New Music from The Ocean!

From The Ocean's forthcoming record Solaris, out September 25 on Pelagic Records. Pre-order HERE in the States or HERE elsewhere. 

I knew there had been a bit of an exodus from the band within the last year or two, but hadn't seen the new line-up until this weekend when I stumbled on the pre-release singles. Nothing against those who left, but this is the most excitement I've felt for an Ocean release since 2013's Pelagial.

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Watch:

I say this as someone who checked out on Marvel's MCU pretty much with Civil War, which I wasn’t a very big fan of. I’ve liked some things about a few subsequent films (of which I’ve only seen a few), but overall have been saddened to watch a carefully planned, confident approach to a blockbuster universe become tiresome, meek and rudderless. 

I LOVED Brand New Day and consider it the first Marvel movie I’ve actually liked - one that gave me repeated chills - since Age of Ultron (I really dug Raimi’s Dr. Strange: Multiverse of Madness, but not as a Marvel movie, as a Sam Raimi movie. Regardless, even that didn’t come close). 

I’d go so far as to say Brand New Day is the second best MCU movie thus far, coming in right behind the original Avengers film. Was it long and prone to indulgences? You betcha. But I was here for all of it. Best of all, almost none of the cameos were fan service - they all (mostly) played a role in the overall story. Which, after the exhausting (but not un-fun) Deadpool Loves Wolverine, was nice. I'm still all about street-level Marvel, which basically, at this point, means DD, Frank Castle and Spidey. Would be nice to see something else added to that list eventually, but for now, I'm happy keeping up with this little corner of things.

There are a couple huge ideas/plot points this film intentionally leaves hanging, and I'm a bit bummed that I'll have to wait until all the Avengers: Apocalypse Now Buddy B.S. is over before we likely get another proper Spidey flick. I find myself begrudgingly curious about Dr. Doom and Battleworld, so maybe I'll eat my words and watch that simply to stay in with Spidey's adventures in the "big potatoe" tier of the still hobbling overall MCU. I'd love it if they just left Peter alone and firmly entrenched at street level, but I guess that was never going to happen, so...

All right, Doom. Thrill me.

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Playlist:

Quicksand - Bring on the Psychics

Face to Face - Don't Turn Away

Firewater - Ponzi Scheme

Justin Hamline - This Machine Kills Music

Show Me the Body - Alone Together

Zeal and Ardor - Devil is Fine X

Pigface - Gub

Pigface - Welcome to Mexico Asshole

SOD - Speak English or Die

Anthrax - Cursum Perficio (pre-release singles)

John Carpenter, Cody Carpenter & Daniel Davies - Cathedral

The Atlas Moth - Coma Noir

The Ocean - Precambrian

Aphex Twin - Richard D. James Album

Various - The (S)hit Factory: Disc 1

Sepultura - Chaos A.D.
Sepultura - The Cloud of Unknowning EP

The Ocean - Pelagial (Instrumental)

The Ocean - Solaris (pre-release singles)

Bohren and the Club der Gore - Sunset Mission

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Four of Wands

• Six of Pentacles

• Knight of Cups

Completion and success, but at a cost. 

New Music from Year of No Light

 

After falling pretty hard for Year of No Light's 2021 album Consolamentum, these guys have been off my radar for a while. Last week I went deep-diving my Apple Music stores on my phone and ran into that album, spun it a couple times in one day, then this week realized they released a single-track E.P. recently. And let me say - Les Maîtres Fous does not disappoint. At just under 30 minutes, this track goes all over the place in the best possible way, building from literally nothing to some epic, bombastic heights. Out on The Ocean's Pelagic Records, you can order yourself a copy from the group's Bandcamp or the Pelagic webstore that suits you best.

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Watch:

The trailer for Joe Begos' Jimmy and Stiggs finally came out and HOLY F**KING SH*T!!!

My most eagerly anticipated film of the year. I will drive to see this on the big screen in August if I have to, no problem. The great thing about seeing the "Eli Roth Presents" tag is that, about an hour after I saw this at home, I went to the theatre and saw a slightly shorter version of this trailer play before the Philippou Brothers' new film, Bring Her Back.

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Watch:

And let's talk about the Philippou Brothers' new film. While their first film, Talk to Me, is a banger in every sense of the term as I define it. Bring Her Back is not. 

This is drab, dour and dark in a way that will seep under your skin and play with your anxiety. This one burrows deep and really picks at some taboo terror. I have several friends who have compared it to Ari Aster's Midsommar, and I can't argue that. Difference between my comparison and theirs is part of theirs hinges on the "I don't think I will ever watch that again." 

I would see Bring Her Back again tomorrow if the opportunity of fancy arose. 

This is going to be in my top ten for sure, possibly top five. I'm further in awe of the Philippou Brothers and cannot wait to see what they do next. 

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Playlist:

John Carpenter w/ Alan Howarth - Big Trouble in Little China OST

Greg Puciato - Mirrorcell

Jóhann Jóhannsson - Mandy OST

Perturbator - Lustful Sacraments

Deftones - Koi No Yokan

Comic Tropes - How Marvel Comics' Editors Ruined Hobgoblin

America - Sister Golden Hair (single)

Slow Crush - Aurora

Calderum - Mystical Fortress of Iberian Lands 

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Hand of Doom Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Page of Cups

• XIV: Temperance (ART)

• Nine of Swords

First, I love Grimm's portrayal of XIV, because even though I always associate this card with Thoth's Art instead of the classic Temperance, I can see how Crowley got to the change, and Grimm's illustration here embodies it. The Dark Arts - You must temper them. 

While my entry in the grimoire for Princess or Page of Cups leads off with "Dreams can become reality," it's really all about focus. This is Malkuth, and to transcend it, focus is important. Certainly the dark arts are a form of focus and an expression of Will, and with them, the climax of the Nine of Swords can be achieved.

All of this is really a fancy, Yungian way to say focus and work hard - hard enough for the work to be mistaken/categorized as Magick, and you can accomplish your Earthly goals.

I'm sure it will come as a surprise to no one who reads these pages that I immediately equate this with my writing, as with BG&BH finished, I find myself wondering if I should proceed with publishing it through my Horror Vision imprint, or possibly shop it to agents/publishers. 

Druids - Shadow Work

 

 From Druids' 2022 Shadow Work, an album I just discovered and which is blowing me away. Released via The Ocean's Pelagic Records, these guys fit that aesthetic like a glove, although I'd say they're a bit closer in sound to super stoner group Shrinebuilder than the Post-Metal of The Ocean. Either way, this entire record is fabulous, so it was tough to choose a track to post. Luckily, Pelagic has a full stream up. You can order this one direct from the label's website HERE.

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NCBD:

Another short but sweet NCBD. Here are my picks:

Black Tape's fourth and final issue! I still haven't read three, so sometime soon I'll sit down and burn through the entire arc. Love that Shout At the Devil homage cover!

Still one of my favorite reads every month now that the status quo has resumed, Boss and Rosenberg's What's the Furthest Place From Here has to be the single most intriguing 'world' I've come across in a comic in a long time. 

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Play:

Here's a hilarious little commercial Puppet Combo made for their summer sale, which began yesterday!

 

I can't play any of this stuff on my computer, otherwise, the "Buy All" for $25 would be a total no-brainer! The direct link to the sale on Puppet Combo/Torture Star's website is HERE.

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Playlist:

The Teardrop Explodes - Kilimanjaro

Spotlights - Alchemy for the Dead

Druids - Spirit Compass (single)

Druids - Shadow Work

Final Light - Eponymous

Nun Gun - Mondo Decay

Ganser - Just Look At That Sky

Ganser live Audiotree Session

          

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Card:

From Jonathan Grimm's Bound Tarot, which you can buy HERE.

• Eight of Pentacles (Disks) - Transformation of Earthly materials/goals

• 14 Temperance - Art in Thoth, this often denotes a mixing of two or more different ethos to create the desired result. In this case, I'd read it as branching out from a safe routine/style.

• 17 The Star - Totality and fulfillment. 

I think this is a direct reference to something I just started working on. I'm taking an old collaborative project from 2018 and stripping it of the ideas that were created jointly with someone else, trying to extract the prose and rework it into a High School Giallo I've been thinking about for at least as long. There's a lot of good prose that I wrote in this - the other party was involved conceptually and with story, but not with any of the actual writing. There's a good 100k words - a lot of it was the product of what I since learned was overzealous 'word stuffing,' but a lot of it is good. So why waste it? Why not transform that Art into a lucrative project?

 

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