Alan Moore - Magic, Mysticism and, er, Comics

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.

Northampton Tales

A Great interview here...

Mount Vernon's Astral Temple - Musick That Destroys Itself (Untitled Bonus Disc)

This post is linked to the earlier Megalithomania posting.

All this recent talk pertaining to Hula of 'industry and paranoia' made me think of Drew Mulholland's appearance at Megalithomania, and I remembered the 'untitled' free CD that came with initial copies of 'Musick That Destroys Itself'. An intensely 'paranoid' meditation of drones, alarms and resonance that (I think) he performed at the event. Superb scatter-shot images of wartime bunkers and abandoned military installations overlayed Mr Mulholland as he performed, adding a real sense of foreboding and claustrophobia to the precedings, which finished with him giving away an 'artifact', a piece of the original 'Wicker Man' salvaged from the final scene of the movie, brought back from a pilgrimage he made to the site shortly before the event. An actual piece of 'Psychogeography' if you will.

Sadly, I wasn't lucky enough to receive said 'artifact', but I've always wondered who has it and what they did with it. The two tracks from this bonus CD are entitled1: We Build A Golem For London2: The Black Noise.

 

Mr Mulholland performed with VCS3, Theremin and assorted tape loops.
You can enjoy this transmission Here.