small/track=1673101974/transparent=true/" style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;" width="320"></iframe></p>
<p> </p>
<p>day to day</p>
<p>hour to hour</p>
<p>second second</p>
<p>all i do is circus</p>
<p> </p>
<p>-</p>
<p> </p>
<p>in my suffering</p>
<p>who is the sufferer?</p>
<p> </p>
<p>it happens to me</p>
<p>it afflicts me</p>
<p> </p>
<p>but i am stood aside;</p>
<p>i look on;</p>
<p> </p>
<p>where am i</p>
<p>in that?</p>
<p> </p>
<p>-</p>
<p> </p>
<p>i want to phone my employer</p>
<p>say 'i can't come in today.</p>
<p>why? don't you realise</p>
<p>this world is a</p>
<p>surreal ontological joke?</p>
<p>a puppet show?'</p>
<p> </p>
<p>-</p>
<p> </p>
<p>i move so quickly</p>
<p>from one assumed persona</p>
<p>to the next</p>
<p>i forget</p>
<p>who i was</p>
<p>underneath it all</p>
<p> </p>
<p>-</p>
<p> </p>
<p>i play this role</p>
<p>of being real</p>
<p>belong</p>
<p>of place to be</p>
<p>not</p>
<p>don't</p>
<p>isn't</p>
<p>i play this role</p>
<p> </p>
<p>-</p>
<p> </p>
<p>the bust silk gnash</p>
<p>the rust black weight</p>
<p>red moon laugh</p>
<p>and blade unfurl</p>
<p>to the shorn singularity</p>
<p>of night</p>
<p> </p>
<p>not star too far</p>
<p>my teen dream sing</p>
<p>the teeth that speak</p>
<p>my curtain pricked</p>
<p>to the shorn singularity</p>
<p>of night</p>
<p> </p>
<p>where blood is word</p>
<p>where meat bells grin</p>
<p>where i stitch and pin</p>
<p>pikaia puppet</p>
<p>to the shorn singularity</p>
<p>of night</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Musically, this draws chiefly on the <a href="http://www.logosnexus.com" target="_blank" data-imported="1"><strong>Logos</strong></a> track <a href="https://logosnexus.bandcamp.com/track/bipolar-binary-2" target="_blank" data-imported="1"><strong>Bipolar Binary</strong></a> from <a href="https://logosnexus.bandcamp.com/album/shamania" target="_blank" data-imported="1"><strong>Shamania</strong></a>, in particular the lengthy middle section. As with the rest of <strong>Future Ghosts</strong>, the text was all originally posted - piece by piece and as it was written - on my <a href="http://www.twitter.com/darrenfrancis93" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Twitter feed</a> in autumn 2013 (first three sections) and spring 2014 (remainder). I've mentioned before the influence of <strong>Thomas Ligotti</strong> on <strong>Future Ghosts</strong>; the meaning of the title should be clear. A couple of textual comments:</p>
<p> </p>
<p>'i am stood aside; i look on; where am i in that?' - I've always found this aspect of depression fascinating; externalising oneself, viewing it as an experience one is having rather than a defining factor of one's character. Not that it makes the suffering itself any easier to handle.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>'i want to phone my employer...' - Coincidentally or not, the day after writing this section on 18 November 2013, I was indeed signed off work by my GP for an extended period on mental health grounds. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>'i move so quickly from one assumed persona to the next...' - See also the track <a href="https://darrenfrancis.bandcamp.com/track/scarecrow" target="_blank" data-imported="1"><strong>Scarecrow</strong></a> from <a href="https://darrenfrancis.bandcamp.com/album/god-thing" target="_blank" data-imported="1"><strong>God Thing</strong></a>; 'blink out. one world. one sky. reach for notebook and drop a mass of papers. ten year novels. somme notes. undated rants. crop circle workplans. vic. mutable. inkling. zila dell. df. legal sec. i switch so quickly from persona to persona. i become my own hallucinations.'</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Currently reading:</strong> Soldaten - Sonke Neitzel & Harald Welzer</p>
<p><strong>Currently listening:</strong> Breathe Hard, Breathe Deep - Inhale</p>
darren francistag:darrenfrancis.co.uk,2005:Post/61067042015-10-08T17:00:00-07:002015-10-09T10:58:14-07:00Wake Up Bad Guy
<p>The third of my track-by-track looks at <strong>Future Ghosts</strong>. I'll try to post these more frequently, if only to get them all done before my next album - currently in progress - is finished and released. </p>
<p><iframe height="240" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=14487078/size=large/bgcol=333333/linkcol=0f91ff/tracklist=false/artwork=small/track=2289664218/transparent=true/" style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;" width="320"></iframe></p>
<p> sometimes feel as if i passed out</p>
<p>drunk at century's turn; woke up</p>
<p>to be told through hungover glaze</p>
<p>by a laughing puppet that it's 2015</p>
<p> </p>
<p>that sudden flick of a switch;</p>
<p>one moment 2000 light years from home</p>
<p>the next pressed against</p>
<p>the wall of a club</p>
<p> </p>
<p>beer-sodden and cigarette-rolling</p>
<p>and the universe’s central spin</p>
<p>dancing in a frock coat</p>
<p>and with swaying bob before me</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Musically, this draws on elements of the <a href="http://www.logosnexus.com" target="_blank" data-imported="1"><strong>Logos</strong></a> track <a href="https://logosnexus.bandcamp.com/track/deepblue2519" target="_blank" data-imported="1"><strong>deepblue2519</strong></a>, from <a href="https://logosnexus.bandcamp.com/album/shamania" target="_blank" data-imported="1"><strong>Shamania</strong></a>. The text is straightforward, I think, and requires little in the way of clarification. The first four lines date from 5 January 2014 and appeared on my <a href="http://www.twitter.com/darrenfrancis93" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Twitter feed</a> that day. The remainder is older; I can't say when exactly - likely c.2008 or earlier - I came across it while leafing through old notebooks in search of something else, and the two texts seemed to fit together. I'd imagine it was inspired by my first falling for the woman who became my ex-wife, in a London goth club in 2001.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Some further textual comments. Regarding the first four lines, I once half-jokingly commented that I passed much of the first decade of this century drinking heavily, playing computer games, and making crop circles. I'm still trying to catch up. The title, <strong>Wake Up Bad Guy</strong>, will of course sound familiar to <strong>Halo</strong> players. Puppets and puppetry are a recurring motif throughout <strong>Future Ghosts</strong>, no doubt due to my re-reading <strong>Thomas Ligotti</strong> at the time of writing much of it.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>"2000 light years from home" is, as many of you will no doubt be aware, the title of a <strong>Rolling Stones</strong> song (and one of the few Stones songs I'm a fan of). It is also referenced in my text <strong>An Alien Alcoholic In London</strong>. </p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Currently reading:</strong> History Of The SS - G S Graber</p>
<p><strong>Currently listening:</strong> Gung Ho - Patti Smith</p>
darren francistag:darrenfrancis.co.uk,2005:Post/61067032015-09-18T17:00:00-07:002015-10-10T11:09:40-07:004581 Asclepius
<p>The second of my track-by-track looks at <strong><a href="http://darrenfrancis.bandcamp.com/album/future-ghosts" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Future Ghosts</a></strong></p>
<p> </p>
<p><iframe height="240" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=14487078/size=large/bgcol=333333/linkcol=0f91ff/tracklist=false/artwork=small/track=1693261381/transparent=true/" style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;" width="320"></iframe></p>
<p> </p>
<p>another twilight</p>
<p>put through the human thresher</p>
<p> </p>
<p>wine</p>
<p>laughter</p>
<p> </p>
<p>the peaked meat</p>
<p>of matter</p>
<p> </p>
<p>how many remain?</p>
<p>how much longer?</p>
<p> </p>
<p>night pushes open the door</p>
<p>leers and sharpens knives</p>
<p> </p>
<p>we run from sight</p>
<p>across london fields</p>
<p> </p>
<p>you're holding your own hand</p>
<p>not mine</p>
<p> </p>
<p>i down beer</p>
<p>at the speed of starlight</p>
<p> </p>
<p>sirens but there's ever sirens</p>
<p>epiphanies but there's ever epiphanies</p>
<p> </p>
<p> </p>
<p>Musically, this draws on the <a href="http://www.logosnexus.com/" target="_blank" data-imported="1"><strong>Logos</strong></a> tracks <strong>Anhedoniac</strong> and <strong>[#]</strong>, which were created at the time of <a href="https://logosnexus.bandcamp.com/album/shamania" target="_blank" data-imported="1"><strong>Shamania</strong></a> and were at one point scheduled to appear on that album. Both were amongst the half-a-dozen or so tracks that I dropped when streamlining <strong>Shamania</strong> from the 4+ hour epic it at one stage was, and into a more manageable two hours. At one point <strong>Ahnedoniac</strong> was available as a free download from the <strong>Logos</strong> website, and no doubt at some point in the future I'll put it up again. <strong>[#]</strong> remains unreleased in any form, aside from the except included here as coda.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Why the title? <strong>4581 Asclepius</strong> is an Apollo asteroid and near Earth object; upon its discovery in March 1989, it was noticed that it had just passed through an exact point in space occupied by Earth six hours previously, meaning that our planet was separated from a 600 megaton-equivalent collision by a mere six hours. As a title, it seemed apt; drinking and fretting and fucking while world-killers glide silently about us.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>As with the rest of <strong>Future Ghosts</strong>, all the text to this track originally appeared, on the dates it was written, on my <a href="http://twitter.com/darrenfrancis93" target="_blank" data-imported="1">Twitter feed</a>, in the late autumn and winter of 2013. I don't think any of it requires explanation, though would make the following comments:</p>
<p> </p>
<p>"another twilight put through the human thresher" - See The Conspiracy Against The Human Race by Thomas Ligotti.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>"the peaked meat of matter" - When first written, this was 'the peaked meat of starlight', which I think is a better line, but I changed it due to the repeat of 'starlight' when putting the separate fragments into one text.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>"i down beer at the speed of starlight" - See my text <strong>Belong</strong>. The rate at which I could once sink beer, when set to it, was startling. This is not a positive quality. </p>
<p> </p>
<p>"sirens but there's ever sirens" - Throughout the 1990s and until 2005, I lived in New Cross in south London. Sirens were an ever aspect of the accustomed to and ignored background din.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>"epiphanies but there's ever epiphanies" - See Philip K Dick - 'Took drugs. Saw god. BFD.'</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong style="font-size: xx-small;">Currently reading:</strong> The Berlin Bunker - James P O'Donnell</p>
<p><strong>Currently listening:</strong> Talk Talk Talk - The Psychedelic Furs</p>
darren francistag:darrenfrancis.co.uk,2005:Post/61067022015-08-28T17:00:00-07:002015-08-28T23:56:09-07:00The Side-Effects Of October
<p>While I finish off other projects (both textual and audio) I thought it would be interesting to post a track-by-track look at my last album, <strong>Future Ghosts</strong>. Here's the first, <strong>The Side-Effects Of October</strong>.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><iframe height="240" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=14487078/size=large/bgcol=333333/linkcol=0f91ff/tracklist=false/artwork=small/track=1520821384/transparent=true/" style="border: 0px; width: 100%; height: 120px;" width="320"></iframe></p>
<p> </p>
<p>the alchemy of skin and broken glass</p>
<p>the soft satisfaction of rain on face</p>
<p> </p>
<p>husk moon</p>
<p>stray stars</p>
<p> </p>
<p>content in</p>
<p>their own debris</p>
<p> </p>
<p>scars so deep</p>
<p>they touch the bone</p>
<p> </p>
<p>turning leaves</p>
<p>rain-slick streets</p>
<p> </p>
<p>wood smoke</p>
<p>the side effects of october</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Followers of <a href="http://www.logosnexus.com/" target="_blank" data-imported="1"><strong>Logos</strong></a> may recognise the title of this track, from an unreleased <strong>Logos</strong> track of the same name which I was working on back in late 2010. That track and its attendant album were never finished, and featured completely different music and text (incidentally much of the music from that unfinished album, <strong>Everything We Ever Were</strong> - another title I'll likely reuse at some point - was reworked into tracks for the <strong>Shamania</strong> album or for <strong>Future Ghosts</strong>).</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The music for the <strong>Future Ghosts</strong> version of <strong>Side-Effects</strong> combines elements of the Logos tracks <a href="https://logosnexus.bandcamp.com/track/anodyne" target="_blank" data-imported="1"><strong>Anodyne</strong></a> and <a href="https://logosnexus.bandcamp.com/track/bipolar-binary-2" target="_blank" data-imported="1"><strong>Bipolar Binary</strong></a>, both from the album <a href="https://logosnexus.bandcamp.com/album/shamania" target="_blank" data-imported="1"><strong>Shamania</strong></a>. The text was written on 25 October (first six lines) and 29 October 2013 (remainder) on my Twitter feed, and I don't think it requires much clarification. Eliot was wrong; October is the cruellest month, not April. It has never been kind to me. Though I have many scars from my self-harming days, none 'touch the bone'; I've never cut this deep, though know others who have.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Currently reading:</strong> Defeat In The West - Milton Shulman</p>
<p><strong>Currently listening:</strong> Electric Music For Mind & Body - Country Joe & The Fish</p>
darren francistag:darrenfrancis.co.uk,2005:Post/61067012015-07-26T17:00:00-07:002015-07-27T07:22:53-07:00Future Ghosts now available
<p>My spoken word-with-music album Future Ghosts is now available for download, and has its own dedicated page on this website <a href="/future-ghosts" data-imported="1" data-link-type="page">here</a>.</p>
<p> </p>
<p> <iframe height="240" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=14487078/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/artwork=small/transparent=true/" style="border: 0px; width: 400px; height: 472px;" width="320"></iframe></p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Currently reading:</strong> Britannia BC - Francis Pryor</p>
<p><strong>Currently listening:</strong> Near Earth Orbit - Near Earth Orbit</p>
darren francistag:darrenfrancis.co.uk,2005:Post/61067002015-06-23T17:00:00-07:002015-06-24T05:41:03-07:00Future Ghosts update
<p>I know I said <strong>future Ghosts</strong> would release on 21 June, unfortunately I've had a few unexpected delays. My father died two weekends back, and last week my laptop - upon which I was finalising the album mix - gave up the ghost. This has set back the album's completion somewhat but I hope to finish it shortly. I'll post another update in due course; in the meantime you can hear in-progress mixes of two tracks below.</p>
<p> <iframe frameborder="no" height="166" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/210630703&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false" width="100%"></iframe></p>
<p> </p>
<p><iframe frameborder="no" height="166" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/211233181&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false" width="100%"></iframe></p>
darren francistag:darrenfrancis.co.uk,2005:Post/61066992015-06-03T17:00:00-07:002015-06-04T05:32:11-07:00Future Ghosts
<p><img src="//d10j3mvrs1suex.cloudfront.net/u/395520/5e810cceaf4883d62503c58559850128e35bd92b/original/future-ghosts.jpg/!!/b%3AWyJyZXNpemU6MzUweDM1MCJd.jpg" class="size_orig justify_right border_" alt="" height="350" width="350" />In the last two weeks of May 2015, in the midst of a black depressive blur, I recorded a new spoken word album. Please note that this is not <strong>All Things Left On Earth</strong> but an entirely new project. Titled <strong>Future Ghosts</strong>, the track listing is as follows:-</p>
<p> </p>
<p>01. <strong>The Side-Effects Of October</strong></p>
<p>02. <strong>4581 Asclepius</strong></p>
<p>03. <strong>Wake Up Bad Guy</strong></p>
<p>04. <strong>The Puppet Has No Master</strong></p>
<p>05. <strong>1995 (The Empire Never Ended)</strong></p>
<p>06. <strong>The Movements Of All Mankind</strong></p>
<p>07. <strong>Dreamers With Folded Wings</strong></p>
<p>08. <strong>At The Speed Of Film</strong></p>
<p>09. <strong>Her Is All</strong></p>
<p>10. <strong>Cygnusolar</strong></p>
<p>11. <strong>Black Stars Will Have Their Season</strong></p>
<p>12. <strong>Where We Circle</strong></p>
<p>13. <strong>K & I (Panthalassa Shoreline)</strong></p>
<p>14. <strong>Her Constellation</strong></p>
<p> </p>
<p>The text was assembled from short pieces and fragments written over the last year or so, many of which had previously appeared in my Twitter feed. @darrenfrancis93. I frequently post short texts in progress on Twitter, so if you don't follow me there be sure to do so.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>As I was recording the voice I had a specific soundscape in mind to accompany it. After sketching a few tracks, I realised I'd already recorded several hours' worth of the kind of music I had in mind in the <strong>Logos</strong> album <strong>Shamania</strong>. <strong>Shamania</strong>, for me at least, also explores a lot of the same territory and themes as the <strong>Future Ghosts</strong> text. The <strong>Future Ghosts</strong> soundtrack, therefore, draws very heavily on the <strong>Shamania</strong> sessions, including finished tracks, out-takes, and incomplete demos. This isn't simply a case of me reading over <strong>Logos</strong> tracks; everything has been restructured, reworked, and recombined. If you know <strong>Shamania</strong>, you'll hear some familiar things used in different ways. You'll also hear a lot that's new.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Future Ghosts</strong> is released on 21 June. Between now and then I'll be previewing tracks on my Facebook and Twitter feeds, so be sure to follow me on one or both to hear them. </p>
darren francistag:darrenfrancis.co.uk,2005:Post/61066982015-03-20T17:00:00-07:002016-03-08T12:50:12-08:00Everything Under The Sky
<p>The <strong>Logos</strong> remix album <strong>Everything Under The Sky</strong> is finally available. Go <strong>here</strong> to stream or download, on a 'free or pay what you want' basis.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><iframe height="240" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=3136836796/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/artwork=small/transparent=true/" style="border: 0; width: 400px; height: 472px;" width="320"></iframe></p>
<p> </p>
<p>The album features radically different mixes of tracks from the previous four <strong>Logos</strong> albums, together with versions of two tracks not released before. Herewith the track listing:</p>
<p> </p>
<p>01. <strong>Everybody Gets Elves [Principia Disruptia]</strong> (8.39)</p>
<p>02.<strong> Hollow Hills Of London [Fisted Generation]</strong> (4.12)</p>
<p>03. <strong>Santa Susana Blues [Prototype]</strong> (6.12)</p>
<p>04. <strong>Shamania [Solstice Prologue]</strong> (7.28)</p>
<p>05. <strong>Crepuscular [Version]</strong> (2.47)</p>
<p>06. <strong>Bipolar Binary [Disruptia]</strong> (7.59)</p>
<p>07. <strong>Do You Love? [Minimal]</strong> (0.26)</p>
<p>08. <strong>Gehenna Now [2014]</strong> (6.01)</p>
<p>09. <strong>Manunkind [Slither]</strong> (2.24)</p>
<p>10. <strong>Ascension [3AM</strong><strong> Centre Of Everywhere]</strong> (18.08)</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Everybody Gete Elves</strong>, <strong>Hollow Hills Of London</strong>, <strong>Shamania</strong>, <strong>Bipolar Binary</strong>, <strong>Ascension</strong>, remixed by <strong>Jason Oliver</strong>. </p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Santa Susana Blues</strong>, <strong>Crepuscular</strong>, <strong>Do You Love?</strong>, <strong>Gehenna Now</strong>, <strong>Manunkind</strong>, remixed by <strong>Darren Francis</strong>.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Original versions of <strong>Everybody Gets Elves</strong>, <strong>Hollow Hills Of London</strong>, <strong>Gehenna Now</strong>, appear on the album <strong>Gehenna Now</strong>.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Original versions of <strong>Do You Love?</strong>, <strong>Ascension</strong>, appear on the album <strong>Ascending A Line In The Sky To Sothis</strong>.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Originals of <strong>Shamania</strong>, <strong>Bipolar Binary</strong>, appear on the album <strong>Shamania</strong>.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>original of <strong>santa susana blues</strong> appears on our album <strong>santa susana blues</strong>.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Originals of <strong>Crepuscular</strong>, <strong>Manunkind</strong>, previously unreleased.</p>
darren francistag:darrenfrancis.co.uk,2005:Post/61066972015-01-04T16:00:00-08:002016-03-08T12:49:09-08:00Favourite Albums 2014
<p>Some of my favourite albums of 2014. I wouldn't call this a <em>best</em> of 2014 by any means; I don't follow current music with the kind of depth and intensity I used to and wouldn't consider myself qualified to draw up that kind of list. It's merely the ones I most enjoyed. Order is alphabetical.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>All Hallows' Eve - The Dreaming</strong></p>
<p>All Hallows' Eve are a kind of 'goth supergroup', though you'd need to be intimately acquainted with the contemporary goth scene to know who most of its members are. Don't let that put you off; this is fantastic stuff. What <strong>The Eden House</strong> want to be, but much better.</p>
<p> </p>
<p></p>
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<p> </p>
<p><strong>Jon Hopkins - Asleep Versions</strong></p>
<p>Perhaps this shouldn't make the list, since it's more of an EP and chiefly consists of remixes of tracks from the 2013 album <strong>Immunity</strong>, but it is rather lovely.</p>
<p> </p>
<p></p>
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<p> </p>
<p> <strong>Jo Johnson - Weaving</strong></p>
<p>I've been listening to a lot of this sort of music in the last few months; long trippy instrumental tracks with a retro, analog synth feel, what was once called 'space music' but which prefer to call 'synthedelia'. I'm very fond of inventing terms for musical genres. It's been an inspiration to the new <strong>Logos</strong> music (our in-progress fifth album <strong>At The Core Of Each Star</strong>), although <strong>Logos</strong> sounds nothing like it. Lots of people do this kind of music very badly, but this is brilliant.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><iframe frameborder="no" height="450" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/playlists/44988756&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false" width="100%"></iframe></p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Logos - Santa Susana Blues</strong></p>
<p>I admit it could be considered arrogant of me to include this here, since I solely created it, but for the most part I'm still pleased with it and consider it the best <strong>Logos</strong> album so far. Though most of these tracks were created back in 2012, all of them were re-worked to some degree during the mixing stage in July and August 2014, and some were completely rebuilt from scratch, utilising only a handful of elements from the original drafts. I heard these tracks so often as I was creating them that the album became by default the soundtrack to my summer. </p>
<p> </p>
<p><iframe frameborder="no" height="166" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/163656536&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false" width="100%"></iframe></p>
<p> </p>
<p><strong>Merciful Nuns - Meteora</strong></p>
<p><strong>Artaud Seth</strong>'s previous band <strong>Garden Of Delight</strong> made a career out of sounding like <strong>Fields Of The Nephilim</strong>. His current band, <strong>Merciful Nuns</strong>, make a career out of sounding like <strong>The Sisters Of Mercy</strong> (even their name, when you think about it, is another way of saying '<strong>Sisters Of Mercy</strong>'). That said, if you like this iconic mid to late 80s goth sound, and I like it a lot, nobody else at the moment does it better. Sure, they're a pastiche, but they do it brilliantly and - at times - with a sly humour and intelligence that elevates them beyond the level of mere parody. And since it looks like we're not getting another <strong>Sisters</strong> album any time soon if ever, this is a decent enough satisfier.</p>
<p> </p>
<p></p>
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<p> </p>
<p><strong>Scott Walker & Sunn O))) - Soused</strong></p>
<p>Ah Scott Walker. What is there to say? It seems one either finds his recent output, from <strong>Tilt</strong> through <strong>The Drift</strong> to <strong>Bish Bosch</strong> to this, pretentious twaddle or brilliance. I dither between the two, and I suspect Scott does too. Overall I prefer this album to <strong>Bish Bosch</strong> - it seems a lot more focussed for a start - but <strong>Tilt</strong> and <strong>The Drift</strong> (which - though I don't think I've ever mentioned it before - were a significant influence on <strong>God Thing</strong>) still have the edge for me.</p>
<p> </p>
<p></p>
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<p> </p>
<p> <strong>Swans - To Be Kind</strong></p>
<p>It'll come as no surprise to anybody who knows me well that this album made the list. I've followed <strong>Swans</strong> since the late 80s, and their music has had a profounder impact on me than I could ever hope to put into words. It's astounding that more than 30 years into their career - and with <strong>Michael Gira</strong> now 60 - they can still produce music this vibrant, immediate, and alive.</p>
<p> </p>
<p><iframe frameborder="no" height="166" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/141158352&color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false" width="100%"></iframe></p>
<p> </p>
<p>Currently reading: <strong>Hengeworld</strong>, Mike Pitts</p>
<p>Currently listing: see above</p>
darren francis