From: skull23 <ogre@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu>
Subject: Re: Sources?
Date: Fri, 7 Jan 1994 01:34:22 -0600 (CST)

> [This Mortal] Coil, various works These guys are neato.  I intensely dislike their
>    latest work, "Out of Light Cometh Darkness," but "Unnatural
>    History," "Scatology," and "Gold Is the Metal" are really good
>    stuff--very subterrenean, nasty vibe.  Not for the fainthearted.
>    Interviews with these blokes lead one to believe that they know a
>    fair bit about ritual.  As far as I know they have no
>    well-defined occult affiliation.

Yeah, Coil is great. I have all their releases, and they're all really
good (except perhaps Love's Secret Domain, which is the actual title
of the one you dislike so much). Coil is basically two people, John
Balance and Peter Christopherson; the latter was a founding member of
Throbbing Gristle, and both were actually involved with Psychic TV and
The Temple Ov Psychick Youth for a while before they went out on their
own. These guys definitely know their stuff, which leans heavily
towards Crowley and chaos magick, especially A.O. Spare... Peter
Christopherson was also made an honorary member of the IoT some time
ago as well...

> Death in June, Sol Invictus, Current 93: I've heard some of Current
>    93 (serious musical PAIN), and know the other two by reputation.
>    Recommendations and reviews would be appreciated, as they tend to
>    be expensive imports.

Current 93: Quite possibly the greatest musical entity ever. It's
     basically the work of one man, David Tibet. When you talk about
     Current 93, it's impossible to pin down any one particular "sound"
     to the music as the music can change *drastically* from album to
     album. C93's older work is what you refer to as "some serious pain",
     and it is, but it's great! If you're into noise and experimental
     types of sound structures, check out "Dog's Blood Rising", "Nature
     Unveiled", "Dawn", or "Live at Bar Maldoror". They're all good.
     "Nature Unveiled" is particularly painful... :) But that's just
     one facet of C93. They've also done what is basically pagan folk
     music as in "Earth Covers Earth" or "Thunder Perfect Mind", 
     electronic music ("Island"), ambient experimental/avant garde 
     ("Imperium", "Christ and the Pale Queens Mighty in Sorrow"), and
     circus music... for the insane ("Swastikas for Noddy", "Crookedd
     Crosses for the Nodding God"). C93 has done that, and just about
     everything in-between. There's more, but I think any of these
     releases are a pretty good place to start. Their CD's may be
     expensive, but they're worth it. If there is sufficient demand
     for some in-depth reviews, I'll put them up.
Death in June: Basically one guy again, Douglas Pearce. DiJ's work
     can pretty much be summed up as "gothic folk". It's very very
     dark music, very brooding, and quite fantastic. Musically, DiJ
     consists of acoustic guitars and dark analogue electronics,
     and Pearce's melancholic voice, for the most part. The music
     has evolved continuously over the years, since 1983, but the
     basic elements of death, politics (the nazi symbolism is quite
     strong at times, although Mr. Pearce flatly denies the association),
     and the occult, particularly Crowley, are always there. "Nada!"
     is my personal favorite, although I think either the latest
     work, "But, What Ends When the Symbols Shatter?" (the most 
     accessible), or "The Corn Years" are both good introductions to
     DiJ.
Sol Invictus: Basically one guy, again... Tony Wakeford. He was once
    actually a member of DiJ, but he left after the first album. It's
    similar in style to DiJ, "gothic folk", but the two bands do not
    sound alike. Personally, I do not find the majority of S.I.'s work
    to be that intriguing to me, but others do. So unfortunately, I
    can't really recommend anything from them. 

So, basically, all four of those bands (Coil, C93, DiJ, SI) are pretty
much intertwined as quite often a member from one band will show up on
another, and so on. It's like one big happy family. This is just
scratching the surface of occult-related music, as there are quite a
few more bands out there (like The Hafler Trio, The Hybryds, Ordo
Equitum Solis, Non, etc.) but these are the "biggies". If you get a
chance to hear any of them, I highly recommend it...


skull23