The Light Within

So, what do you do when you’ve been ingesting a tad too much of the finest Peruvian flake? Well, bottle your own piss and put it in the fridge for safety.

Then, draw giant pentagrams on the floor and attempt to pass into an alternative dimension while incanting spells of magick.

Top it all by conducting an exorcism on the evil tenebrosity lurking at the bottom of your swimming-pool.

Things get bleak when you’ve only got your delusional fragile mind for company. Such a leap into psychic chaos deserves a soundtrack.

This is it. [2017-18]

The voice of Beelzebub himself sings loud and proud on the track ‘Womb Of The Mother,’ where the words of an ancient Greek epigram (dedicated to a dead baby) are given the full Vincent Price treatment!

Yep, it’s also a savage attack on those Institutions which promote such nonsense as poltergeists and ghosts and terrify the vulnerable as a means of subjugating the masses (and especially women, historically). It’s as much about religion and power as the near-descent into drug-fuelled madness of the protagonist in this project.

To date, 20 tracks have been recorded in what has become a mammoth project, since its conception two years ago. Just as recording was commencing in September 2017 someone said to me, “Fancy a week in Corfu?” Well, recording ceased immediately as did all thoughts of devilry and exorcism. The bad weather (snow) didn’t help rekindle production and the current heatwave has prevented further overdubs and guitar-layering. Why not give Satan a bit of breathing-space when there’s Saint Spyridon and a pan-cosmic ‘kypello’ on tv?

So, for all you fans of phenomenology, here’s some track information.

There are many instrumental pieces in this project, with some tracks containing vocal ‘inputs’ rather than straightforward singing. Two of the tracks will probably be moved to another batch of songs (project), since generically they do not feel compatible here. Both fit contextually, in terms of concept, but not musically. One is a blues-type track which reminds me of the style of Dylan’s ‘Blonde on Blonde’ so it has to go. The other is a Stones’ cover, which contains all the core elements of this project, but, since its epic rendition bares little resemblance to the rest of this work, it has to move.

So, an instrumental to kick things off. Possibly, ‘Dog Star’ with its motors and screaming death-howls or ‘Astral’ with machine-drones and turgid yet gripping melody. Both of these sketchy pieces have since been re-recorded, utilising the comprehensive aural assault-instrument, the analogue semi-modular synthesiser, the Minibrute 2, from Arturia. It’s now highly-contentious whether you actually engage in listening as a result. Ideal.

‘One Magickal Moment’ has bells, sheep and speeding trains colliding with a deceptively slow bass run and vocal lines. My youngest son (who plays no instrument) provides the coup-de-grace with his Martian guitar parts.

Next up is the horror soundtrack, ‘The Rise And Fall Of The Town Mahagonny’ with yet more screams and eery synths and strings. Makes Silent Hill seem like Playschool. It’s morbidly repetitive with an acoustic guitar punctuating its heartless charm. There is a surprise for those who linger.

‘Righteous Brother’ is very unpleasant and throws the listener into deeper chaos. With its unhappy vocal, it has definitely lost all loving feeling.

Gongs and eastern voices chanting what sounds like “Take her!” do little to warm the cockles. The pleasant uptempo feel is completely negated by the overarching voice of the Dark One, eulogising on a dead infant. Welcome to ‘Womb Of The Mother.’

‘Hanged Man’ has another ponderous gong sound, but has some nice intimate acoustic guitar framing. You can imagine the procession marching steadily to the gallows.

Driving bass and a 125 bpm shake things up. Wah-wah guitars and chants invite everyone to share the experience of the ‘Divine Sparks.’ Party time in Hades.

A growling beast introduces ‘Daimon Dog’ with its melodic backing and psychopanic guitars. The title says it all. A delightful unpleasant break, then.

‘Fractals’ could be the track which kills off all but the dedicated. At a running-time beyond 9 minutes, its weird vocal plumbs new depths of despair. Glorious.

Next up is ‘Sirius Moonlight.’ It’s one of the most beautiful recordings I’ve ever made. ‘Sirius Moonlight (to the moon and Sirius)’ has the feel of a child’s music box. Interwoven guitar overdubs meander lightly for 5 gentle minutes. Awesome.

‘Golden Dawn’ is a melodic uptempo instrumental with looping synths and a lead bass line. It nails the neo-fascist religious ideology of all contemporary nazis everywhere. Χρυσαυγιτες μαλακες – eat your hearts out!

More gongs and pretty minor key flourishes emerge in ‘Holy Grail.’ More nazi undertones and a quest for an object (driven by a zest for evil) make for alarming fun.

Half-bull, half-Minos. If you saw a Minotaur in half, is that what you’d get? So, ‘We Saw A Minotaur’ stomps along as it considers this rather odd conundrum. Squelchy synths and a driving bass power this track along for an epic 7 minutes. A throbbing mess of a track with guitars coming at you from the labyrinth. A masterpiece.

‘Levipoda (L’Dopa)’ is a light sparse instrumental. The title and instrumentation present all the information required for understanding its inclusion.

‘The Tree Of Life’ is a fully-fledged song and as such the only one present in this project. It’s lyrically apt. Its catchy chorus could lead to a mass global exorcism.

A slice of drum and bass frenzy at 102 bpm ‘Guardian Angel’ creates tension. So far it’s been about a dead icon. How about a dead icon chipping in, like a glass breaking in Stockholm?

The final track is a drone, a long spiralling beast, with convoluted guitars and a strange wild bass. A demented laughing vocal punctuates the 7 minutes and 50 seconds of carnage. “Something incarnate” indeed. Like a volcano.

Thus ends the project with its title-track, ‘The Light Within.’

Coda: What were the two ‘relegated’ tracks?

‘Moondog’ a blues song ( the Devil’s music after all) and ‘Dancin’ With Mr D’ the Stones’ classic from 1974, from the wonderfully underrated ‘Goat’s Head Soup.’ You can hear ‘Moondog’ under the section of Wild Woolly Windcote.

Is is starting to make sense?

You’d be just as well flogging a dead horse!

Notes:

Lux = light

Lucifer = light-bringer

“ex terra lucem” used to be our school motto. Weird.

It’s Christians who historically have transformed the daimons from simple pagan harmless entities into evil creatures to accommodate their own bizarre beliefs. After all, exorcise is good for you?