Been on a bit of an Alan Moore bender of late. Re-reading V for Vendetta, Watchmen and listening to several of his truly amazing spoken word performances. These take the shape of recordings made with musician(s) Tim Perkins, and sometime collaborator, David J of Bauhaus and Love and Rockets fame (whom were themselves, rather aptly, named after a comic) . The CD's 'The Highbury Working', 'The Moon and Serpent Grande Egyptian Theatre of Marvels', 'Angel Passage', 'The Birth Caul' and the most recent 'Unearthing' are all a wonderful intermingling of fact, fiction and psychogeographic revelation. You could argue that the term Hauntology could have been invented for these recordings, as they invoke a wonderful reimagining of the past, present and future, a filtered through an occult gauze of wonderment.
In my fervour to hear more of Moore I stumbled across a veritable smorgasbord of clips and interviews on youtube, which I've spent the evening avidly devouring. A couple of the better clips/programmes are to be seen below.
Here's a short film about the Icelandic Museum of Witchcraft. Some of the stuff on display and discussed is genuinely creepy, much scarier than the 'Western tradition' of witchery were familiar with in the UK.
Fav' bit is the 'Necropants'. Yes, they really are as grim as they sound.
As you've probably guessed, I'm a BIG fan of COIL. And as I'm Currently re-reading 'The Queens Conjuror: The Science and Magic of Dr Dee, a' fascinating account of the life Elizabethan mathematician, astrologer and 'occult skryer' John Dee.
I thought I'd post a link to this interesting documentary about his life and eventual fall from grace in the Elizabethan court, mainly due to a shady character called Edward Kelly. Perhaps the most intriguing part of the whole affair (Dee used Kelly for 'Skrying/channelling' spirits, allegedly angels) was the formation of a perfect 'working' language he named 'Enochian' the language of angels. Indeed, Coil released a wonderful album called The Angelic Conversation, featuring voice samples of Judi Dench alongside a 'soundtrack' constructed to the Derek Jarman film of the same name.
There is a great overview of Dr Dee's life and achievements Here.
The 'film' was originally shown on Channel 4 in, i think, 2002, when Coil were still going strong, and indeed, were in the middle of a wonderful outpouring of creativity, mainly due to the addition of the never less than wonderful Thighpaulsandra as a member. Both Julian Cope and Spiritualized (whom I think Thipe' still plays with) have benefited from the idea's injection, energy and 'out-there-ness' of Thipe', an artist now sadly marginalised in his solo outpourings. I'd heartily recommend you pick up all his albums, though in particular , 'I Thighpaulsandra', ' Double Vulgar' & 'Double Vulgar II' are exceptional. In 2006 the wonderful single track limited edition 'soundtrack' album The Lepore Extrusion is a true return to haunted kraut form.
Hear it Here.
On the way home from a beautiful hike around The Wrekin we saw this fabulous Julian House/Ghostbox style poster on the advertising board in the car park. Amongst the postings for local B&B's and car crime was this unusual picture for an anonymous phone line for domestic violence. Now, far be it for me to make fun of such an important service, but was the 'artist' present at the brief for the poster? To me, it doesn't really convey the importance of the service.
Maybe he/she were trying to convey that most violence takes place behind closed doors and is 'hidden' from plain view, hence being 'Occult' (old meaning 'Hidden') dunno', I'm speculating here, great pic though.
This is one of my favourite Dennis Wheatley reads. First published in 1943, It's a compendium of stories and articles he'd written up to that point, with the later Arrow edition (the one I have) containing several extra essays on the occult and black magic. I can see why it's out of print at the minute, as some of the language is, how shall I say, not very PC.
The first four stories are about a 'psychic' detective called Neils Orson. Each story is prefaced with a short but informative author's note, and we learn that the psychic sleuth was modelled on Wheatleys 'psychic' friend Henry Dewhurst. The outcome of these stories inevitably have a 'rational' twist, but barrel along at a fairly enjoyable pace. The main characters for these tales seems owe more than a nod to psychic detective 'Flaxman Low' by E & H Heron and W H Hodgeson' 'Carnacki' supernatural investigator.
You can read a few Flaxmen tales online Here.
Perhaps my favourite tale is a chapter taken from the Wheatley book 'Old Rowley, A Very Private Life of Charles II' which fairly gallops along at a pace that would make it a very favourable film adaption.
Here's a few pics of the edition I have with the contents page. The book is easily picked up on eBay or Amazon for cheaps, and I'd highly recommend it
