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Archive for the ‘Agalloch’ Category

Wayne Johnston–“Cathechism” (The Walrus, July/August 2005)

Posted in Agalloch, All Songs Considered, Books about writers, Boredom, Canadian Content, Cars, Eric Rücker Eddison, Swans, The Walrus, Wayne Johnston, Worm Ouroboros on April 24, 2011| Leave a Comment »

SOUNDTRACK: WORM OUROBOROS-Live at Le Pousson Rouge, March 22, 2011 (2011).

I had never heard of Worm Ouroboros before this concert. They opened up for black metal guys Agalloch.  I was very intrigued by their name, because I love the word ouroboros, and then I learned that their name comes specifically from a novel by Eric Rücker Eddison called The Worm Ouroboros.

Now Agalloch is a heavy, fast, scary kind of band, so I expected that WO would be too, but they are almost exactly the opposite.  A trio (bass, guitar/flute (!)/keyboards, and drums), the band plays very ethereal music.  It has a kind of sinister edge to it, but for the most part it never really has a beat or anything.  The sounds drift and flow over each other.  This is all held together by the gorgeous vocals of bassist Lorraine Rath and the even more gorgeous harmonies of guitarist Jessica Wray.  Their voices are reminiscent of Jarboe from Swans.

The most amazing part of the show comes on the occasional ends of songs when the band seems to come down to earth  and they play a loud and aggressive doom metal stomp. It only last for a minute or two and it doesn’t happen on every song, but it’s amazing and really surprising when it does.

I don’t know what the band sounds like on record, but they make an exquisite noise live.  And you can tell how intense they must be because the rowdy crowd is quiet and respectful for their entire set.  You can get a free download (or listen online) at NPR.

Worm Ouroboros – Winter from (((unartig))) on Vimeo.

This is a video of “Winter” (a song that gets really heavy at the end) from the show.

[READ: March 26, 2011] “Catechism”

Although I have been posting past stories from The Walrus on Saturdays, the July/August 2005 issue was a Summer Reading Issue complete with 5 pieces of fiction.  So, it seemed like a good time (the week after the release of The Pale King, when I will be otherwise occupied) to go through thee five pieces.

This story uses a scene that I think is used an awful lot in fiction–that of the car sitting on a frozen lake with people taking bets as to when it will sink.  It’s not central to the story by any means, but this is I think the third time I’ve read it.  Of course I gather that if you have a  community that is frozen most of the time, it’s a reasonable thing to see there.

Anyhow, this is the tale of an East Coaster moving out to Regina to be writer-in-residence at the Regina Public Library. He finds that there isn’t all that much to do (in the year he’s there, two people ask him for help with their novels in progress.  [Frankly, I would love to hear THAT story instead.  A story where the writer in residence helps these misfits with their novels.  It sounds great.  So, I enjoyed that aspect of the story very much].  In fact I enjoyed it more than what would eventually develop as the plot. (more…)

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Henry Bromell–“Honor Bound” (New Yorker, October 11, 2010)

Posted in Agalloch, All Songs Considered, Henry Bromell, Library Related, New Yorker, Set at School, Short Story on January 17, 2011| 2 Comments »

SOUNDTRACK: AGALLOCH-“Into the Painted Grey” (2010).

For this week’s music I ‘m going to look at the Top Ten albums picked by  Lars Gotrich (Viking) on NPR’s All Songs Considered.  Viking loves black metal and drone music, so most of these albums aren’t on a lot of Top Ten Lists.

Agalloch’s Marrow of the Spirit was his number one album of the year.  This is a fascinating song full of ambient guitars and rather beautiful melodies (in the intro).  It is a song of longing and distance.  The guitars intertwine and are quite nice.  Then at almost 2 minutes in (of a 12 minute song), the drums kick in and work as an introduction to the dark metal chords that are forthcoming.

At almost 3 minutes, the vocals come in and this is where they’ll lose most listeners.  The vocals are barely audible demon growls.  And yet they are low in the mix and don’t overpower the song (I have no idea what he’s singing about).

Indeed, the vocals are almost spoken (sounding not unlike Gollum) setting more of a mood than an actual story.  It’s a shame that the vocals are going to turn people off because the rest of the song is rather majestic in scope and tone.  Back when black metal first started, vocals like these were matched to equally sludgy music, but when they’re matched to this kind of progressive, epic music, they feel like another instrument, another addition to the melody.

And the rest of the song is so much more than just standard black metal.  Especially at the five and a half minute mark when all of the noise pulls back and a beautiful guitar riff comes to the fore.  Another great melody break comes again at the 10:30 mark.  They really transcend the genre.

I’ve never heard Agalloch before, but their sense of melody and composition is really top-notch, and even with the vocals, this is a pretty stunning piece of music.  Not for everyone, obviously, but a good choice for Viking’s song of the year.

[READ: December 29, 2010] “Honor Bound”

This is the first of five one-page anecdotes/stories/histories in this issue of The New Yorker that come under the heading of “Something Borrowed.”  I read all five because two of them are by Zadie Smith and Jonathan Franzen.  I haven’t read Henry Bromell before, so I don’t know how representative this story is of his other works.

This anecdote concerns Bromell’s time at a boarding school in Wales.  The school was an old castle (it sounds awesome).  Their library was structured around an honor system; the boys were supposed to write their name down on the list, keep the book for two weeks and then return the book to its place on the shelf.  Since his life had very little structure (he was an army brat and didn’t have a “home”), Bromell began keeping the books from the school’s library (carefully hidden on…the shelves in hid bedroom(!)).  He even put his name on the title page of some of them.

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