Hex n' Her

I got a nice package through from Brave Mysteries the Wisconsin (USA) based label this week. I must comment on the velocity with which they send their stuff out, it is very impressive, if the jiffy bag didn't cause a postal mark saying Wisconsin USA on it I'd've thought it was posted within the UK.it was that quick!

At the part of the class I bought a few releases by Burial Hex, some CDr's and tapes that were going cheap in the January sales and I must allow to being a tad disappointed with some of the sounds. The two CDr's on Skulls Of Heaven ("MaHaBoNe" & "In Girum Innus Nocte Et Consumimur Igni") were not a mark on the block I was getting throughout 2010. Strangely enough the most pleasurable release was a record on the UK label Turgid Animal ("Blood Between Her Lakes"), I say strangely because I refer the Large Animal output with loud noise stuff. Put my hands up - I was wrong. Anyway, I was kindly sent the cassette "A Night With Two Moons" (Aurora Borealis:ABc02) and it restored my stake in the plant of Clay Ruby."A Night" plays alike the soundtrack to a silent movie. Huge organ / Wurlitzer sound. I hold not heard anything like it before. I hear and marvel. Last year Brave Mysteries released the Burial Hex cassette "Fantasma Di Perarolo"; a recording of a last performance on church organ recorded in Italy, the "Two Moons" cassette is similar - not the same.it is more frantic - but similar. "Haxan:Witchcraft Throughout The Ages", "A Night With Two Moons" would reach an ideal soundtrack. So when the Troniks board advertised a new Burial Hex release, the record became a must.
"Eschatology 1" (Brave Mysteries:CQBL 016) is a C60 limited to 100 copies. It is a record of two halves with Side A: "Twilight Visitors" sounding very much like an old Nekrophile release in parts. Heavy echo effected electronics inter-twined with soft and percussion. It sounds like a live recording, if not then recorded primitively. I could be wrong! Whilst performing the track (at work) today a messenger from DPD told me that it sounded like early Pink Floyd. Side B: "Book Of Delusions (St. Hilary's Day Mix)" is trance like with a pulse like beat floating throughout and some excellent guitar patterns - mixed just at the proper level. The impulse is very Throbbing Gristlesque, immediate and compulsive. (persuasive)? Thinking back the The Haxan Cloak 12" I was writing about earlier, this cut is very similar to his heavy but it carries a more raw edge, less new-ageist and more ritual. (as if I'm making any sense).
Also in the flash was the cassette "Living Midnight At The Harvest Abbey" a C37 by Kinit Her. I have seen Kinit Her live, two days ago at The Equinox Festival and I wasn't over impressed but going with the probability that later the Compass Hour cassette release (a Kinit Her side-project that Brave Mysteries also released) and the accession of Clay Ruby to their ranks, and it was only 37 minutes long, so what is there to lose(?) I bought the cassette. I am glad I did as it makes me smile. The low position is an 18 minute "jam" that took me back 25/26 years. It has the same atmosphere and good as block I was recording back when. Honestly!
The Hulme Crescents in Manchester was a magnet for students, squatters, junkies, misfits, artists, anarchists and musicians. (I scored 5 out of 7 there)! It is where Carnifex Recordings were based and two of the groups I was mired in - Rise & Muhviertel. I have written about these times before so won't tire you with the detail.but there were years when a lot of folk would gather at a squat situated in William Kent Crescent (1st floor - 143 I think) where the Carnifex "rehearsal space" was. Drums, percussion, 2 guitar amps (A Roland Jazz Chorus Vox AC30), a Bass amp (Peavey and/or Orange.memory fails), a few keyboards, a Roland Space Echo, a pair of mic's and half a dozen guitars.
Numbers ranged from 5 or 6 (great band) to 8 or 9 (not so popular), the first ritual would be the (hot) knives.sometimes the increase of magic mushrooms but as a find it was knives through a galliano bottle. Pipes, Chillums and a package of "Rolled Gold" would be taken up to the rehearsal room where we would take an instrument and "run away". I ever liked sitting behind the drums! (Sitting being the working word there). More frequently than not I would enter the session and mark the cassette "The Initiates Ov Carnifex". I shall ever think the clock when I was playing a one-note drone on a Casio keyboard, lost in the trailer and good when I open my eyes looked over my shoulder to see everyone else in the room wearing huge beaming cartoon like smiles. Christophe Lebasque sat behind the Vox strumming the bass guitar and Andy Wright next to him chanting "I Know The Sun". Beautiful moment and that is what side A of the Kinit Her cassette sounds like to me. They make the voice of an electronic saw mixed in with the sound. Genius.
The back side has a 'spaghetti western' flavor to the sound, almost Ennio Morricone in texture. (I haven't seen a cowboy movie in ages - it's been all quiet on the western front). The record is a great loss and will get many a run at Hartop Towers.
Hopefully both groups / projects will take it to the UK soon. I see that Harbour With Spite and Current 93 are treading the boards this summer in the UK.after last years disappointment I shall not bother, I'll keep my money and only trust that Clay friends take it over.

Pictures:
1: Brave Mysteries Logo.
2: Burial Hex "Eschatology 1" Sleeve.
3: Burial Hex "Eschatology 1" Inner Art.
4: Burial Hex "A Night With Two Moons" Sleeve.
5: Kinit Her "Living Midnight At The Harvest Abbey" Sleeve.
6: Kinit Her "Living Midnight At The Harvest Abbey" Inner Art.
7: Kinit Her. Photograph from "Equinox Festival 2009" programme.