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literature, philosophy, quotes, religion

>…show me a man who is good…

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This quote is from one of the greatest works I know, Les Chants de Maldoror, The Songs of Maldoror, by Lautréamont, written between 1868-1869.

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Throughout my life, I have seen narrow-shouldered men, without a single exception, committing innumerable stupid acts, brutalizing their fellows and perverting souls by all means. They call the motive for their actions fame. Seeing these spectacles, I wanted to laugh like the others but I found that strange imitation impossible. I took a knife with a sharp steel cutting-edge on its blade and I slit my flesh where the lips join. For a moment I believed I had achieved my object. I looked in a mirror at this mouth disfigured by an act of my own will. It was a mistake! The blood flowing from the two wounds prevented me from discerning whether the laugh really was the same as others’. But after comparing them for a few moments I saw clearly that my laugh did not resemble that of human beings, i.e. I was not laughing at all. I have seen men, ugly men with their eyes sunk in dark sockets, surpassing the hardness of rock, the rigidity of cast steel, the insolence of youth, the senseless rage of criminals, the falseness of the hypocrite, the most extraordinary actors, the strenght of character of priests, beings whose real character is the most impenetrable, colder than anything else in heaven or on earth; I have seen them wearing out moralists who have attempted to discover their heart, and seen them bring upon themselves implacable anger from on high. I have seen them all now, the strongest fist raised towards heaven, like a child already disobedient towards its mother, probably incited by some spirit from hell, eyes full of the bitterest remorse, but at the same time of hatred: glacially silent, not daring to utter the vast ungrateful meditations hidden in their breasts, because those meditations were so full of injustice and horror; I have seen them grieve the God of mercy in his compassion; and again at every moment of the day, from their earliest childhood right up to the end of their old age, I have seen them uttering unbelievable anathemata, void of all common sense, against everything which breathes, against themselves, and against Providence; prostituting women and children, thus dishonouring the parts of the body consecrated to modesty. Then, the waters of the seas rise up, engulfing ships in their bottomless depths; hurricanes and earthquakes level houses; plague and all kinds of disease decimate families. But men do not realize this. I have seen them blushing, or turning pale for shame at their conduct on this earth – rarely. Tempests, sisters of hurricanes; bluish firmament, whose beauty I refuse to acknowledge; hypocritical sea, image of my own heart; earth, who hold mysteries hidden in your breast; the whole universe; God, who created it with such magnificence, it is thee I invoke: show me a man who is good… But at the same time increase my strenght tenfold: for at the sight of such a monster, I may die of astonishment: men have died of less.

music, quotes

>Music that matters: Massive Attack

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Emotions are tough to express in a sane way. It easily gets so very cheesy.
I know myself from reading song quotes where people say “OMG, this song really seems to be written specifically for me!” and I just go “Yeah, right!”. I guess you have to experience some seriously mindbending shit in life to be able to relate to cheesy stuff like that…
However, thinking about my personal situation right now where everything is just fucked up, when there’s no energy, no creativity, no pure thoughts going on – the things I’m used to – I was pretty moved by an old favourite song of mine. It fits right in there with the lyrics, the mood and just about everything. It also brings back memories to a time when “mainstream” music had some serious quality, substance and grace. Massive Attack did everything right in my ears and eyes: the music, the lyrics, the album covers, the videos… I find such quality very hard to find in the mainstream these days. It also reminds me of when they had to change their name to just Massive because of that stupid Gulf war in the early 90’s. How strange.

I know you probably can’t relate to this, because you don’t know me and what’s going on, but this song means a lot right now. However cheesy it may sound, the voice is speaking straight to me. Hehe, I’m laughing while writing this, cuz it’s kind of embarrassing, but fuck that…
Just sit back and listen to some good music and let it be.

Massive Attack – Protection (from the album with the same title released in 1994)
Dedicated to M and S.

This girl I know needs some shelter
She don’t believe anyone can help her
She’s doing so much harm, doing so much damage
But you don’t want to get involved
You tell her she can manage
And you can’t change the way she feels
But you could put your arms around her

I know you want to live yourself
But could you forgive yourself
If you left her just the way you found her

I stand in front of you
I’ll take the force of the blow
Protection

You’re a boy and I’m a girl
But you know you can lean on me

And I don’t have no fear
I’ll take on any man here
Who says that’s not the way it should be

I stand in front of you
I’ll take the force of the blow
Protection

She’s a girl and you’re a boy
Sometimes you look so small, look so small
You’ve got a baby of your own
When your baby’s grown, she’ll be the one
To catch you when you fall

I stand in front of you
I’ll take the force of the blow
Protection

You’re a girl and I’m a boy

Sometimes you look so small, need some shelter
Just runnin’ round and round, helter skelter
And I’ve leaned on you for years
Now you can lean on me
And that’s more than love
That’s the way it should be
Now I can’t change the way you feel
But I can put my arms around you
That’s just part of the deal
That’s the way I feel
I put my arms around you

I stand in front of you
I’ll take the force of the blow
Protection

You’re a boy and I’m a girl

music

>Two new songs by Massgrav

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Just uploaded two new songs from the upcoming Massgrav album.
The album title: This War Will Be Won By Meat Eaters
Sound Pollution (USA) is releasing the album as usual, and hopefully it’ll be out this summer.

We were kind of satisfied with the sound at first, but decided we could do better in the mix. It took us forever, and we remixed the whole thing three times – and I’m still not 100% satisfied. I guess that’s impossible, but anyway…
I seriously can’t understand those big boys spending months and months on mixing an album (just look at Metallica and the recording of the Black album where they spend like six months just recording the hihat…). It’s so goddamn boring, and in the end I think we’d done better with the very first mix of raw material. We play “scandithrash fastcore” (japanese review quote), not Metallica metal, and we pretty much like to bang it out in one weekend and then it’s done and over with. Not this time, though.
And I really hate mixing, because it always sounds good in the studio, but when you get back home it’s a totally different story. So no matter what the fuck you do in the studio, it doesn’t really matter, cuz it won’t sound like that anyway. Seems like it’s pure luck if you get it right. I mean, we even did the classic Entombed trick: we listened to the album in a car stereo!

But what the hell, it’ll hopefully turn out cool in the end, some will like it and others will hate it, and some crazy people will even be willing to buy it off Ebay for hundreds of dollars thinking it’s rare or something…

philosophy, politics

>The art of psychogeography

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Psychogeography is about understanding and exploring the urban landscape. That specific term (“the study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behavior of individuals”) was defined by Guy Debord and the situationists in the late 1950’s.
In an age where cultural and environmental degradation and commercial interest reign supreme, the need for something more and spiritual arise within the souls of the damned. Public space is for everyone, it’s the heart of democracy, and not only for those in power, for those with cash, for those with superior positions in society. But we all know that democracy is a scam and not to be trusted, so to break free from this everyday slaughter and outright meaningless traditions should be in everyone’s interest.
Pyschogeography speaks to the intellect as well as the act. The act is the beauty. The act of walking out there, drifting, finding, exploring and possibly even changing. Famous opium eater Thomas de Quincey when strolling around in the cities had no other goal in mind than to satisfy his curiosity about what might be discovered around the next corner. Some of the situationists navigated through the Harz region in Germany using a map of London. Stuff like that. To break on through to the other side.
You know how easy it is to stroll the same old paths everytime you go somewhere. Try another path (the Left Hand Path maybe?) and think about where you are, where you’re going and what the surroundings mean and how they guide and control your ways.


Cause And Effect – created by Akay, Klister-Peter and Made.

The psyche, the place and the relationship between the two. That’s pretty much what it’s all about. What effect the urban landscape have on us, especially when we’re not guided by commercials, when we choose randomly. And that random choice is what makes it so exciting.
Because we surely must admit that we are being controlled by various forced options every single day, everytime we choose to walk the streets – even though most of us don’t care about that. We want to get from point A to point B as fast as possible, not having to think, preferably without moving at all. But if you do care about the shit that’s being tossed at you, then this psychogeography thing can be pretty interesting, because in my mind it many times exposes the manipulation, and only then are we able to subvert that very manipulation and make our own choices.

This is the critique of urbanism.

“Only an awareness of the influences of the existing environment can encourage the critique of the present conditions of daily life, and yet it is precisely this concern with the environment (in) which we live which is ignored.”


Are you also unconcerned? – created by Akay and Klister-Peter.

quotes

>85. Försynt erinran

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That which does not kill me, makes me stronger.
Nietzsche wrote that, and in times like these I can only submit to his wisdom…

In the words of Nikanor Teratologen, from the book Apsefiston:

  • Om du tänker på det mest förkrossande tillfället hittills i ditt liv, det mest utblottande ögonblicket, det som låg närmast förintelsens nödvändighet, så har du en bra utgångspunkt för att börja den verkliga bildningsgången.
  • De har redan skrivit över vad de pratat sönder av vad de ursprungligen inbillade sej att de tänkte säga. Om de undanskymmer och förnekar världens demoni och bestialitet, undfly dem.
  • Ett dysangelium, ett ont budskap, ett som gör ont att ta emot, är det med världsverkligheten närmast överensstämmande.
  • Endast i den mån den gjort motstånd existerar människan överhuvudtaget.

Tillägnat S, den bästa.

music

>Music that matters: Six Organs of Admittance

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“Six Organs of Admittance take their name from a Buddhist term referring to the five human senses and the soul”.

I’ve dismissed Six Organs of Admittance for a while, mostly due to the hippieish new age sounding vocals. In short, I’ve enjoyed the instrumental improv drone stuff but just felt awkward listening to the vocal parts.
When reading the Ben Chasny interview in The Wire #287 I got interested again. And yes, I really love the latest album, Shelter From The Ash. This is the kind of dark apocalyptic folk drone psychedelia I’d prefer to die to. It would be a great slow death.
In a way, Shelter From The Ash is a response to events in the Middle East, Chasny confirms. People are losing their faith and fighting for their religion. “It’s not specifically about war, but that’s the backdrop for a lot of it”, he says. To me, that makes his music even more exciting.

Chasny says that at the time he discovered acoustic guitar he also discovered artists like KK Null, so I guess what we hear in Chasny’s music is the combination of the folk soul, a spiritual darkness and minimalism. Chasny talks more about relationships between people than of spirituality, though.
Now listen to the two tracks below and then buy the album. It’s simply mesmerizing.

Shelter From The Ash
Final Wing

More info here.