Well, AllfofMP3 is the first semi-legit non-DRM music downloading service to go fully ad supported. We’ll see how long they last – they’re under heavy pressure right now. Since AllofMP3 is able to operate at relatively low margins, it will be easy for them to stay in business if they don’t get shut down by the Russian government – but I’d really like to see the major labels adopt this model themselves.
Full Story: International Herald Tribune.
The Phenomena Interview Padre Engo: New York’s Voodoo High Priest, Militant Messiah, Music Producer and Musician Dateline:
Ed – You have stated that you are the incarnation of a Mexican god. How did you discover this?
PE – Yes I am Quetzalcoatl in the flesh. I am the first and there will be other avatars of the Feathered Serpent to come after me.
Only a black man can hold this spiritual title. Also, being a Moor (a black Muslim) and an avatar of Quetzalcoatl is not a contradiction in terms. Most people have no idea as to who Quetzalcoatl really is. All the so-called New Age books on Quetzalcoatl fail to tell you who he really is. Quetzalcoatl was not a ‘White Man with a beard’. The Mexican Indians never believed such nonsense. This idea only exists in the letter Cortez wrote to the King of Spain. Quetzalcoatl is a West African god that was always viewed as a black man from the East. This has been proven by the Harvard Professor Leo Weiner.
Quetzalcoatl is the product of the Mandingo magicians that colonized Mexico long before the birth of Christ, and again in the 1300s. He was originally depicted by the ancient Mexican Indians as a black man with a beard wearing a white ‘Islamic’ robe. His white robe is why he is often called a ‘White God’.
“It’s not about gender,” P-Orridge explains. “Some feel like a man trapped in a woman’s body, others like a woman trapped in a man’s body. The pandrogyne says, I just feel trapped in a body. The body is simply the suitcase that carries us around. Pandrogyny is all about the mind, consciousness.”
[…]
Less surprisingly, for someone who has worn his private preoccupations so publicly, P-Orridge regards pandrogny as a crusade. “It’s inevitable if we’re going to evolve as a species,” he says. “Our perception of the world is binary: right/wrong, black/white, male/female. We live in this miraculous technological environment, and yet our human behaviour is still governed by basic impulses from prehistoric times.” Replication through science, P-Orridge insists, would help change human behaviour completely.
The new Psychic TV album is due out in January of 07, from the Olympia based record label, Kill Rock Stars.
(via Easy Bake Coven)
Aside from icons such as The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, and, more recently, Tool, not many bands are well-known for being spiritually radical or esoteric. (Marilyn Manson aside, as I believe his theatrics outweigh his message. Plus, I think he’s been going downhill since Antichrist Superstar.)
The occult isn’t well known for its association to hip hop. And as this site has a large American audience, I wanted to point out that I’ve been noticing more esoteric references in Canadian hip hop than other artists I’ve heard. I’ve been culling a lot of MP3s – both pop and underground – over the years that use themes of revolt (‘Something to Believe In,’ by The Offspring), introspective awareness (‘Right Where It Belongs,’ by NIN), and spiritual themes in general. But today I wanna share some new music with Technoccult’s audience that they may not be aware of:
A few tracks from the new album by Swollen Members, Black Magic. Sometimes a tricky band to take, especially in light of the mockery that is popular gangster rap in the States, Swollen Members doesn’t take itself too seriously. They’re the genuine article when it comes to the gangster thing, though: bikers and drug runners. (Canada is run by the Hells Angels.) Yet, their lyrics more than often refer to Marvel comics, Dungeons & Dragons, and other silliness. Their tracks are not the most esoteric, but the references paint a picture happily open to interpretation.
k-os, an Ontario b-boy who grew up a Mormon and has apparently been on a spiritual journey since. Jazzy hip hop with great beats and personal, introspective lyrics.
And Sweatshop Union members Kyprios and Innocent Bystanders. Kyprios turned a lot of heads with this spoken word piece on the topic of hatred. Innocent Bystanders wove this New Age rebellion sort of piece that I always like to listen to and have noticed others enjoying, too. Both are signed to Swollen Members’ Battle Axe Records.
MP3s available for download here (compressed to RAR): Part 1, Part 2.
I’ve been saying for a while that when MySpace starts letting unsigned musicians sell their MP3s through MySpace, the whole game will change. Usually people just look at me and said “You mean if MySpace…” Well, they’re doing it, and they’re doing it right (no DRM). No word on whether they’re letting the big labels play too, but I’m sure they’ll follow suit. More at TechCrunch.
I feel bad for the MPERIA guys right now. But I hope that, inspite of sketchy nature of MySpace that this is good for musicians and for fans.
Something I’ve been saying lately, considering how much money the Pirate Bay is making ($84,000 in ads per month, plus T-Shirt sales), big record companies and movie studios should build their own torrent trackers and give their stuff away free online. Sell merchandise and DVDs and CDs along side the free downloads. Sell ad space to Coke and Pepsi and Ford and GM and all the usual suspects. Hell, sell the products that are placed in movies.
Universal is taking the first step in this direction, but they’re crippling their downloads with DRM and the need to “re-up” your music files by looking at more ads.
Circuit-bending is an electronic art which implements creative audio short-circuiting. This renegade path of electrons represents a catalytic force capable of exploding new experimental musical forms forward at a velocity previously unknown. Anyone at all can do it; no prior knowledge of electronics is needed. The technique is, without a doubt, the easiest electronic audio design process in existence.
I’m not a huge fan of Radiohead – I dig ’em alright, but I think they’re vastly overrated. But this last paragraph from a Sasha Frere-Jones article in the New Yorker is interesting:
Radiohead no longer has a contract with EMI and says that it has no plans to sign with a label. However the band chooses to release its next record, it can still make a handsome living by touring and selling merchandise. Labels spend a lot of time and money worrying about illegal downloading and file-sharing. What they should be worried about is more bands like Radiohead, which could make major labels a relic of the twentieth century.
(via Disinfo).
Wes is brilliant. I haven’t read this whole article yet, but from what I’ve read this promises to be a great insight into his work:
It is my intention that these tracks represent the most available Philip K Nixon tracks, as they form the materials out of which I have hopefully constructed a weapon. This weapon works to destroy conditioning.
To understand why I believe this construct is important, I’m going to need to get into some depth. I’ve dug into my files and bookshelves and pulled together the sources listed at the end of this article to help me articulate what has been until now mostly a metalinguistic experience. Working with collage and cut-ups does something seriously uncouth to the analytical brain. Coming down from this neurolinguistic high required serious grounding, and reading through what others have said has proved to be an excellent form of psychic reintegration.
Here’s an interview on the Family Ov Psychick Individuals web site with Alaura O’Dell:
While Genesis P-Orridge and Lady Jaye Breyer get a lot of attention these days because of the recent PTV3 tour and their attempt to be a pandrogynous unity, the former wife of Genesis P-Orridge and mother to his two daughters, Alaura O’Dell (formerly known as Paula P-Orridge), stands behind. She also appeared on many Psychic TV albums for over a decade, but now her name doesn’t even appear within the liner notes of the reissues any more.
Time to ask her a few questions about her role in PTV, her relation to Genesis, her view on gender issues, and her current life. The interview took place by mail, questions by Peter Schmelzle of fopi.net and Robert Schalinski of Column One. Many thanks to Alaura for answering so open and comprehensively.
Full Story: Family of Psychick Individuals.
(thanks Trevor)
For more on Genesis P-Orridge, check out our dossier on him.
Yes, that Alan Moore. And David J. from Bauhaus and Love and Rockets. A nice song for Halloween.
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