ON THE AIR TONIGHT, OH LORD, OH LORD, OH LORD, OH LORD...OH LLOYD, OH LLOYD—yeh MY GOOD BUDDY LLOYD. [plus exclusive track from VARDAN!]

First things first, My Castle of Quiet returns tonight to WFMU's airwaves, for a two-week run, starting @ 9 p.m. (6 Pacific.) Having been deserted, disappointed, or otherwise unfulfilled by all earthly pleasures (offers welcome!), I'm a crummy Satanist / Hedonist at the moment, but also smart enough to know that when the magic doesn't work, it's not the magic that's flawed, it's me, and so I look to the Cosmos, and that's what tonight's Castle is about—a deep gaze into that endlessly vast, impossibly black void of nothing—and potentially everything. Tune in at 9, for probably more than a few surprises for regular Castle listeners; not that the show will be fun, or necessarily not fun, but I would never suggest unbridled enjoyment as a way out of one's trouble—NO! EMBRACE those bad times, and bad feelings! There's entirely too much giddy colour in global media as there is. Blecch!

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Now, very graciously offered here is this exclusive demo track from Italy's Vardan (Catania, Sicily.) Vardan's work has been a personal favorite of mine for the past year or so, both his solo recordings and those of the outstanding duo project Anwech. Back in 2006, Vardan created the exceptional work under the name Leaden, Monotonous Foghorns of Molesting Department, a landmark of avant/depressive black metal, one of the strangest and most uniquely engaging albums in the entire contemporary black-metal canon. At the time of its release, this was my first exposure to Vardan's works, and I've come to know it so well over the years, owning it as I do on both factory CD and cassette. Monotonous Foghorns..., like Bone Awl's Meaningless Leaning Mess, or Moloch's Depressive Black Metal Plague, has implanted itself in my basic cellular structure; search cranial HD under black metal/modern.

You can hear several tracks of Vardan, Anwech and Leaden by using the WFMU Playlist Search engine, searching on the project names, and using the "jump-to" links to those tracks within past My Castle of Quiet broadcasts, as well as a track from Leaden's debut played on Sue P.'s show in 2011.

Vardan also works with several labels in Italy—Midwinter, Last Way and WarAgainstYourself, among others, and through trades, Prison Tatt has acquired some of his finest releases, available in our distro. Three by Vardan (including the phenomenal split with Striborg), one by Anwech, and the aforementioned, unforgettable sophomore release by Leaden. For more information, and to purchase within North America, please see the Prison Tatt distro page.

This track, in its final, non-demo version, will be released on a split CD with Burial Mist on the Black Raven's Blood label, both based in Russia. We find Vardan in "mixed sensation" mode, fast-slow-fast, with excellent overlays.

Vardan  - Demo 2013 / Untitled

I'll be returning next week to WFMU at the same night and time (thanks to Evan "Funk" Davies for offering to have me sub-in) with a cavalcade of live-recorded, extreme/innovative/underground black metal—nothing less than the entire Crepusculo Negro 2013 Anahuac Tour, as well as Castle favorites Verglas. Not to be missed!