"Alone, even doing nothing, you do not waste your time. You do, almost always, in company. No encounter with yourself can be altogether sterile: Something necessarily emerges, even if only the hope of some day meeting yourself again." (E.M. Cioran)

Thursday, May 13, 2010

The Animal Inside



I've been reading some fascinating stuff about love in the animal world and how linked it is to madness.
Michel Foucault says it's really the feeling of animality within ourselves which drives us crazy, makes us happy and makes us sad and that this spirit of celebration is so complete in itself.
Also, I read about the relationship that exists between a certain orchid and a bee - the huge wasp of New Guinea. Apparently, the orchid smells like female genitalia (of the wasp), so the bee goes straight at it and makes love to the plant. He rubs his stinger against it. Then the female bee smells his odour and comes and rubs herself in it, in her turn. This is how she is impregnated - through the plant. So strange in that the couple themselves only meet through the plant. How's that for a love story?

For some reason(??), this all reminded me of an old SPK (definitive band from the so-called 'industrial' era) album - 'Zamia Lehmanni - Songs of Byzantine Flowers' - from around 1986 and quite different from some of their more confronting earlier noise music. So to follow up on my last post, here's another 'YouTuber' - In Flagrante Delico from that album.

While thinking about SPK, I found a pretty good spiel describing their work in 'Discogs'. For your information, here it is:
Review by Crijevo Oct 12, 2003
Of most true industrial groups to emerge in the late seventies, SPK (the name abbreviated for various formations), alongside Throbbing Gristle, caused fair share of headaches to standard musical establishment, irrationally attacking those areas where their psycho-medical audio-visual research hurt the most. By exposing all sorts of socio-political deviances, SPK created a wall of noise that despite such disturbing imagery creates an environment where music by all means is stripped down to potential energy, a hybrid, the chaos. From science to ritual, from noise to sophistication, SPK created an impressive body of work, ranging from military/noise merchants to the finest ambiental music collection. Their early catalogue is highly recommended although there should be a warning regarding the listener's hearing range because some sounds are produced at such extreme level which are not that easily absorbed. But these sounds are way ahead of their time and for that we hail to SPK. The Sick, the Sinister, the Socialist, the Sexual, the Splintered, the Situationist, the Sad, the Serial, the Smart.

Friday, May 07, 2010

Words Of Advice

There's nothing like an insightful excerpt from William Burroughs to warm the cockles and help kick-start your day - especially when he's using his own idiosyncratic voice. Here's some very sagely advice that's always worth keeping in the back of one's mind. Btw, the music is by Material, but as to the poster of this 'YouTube' (a 'BaronSCameron') - I have no idea. Enjoy!