Nolon Ashley, aka Cult of Zir, talks about his music, Portland, the OTO, and the Voudon Gnostic Workbook.
TagMusic
Great series of articles on possession and the artist.
“In a beautifully written and highly interesting recent post on his interview with Mark Stewart for The Wire, Mark K-Punk writes:
“…one link between the post-punk trio I wrote about in the July issue (Stewart, Mark E Smith, Ian Curtis) is channeling. In order to get at what is at stake in so-called psychic phenomena (and its relationship to performance and writing), it’s necessary to chart a middle course between credulous belief in the supernatural and the tendency to relegate any such discussion to metaphor: being taken over by other voices is a real process, even if there is no spiritual substance. (…) Hence another take on the old ‘death of the author’ riff: the real author is the one who can break the connection with his lifeworld self, become a shell and a conduit which other voices, outside forces, can temporarily occupy.“
A new Psychic TV album will be released October 20th. They will also be performing live in NYC November 9th.
Experimental musician Cult of Zir (aka Nolon Ashley) is joined by Uxepi Ipexu, Meghann Rose, and Ms. Jointz for a performance at Pocket Sandwich in Portland, OR 7/11/08.
Concert footage by Daniel Rafatpanah.
Elements of the Machine-Man-Drum and Phillip K Nixon Egregiorian factions have merged to bring about an uncompromising auditory assault. These agent/operators will build and present “YOU ARE GOD, GUARD YOUR MIND” – an interactive ritual based on building a synthetic Godhead out of the participatory audience by firing off arrays of lightwave & audio sigils in a stream of auto-gnosis generation via remote interfacing with the biological specimens on hand during this ritual/projection of PKN hyperstition & MMD Temple constructs into 11th dimensional reality structures and programs. They’ll be combining cutting edge technomantic tools like EEG sensory, Radionic Tonality, MIDI utilizing Local Area Networks, and more traditional memes such as Cutups, Noise, and Circuit Bending — Be Aware: this archetypal form sampling will emit reality reshaping radiation fields.
Ikipr (of Machine-Man-Drum) writes:
EEG Driven audio assaults the Godhead/Participant, tempering and strengthening his fortitude and divinity. This is achieved through the feedback loop interaction of the user and the expansive multilayered software backbone. Sorry if I look uninteresting/uninterested in this video, I am busy making minor tweaks to it’s mixing for performance. Due to the somewhat random nature of the software algorithms and the use of EEG as a control interface, the song pretty much does what it wants off of your brainwave data.
Step up New York’s Immortal Technique. The heir to Dead Prez and Public Enemy’s revolutionary legacy, dude bust onto the scene with the Green Lantern-helmed ‘Bin Laden’ four years ago and hasn’t let up since. With the critically lauded The 3rd World mixtape just out, most artists would be touring TV stations. Immortal Technique, by contrast, is off to Afghanistan to build an orphanage.
“It’s a medical clinic and an orphanage for children that have been involved, and whose parents have been involved in the violence in Afghanistan,” says a weary sounding Tech down the phone from his native Harlem. “For those that have been orphaned by a conflict that’s lasted for… God knows how many years. I’m going out there. I’m obviously not gonna be able to administer the entire project, but I feel like it’s essential to be involved. The aspect of media coverage is essential. I joined with the human rights organisation Omeid International to facilitate this. I get lots of programmes shown to me. I could choose to do this, or choose to do that, and this particular time around I wanted to do this. The need came from the same place that all my music came from. It ain’t like I decided to reach into another part of myself, it’s just a natural progression. It’s a little bit of weight on the shoulders, but it’s something that I welcome because it’s something I know needs to be done.”
(via Zenarchery)
J: You, Manson, you are a symbol. You always wear make-up, no-one knows who you are… Christ is a man who became a symbol, you are the opposite. You are a symbol who is in the process of becoming human. When you say ?Eat Me, Drink Me’, you prove your love for the world. You offer yourself… you are food for the vampire cannibals. That’s what I feel. Talking about you personally: you are a mythology, but back to front. Each new era needs new mythologies…
M: I completely agree. You understood that so much better than anyone… yes.
J: To express ourselves as artists in the world, we can no longer destroy it. It is ourselves that we have to destroy.
For more on Jodorowsky, check our our dossier.
“When Tallan “T-Man” Latz was 5, he saw Joe Satriani playing guitar on TV. “I turned around to my dad and said, ‘That’s exactly what I want to do.'” Three years and countless hours of practicing later, 8-year-old Tallan is a blues guitar prodigy. He’s played in bars and clubs, including the House of Blues in Chicago, and even jammed with Les Paul and Jackson Browne. He has a summer of festivals scheduled and has drawn interest from venues worldwide.
And what, you might ask, would a kid not even in the third grade have the blues about? The state of Wisconsin for one, and some possibly jealous older musicians for another. An anonymous e-mail sent to state officials complained that Tallan was too young to perform in taverns and nightclubs because of state child labor laws. His booking agent even got an anonymous letter threatening her with death if she keeps booking him.”
(via The Chicago Tribune)
“Heavy Metal in Baghdad is a feature film documentary that follows the Iraqi heavy metal band Acrassicauda from the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003 to the present day. Playing heavy metal in a Muslim country has always been a difficult (if not impossible) proposition but after Saddam’s regime was toppled, there was a brief moment for the band in which real freedom seemed possible. That hope was quickly dashed as their country fell into a bloody insurgency. From 2003-2006, Iraq disintegrated around them while Acrassicauda struggled to stay together and stay alive, always refusing to let their heavy metal dreams die. Their story echoes the unspoken hopes of an entire generation of young Iraqis.”
(via Snag Films. “Heavy metal in Baghdad” site. Acrassicauda’s MySpace)
(See also: “Heavy Metal in Baghdad: Masters of War”)
© 2025 Technoccult
Theme by Anders Norén — Up ↑