Tagged: williambergersposts

The Possession of David O'Reilly - An insulated, small-scale horror tale from the UK, which can perhaps be seen as a response to Paranormal Entity , or the Paranormal Activity films, but if I may wax Anglophile for a moment, The Possession of David O'Reilly is indeed possessed, of much greater subtlety and mystery, where many aspects of the story are never fully explained, only shown. For example, as the movie starts, the young couple have already installed a motion-activated camera in their flat, though the reason why is only very passingly [...]

(mp3s below the page break) FUN —as I've come to know the Philadelphia-based combo, its sounds and membership, I realize how truly appropriate the name is for what they do. FUN are able to apply clever, inventive, fresh ideas to their improvised music-making, minus all the beard-stroking and pretentious, high-minded, music-conservatory-based conceptualization and back-patting that often accompanies similar activities. For their FUN Go! America! tour, a 50-year project that involves one performance a year, each in a different state, on the very date that that state [...]

Mister Matthews is one of those individuals, to be counted on one or two hands, that can truly be called My Castle of Quiet royalty. Having appeared on the show a total of four times, MM first appeared with Telecult Powers , the duo of himself and Witchbeam , the first band to ever play live on The Castle , and a project that helped to shape my notions of what the radio show itself was going to be. Later on, Telecult returned with Lala Ryan of Excepter, performing [...]

Black metal has been, for years now, my power food—visceral nutrition for the body and spirit. For three hours on October 7, the heartiest of metal meals was served up on WFMU by the Southern-California collective known as The Black Twilight Circle . A grouping of ~than a dozen projects, the BTC releases most of their work on their own Crepusculo Negro label , and styles run the gamut from high-powered, tuneful hardcore (Mata Mata) to raw, darkly atmospheric gut-punch black (The Haunting Presence), to the most esoteric of psych-informed, highly creative bm (Shataan, Kuxan Suum.) Many, but [...]

Black metal continues to be the one genre that demonstrates casual and consistent growth, its definitions and trappings existing seemingly only to be challenged and downright shot down, as what falls under its banner morphs and evolves, until the term "black metal" comes to mean a broader and more diverse array of artists, both solo projects and bands, that are loosely dragged together by a punk / lo-fi / "traditional" bm influence, and where the borders are, no one knows (not even the extremely thorough Encyclopedia Metallum , though arguably they try the hardest and are intensely comprehensive.) [...]

• Seed Stock on MCoQ, 9.12.2011

Pat Murano waited a good, long time to fly completely solo, but when he did, it was worth the wait for performer and listeners alike. Starting out as a founding member of the No Neck Blues Band , and during that time, co-founding and co-piloting the excellent project K Salvatore (I owned and enjoyed many K Salvatore recordings before I made the connection that Pat was involved), Pat became even more active in the past half-decade or so, starting the outstanding and distinctive black-metal band Malkuth (or "Mal-koot," as our French friends render it.) Malkuth [...]

In a creative universe where everything but everything is postmodern, where citation of creative influences is unnecessary and irrelevant, where "might appeal to fans of ____" doesn't go the mile or two that it used to, what impassions me personally about a band? Why this one and not so many others? I'll try and delineate.... It's the casual earnestness, for one, the way Lady Piss just do , simply lay it down, jumping from one well-written, expertly crafted song to another, with notions of "rock" or "punk" or "metal" or "heavy music" casually abandoned in the face [...]

Taking into account all my years on WFMU, including my original tenure doing the weekly Hip Bone program (1984-1999), this live performance, a world debut by the Raspberry Bulbs 4-man combo, is one event that I shall place among the highest, most gratifying events I have ever had the decided privilege of presenting on the radio. Infused as it is, with a taste of the original rock 'n' roll energy, spirit and earnest delivery that made parents in the 50s fear Gene Vincent, and corporations in the 70s suppress the efforts of The Sex Pistols, this RB set [...]

Academic credentials have I not, but to my experienced ears, Rust Worship 's live set, from my program of 27th May, would be a ready thesis for any student of "serious" electronic music, both in its breadth and voluminous content. It also proves, beyond any doubt, that "noise" is no longer even a serviceable adjective for the newer, DIY brand of electronic, improvised music. I point to composers like Bayle and Parmegiani often (perhaps too often, I admit) in the case of performers like Paul Haney, because these are not only my favorite of the [...]

Castevet are a powerful band, pulling in elements from all types of unexpected corners of the musical spectrum. That said, they are very decidedly and inescapably a black metal band in sound and approach, all the same, it's rare that names like Ligeti come up in black metal interviews, or that touches of Yes, Magma or even Fugazi are brought to mind as part of one's impressions of a black metal band's live set. It was clear from my brief contact with Andrew, Ian and Josh that they simply do not limit themselves, and why should [...]

Right around the time that the date was set for this live session with Long Distance Poison , I was at home, acquainting myself with Klaus Schulzes' L' Vie Electronique sets, volumes 1-3 (consisting mostly of 60s-70s unreleased material from the genre-defining "Berlin-school" synthesist.) It all seemed to fall together quite perfectly, as this band referenced Krautrock in the most pleasing of ways, which is to say just enough, but not too much. They still had plenty of "edge," and in this day where bands travel hundreds of miles to bang [...]

Lately, this seems to be the header on my cineast's dance card—films that engage, even entrance, through all-too-believable depictions of human frailty and psychoses. These are far from horror films, in the traditional genre sense at least, the horror in these stories being all too potentially real. As the self-appointed chronicler of "bad news" in radio form, My Castle of Quiet presents these recently viewed recommendations, none of the lot are particularly new, though I'll add without jest that one should watch these films at one's own discretion, and...try to keep a sunny outlook. [...]

As soon as one really starts listening to Ryan T. Dunn 's sonic creations as Instinct Control, one realizes that as much as they are improvised, the project name is no accident, as the end result is very much an experiential journey with the composer/performer as guide, "intent" unfolding as it happens. I envision Ryan a bit lost in a pyramid, but far from panicking, he's gradually mastering the texture of the glyphs along the wall, patiently and deliberately finding his way. It's good chaos, like that scene in Tarkovsky's The Mirror , all [...]

Live music has become such a large part of what I do at WFMU, and I'm continually honored by the wealth of talented artists that seek out the show and want to perform on it, even and especially since the program's shift to late nights last June. Lots of people still want to play, many of them live. On the 4th of February, I was happy to welcome Kyle Clyde to the show, after enjoying her two CDrs and lathe-cut 7" split with Isa Christ , these and one very brief but compelling live performance. [...]

• Kyle Clyde - "AMBC" » 02_AMBC.mp3
• Kyle Clyde - "Industrial Park" » 01_Industrial_Park.mp3

Inasmuch as they bring the spirit of lighthearted enjoyment to their renderings in the avant-garde, the members of FUN are not jokers, nor are they schlemiels or shlamazels. Exhibit B in this particular case, these remixes of source material from their original My Castle of Quiet session of 15th December, 2010 . I thought immediately that this was a great idea, and I wish I'd thought of it myself, but no, 'twas the FUN boys and a few of their colleagues in the noise universe that rendered these re-imaginings, which, depending [...]

Standing in the rain, hands deep in raincoat pockets. This ruin of crumbled stone and ivy was once a bath, the public kind, so rarely seen now in our age of modesty. We're in provincial Europe somewhere. The ghosts, of beautiful, naked women, still frolic amongst the apparent decrepitude. A sense of loss, unbearable loss, and almost inevitable melancholy, accompany the rumblings of lust in one's blood, conjured up by mind's-eye pictures of what once happened here. When the wind blows a certain way, you can even smell the soft essence of virgin skin, and other subtle perfumes, almost detected. [...]

Amazing Releases:: Ludicra - The Tenant Kylesa - Spiral Shadow Tinsel Teeth - Trash As the Trophy Hail of Bullets - On Divine Winds White Drugs - Gold Magic Electric Wizard - Black Masses Child Abuse - Cut And Run Triclops! - Helpers on the Other Side Horseback - The Invisible Mountain High on Fire - Snakes For The Divine [...]

Usually, the process of an artist winding up as a live guest on My Castle of Quiet involves months of correspondence, my personal attendance at live shows, and/or my poring over that artist's available releases and recordings. Not so in the case of FUN . I had been connected to the fine folks at Breathmint records via our mutual friend Bob Bellerue , and had heard two FUN CDrs, one of which I loved (the untitled, or "gas mask" CDr) and had aired on several occasions. There was a scrappiness to their [...]

Tim & Eric - Father and Son Every time I think this genius comedy duo must surely be winding down, they come up with a new, mind-blowing slice of pure Ameri-hatred. With no holds barred by the FCC restrictions pinned on their basic-cable Awesome Show , Tim and Eric spun this über-disturbing extended sketch for the HBO comedy program Funny or Die . This is just the kind of content I'm referring to on my personal blog when I employ the phrase, "the [...]

Isa Christ (aka Dylan Hay, proprietor of Brooklyn's stellar music and art space, Port d'Or ) owns the distinction of being the only live, musical Castle guest to overheat our monitor system, four times in total throughout this performance, such that he could only hear his "sneakers tapping on the floor." Engineer Ernie and myself, control-room monitors blaring, were blissfully engaged and unaware that things were going very wrong for the performer on the other side of the double glass, i.e., what went out over the airwaves remained constant and unbroken, an [...]