The downward spiral has just begun.

Not one single comment or question on last night's MCoQ screen capture, which tells me that anyone paying attention just rolled with the concept of pounding one out to the sight of a "fresh," well-built female zombie, who's got you trapped in your car—just what any red-blooded, hetero-perv would do in that situation, right? This scene from The Battery took me initially by surprise, but as it progressed before my eyes, rendered in such a naturalistic fashion, I had to admit, "yeah, that's probably what I'd do, too." In a post-zombie-apocalypse world, one must carpe diem for even the most marginal boy-girl activity.

Playlist-comment notices came early on for The Night Terrors and Volkmort, the latter a great Brazilian doom / sludge record that I just can't get enough of (tape available from Wohrt.)

Personal highs: new Night Bitch 10" | 2007-vintage Ash Pool | Nudity LP on Iron Lung Records | StarGazer | Spiteful Womb | Blood Rhythms

My Castle of Quiet joyously returns to our presentation of outstanding live music, for the next two weeks...

Live sets upcoming from Unholy Two, next week! [Facebook event]
and Circuit des Yeux [8th July]

Click on the image above for full audio archive, playlist and comments for this weeks horrorcast™.

I think I'm just going to go lay in a coffin now.

LINK TO THIS WEEK'S MCoQ ARCHIVE BY CLICKING ABOVE; MORE REASONS TO "TRY OUT" DEATH, AND THE MOST-SUITABLE SOUNDTRACK TO ACCOMPANY YOUR JOURNEY. FEATURED: SEVERAL TRIPS TO FRANCE, MOSTLY FOR DANK, BASEMENT DOOM ... A SPRY PUNK/BLACK SET, ENDING THEN, IN AN ELEVATED CAR-WRECK OF HARSH & TRANSCENDENT SOUND (DEFUNTOS>>ENBILULUGUGAL>>FACIALMESS>>ÂMES SANGLANTES), COMING FINALLY TO A SLOW HALT IN THE VAST, CEREBRAL LANDSCAPES OF MORTON FELDMAN (WITH SPINNING CAT VIDEO, I SHIT THEE NOT!) 

MY RECORD OF THE WEEK, VOLKMORT'S TRACES OF DOOM, IN STOCK @ WOHRT RECORDS.


I understand much better now why Christopher Lee was so stoic; having revisited his bio, I'm reminded that he was an Intelligence Officer and soldier in WWII. Here's a quote: "I've seen many men die right in front of me - so many in fact that I've become almost hardened to it. Having seen the worst that human beings can do to each other, the results of torture, mutilation and seeing someone blown to pieces by a bomb, you develop a kind of shell. But you had to. You had to. Otherwise, we would never have won." It's not just any man that can effectively play Count Dracula.

superlative sequence

Zo ... last night's Castle was metal-heavy, as is often the case, but even more so when I take a week off for special programming—a metal "log-jam" is created, that demands address.

Playlist notices for Krieg [split with Ramlord] | Haat [2002 LP] | A.M.S.G. [!!!] | ...and our last set, featuring new Haare | Deviation Social [reissue on Dais] | Circuit des Yeux [our guest next month!] | and the It Follows original electronic score by Disasterpeace.

Personal highs included new black metal from Erraunt | a great track from Lydia Lunch Retrovirus / Urge To Kill | new Akitsa [!] | new Askeregn [!] | the great Lascowiec ...

If you've been following these posts at all, you know where clicking on James Franco in gangsta drag will take you ... thanks for listening.

What about the 8th bride for the 8th brother?

I'm sure that my misconceptions about Scandinavia, having only ever been to Oslo. and for ~1 day at that, are many. But through their music, their cinema, their painters and writers, even their often higher-standard television, I feel I have gained an affinity for the essence and landscape of these cold-climated, majestic countries.

I imagine myself living out my later years like police detective Wallander, contemplating the volume of both the universe and the human soul; as the waves lap at the shore I can hear them, see them  from my front deck. My faithful dog murmurs in sleep, at my side ... I answer the call to action when it comes, but have learned to step lightly and with measure.

It goes almost without saying that "wherever you go, there you are," but perhaps I can convince someone to scatter my ashes near a location from Summer With Monika. ...

Perhaps we expanded (and in some cases, perhaps reduced) our listening audience for the evening, but an exploration of my favorite Scandianvian progressive rock has been on my mind to do for some time. Notes were made. Legendary record labels like Love and Silence, and bands like Alrune Rod deserve as much airtime and deep listening as one can give.

We did touch on the electronic / experimental / avant-garde voices of Scandinavia, somewhat, in our last set, with selections from The Sperm, Neptune Towers, and Anna Själv Tredje, but to fully explore that area, and the great work of artists like Folke Rabe, Bo Anders Persson, Arne Nordheim, Pekka Airaksinen, Supersilent, modern Swedish and Finnish noise, and the likes of Circle et al., would undoubtedly require a minimum of another three hours.

Playlist hails went out to Jukka Hauru | Fläsket Brinner | ...and the whole program in general, a departure from our weekly blast of heavy darkness for sure, though in my mind, as with the special programming I've done in the past, the Kraut-Outs 1-2-3, UK Blues Special, and The Sonics of Terror, among others, these excursions more than pass the "Castle filter."

Link to stream the show in full, by clicking on the comedians above, spreading merriment in the time of plague, from Ingmar Bergman's classic The Seventh Seal.

Thanks for listening and for your comments on the playlist. In truth, and with all possible modesty, I think I "outdid myself," and that this will prove to be an oft-visited Castle archive.

Hej du! Scandinavian Prog Special

>>>CLICK ABOVE TO JOIN THE FACEBOOK "EVENT"<<<

It's no secret that the Scandinavian nations have their own, peculiar voice in Rock history, especially where progressive, electronic, and "head" music are concerned. Sometimes underscored by their indigenous folk music, artists like Theodore Kittelsen and writers like Tolkien, but just as often, hippies, rebels, and counterculture conspirators to the North created a unique, regional distillation of what was happening worldwide in the 1970s and beyond. Groups like International Harvester channeled Swedish folk and The Velvet Underground equally, while Hansson & Karlsson made exquisite psychedelic blues, akin to Jimi Hendrix but with only an organ and a drum kit. 

...Making no particular attempts to WOW with rarities, just looking to have a good time playing three hours of some of my favorite music, that these days rarely sees airplay on the show otherwise.

As with previous "Kraut" specials, we'll be keeping it mostly in the 70s, with a few notable, possible exceptions ...(Änglagård, Anekdoten, Neptune Towers, Fläskvartetten anyone?)

...and anyone who can provide me with a good rip of the song, "En Av Oss" by Life [1970] will receive my eternal gratitude and possibly a kustom Castle kompilation cdr.

TONIGHT!

WFMU 91.1FM (NY/NJ)
WMFU 90.1FM (Hudson Valley)
in Rockland County @ 91.9FM
wfmu.org LIVE on the Web.