tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32723577.post3192429258264622048..comments2023-10-03T17:37:08.845+02:00Comments on documents: Moss - Cthonic Ritesvalterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00239129101855356246noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32723577.post-83105433122752135352009-04-23T12:39:00.000+02:002009-04-23T12:39:00.000+02:00I came here looking for a download for Cthonic Rit...I came here looking for a download for Cthonic Rites as I only own the record on vinyl, and instead I found this beautiful document of that record. I'm not very well versed with the fine arts, so all I can say is that your blog makes for some fine reading.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11121502864044516788noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32723577.post-52287895525150577362008-10-02T21:24:00.000+02:002008-10-02T21:24:00.000+02:00Thanks for this extremely interesting comment!The ...Thanks for this extremely interesting comment!<BR/><BR/>The next post on my blog is about Moss' most recent album, Sub Templum. It addresses the tension between control and chaos, which I think is a thread running through the diverse issues your comment deals with.<BR/><BR/>I haven't read anything occult for a long, long time (other than anthropological studies) but I'll check out Phil Hine on the 'net.valterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00239129101855356246noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32723577.post-35575621967028319052008-10-02T20:30:00.000+02:002008-10-02T20:30:00.000+02:00Another great post. Much like your post connecting...Another great post. Much like your post connecting Earth to dub (a connection I made immediately as well after seeing them live last year), this post connecting Moss to "micro-" music is an astute observation. That said, I've got a couple, barely related thoughts concerning this post, please bare with me...<BR/><BR/>I think Cthonic Rites cannot be truly appreciated until it is heard on vinyl. Moss' nom de guerre implies, at least a little, decay as the result of repeated exposure to the elements (where do we usually find moss, at least in the sense that Moss want us to see? Personally, I see old stone buildings. Moss cannot grow on smooth stone, it needs crevices and gutters formed from extended exposure). Over repeated listenings, as the grooves are broken down more and more, the music on the vinyl itself degrades and this can only enhace the desired effect. The old phrase uttered by vinyl junkies, "not complete without surface noise", comes to mind.<BR/><BR/>One thing that this album truly excels at is the notion of "black metal as ritual music". There's a lot of black metallers out there that go out of their way to create said music, but much of the time it just comes off as really naieve ambient music with some minor pad progressions. It might be heresy to say so, but I'll single out Varg's prison recordings here, especially DauĂ°i baldrs.<BR/><BR/>Finally, I have to disagree with you at least on one small, trivial point: <BR/><BR/>"To magnify sound events without the aid of software like Reaktor, Ableton Live, Super Collider and MAX/MSP is much more challenging."<BR/><BR/>As a user of all these applications, I would say that it's anything but easy to magnify sound events with SuperCollider & Max/MSP. With Reaktor -- sure, one has access to a wide variety of pre-made sound mangling tools in the Reaktor user library, and Live is explicitly built for the purpose of on-the-fly sound modification. With SC and Max/MSP though, you're essentially constructing eveything yourself from the ground up, molecule-by-molecule as it were, to not only get these types of effects, but also to maintain any sort of cohesive control. You can't just throw in a granular object and feed it a soundfile and expect anything meaningful to come out of it. The best SC and Max patches are the result of weeks, if not months, of painstaking work.<BR/><BR/>One could make an argument in the opposite direction -- with the right combo of pedal effects and tube amplification, one is able to arrive at distorted landscapes much easier than with software. Of course, it's not just about distortion, it's about controlling and shaping that distortion into something cohesive, even if the goal is an abstraction of madness. I think it's obvious that Cthonic Rites is a result of careful construction and an abundance of control.<BR/><BR/>Finally, I have found that Phil Hine's "Pseudonomicon", which introduces the Mythos as a basis for chaos magick, is a very complimentary read when exposting one's self to Cthonic Rites over repeated listenings, perhaps not read WHILE listening to it, but in between listenings as the music sinks in.<BR/><BR/>(Disclaimer: I work for the makers of Max/MSP, so my opinion here is somewhat colored)wwinfreyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02481619905911827099noreply@blogger.com