Under A Blood Red Moon

First things first.

Get your ass on over to Paul Autonomic’s blog and check out his killer new mix. He’s playing a lot of the techno/dubstep crossover stuff that Gutta and a select few have been playing recently, including a lot of my favorite recent T++ tracks. This is all very encouraging, dubstep with an actual pulse to it, that doesn’t need to rely on cliched reggae samples or wobble.

And Pole’s just released a new dubstep/reggae mix for Resident Advisor. The two mixes share some tracks, but I feel like Paul’s is far superior.

Still it is very good to see the dub techno guys get in on the action, and for it to be such a big deal. And this is coming just as my interest in the sound was at an all time low.

There is hope yet, my friends, there is always hope.

What else have I been listening to, well lets see.

I’ve been going through one of my semi-annual black metal listening streaks. I’ve been getting into whats referred to as the “suicidal black metal” niche movement.

That’s black metal with a heavy doom influence for those of you that care. These bands have been plumbing the depths of what can be done with guitar drones, affecting textured riffs with heavy reverb.

We’re talking bands with names like Forgotten Tomb, Elysian Blaze, along with previous favorites like Xasthur, and Drudkh. Its all very sad and misanthropic, perfect for this time of year especially in the great white frozen North.

One of the reasons I’m still into metal is that I feel that they have an edge on a lot of electronic music when it comes to texture, the timbre and general feel of their guitar sound. Although there are people like Nathan Fake, Extrawelt and Jesse Somfay that have been importing some of the lessons learned from guitar music into a dance setting.

Xasthur in particular has a kind of neo-psychedelia, shoegazer slant to his raging storm of noise and “inhuman” drums. This is guitar trance music essentially. His recent split release with Striborg is by far one of the best things I’ve heard from the man. And this is coming from sunny California of all places. I bet he wishes he was in Norway, all that sun must be killing his goth ass.

I wasn’t surprised in the slightest to find out that Fenriz (of Darkthrone fame) has been DJing dance music for quite a while now. There’s always been something entrancing and intentionally repetitive about their music. He was apparently very into psy-trance in the mid-90s, is a huge Hawtin fan (has a fucking Plastikman tattoo!) and is now a deep house DJ.

Which is just about the opposite of the “grim” black metal image.

So funny.

Speaking of deep house, Nick Craddock’s just made a real nice mix for Sud Electronic. Killer mixing, excellent deep selection.

I’m looking at you Roger in particular, you need this.

Now, you must be wondering, who is the cranky looking entity at the top of the post? Well friends that is Mahakala, a figure venerated in Tibetan Tantric Buddhism. His acolytes include the monks of the Gyuto monastery, a group long renowned in ethnic music circles for their ability to sing in the chorded voice. Basically they create drones deep within their throats which resonate at more then just the bass frequency.

They can sing chords, one monk, three notes.

I’ve tried it and it fucking hurts worse than death metal growls.

To get an idea what I’m talking about listen to this.

Its from David Lewiston’s recording for the Explorer Series.

This is by far creepier and more affecting than most metal.

This is a mantra for Mahakala, these monks are up on a mountain intently praying to that scary looking guy. If thats not metal I don’t know what is, I’d be taking notes if I were playing music designed to frighten and awe. Course most metalheads wouldn’t know Buddhism from Adam, they’re too busy trying to look scary and playing faux-satanist.

Suckers.