Occulture music
At the Arthur magazine blog, John Coulthart surveys "occulture" music, a term for the space explored in recent years by a loose network of British electronic musicians. Groups like Mount Vernon Arts Lab and Raagnagrok are weaving together their interests in the occult, strange phenomena, fantastic fiction, and horror and translating the moody mindset into enchanting and/or challenging audio. Along with albums by bands I'd never heard of before but look forward to listening to, Coulthart's "select discography" of the genre includes the fantastic "Astral Disaster" (1999) by Coil, the group who first came to my mind when thinking of dark ambient music blended with Crowleyan creepiness and a sense of humor. From the Arthur column, delightfully titled "The Electric Seance":
At precisely 20:02 on the 20th February, 2002 (20/02, 2002 in the UK date system), nine people gathered at the banks of the River Thames where it passes the Greenwich Observatory at 00 longitude, the world's Prime Meridian. They were there to perform "a mass for palindromic time," "to celebrate and to devastate, to perform an act of chronological terrorism, strike a blow to the heart of the Great Wyrm time" as one of the participants, Mark Pilkington, described it. If use of the word "terrorism" seems ill-advised it should perhaps be remembered that the Greenwich Observatory was the site of a genuine bomb attack by a French anarchist in 1894, an event which inspired Joseph Conrad's 1907 novel, The Secret Agent.Link (via Mark Pilkington's Further)
A loose network of musicians have been following (these) paths of interest or obsession, paths that frequently end up in places where ritual, magick and paranormal occurrence are the spur for musical invention. Themes and reference points include weird tales and ghost story writers (especially some of the names that influenced HP Lovecraft), psychogeography (or the physical examination of the psychic qualities of our cities), renegade science, and nostalgia for half-remembered (or mis-remembered) films and television, typically science fiction and horror. These groups are eager to use their work to lift the veil on the mundane and shine a light into occluded zones. What they're delving into might be called "occulture" (for want of a better term), "occult" meaning hidden, and it's with hidden, forgotten or secret arts that occulture concerns itself.
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Occultism and Mysticism are right out of control on a global scale.
Scientists (Atheists) Non Religious 16%
Mysticism (World Religions, 2/3 Judea, Christian, Muslim) 84% (That is the majority of the world's politicians, soldiers, police, teachers and children denying evolution and believing in a god)
First let me start by saying that the term Conspiracy Theory is an epithet often used by the guilty for eliminating articulate dissent. Now ask yourself, why is it impolite to talk about religion, politics, and sex in public or among friends? Does it help to keep the population divided, ignorant, in the dark and filled with guilty, sinful thoughts. You and those around you may be in a what is known in society as a common consensus trance. Don't be distracted by subsidiary issues but speak to the fundamental issues.
Now as I see it there are two ways to see the world. The way it is and the way we wish it could be. How do you find out something is true? Start out understanding religion by saying everything is possibly wrong and let's see from there what is right. Mysticism/Wishing creates a dangerous fatalism. If our lives are controlled by some great god in the sky, why try to change anything? Why ask questions if God's got it all worked out already. God created the earth god will fix the earth if he sees fit, we are all just counting down to judgment day anyways so why bother? To a true believer the short life on earth is nothing compared to eternal life after death as a god or at least among the gods. Superstition is a natural retreat for people who feel powerlessness. Mysticism pretends to satisfy our longing to feel personally connected with the universe, however it implants an internal conflict between unworthiness, salvation, doubt and eternal regrets. It promises us an eternal place in the heavens yet mysticism only trivializes humanity and the entire planet through it's pious fraud. Mysticism is killing science and all life on the planet. You see the glee with which true believers point out that the revelations for the end of the earth are all coming true? They feel so lost, alone and helpless here on earth that heaven will be the sweet release they have been waiting for.
Mysticism empowers fanaticism and the Nazification of governments. We live in a Democratic Fascism, an illusion of government provided for the people to make them think they have some control. The majority of the American population believe god is on their side and they are the greatest country in the world. You see how easily they make war on sovereign nations. How they openly ignore the requests from the rest of the world community on issues like war, global climate change and foreign policies? Reminiscent of 1930's Germany. There can be no separation of church and state governments from the economy when "Freedom of Religion" allows indoctrination of the young at Schools, camps, temples, churches, mosques, and through books, magazines, newspapers, television and movies. It is no coincidence that there have always been three religions at war with each other over the same scriptures. The scriptures that were all recorded by some unerring stenographer. The same ancestral stenographers that talked to god and said "it is written so it must be". Ask yourself, do you believe everything you read? Believe this then because it is important.
The Bible is a large collection of stories imagined, created and collected by our ancestors. The stories are "Not Literal" accounts of actual historical events. The stories are "Allegorical" myths regarding the Sun, The Moon, The Planets, The Stars and the Galaxies. The constellations in our skies were being recorded for use in navigation, planting cycles, esthetics and yes even worship. Our ancestors anthropomorphized the celestial bodies and personified the deities into commonalties from the surrounding world. They tracked the processions of the equinoxes and the cycles of the ages. The Ages of Aries, Taurus, Pieces and soon Aquarius, look for a man bearing water. Isis the moon, Ra the Sun, El Saturn. This is where the children of Israel get their name. The Garden of Eden, Adams Rib, The Serpent, The Fruit, Eve, Gemini are Cain and Abel, The Flaming Sword that barred return to the garden, all of them constellations in our night sky. Virgo the virgin, The Cross, The Three Kings, Orion and Pleiades also constellations. Jesus is the Sun. The Sun of God, dead each day only to be born again, he is risen, in the east, resurrected, with the dawn. All predating CE Roman lies by some estimate 35,000 years. Yes stories plagiarized in the "Holy Bible" and then perverted as to be believed as actual persons, places, and things rather than allegorical stories relating to the heavens. Stories stolen and plagiarized from countless other religions from the known world at the time of it's writing. Thousands of years of lies and conquests in the name of an imaginary god. The old Testament the new testament and the Qur'an, yes, Muhammad was a plagiarist too. Nine years in a cave? The world could go to a nuclear war over someone's imaginary friend.
Is God just, really? He's been conspicuously absent since the appearance of the scriptures. Is religion in general useful? The immorality of the god in the bible is reprehensible. The ten commandments could be reduced to one, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Usefulness does not mean that god exists and does not give additional reasons to believe. Man was really made in a separate act of creation? What if you are wrong? Which specific religion is true? By fortune of birth you've been indoctrinated into the local religion. God's multiple choice, the religious lottery or you can take the mystic IQ test and convert to another faith. Evidence of any God is non existent or terrible at best with many forgeries and fraud. The world was not made by the gods. Instead it is the result of material forces in the real world. How old is civilization? Fossil records show us up to one million years as humanoids. Legitimacy is more important than faith!
Since the beginning it has been mysticism against science and the laws of nature. Atheist is just another word for scientist. Religion is happy to take the military inventions but suppresses the applications which will help humanity. Religious bigotry has persecuted scientists since the beginning of history. Some of the more famous scientists persecuted in the name of religion Hipacia, Theodorus, Aristarchus, Copernicus, Democritus, Annexagorus, Galileo, Johannes Kepler, Charles Darwin, Wilhelm Reich, Climate change experts for the last thirty years, free thinkers and anyone who speaks out against it. Religion doles out honors and accolades, Sainthood, the Papacy. They bless this politician or that group of soldiers going off to war. Christen a new Aircraft carrier or destroyer. People all look up to these religious leaders as they espouse how God has sanctioned "our" cause in this war. The many good deeds of the faithful say it's not the system it's the individual when one molests children or is shown to be corrupt and immoral. I say it is the system that corrupts humanity. Instead of criticizing those who keep perpetuating the myths public rancor is always directed at those who discredited them. All this in the pursuit of profits, power and control. A state approved and sponsored religion is the ideal government mind control device. 84% of the world believes in God. Religion puts the population to sleep. It shuns questions and puts the fear of death and osterization into the general public. Quickly, slay the heretics before they turn people away from god. Atheists live their lives in fear of religious persecution yet they still speak out trying to educate the population.
I prefer hard facts to the dearest illusion my friend and uncomfortable facts are the heart of science. The earth is not the center of the universe. We move in accord with the laws of nature. We understand 4% of what the universe is made of but don't even know what the other 96% of dark matter is. The big bang, evolution by natural selection, and 14 billion years to get to where we are now, only one of a billion trillion stars in the universe. I hope that puts it all into perspective. We have much to learn and many questions yet to be asked. We will never find anything out if we continue to believe that God has already answered all the questions.
Business as usual is not a good policy so far. War, famine and death every year on a civilized planet. Wealthy dynasties, politicians interested in short term personal goals and a population in a mystic trance thinking god will make it all better in the end. Continued faking of Intelligence and propaganda everywhere in the media. Raping natural resources with all the profits going to financiers and corporate heads. Six Billion people on the planet getting up every day and going to jobs, extracting the natural resources from the earth, burning them up in the process, and paying our wage labor income back to the governments, churches and corporations for security, comfort and the food to survive. Some of us barely surviving while others jet around polluting further, faster. The population growing exponentially every decade now. We are eating the earth like a plague, like a swarm of insects onto a rotting fruit. Soon the fruit will be gone and that little blue dot will no longer be able to support the life we have been led to believe was real. Life wasted chasing materialism, greed, intolerance of others and mass murder every, yes every, year since mysticism first reared its ugly head.
The entire system is corrupt. Religion, Politics, and the Economy are all in bed together. Religion gives us our governmental hierarchy, God is the president, the apostles are the government and the followers are the general population. Society is in a pitiful state. We surrender our desires and free will to corrupt political leaders. We need to change our political, economic and religious structures to do away with the military and wars. We elect people into positions of power who appoint others into positions of power and we give them our respect because we are taught to. The only difference between these people in positions of power and the rest of the population is that they were given a title, rank, badge, honors. They inherited their wealth and position. The leaders determine who gets into the inner circle from the ranks of the slaves. Wages for labor, government taxation, religious beliefs, psychopathic corporations, corrupt policies and war. That is what our illusion of economy is built on. Conquest, murder, rape, pillage, loot, lend, borrow, leverage.
We need to shed our childish mystic beliefs. Promote the sciences and start asking more questions. Quit taking other peoples words for it and go find out the truth for yourself. Go get some math books and start asking questions. We all need to be master mathematicians, experts at calculus and physics. Mystics don't read, not even their own bible, they leave the reading and translations up to the preachers they are told to trust, they are trained to fear change. A science based economy is peaceful. Tax the rich and feed the poor to make the transitions. All that amassed wealth belongs to the people of the earth. Stop ripping people off and start spreading the wealth around to the poor and homeless around the globe. Stop pursuing personal wealth, power, control, glory, honors and decadent lifestyles. Be comfortable but not greedy. Down with "Intellectual property" we are one species. Free education for everyone, young and old for life. Shorter work hours, days weeks and years. Less government control and interference as we become free of the past. More education and less crap on the television. Stop the brainwashing and start the educating. Stop maximizing on children. The earth has reached it's peak human population. Destroy the weapons, down to the very last hand gun, and give everyone a laptop instead. Stop the killing on the entire planet.
That is 84% Mystics (Dreamers & Psychopaths) against 16% Scientists/Atheists (Environmentalists) The earth is losing. Down with Religion and down with the pseudo sciences that promote them. Theology? A study of imaginary men that adds a false legitimacy to the greatest danger to humankind? Ban advertising of mysticism in the mass media. Astrology is a lie that the biggest lie was based upon yet it's still in the daily newspaper. Santa is not real yet children think his list of naughty and nice is real. The Easter bunny is imaginary yet finding chocolate eggs plants some doubt in a child's mind. Halloween is just plain spooky, brainwashing children and planting doubts about the existence of monsters. Step on a crack break your mother's back. Don't break a mirror it's seven years bad luck. Don't kill a spider it will rain. Don't walk under a ladder. Don't cross the path of a black cat. Don't sin or you will go to suffer in hell forever and ever. Mass mind control is a crime. Turn off the switch.
Help stamp out religion through education.
>Atheist is just another word for scientist
or another word Scientific Fascist... Ignoring questions of a spiritual nature is just as ignorant as ruling out questions of scientific nature. One unbalanced worldview is as good as any other, or just as childish as any other.
That said, the selected discography at the end of the article is a pretty good primer. Thankfully lacking any Current '93 recommendations.
So you are in favor of business as usual, the status quo, look the other way? Hurl an epithet ad hominem. I never said ignore religion I said educate the world as to the facts.
"why is it impolite to talk about religion, politics, and sex in public or among friends?"
Because the resulting arguments get you nowhere and only alienate you from your friends or family.
"the term Conspiracy Theory is an epithet often used by the guilty for eliminating articulate dissent.
Sometimes, more often it is little more than the delusions of the insane. It is great material for a SF writer though. That's why boingboing is interested in this.
Mysticism is just the attempt of pre-scientific societies to understand and explain the world and our place in it. We are story tellers and mysticism and science are two forms of narrative. Science can help us to understand the world but it doesn't have much to say about what our place in the universe is. People need to feel their lives have a purpose and non-scientific narratives fulfill that need.
Also, this article was about music.
For the record: I am an agnostic. I was an atheist for a large portion of my life.
I absolutely love people that claim science has all of the answers, and dismiss all religions based solely on their experience with one or two main ones. I'm sorry but science still hasn't given me a definitive explanation as how the universe got here. Sure we have the Big Bang, but where did that energy came from (yes I've read about Brane Theory physics and other possibilities but that doesn't really answer the question fully). Let's face it, certain aspects of science require just as much faith to believe as any religious explanation of the world. Religions on their own are not evil, just as science isn't evil either. Extremists on both sides make their whole 'side' look bad.
Krool-your tr0ll-fu is strong.
"why is it impolite to talk about religion, politics, and sex in public or among friends?"
Because some bozo will use it as an excuse to post a huge, rambling essay full of nonsense?
"Science can help us to understand the world but it doesn't have much to say about what our place in the universe is."
What a load of crap. It was science that told us the universe does not revolve around the Earth. Of course the scientists were persecuted by religious mystics and theists, but this is usually what happens when you try to make somebody realize they are living their lives according to fairy tales.
Holy crap did Krul's post give me a headache - and I could only get through the first couple of paragraphs.
That has got to be the longest, most rambling 'comment' I've ever seen on a blog - not to mention that it is a total tangent to what the actual post is about...
Dude, get your own blog already!!
"What a load of crap. It was science that told us the universe does not revolve around the Earth."
Oh, I see you took me literally. Do you really think that I meant that science cannot tell us our position in space? Don't concretize everything.
"That has got to be the longest, most rambling 'comment' I've ever seen on a blog"
Meh... I've seen far longer and far less coherent.
Um, so I was pretty exited about this post, given the fact that I've been a long time admirer of this community of musicians. Their works are creative, highly original, and (most importantly for me) they recapture the weirdness and experimentation of early electronic music before it was co-opted wholesale by disco.
I thought surely other boingboing readers would have something interesting to say about this topic. I guess I should have expected that the internet would let me down, once again.
There's a lot of weird culture going on out there, and most of it is completely off the radar. This is kind of why I read this site. I'm familiar with some very good websites about atheism. In fact, I could be reading them right now if I wanted to. I have absolutely no need sophomoric diatribes against religion being crammed down my browser when I'm trying to read up on weirdo British electronic musicians.
Don't know how we could be discussing this without mentioning Boards of Canada. Sacred math, backwards subliminal stuff, david koresh references... they pretty much defined this whole thing with Geogaddi.
Brother Provisional and others in this thread, if you are interested in "weirdo British electronic musicians" (I've been a fan of Coil in particular for a very long time, personally speaking), if you have not read David Keenan's _England's Hidden Reverse: A Secret History of the Esoteric Underground_, I can recommend it if you have any interest in Coil, Current 93, or Nurse With Wound.
@ Brother Provisional: I hope you won't judge the bulk of the BoingBoing reading and commenting community by what a handful of cranks cut and paste. It seems lately we've been swarmed by provincial types who think it's their mission from Gahd to outshout those of us who love novelty and the richness of the world, particularly those corners that don't see as much exposure. Apparently they don't even need to make a lick of sense, just so long as they keep the rest of us occupied in their pointless debates and in heated tempers. As I believe most who visit here do to see both what is original and good in the world and what we all might do to better what is at best mediocre and at worst detrimental, it is easy enough to differentiate between those here for the right reasons and those here in a vain attempt to satisfy a need they are working overtime to avoid addressing directly by fomenting unhappiness. Let us all rededicate ourselves to being of the former than the latter group in the new year. The nutters will come and go and remain miserable regardless; we happy mutants are under no obligation to justify our joys when we come by them through the correct channels.