What're you listening to?

[The Good Hunter]

Billie was an amazing singer and performer, it's a true shame she was taken so early in her life.

In a complete reversal of tone (and tune) here's Black Pyramid, Paths of Time Are Vast - the latest stoner doom album I've discovered.

[The Good Hunter]

Apparently, Ortnit - Sidrat features the legendary guitarist and founder of Marduk on it. That's a big get for dungeon synth.

[Chrysophylax Dives]

Like that last one - just listened to it putting 3-year-old to sleep. I was tempted to go for some lewd folk for a change but settled on another Ivor Cutler.

Life In A Scotch Sitting-room Vol. 2 - Ep 1

[Chrysophylax Dives]

The lewd folk disappears into oblivion; time again for Blyth Power. Ixion

[Chrysophylax Dives]

Heck, I want some music with more bite.

The Ruts - Jah War

[The Good Hunter]

Marduk is always good for some "bite" - Marduk - Memento Mori

[Chrysophylax Dives]

Marduk is always good for some "bite" - Marduk - Memento Mori

Thank you. I get so bored with my own musical tastes. Playing now...

Edit. O yes! This rather does the trick.

[The Good Hunter]

My pleasure! Perhaps the evilness of the music will entice you back into Mordor

[Chrysophylax Dives]

hahaha

I Dont Want to go to Burnley - John Cooper Clarke

[Chrysophylax Dives]

Right. I've always wanted to play this number here, but always worried that someone might think I was pointing at them. But I hope we are passed that point. So this is just a wonerful poem that surely fits someone in your life. (My eldest son and me are quite agreed as to who in our lives the poem fits, but let's pass over the details.)

John Cooper Clarke - twhit twoo

[Chrysophylax Dives]

Blyth Power's tribute to Robert Graves

Goodbye to All That

Like all Blyth Power, the music is pretty terrible but the lyrics are wonderful.

Lay the ghost of your remainders then, in paperback enshrined, on the quiet dusty bookshelves at the back of peoples' minds. So will you condescend to smile at my stilted phrase, or will my halting words send you turning in your grave?

[Chrysophylax Dives]

One more Blyth Power, but I cannot find a version of the music so I copy and paste the lyrics. The copy and paste dedicated to Negru, who speaks to my heart.

In the Lines of Graves

Cowards died there too, shot through with bullets, shrapnel and shells, and it's these men we should remember when we march through the village in November. The heroes can look after themselves.

Marching skyward banners raised
Down the high street winds the annual masquerade
Salutes and standards flags and flames
Decry our penitence and shame

And in the lines of Graves
The poppies and the pansies look the same

Old campaigners on parade
Coloured ribbons on their uniforms displayed
Bow their silver heads and pray
While the solemn bugles bray

And in the lines of Graves
On brisker feet the nimble meters play

In the first row lay the Colonel and his lady
So we clip the grass and trim the weeds away
In the second and the third
They had the General Staff interred
On the fourth row lay the Captain's pretty flowers every day
In the fifth and sixth and seventh
Sergeant Majors and non-commissioned souls are on parade
In eight eleven nine and ten
Cheek to cheek and end to end
All the conscripts and enlisted men were laid

Past the lectern down the nave
Carved initials in the varnish black with age
Hear the whispers turn the page
From the plates of brass erased

And in the lines of Graves
Are the faces and the half-forgotten names

Through the lychgate down the lane
Beneath the jackdaw choir the music's gentle strain
Frees our hearts and soothes our pain
Sends us marching home again

And in the lines of Graves
The cannon fire has faded into rain

Over here lie the Colonel and his lady
Arm and arm these luckless lovers lay
See here he steals a kiss
From her cracked and crumbling lips
Underneath the poppies in the cold cold clay
March me off to heaven Sergeant Major
Show me how a soldier should behave
Tip me over end and as we kiss and kiss again
Will you remember all the promises you made
Or will you leave me with the mourning
Where all the conscripts and enlisted men were laid

Now the white horse on the hill begins to fade
The sexton's carved his figures in the clay
And though the armistice is over
In the lines of Graves
The faces and the half-forgotten names still remain


@Saranna, I thought of you after posting this.

[The Good Hunter]

First time listening to Blyth Power. Pretty good, it reminds me a lot of Harry Chapin, Jim Croce, and the like (and that's not a bad thing). I grew up listening to that kind of music with my dad before I went my own way and started in on the black metals.

[Drífa]

The PusherVan The Man

[Chrysophylax Dives]

Drifa.

DAC - The Ride

[The Good Hunter]

Dreams in the Witch House: A Lovecraftian Rock Opera from The H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society

[Chrysophylax Dives]

Off to get my fourth and final rabies shot shortly. Been waiting for today to play this one.

The Damned - Rabid Over You (1980)

Live, this was just the best music to dance to!

[Drífa]

Rabies! grrr. The Crunge

[Chrysophylax Dives]

Trust me. Everything's going to be fine.

Where is my mind?

[The Good Hunter]

Some friends made an album a few years ago, seems prescient to what @Chrysophylax Dives is working in Lore. Celtachor - Nuada of the Silver Arm

[Chrysophylax Dives]

Thank you! I listen at the goblin-child bedtime tonight.* I'm still officially on holiday because my kindle reading has not advanced very far. I let you know when I return from holiday (the problem was that I got a load of work come in and cannot afford to turn it down; also my children are lazy slobs and would not last a day in the catering industry - the laundry became a mountain in two days).

Anyway, I have election fever atm. I keep looking for exit polls and the like. Here is The Who with a fine performance of one of the greatest rock and roll songs of all time.

Change it had to come
We knew it all along
We were liberated from the fall that's all
But the world looks just the same
And history ain't changed
'Cause the banners, they all flown in the last war

Won't Get Fooled Again

*Edit. I listened before and spent the whole morning posting to the song. Well, that is kind of holiday. But thank you again for the track!

[The Good Hunter]

I'm glad the song has inspired you so prodigiously @Chrysophylax Dives! Back in the days of my musical analysis empire, they were good friends both to talk to and to find new, undiscovered bands. The band's line up, sadly, has completely changed since "Nuada..." save for the lead guitarist but I still think they are quite good.

Here's a sample of one of the old guitarist's solo work: Gaoth - Dying Season's Glory

[Chrysophylax Dives]

Well, it certainly proved an inspirational song yesterday. I start today (just woke up) with X Ray Spex, who were way ahead of their time.

Art-I-Ficial (1978)

I wanna be Instamatic
I wanna be a frozen pea
I wanna be dehydrated
In a consumer society

[Chrysophylax Dives]

טונה - אבודים בחלל מארח את

[Chrysophylax Dives]

Conflict - The Serenade Is Dead

Conflict was the second punk band I saw live, after The Damned. I wrote about the gig once on the plaza but cannot be bothered to search the post. Within a few seconds of dancing my glasses flew up in the air, were stomped on, and retrieved broken by a kindly skinhead.

[The Good Hunter]

This morning is rainy and dreary therefore... Bull of Apis Bull of Bronze - The Fractal Ouroboros

[Chrysophylax Dives]

Time for the bawdy folk song, which as it happens perfectly illustrates the kind of stories one might begin to imagine about Nodens after concluding that he was a lord of venery, 'the Hunter'.

The Bonny Black Hare

[Chrysophylax Dives]

The Damned - History Of The World

[The Good Hunter]

The existence of this song brings into question a lot of the sketchy behind-the-scenes stuff from Nightwish, really just confirming a lot of what I suspected.

Tarja Turunen & Marko Heitala - Left on Mars

[Chrysophylax Dives]

The existence of this song brings into question a lot of the sketchy behind-the-scenes stuff from Nightwish, really just confirming a lot of what I suspected.

Any chance of an elaboration on that? What is Nightwish?

The Meteors - Hell ain't hot enough for me

[Chrysophylax Dives]

John Cooper Clarke - Hairdresser Joke

Not a song, not a poem, just a traditional joke.

[The Good Hunter]

Any chance of an elaboration on that? What is Nightwish?

So, Nightwish is a symphonic metal band, probably the one that pioneered the entire subgenre, or at least popularized it for the masses. Originally they were fronted by Tarja Turunen, an operatically trained singer. They achieved massive amounts of fame with her at the head. However, the lead songwriter, Tuomas Holopainen, and she had a massive falling out over who was the leader of the band, who had the right to do what, and all sorts of other nasty bits that I'm not going to get into here, but all this led to her being kicked out of the band via open letter at the end of a huge tour. Each went their separate ways and their next albums they trashed each other, kinda like hip-hop diss tracks but not. Nightwish replaced Tarja with Anette Olzon for two albums. She was later fired from the band and, similarly, had some things to say through her music. Pattern, maybe? Well she was replaced and things went forward for Nightwish like that always have, then the bassist/back-up vocalist, Marko Heitala left the band recently and, after a very long time, worked with Tarja the original singer on the song I posted. I'm a fan of Tarja's original work with the band and this recent collaboration makes me suspect there's more under the surface and more discontent with the way Tuomas is running the band.

Or I could be reading into things, who know?

[Chrysophylax Dives]

Thank you very much! Had to look up 'symphonic metal'. Basically, I stopped following music around 1984 so I appreciate the education.

Chinggis khaanii Magtaal - Batzorig Vaanchig

[Chrysophylax Dives]

I really love ska. It was the music I grew up into. Later I discovered Prince Buster and the real Jamaican sound. But the Specials remain the business.

Too Much Too Young

[The Good Hunter]

Austin, TX based dungeon synth --

Assorted Potions

[Chrysophylax Dives]

Assorted Potions went down well with the goblin child.

The Meteors - The Loneliness of the Long Distance Killer

[The Good Hunter]

If the goblin liked that, give them some Silent Cabin - Gently Veiled

[Chrysophylax Dives]

If the goblin liked that, give them some Silent Cabin - Gently Veiled

Sweet! Thank you. It will have to be tomorrow as the goblin is a little ill today and has already been put to bed.

Here is one of the greatest ever punk songs.

Stiff Little Fingers - Alternative Ulster

[Chrysophylax Dives]

For forty days and forty nights
They rode through red blood to the knee
And they saw neither sun nor moon
But heard the roaring of the sea.

This is a song from the Scottish Borders - a great source of fairy-legends. Thomas is taken by the Queen of Fairy, vanishing from our world to serve her seven years in Elfland. The song seems to capture the heart of Tolkien's vision of Fairy.

True Thomas, he pulled off his cap
And bowed him low down to his knee
All hail, thou mighty Queen of Heaven
Your like on earth I ne'er did see.

No, no Thomas, she said
That name does not belong to me
I am the queen of fair Elfland
And I have come to visit thee.

Thomas The Rhymer

Tolkien quotes these verses early in his essay 'On Fairy-stories':

Don't you see yon narrow, narrow road
So thick beset with thorns and briar's?
That is the road to righteousness
Though after it but few enquire.

Don't you see yon broad, broad road
That lies across the lily leaven?
That is the road to wickedness
Though some call it the road to heaven.

Don't you see yon bonnie, bonnie road
That lies across the ferny brae?
That is the road to fair Elfland
Where you and I this night must go.

[Chrysophylax Dives]

Dead Kennedys ► Stealing People's Mail

People say that we're crazy
We're sick and all alone
But when we read your letters
We're rolling on the floor

[Chrysophylax Dives]

Let's try Procul Harum again.

The Devil Came From Kansas

[The Good Hunter]

Trollslottet - Evigheten and The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets - Dukes of Alhazred

[Drífa]

Good tunes!

And I found a place, it's dark and it's rotted
It's a cool, sweet kind of place where the copters won't spot it
And I destroyed the map that I carefully dotted
However, every day I'm dumping the body

It'd be better for us if you don't understand
It'd be better for us if you don't understand
It'd be better for me if you don't understand

Let me out
Let me out
Let me out
Let me out
Let me out
Let me out
Let me out

[Aikári Salmarinian]

Frost: Evigheten is not a bad album to listen to. It got a enternal vibe to it. Just like Epic Space Music.

[Drífa]

Almost Cut My Hair

[Arnyn]

The Deep End
Ruelle is a mood.

[Pele Alarion]

Do birds outside count as what I'm listening to because I do enjoy their singing more than any human-made music at the moment. However, haven't recorded any for you to listen as well.

[Chrysophylax Dives]

Birds totally count. In my opinion the best posts on this thread are purely descriptive with no link. Aiks blew my mind some while back. My own head is unfortunately in a very different place.

Rainbow Robes - Weather Song for the Dwarves

[Chrysophylax Dives]

Procol Harum - Homburg (1968)

This song somehow feels appropriate at the moment.

However, it is not about the tower of the Hornburg, and it turns out is not even titled 'Hornburg'. But I have always misread the title as 'Hornburg', associated the song obscurely with Helms Deep, and turned to it on considering the view from Orthanc (would one see all the way to the other tower?)

To be honest, I only noticed my mistake on posting the track just now.

[Chrysophylax Dives]

Finally, after all these endless punk songs we arrive at the fusion I've been dreaming of for years. Here is to Volume II of Mushroom Art.

Sex Pistols - CeCe Peniston Mashup - Finally, Did You No Wrong

Go Home Productions - Ray of Gob (extended version) mashup