Hauntology

[Rubin Farr]

it's become an obsession of mine; folklore tapes, a year in the country, penny dreadful, ghost box, 1602 angela, hauntologists, mordant music, oz, wicca, salem, paganism, tarot, blackhill transmitter, eyedoublecross, the wicker man, what else ya got? let's go down this rabbit hole together. educate me.

[tec]

Blood On Satan's Claw, The Witchfinder General and A Field in England are essential films, got into this myself not too long ago so fingers crossed this thread will reveal some cool stuff. I found this Guardian article is a good source for recommendations too.

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/apr/10/eeriness-english-countryside-robert-macfarlane

 

If I remember correctly kaini knows this shit, hopefully he'll stumble upon the thread.

[joshuatxuk]

it's become an obsession of mine; folklore tapes, a year in the country, penny dreadful, ghost box, 1602 angela, hauntologists, mordant music, oz, wicca, salem, paganism, tarot, blackhill transmitter, eyedoublecross, the wicker man, what else ya got? let's go down this rabbit hole together. educate me.

 

I read CS Lewis' space trilogy years back and it's actually how I stumbled upon the "Belbury Poly" reference. Odd sci-fi books but enjoyable.

 

As much as I dig this stuff I like toward hauntology in a broad sense, not the Anglocentric rural wryd dystopian stuff exclusively. I like "future past" aesthetics and ethos in general.

[Rubin Farr]

Thanks for the movie recommends, I have Witch Finder, that I found to be overrated, which sux bc I love Vincent Price, and I downloaded A Field in England, been on my to do list for while.

 

Anyone interested in the Lucifer TV series in the Fall? This is the Vertigo version of the character, from The Sandman comics. I'm hoping if it's successful, he might show up in the Sandman film.

[Rubin Farr]

I'm also winding my way thru Penny Dreadful season 2. Episode 3 with the old witch (whom I've read was Joan of Arc) making her around 400 yrs old, was maybe the best episode of the series so far. It was a flashback episode, so almost completely self-contained, with a classic tragic ending.

[Rubin Farr]

Picked up my first ghost box today, the popular P-SB7 w/ DAS108 speaker. Can't wait to try it out, I swear this keyboard is haunted. I type shit out and nothing, then maybe 30 sec. to a min. later it types out a bunch of nonsense not even close to what I typed. Wired keyboard, so no dead batteries, but lots of dead souls inside methinks. I ain't 'fraid of no ghost.

[purlieu]

blackhill transmitter

 

The vinyl edition of Synth A is my FSOLDigital hauntology highlight.

 

Couple of great BBC moments from the '70s: TV movie The Stone Tape and kids sci-fi drama The Changes (also notable for its theme being sampled by FSOL. I can crowbar them in everywhere lol). 

[Leon Sumbitches]

I sampled quite a lot of '70s BBC stuff on this record from a few years ago, was on a total hauntology kick at the time: https://tanizaki.bandcamp.com/album/ouroboros

 

This is an interesting read if witchy occult shenanigans are yer thing, bit of a grab-bag but some interesting stuff

nonetheless: 

 

http://www.lulu.com/gb/en/shop/folk-horror-revival/folk-horror-revival-field-studies/paperback/product-22498164.html

[mcbpete]

Best Hauntology release

 

[fumi]

I rewatched 'Sapphire & Steel' recently. Very odd early 80s UK supernatural drama. More unsettling than I remember it as a kid. I spent most of my time back then behind the sofa.

[fumi]

These were originally correctly labeled, but there was a leak from the time corridor and parts one and six got swapped around.

 

[Rubin Farr]

I sampled quite a lot of '70s BBC stuff on this record from a few years ago, was on a total hauntology kick at the time: https://tanizaki.bandcamp.com/album/ouroboros

 

This is an interesting read if witchy occult shenanigans are yer thing, bit of a grab-bag but some interesting stuff

nonetheless:

 

http://www.lulu.com/gb/en/shop/folk-horror-revival/folk-horror-revival-field-studies/paperback/product-22498164.html

Good release dude, I pitched in a quid.

[cwmbrancity]

Bizarre synchronicity here, as i recently named some mixes with the title "Rabbit Hole".....make of that what you will

 

Overall, the dearth of sampling certain realms of tv/docu programming has run its course a bit imho, i mean how many 70's tv shows could folks actually reference? Eg: Tales of the Unexpected was infinitely more out there than the more kitschy Sapphire n Steel.......

 

Isnt it more fun to reach beyond a specific decade like the 70's? There are far more resources out there & lashings of weird atmospheric gear to hunt down.....films like The Innocents had incredible sound design. Watch it with quadraphonic sound in a dark room at night and the "rooms.....like dark woods" quote will manifest directly in your soul.

 

Throbbing Gristle's soundtrack to a compilation of various Derek Jarman 8mm short filems, In the Shadow of the Sun, is an audio-visual feast of occult goings on. Read any resource around Jarman's interest in magic & you'll soon find it was these short 8mm works that were his true "vocation". The soundtrack ebbs away a bit, but the start phase is immense and 1 of my fave TG works plus the vid rrrrocks too, just skip to 2mins 44secs for the opening:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GN3Tibs-R8

 

 

Andrew Liles pretty much owns this field w/out even really trying. In interviews he claims and states a clear avoidance of attaching hocus-pocus intent in his work, but the atmospherics he can produce in certain tracks are mind-bendingly bonkers.

 

My personal favourites are, first & foremost, "Is There Anybody There?"......to use the word haunt would be a tad lazy, otherworldly might be more accurate tag. I dunno how the fuck he created this, but its utterly utterly compelling:

 

http://andrewliles.bandcamp.com/track/is-there-anybody-there-binaural-mix

 

Check his contribution to a Nurse With Wound track, fittingly titled "The Golden Age of Telekinesis (Early Mix)":

 

 

his "Anhedonia" is sublime:

 

 

his "The Last Few Minutes of a Lonely Life" has more subtle melody even if its warmth is where the truly disturbing elements really exist:

 

https://andrewliles.bandcamp.com/track/the-last-few-minutes-of-a-lonely-life-or-goodbye-mr-pips

 

 

Would add various bits with anything related to the engineering skills of Integrated Circuit Record's Colin Potter, specifically works by Andrew Chalk, Darren Tate & J Coleclough.... far more fun if you just plow into their catalogs in your own time.

 

The Hafler Trio also manage to conjure sounds that few get close to. What Andrew McKenzie's specific intentions are remain a bit of a mystery, but if you can filter thru the more pretentious silence-spaced clicks n guff theres a sub-surface of atmospherics that touch on something where words n descriptions start to break down. I used a bunch of his records for the start of this mix, cos they absolutely nailed the sounds & echoes of the long empty hospital corridors where my Dad was seeing out the last days of a terminal illness:

 

https://soundcloud.com/cwmbran-city/velindre-journeys

 

 

Plus lets not phoget any audio you can find by William Burroughs, cos that bloke grasped the true nature of reality better than most & if you've caned TG, Psychic TV, Coil or numerous other sound pioneers over the years, his influence remains critical.

Edited August 15, 2016 by cwmbrancity

[cwmbrancity]

ps: would highly recommend select chapters from this superb anthology of all things strange (the 2nd edition with the red cover, rather than the 1st edition/black covered version)

 

theres loads of bollix, so you have to steer the ship quite well or get scuppered by folks like 2012-enthusiasts like Pinchbeck, but the Austin Osman Spare, Crowley, Burroughs & Gysin sections are f*ckin mint:

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Book-Lies-New-Disinformation-Magick/dp/1938875109/ref=dp_ob_title_bk

 

and if you enjoy the likes of this, go further down the rabbit holes with "Austin Osman Spare - The Occult Life of London's Legendary Artist" by Phil Baker, "The Magical Universe of William Burroughs" by Matthew Levi-Stevens (its all in this one folks) & "Psychomagic - The Transformative Power of Shamanic Psychotherapy" by none other than Alejandro Jodorowsky......the latter is like a fire-side chat with 1 of the world's most innovative film makers on his various methodologies and its routes in S American shamanism & not the vagaries espoused by the likes of Castaneda either.

[cwmbrancity]

fkn edits aaaaaggggggghhhhhhhh

 

sampled The Innocents on this mix quite a bit, cos it has that whispering, barely audible voice work that a lot of modern "horror" filems could learn a lot from, suggestion rather than implication, settling into deeply uneasy

 

https://soundcloud.com/cwmbran-city/gibbering-heights

[Rubin Farr]

How is The Equation Group NOT signed to Ghost Box? LOL

 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2016/08/15/nsa-hacked-shadow-brokers-equation-group-leak/#34f74a6d77f9

[cwmbrancity]

using personalities & their voices to change the point of reference over to something wtf, you could subvert things/shake it up

 

eg: imagine being on a bad trip while listening to David Bellamy

 

 

or The Krankies, shudder, wont do that now retrocreepology

[Rubin Farr]

Cool interview with James & Trish from Broadcast on recording the Witch Cults album with Julian House:

 

http://www.thewire.co.uk/in-writing/interviews/unedited-broadcast

[tec]

using personalities & their voices to change the point of reference over to something wtf, you could subvert things/shake it up

 

eg: imagine being on a bad trip while listening to David Bellamy

 

 

or The Krankies, shudder, wont do that now retrocreepology

 

David Bellamy opened up a building at my primary school and got us all, teachers and parents included, to lie on the floor and pretend we were a seed that was growing into a tree. Geezer. My secondary school had a building opened by Kriss Akabusi and my parents had a photo of him and my brother on their mantelpiece for years. 

 

Anyway, have you seen Robin Redbreast? It's very good.

[keanu reeves]

so not everything listed in that post or this thread is "hauntology" by definition, but whatever. i think if you're just looking for "pastoral horror" there are plenty of films and books. arthur machen is the grandaddy.

william gibson's story "the gernsback continuum" seems to be a precursor to derrida's idea of hauntology, although gibson's story isn't about "marxist ghosts" or whatever, more the afterimage of a long gone cultural artifact literally haunting someone. actually most of gibson's stuff is related to hauntology, if not explicitly part of it. china mieville also writes about this in "the city and the city".

Edited October 30, 2016 by keanu reeves

[cwmbrancity]

uninteresting factoid: Arthur Machen resided where i grew up & my Ma lives down the road from his old manor

 

[cwmbrancity]

would recommend Christopher Partridge's "The Lyre of Orpheus" for a read brimming with ideas, theory & masses of case studies, if this kind of thing floats yer boat

 

its scope is wide enough for interdisciplinary parallels & specific enough to explore music, the sacred & the profane (or propane if you're Little Carmine)

 

its v good for a full interpretative analysis of how & why such themes manifest in individual/collective psyches, the only thing it really misses is a chapter on archaeology & antiquarianism

 

another cracking read is "Landmarks" by Robert Macfarlane, a linguistic exploration of landscapes, place-names & Britain/Eire, if water-filled archaeological dig trenches get u aroused

 

https://www.google.co.uk/#safe=off&q=landmarks+robert+macfarlane

[Leon Sumbitches]

Had a listen to this last night and reckon it might be of interest to this thread. Wee radio play about 4 musicians who decamp to a remote Scottish island for field recordings, but deeply uneasy happenings are afoot:

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0801n3w

[Leon Sumbitches]

Decent article about folk horror stuff in the Grundlebag today. Nothing new but sums it up nicely:

 

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/apr/30/folk-horror-cults-sacrifice-pagan-sex-kill-list

[Auditor]

Excellent suggestions abound in this thread. I'll just add Robert Aickman (author)