End X 10

I've started off the new decade by digitally recreating a 10 year old mixtape. Copies of the original tape were given to a few friends with an early version of Music For End Times.

Nearly all the tracks in the mix were released between '95 - '99. It starts out with a bit of Illbient and Asian Underground sounds easing in to a run of Metalheadz style Drum & Bass rollers and than rolling out through some banging warehouse techno and over the top trance. In the spirit of the original there are still a few dodgy mixes left in.

Some of tunes still sound fresh to my ears (Jamie Myerson, Source Direct). Other tunes make me question the effects of sustained ecstasy use on musical taste (Drop Bass Network, Binary Finary). In the end it's a fun survey of the underground electronic sounds of the late 90s.

END X 10  by  kelcey

1) Toshiro Mayuzumi- The Creation of Eve (1966)
2) Mocean Worker – Detonator (1998) (palm pictures)
3) DJ Spooky – Sum Ill Shit (Clinton Street Dub) (1998) (asphodel)
4) Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan – Nothing Without You/Tery Bina (The Dhol Foundation & Fun-Da-Mental Remix) (1997)
5) Osmani Soundz – Spiritual Masterkey (1997) (mango)
6) Miles Davis – Bitches Brew (1970)
7) Ian Pooley - Vital One (1996) (mille plateaux)
8) Jamie Myerson - Music For The Lonely (remix) (1997) (sm:)e)
9) E-Z Rollers – Soundclash ('99 edit) (moving shadow)
10) Known / Unknown – Rollers Edit (1999) (moving shadow)
11) Adam F – Metropolis (1996) (metalheadz)
12) J Majik – Face II Face (1997) (infrared)
13) Source Direct – Black Domina (1996) (science)
14) Elijah - Chiming Fugue (1995) (home entertainment)
15) DJ Rolando - Shining Path (1997) (Underground Resistance)
16) Luke Slater – Love (loved) (1998) (novamute)
17) Neil Landstrumm – Praline Horse (I Ate The Whole Bag Remix) (1996) (tresor)
18) Goio - Basic Needs (1995) (drop bass network)
19) Speedy J - Pannik (1997) (plus 8)
20) Kai Tracid - Tiefenrausch (Oliver Lieb Remix) (1999) (tracid traxxx)
21) Binary Finary – 1999 (Matt Darey remix) (1999) (wiggle)

Audrey Kawaski - Radiant Allure

One of the first things you notice in Audrey Kawasaki's paintings are the eyes of her gorgeous figures. These narrowed yet aloof eyes draw the viewer into the paintings seemingly against their will. Yet they give nothing away, no glimpse of emotion or psychology, just the gentle possibility of desire. For any sort of emotional theme or narrative the viewer must turn to body language of the figure or to the symbolic items, often animals, and often in silhouette, or the setting. Even than the curiosity which those enigmatic eyes have inflamed is only partially satiated.

Another striking feature of Kawasaki's work is the color pallet and texture. Using washes of oils on wood panels she is able to evoke a soft dreamlike tone. The grain of the wood rises gently through the thin paint at times flattening the image and drawing attention to the works superficiality. While in other places the play of wood grain and oil washes create a sense of depth and a complexity of textures.

I had not seen much of Kawasaki's work in person until very recently but personally the more recent pieces have an gained an attention to the use of light that has taken the work to another level. In the recent Jonathan Levine show, Hitorigoto was the first painting hung next to the door. It was the only piece in the show where the source of the soft melancholy glow, so essential to the allure and intrigue of all of the pieces on display, was made visible. What I find most interesting is that this soft light that emanates from below the image frame only touches the skin of the figures, never the setting or other imagery in the paintings.



In the striking Yuuwaku even the hairdressing remains unlit, flat and nearly silhouette while the warm lantern glow shimmers from the cheeks, shoulders and breast of the alluring figure. This contrast sets the figure apart from its surroundings and adds to dreamlike unbalance of the viewing experience. All of these techniques and details combine in the lush figurative painting of Audrey Kawasaki trapping you in that enchanted moment just after twilight when street lamps switch on, or here lanterns and candles are lit and the possibilities of a fresh night are yet to be exhausted.

Time-limited prints of two of Kawasaki's recent paintings go on sale for January 23rd at 3:00 pm PST. Check her shop for details.

Moon Dandies

"Still others thrive , swaggering ex-pats of reality who work the export angle, crafting dreamland bric-a-brac for sale at a considerable mark-up. The oneiric carpet-baggers: artists, writers, sculptors, sorcerers.

Tycoons of fancy, speculating, long on made-up futures. Sauntering the silvery parades. A tall-tale aristocracy.

Moon Dandies with their pockets full of brushes, pens and fireflies. Plumes of imagery are kicked up from their spats at every step."

- from Alan Moore's Snakes & Ladders


Snakes & Ladders: Audio CD w/ Tim Perkins and Graphic Novel w/ Eddie Campbell

I also highly recomend the Disease of Language hardcover, collecting The Birth Caul, Snakes & Ladders and a fascinating interview of Moore by Campbell (edit: sadly it appears to be out of stock).

[actual bloggery will commence very soon I promise. I've been a bit distracted]

Cheer - Troubadour 21

"The blistering sinus burn cuts briskly through the haze of afternoon cocktails. The new sense of clarity reconciles the sordid scene around me. A semi-posh men’s room, three lads wearing crumpled wool suits and inebriated expressions, all of us zipped up and jawing around the mirrors and inlaid marble. A horrific Lite FM version of The Most Wonderful Time of The Year wafts from the ceiling speakers, putting a tidy bow on the moment for me."

My new short story, Cheer, is live at the excellent Troubadour 21. It's a condensed slab of midnight black, holiday travel themed, humor. I think it's one of the funniest things I've ever written.

Rotten Leaves - Proud Music After The Storm

"I surrender my eyesight to the darkness and the engulfing low end rush. As my focus fades my gaze is locked deep within one of the dark obsidian walls. All definition of the world around me dissipates and the ethereal beings beyond the dark glass gain detail and distinction. Eventually I can make out each digit on each hand and the subtlest nuance of each facial expression. A nervous energy runs through the crowd as the music reaches a physical and emotional peak and one by one the ethereal spirits glide across the dark glass plane and into the three dimensional world of flesh and stone."


Rotten Leaves, a new literary outlet for the darker side of fiction and poetry, launched over the weekend. Co-founder Christopher Dwyer refers to RL as "A place where the cold meets the dark meets the fantastic." and their first issue delivers. The quality and variety of work is impressive. I like that they are using "dark" as a rather fluid editorial yardstick allowing them to play fast and loose with genre definitions.

My story, Proud Music After The Storm, is part of the inaugural issue. It's a taught little piece of atmospheric occult-noir set in a haunted Brooklyn after a series of hurricanes. It began as a test drive for some of the stranger ideas I'm working with in the current novel in progress, but quickly developed it's own frostbitten late night reality.

I would love some feedback, so if you have any questions, insights or gut reactions please drop them in the comments over at Rotten Leaves or right here. And check out the rest of the issue. It is chock full of night black wonders.

Merry Crowleymas

GOLD BRICKS
Teach us Your secret, Master! yap my Yahoos.
Then for the hardness of their hearts, and for the
softness of their heads, I taught them Magick.
But...alas!
Teach us Your real secret, Master! how to become
invisible, how to acquire love, and oh! beyond all,
how to make gold.
But how much gold will you give me for the Secret
of Infinite Riches?
Then said the foremost and most foolish; Master, it
is nothing; but here is an hundred thousand
pounds.
This did I deign to accept, and whispered in his ear
this secret:
A SUCKER IS BORN EVERY MINUTE

from The Book of Lies

Merry Crowleymas to you all! Though I'm not much of a Crowleyite or practicing Thelemist, I've always liked the idea of a holiday that celebrates the mad, deviant, paranoid and down right wicked aspects of our nature. I also like a bit of spooky Current 93 every now and again.

So lift a glass of Absinthe tonight for old wretched Al and maybe let those dark and devious demons that haunt the shadows of your psyche loose in the world if only for an evening.



















Suggested Crowleymas reading – Liber Al Vel Legis (The Book of The Law) as well as Crowleymas 1974 from RAW's Cosmic Trigger.

"why does the gnosis always get busted? Every single time the energy is raised and large-scale group illuminations are occurring, the local branch of the Inquisition kills it dead. Why, why, why?"

from Crowleymas 1974

To quote Unkle Dick: "May your Crowlymass be filled with good strong wine, an opiate or three and some good old fashioned buggery!"

think-make-think

Artist Clifton Burt's riff on a John Maeda blog haiku, its creation a direct extension of its message.

I'm going to take this as my mantra and statment of purpose through the dark months.