I thought it’d be an idea to round up the highlights of the music I’ve either discovered or rediscovered in attempts to soundtrack recent psychedelic explorations.
It goes without saying, YouTube clips are included here for easy reference, but please support the artists — especially independent ones — by buying where possible (follow the links here).
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On 13th January this year, Dale Pendell died.
On 14th April, his family and friends gathered at the North Columbia Schoolhouse Cultural Centre to celebrate the life of this gifted writer and explorer. A video of this event has just been posted on YouTube. It features remembrances from his wife Laura, Gary Snyder, Daniel Schulke, Kat Harrison, and a host of others relating their connections to this rich, strange life. With a special appearance by Dale Pendell.
Dale was — and no doubt remains — a treasured Dreamflesh ally. His presence here is missed.
SIREN are an all-female dance music collective in London, throwing queer parties and promoting women and non-binary artists. This is their third zine, an eclectic embrace of literature, architecture, poetry and photography within the generous matrix of dance culture — and it’s well worth grabbing.
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A few weeks ago, after about twelve years of returning to eating meat, I became vegetarian again.
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One thing Jordan Peterson defenders have right is that he’s provoking some interesting discussions.
I’m fed up of the more heated ones, the ones where everyone’s assuming about everyone else (i.e. most of them), and the fact that it’s all feeding his fame demon. But amongst all that, there’s some important gems popping up.
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We just lost a great explorer, a wonderful writer, one of the most important chroniclers of the mind’s inner treasures and its fertile congress with the plant world. He had a true rascal’s twinkle in his eye and deep, bodhisattvic compassion. He will be missed, and celebrated — a joyfully knowing presence in our moments of poetic ecstasy, a warmth strong enough to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with bitter world-weariness.
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I’ll be speaking on Pan the goat god in the British landscape – especially Avebury – on Saturday 18th November at Conway Hall, London, at an all-day event, The Haunted Landscape 2017: Folklore, Ghosts and Witchcraft, hosted by the London Fortean Society. Honoured to appear alongside Jeremy Harte, Owen Davies, and other illustrious folklore folk.
Tickets available at Eventbrite.
It’s been interesting recently noting how some key ideas found in James Hillman’s work seem to be cropping up in cutting-edge anthropology.
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Just about twenty years ago, Simon Dwyer died, at the age of thirty-eight, after living for six years HIV positive.
I imagine it’s safe to say that I’m not the only one whose life was changed by his publication Rapid Eye. Given the scope of the influence of this explosively fertile creation, together with the seeming difficulty these days of keeping information off the web, it’s astonishing that there is almost no information at all on Dwyer out there. There’s just… Rapid Eye.
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To coincide with my recent efforts to get the contents of 2006’s Dreamflesh Journal online, Amodali has created a large-format serigraph print of the art she created for the cover.
Amodali is an artist, writer, performer and magician, dedicated for nearly three decades to working with the 156 current of the goddess Babalon. Her forthcoming book The Marks of Teth looks set to be a unique and authoritative documentation of her ground-breaking work in this powerful current, exploring intense trance practices and sex-magical work emphasising female subtle anatomy. Subscribe to her blog or Facebook for updates on its release.
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