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. 

You're my hero for playing this...

"[I'M] A REAL HERO, AND A HUMAN BEING...."

Last week, sanguine, full-blooded at least; this week, living on the fumes of hope that remain. Such is the psyche of a bent free-form DJ, but I get the sense that many of you Castleheads are extended too, beyond what's reasonable...fractured, and there is some comfort in numbers, in having a "tribe." Happy to be anyone's hero, even for 11 minutes!

Playlist-comment heralds went out this week to: vintage Bathory | new, intense, progressive black from Erraunt | the powerful split LP on Dead Section from Anicon & Belus | the outstanding new Prurient album ...

I quite enjoyed the aforementioned, as well as tracks by Stumm, Enbilulugugal, Ramlord, Caveman Cult, Mueco, Furze, Theologian, and John Wiese.

Thanks for listening, and engaging with lively film chatter on the comments board. ...

Next week: To finish off the current WFMU schedule with something different, I'll be doing a Scandinavian Prog special.

Our capture this week comes from the short-film series culled form the Berserk anime and manga [read online!] ...If you know the story, that there depicted is the "behelit," and it leads to a lot of horror and death for all involved.... The behelit generates demons, and agony, as you can well see...I guess THAT'S what I felt like, at least this week....

Hey I stayed up for this

Sanguine ... associated with the predominance of blood among the bodily humors • archaic bloody or bloodthirsty.

Started off with the letting of some "rock blood," and playlist nods went to the excellent, new s/t Wire album; Perfect Pussy; and that hot new Uniform full-length, still working its way to invading my consciousness. I quite liked the newly-issued, "lost" Rema-Rema 12" as well ...

We then careened into a full set of d-beat / punk / crust / thrash whatever-the-kids-are-calling-it-these-days, with a ferocious battering that included songs from Vivisektion, Vastator, Infernal Onslaught [all still available on tape through Wohrt Records], the new Halshug on Southern Lord ... and I must thank Nitsua Sean for pointing me toward two amazing, newer Ontario bands, Mueco and Mocoso.

The Devilspit tape, Grim, Hateful & Drunk, continues to be a personal favorite [Caligari Records], as does Ashencult's Black Flame Gnosis, not their latest, but ever-emerging as an excellent collection deserving of greater praise and attention, cassette available from Broken Limbs Recordings.

Older selections on vinyl from Sad, and Haat, dressed up the table at our black metal party...later, newer selections from NRIII [cassette now available!], Prurient, and Palace of Swords crowned our last hour.
 
Haat, same album, different song, on YT.

Our playlist-topping photo this week comes from talented French-Canadian designer Maude Nibelungen, sporting a handsome, black-latex glove by Vex, Inc.; it's images like these, and the notions they provoke, that keep me sanguine.

Thanks as always for listening, and joining in on the playlist reverie.

Goth it up

 

Before the fact of the 3.5 hours of sleep I got last night comes crashing down on me, wanted to share last night's My Castle of Quiet with you all.  Was a different kind of night; several longer pieces suggested a more horizontal mood than is perhaps usual—outstanding new material from NRIII; a tape side from the great, unmappable Krasseville; and an album side of "bleak, ceremonial doom"* from the divine and under-celebrated Sektarism. 

Even with its broader shape, I think you'll agree last night's horrorcast™ was quite "metal," what with the Heathen selection, the first Villains single, new Satanic Warmaster, the thrash records I nabbed @ the WFMU Record Fair, UFO [!!!], tracks from Pig Destroyer and Sunrot.

Playlist shouts to the aforementioned Krasseville; the fantastische new digital album by Spitzenqualität, whose marriage of raw bm with a Krautrock sensibility reaches new heights on this collection; and Norma Tanega, with her 1966 song, "You're Dead," used to great effect for the title sequence of the new-ish Kiwi comedy-horror feature What We Do in the Shadows.

Our movie still this weeks comes from a newer film, The Battery. ...That people are still able to reboot the zombie mythos and template with originality, telling fresh stories, is continually amazing to me—it's rare, but The Battery does it for sure. A moody travelogue in an unpopulated American wasteland, where two minor-league baseball players are trying desperately to survive, and gain traction, both in their situation and their friendship, and the scene excerpted above is one of most unexpected (yet somehow so natural I saw it coming) scenes in any new horror film I've seen in quite some time...don't want to spoil anything....

Thanks for listening as always. The WFMU schedule goes through its bi-annual change in a few weeks; hopefully, we follow one another into the Summer, and beyond, with some rare, exceptional live music in the works.

*per Amoeba Music

...kid stuffed pop rocks into his dick, and it exploded.

My my, how that Jonathan Herweg can get me talking! A divine compadre, we get each other laughing, and hopefully extracted yuks and maybe even a few deep thoughts from listeners as well. STDs, childhood terror, "sharing your feelings" with a significant other, early porn experiences & the birds and the bees [see "childhood terror" above], politics, elections, race, machismo, music fanaticism and more were all on the table. ...Always a treat, to have a guest to help me dust off Castle cobwebs, and Jonathan is just about as good as it gets. Click on his name, above, to hear his Blurred and Obscured WFMU show archives.

Not much talk on our comments board about the music we heard last night, though my score of the Nuclear Assault / Brain Death 12" got a shout; many other great thrash / speed metal left the WFMU Record Fair in my hands, including selections we heard by Toxic Holocaust, Indestructible Noise Command, and Agony.

Other personal highlights included Overmars | Dead Congregation | Vérzivatar [first demo!] | Spitzenqualität | Dumal | Sale Freux [great new full-length] | Holocaustus ...

Thanks to all who listened, participated, endured / enjoyed our banter, and commented on the playlist. Click on this week's capture, our second from You're Next, to reach the archived audio, etc. for last night's horrorcast™.

this requires another bowl

 

HUGE thanks to everyone who heaped appreciation and support on last night's horrorcast™in general, and on our special live guests in particular. Vorde brought it, slew it, and left a smoking husk in their wake. I feel so very fortunate, that every live My Castle of Quiet set is another opportunity to provide a platform for great bands to display their considerable talents. Vorde brought their own sage, an iron candelabra, and a statue of Pan, and I'm not sure that much more needs to be said beyond that!

As noted by myself and others, Vorde are one of the very best bands in USBM, forging a singular and vital sonic identity, and simultaneously pushing genre definitions. Ace black metal songwriters, they use the sounds of their individual instruments, and the glorious whole of what they do, to sculpt a divine idiosyncrasy, with death rock and goth injections providing variation and contrast. Vorde's finish with a Wipers cover-rendered-black was an exquisite treat! You can hear it all in last night's show archive, linked above, and keep your eyes out for a possible hard-copy release as well.

In the meantime, Vorde's self-titled debut LP, one of my favorites of the year, can be purchased here from Fallen Empire Records, and for those of you on a tighter budget, the digital album can be had for a "name your price" download.

Our first set was a blast too, worthy of hyperbole, with new selections and older favorites from Moss | NRIII | A.M.S.G. (saxophone in black metal, fuck yes!) | and the mighty Murw ...Also noted on our playlist, a song from Vrolok's Resurgence, one of the many great finds from my San Francisco shopping spree; a great new piece from our two-time guests Volahn, from their no-less-than-extraordinary double LP, Aq'Ab'Al; a song from the great new full-length by SF natives Bosse-de-Nage; and personal nods to perennial favorites Nuit Noire, and Ed Hall's "Deth." All this, and our show closer—a crafted mountain of rhythmic, electronic assault from Bizarre Uproar.

Our screen capture this week is culled from David Cronenberg's Maps to the Stars, and if you've seen the film, you'll have a fractional understanding of what our week's show title, "A Well-Deserved Pummeling" means, though ultimately it "means" many things to me. (I'm also just a sucker for a beautiful woman in blood spatter...) Click there to hear this week's program, Vorde's full live set inclusive.

Hope to see many of you at the WFMU Annual Record Fair this weekend; with the help JPG, last night's hardworking & talented audio engineer, I'll be holding down the Prison Tatt Records table, all three days.

Justice or just-ass?

Good to be back in Castle environs, after a week abroad in the alternately sunny / foggy, hot-cold embrace of San Francisco, my home away from home. Happy also to share my many music-shopping "scores" on last night's program as well, and be assured that we have only scratched the surface of my blackened haul from Amoeba Music and aQuarius Records.

Want to say straightaway that I did catch one impressive live set, by Franco Falsini / Sensations' Fix, the loopy Italian prog artist, some of whose works have been thoughtfully reissued by the great, Bay-Area-based Superior Viaduct label. Franco is going it solo this time, making his way East, with a show in Columbus, OH, tomorrow night, Philly and NY shows to follow, though that info seems a bit difficult to scare up, so maybe someone can fill in those blanks for me. The set I saw in Oakland was largely beat-based (though not entirely), though with the Sensations' Fix characteristic vibe thoroughly intact; with hypnotic, ever-shifting synth groundwork, and Franco's melodic and processed guitar overlays. Totally worth it, for those like myself who eat this stuff up!

Highlights from our weekly horrorcast™ included a split-tape selection from New Hampshire's mighty Ramlord, who'll be bringing their gutsy blackened-crust to Lucky 13 Saloon in Brooklyn on July 26, along with outstanding black metal from Dumal (from PA, tapes on Vanguard Productions) and headliner Kult ov Azazel.

Was pleased to find a copy of the 2010 full-length, Reaper Subconscious Guide, by Norway's eccentric Furze (there's been another full CD since, in 2012) and give a song from the same its WFMU debut. Another debut was the title piece from Pig Destroyer's Mass & Volume, a newly-issued coupling of tracks left off 2007's outstanding Phantom Limb (along with Terrifyer, my personal-favorite arc in the enduring grindcore-doom project's history.) Also, in the past weeks, been leaning heavily on the great, new Anasazi album, Nasty Witch Rock.

New releases on Profound Lore Records also shone, with a selection from the GREAT new full-length by Bosse-de-Nage, and tracks from Menace Ruine & the new Full of Hell / Merzbow 2CD opus. Ferocious songs from Order of The White Hand and Peste Noire were also clear standouts on our playlist.

And speaking of playlist—to bask in a full, live night of Castleness, come out tomorrow to Lucky 13 Saloon, 644 Sackett St. in Gowanus, Brooklyn, where I'll be DJ'ing, in what will hopefully become a regular, bi-weekly stint. Say hello, buy me a pop, watch the dancers, and we can wallow in the blackness together.

Click on our weekly film capture, from Michele Soavi's The Church, perhaps one of my favorite horror films of all time, wherein the freshly demonized Evan claims another initiate in the name of the quite-damned titular house of worship.

and prepare yourselves...NEXT WEEK on My Castle of Quiet: LIVE MUSIC FROM VORDE!!!

Bananas.

 

Taking a break from excitedly binge-watching Berserk,* to bid you all a fond, temporary farewell, and declare last night's Noise Bliss-Out #3 an unqualified success. Noise fills the human void like no other music; it gets its way out to the farthest corners of your being, to the tips of your capillaries, takes your head to a fuzzed palace, and lets you languish there for a while (see above; that guy's languishing days are, um, over.)

Fat praise for our opening set, a live cassette recording by Michigan's Slither, and a 2002 hunk of glory from Mr. Richard Ramirez—agreed, fuck yes, that RR track was especially great. People also dug the Xiphoid Dementia, whew—just heard that for the first time the other day, quite a piece—came in my latest "mystery package" from Husere Grav. ...

If you're in the area, I'll be spinning alternate Thursdays at Lucky 13 Saloon, 644 Sackett St. in Brooklyn, starting tomorrow night, 4.9, as part of a live show including Dead Infection, and Organ Dealer. (Subsequent weeks will more likely be just myself and my phone, overloaded with ugly music.)

I'm headed out in a few days for a week, to my second home, San Francisco—much eating of Indian pizza, tacos, desayunos, sweet Thai, fresh sashimi etc., family, great friends, and over-the-limit shopping at the SF Amoeba store—all on the pgm.

Thanks for listening and making our third noisestravaganza a blast. I could do it every week, to be sure...but I could do a lot of things every week, hehe ...

Click on on our blissed-out couple, above, from Jim Jarmusch's Only Lovers Left Alive, to reach the archived audio, playlist and comments for last night's all-noise horrorcast™.

*Episode 21, Guts and Casca finally hook up—whew! That was A LOT of sexual tension; I know it's going to end tragically / horribly, but hell, better to have loved and lost....

NOISE BLISS-OUT #3, FINALLY!

 

As promised during the marathon...

Has it really been over five years since My Castle of Quiet has presented a full three hours of the sweet, cranial crunch and mystic envelopment of noise? Why yes, it has! 

In the 80s-90s, we simply called it "experimental music," and though that banner suited at the time, it encompassed many more variant forms, and somehow the flat-out term "noise," which emerged in the 2000s, is more note-specific, saying less and saying more at the same time.

No special-guest co-hosts this time, just a barrow-full of sounds, both new and old, most often relegated to our final hour of weekly broadcasting (so naturally, the "dam" of choice selections has been under considerable strain.)

Grab your inebriant of choice, or none at all (as the music will more than likely do that for you), and tune in, starting @ midnight ET.

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

Click on the image above, from Seijun Suzuki's classic, hypno-gangster film Branded To Kill, to join the Facebook event.

Noise Bliss Out #1 /// 2009 Oct | Noise Bliss-Out #2 (with special guest DJ Paul Haney) /// 2009 Dec