A Darker Shade of Pagan: Best of 2009! Plus playlists for 8/30/09 - 01/03/10
Jason Pitzl-Waters
Pagan sounds from the musical underground.
http://www.adarkershadeofpagan.com
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A Darker Shade of Pagan is an ongoing weekly podcast and streaming
Internet radio show that looks at modern music from a unique spiritual
perspective. The Pagan perspective. Cutting a wide swathe through
several musical genres, the show takes a look at themes relating to
the occult, nature, myth, storytelling, old gods, mischievous spirits,
our ancestors, and the nature of sacrifice.
The show is hosted by Jason Pitzl-Waters, a DJ for six years at WEFT
community radio in Champaign, Illinois and a former music columnist
for newWitch magazine. Filled with a desire to find a deeper (and
darker) musical tradition within the modern Pagan and occult
communities, and a voracious appetite for vital threads of underground
and independent music, the final product exists in a liminal state
between these two impulses.
Where you can hear A Darker Shade of Pagan:
The Pagan Radio Network
http://www.paganradio.net/
PRN has been broadcasting since 2001, and has been featured in printed
media such as NewWitch magazine and the Indie Bible. Their stations
have consistently had the highest listener counts out of all stations
targeting pagan-minded listeners for the past five years. ADSOP airs
five times weekly, see the site for scheduled times.
Free Radio Santa Cruz 101.1fm
http://www.freakradio.org
FRSC is part of a growing micro-radio movement, supporting the work of
other independent media and other pirate and noncommercial web and
broadcast stations. FRSC exists to protest corporate control of the
airwaves, to bring local control and local accountability to our
community media, to produce and broadcast a diversity of programs that
are simply unavailable on corporate controlled stations. ADSOP airs
late Tuesday nights following "The Hour of Slack!".
Podcast
http://www.adarkershadeofpagan.com/podcast.html
There are over 1000 subscribers to the podcast. The show is listed
with most of the major podcast services including iTunes.
Want to hear your artist/label on A Darker Shade of Pagan?
All promos and packages should be sent to:
Jason Pitzl-Waters
1060 W 28th Ave
Eugene, OR, 97405
You can also electronically submit songs for airplay. Simply e-mail me
the tracks at: jpi...@gmail.com, or use my "dropbox":
http://soundcloud.com/adarkershadeofpagan/dropbox
A Darker Shade of Pagan's Top Ten Albums for 2009!
http://wildhunt.org/blog/2009/12/a-darker-shade-of-pagan-top-ten-of-2009.html
http://www.theskysgoneout.com/2009/12/darker-shade-of-pagan-121309.html
10. Soriah with Ashkelon Sain – “Atlan”
What do you get when you mix a shamanisitic throat-singer with the
mystic sound-scapes of former Trance to the Sun guitarist Ashkelon
Sain? You get an intense and world-bending album of darkly meditative
compositions that explores an Aztec worldview (the album is sung in
Nahuatl). Many albums promise to bring you on a ritualistic journey,
but few bring the goods. “Atlan” does, but be warned, this isn’t some
breezy guided meditation, but an intense full-immersion into Soriah’s
explorations into his own ethnicity and heritage. Harsh yet gentle, at
times both hypnotic and jarring, this is a unique album. One that
wonderfully inhabits a sound that is both dark and “pagan” in scope.
Well worth checking out.
09. The Hare and the Moon – “The Hare and the Moon”
I like to go on and on about The Wicker Man soundtrack, it’s one of
the touchstones for A Darker Shade of Pagan, a way to explain the
aesthetic and mood I often try to evoke. Many bands have taken
inspiration from this film, but few make me take notice, or use that
as a jumping-off point into even stranger and darker places. The Hare
and the Moon is one of those bands. An unsigned UK band, they utilize
traditional folk songs, but marry them to spooky soundscapes, almost
militaristic drumming, odd and esoteric sound samples, and understated
female vocals. The result is a wyrd marriage that references Coil
almost as much as it does The Wicker Man. Why these folks haven’t been
scooped up by a proper record label yet baffles me. Get clued in now
so you can say you knew them when.
08. Various Artists – “Leaves of Life”
Some of my favorite artists from 2008, like Fern Knight and Silver
Summit, didn’t release new albums this year, but thanks to the folks
from the band Arborea we have this benefit compilation to tide us over
till 2010. Featuring tracks from the aforementioned bands, along with
other ADSOP-friendly artists like Mariee Sioux, Marissa Nadler, and
Alela Diane (among others). It not only serves as a nice overview of
the current Indie-folk scene, but it also supports a great cause, as
proceeds from the sales of Leaves of Life will go towards the World
Food Program. So you not only get an album of great music, but you
also get to see your dollars going to charity, a sure win-win! Oh, and
the music is top-notch as well.
07. Eluveitie – “Evocation I: The Arcane Dimension”
I’m not the biggest fan of metal, but the burgeoning genre of Pagan
folk-metal has been slowly growing on me. The best of the pack this
year, so far as my tastes are concerned, has to be the Swiss band
Eluveitie’s “Evocation I: The Arcane Dimension”. Picture if Faun or
Omnia started out as metal-heads and you get an idea of the sound
(which they call “Celtic Helvetian pagan metal and folkmusic”). Dual
female vocals mixed with gruff metal-guy vocals that places a bit more
emphasis on the “folk” than on the “metal” for this record. Oh, and
the Pagan side of things? Pretty darn solid, as you can see from the
lead singer dressed as Cernunnos on the cover. If, like me, you are
curious about folk-metal, but don’t know where to start, this album
may be a great place.
06. Lisa Hammer – “Dakini”
There is a lot I could say about Lisa Hammer’s (from the band Mors
Syphilitica) wonderful new solo album “Dakini”, but perhaps the
following quote from the artist really says it all. “The intention
behind this cd was to create music for ritual, meditation and sex.
Ideally, all 3 at once. It was designed to carry the listener away
from the manifest world and into a deeper space. The Indian ragas
correspond with times of the day, so the CD represents a condensed 24
hours, which is perfect for ritual, or any emotional and spiritual
trip. The medieval songs are matched with Indian ragas and tribal
drums, Appalachian folk music, Middle-Eastern drones and opera to
bring the four directions together, North South East and West. It’s a
cultural and spiritual mix, all blending together in one CD. Each of
the songs has its own meditational/trance-inducing quality, regardless
of its origin.” I honestly don’t know what I could add to that, other
than to say she’s right, and the album is excellent work.
05. The Moon & The Nightspirit – “Osforras”
I’ve been following the Hungarian Pagan band The Moon & The
Nightspirit since their first album, and they just seem to go from
strength to strength. After the musical quantum leap of their last
album “Rego Rejtem” (which means “I conjure magic” in Hungarian)
Agnes Toth and Mihaly Szabo’s fruitful exploration of their homeland’s
music and folklore continues to deepen and mature with this release.
This is no place-holder, but an expansion of a strong and ever-
confident musical voice. This is one of the most talented openly Pagan
bands operating today, and they deserve a much wider audience among
Pagan music lovers. I can’t wait to see what they do with their next
album.
04. Bat For Lashes – “Two Suns”
I doubt I’ll have to work hard to convince you that Bat For Lashes
(the musical outlet of singer-songwriter Natasha Khan) is worth
checking out. Her album “Two Suns” was shortlisted for this year’s
Mercury Prize, and she appeared on David Letterman, garnering her
plenty of mainstream attention. She’ll no doubt be on plenty of year-
end lists of popular taste-makers everywhere. So let’s talk instead of
how Khan mixes indie-rock, New Age tropes, Kate Bush-isms, and drum-
machines to craft a meditation on how we live in two worlds at once,
the spiritual and the material, and how that conflict creates the
tension necessary for great art. It is, as Khan puts it, “the
philosophy of the self and duality, examining the need for both chaos
and balance, for both love and pain, in addition to touching on
metaphysical ideas concerning the connections between all existence.”
03. Faith & The Muse – “Ankoku Butoh”
After 2007’s excellent “InfraWarrior”, Monica Richards first solo
outing, which explored themes of eco-spirituality, female empowerment,
and myth, I wondered where her main project, the darkwave band Faith &
The Muse would go. The answer it seems is “East”, and “Ankoku Butoh”
is an immersion in Shinto, drums, and a “sonic atavisms for the
warrior within”. This is a powerful and driving record that displays a
band reinvigorated and at their creative peak. My only lament is that
this came out so late in the year (October 31st) so I haven’t had the
time to live with and explore it as I’d like. But still, this is a
quality album, and should rightly be in the collection of any goth-
Pagan fan worth their salt. Oh, and the album isn’t just an album, but
a CD-DVD-Book set that is a work of art in itself.
02. Unto Ashes – “The Blood of My Lady”
It could have been a disaster. Two long-standing members of Unto Ashes
left the band, and songwriter-singer Michael Laird was left pretty
much on his own to decide if the project was going to continue.
Isolated, he went on to craft what may be the project’s strongest
outing in years. Drawing deeply on strains of Neofolk and dark
ambient, “The Blood of My Lady” is a darkly meditative work that
careens from hushed ballads to stomping militarism and back again.
Alone, Laird has pursued the ultimate work, union with the goddess,
she who is “everywhere and nowhere”, an album of “thirteen spells
conjured for The Lady”. If you listen closely, you can sense that She
has heard his call.
01. Fever Ray – “Fever Ray”
To call this solo project by Karin Dreijer Andersson (one half of the
amazing Swedish electronic music duo The Knife) “dark”, or “mythic”
makes it sound too small. Just another musician dabbling with sound-
scapes and Jungian tropes. It would be better to say this is a primal
heartbeat from our inner core. A place where we lose the ability to
quantify a thing or expression and instead we fumble along with made-
up terms like “synth-druid” or “tribal electro weirdness” to express
how synthesizer-created music can touch places usually reserved for
drummed fire-trances or high-ritual. Fever Ray is Karin, and Karin is
inhabiting the mythic core of humanity on this album. It is holy,
pedestrian, lonely, loving, and dark. The darkness of sadness and
loss, but also the dark of potentiality, of the coming birth. This my
favorite “pagan” album of 2009, though I doubt she would classify
herself so, such labels lose meaning when you travel deep enough.
*Playlists for 08/30/09 - 01/03/10*
Playlist for 08/30/09
Arcana - Sigh of Relief
Claire Voyant - Mercurial
Lisa Hammer - In Taberna Quando Sumus
Fern Knight - Magpie Suite (Prelude, II, III)
Dead Can Dance - Yulunga
Inkubus Sukkubus - Death Comes
Soriah with Ashkelon Sain - Atlan
Unto Ashes - Fly on the Windscreen
SJ Tucker - For Love of All Who Gather (Reprise)
Playlist for 09/06/09
Espers - Moon Occults the Sun
Mary Epworth & The Jubilee Band - Black Doe
Silver Summit - The Door
Bat For Lashes - Glass
Florence & The Machine - Cosmic Love
Fern Knight - Zero to Infinity
Lisa Hammer - Chant No. 5/The Valley of Unrest
The Moors - The Hunter/Cernunnos
Mirabilis - The Flowers Pressed Down
Monica Richards - The Hunt
Playlist for 09/13/09
Faith and The Muse - Dead Leaf Echo
Sharron Kraus - Brigid
Claire Voyant - Lost
Peter Bjargo - A Wave of Bitterness
Pamela Wyn Shannon - Netherworld
Tricky Pixie - Tam Lin
The Rowan Amber Mill - Blood & Bones (2009)
Lisa Hammer - Kyrie Orbis Factor
Soriah with Ashkelon Sain - Morguul
Playlist for 09/20/09
Brendan Perry - Death Will Be My Bride
Irfan - Simurgh
Mirabilis - The Writing on My Father's Hand
Faith & The Muse - Battle Hymn
Hagalaz' Runedance - Wake Skadi
Mariee Sioux - Love Song
The Valerie Project - Grandmother
Steindor Andersen & Sigur Ros - A Ferd til Breidafjardar
Bill Laswell (w Lori Carson) - Kashi
Faun - Zeit Nach dem Sturm
Playlist for 09/27/09
Unto Ashes - Ostia (The Death of Pasolini)
Cunnan - Seven Sleeps, Seven Sorrows
Faith & The Muse - Blessed
Claire Voyant - Lustre
Lux Interna - Into Nothing
Dead Can Dance - Don't Fade Away
Silver Summit - Oaks
Ex Reverie - The Hanging Garden
Lisa Hammer - Vajra
The Machine In the Garden - Suspend
Playlist for 10/04/09
Omnia - Alive!
Unto Ashes - The Blood of My Lady
The Gathering - Red Is A Slow Colour (live)
Soriah with Ashkelon Sain - Tona Atoyaatl
Peter Murphy - Things to Remember
Cheb i Sabbah - Jai Bhavani
The Eden House - To Believe In Something
Inkubus Sukkubus - Wytches' Chant
Fever Ray - If I Had A Heart
Fern Knight - Loch Na Fooey
Playlist for 10/11/09
Faith & The Muse - Battle Hymn
Dead Can Dance - A Means of Escape
Lisa Hammer - Mara
Espers - Caroline
Ex Reverie - Second Son
Alela Diane & Alina Hardin - Matty Groves
Black Ice - Sooner or Later
Atrium Animae - Lacrimosa Dies
Tanakh - Gently Johnny
Unto Ashes - Fly on the Windscreen
The Eden House - Reach Out
Playlist for 10/18/09
The Moon & The Nightspirit - Eg Fele
Arcana - Cathar
Soriah with Ashkelon Sain - Cehui
Faith & The Muse - Willow's Song
The Valerie Project - Reunion/Crib
Faun - Gaia
Novemthree - We All Must Die
Rhea's Obsession - Breakthrough
Pamela Wyn Shannon - Courting Autumn
Playlist for 10/25/09
Kitka - Awakening
Monica Richards - The Hunt
Mediaeval Baebes - How Death Comes
Espers - That Which Darkly Thrives
Magdalena Solis - March Hare
Lisa Hammer - Kyrie Orbis Factor
Ego Likeness - Sirens & Satellites
The Machine in the Garden - Otherworld
Collide - The Lunatics Have Taken Over the Asylum
Dead Can Dance - The Carnival Is Over
Playlist for 10/31/09
Yearly Samhain/Halloween music special!
Hexentanz - Midnight Procession
Yoga - Dreamcast
Lisa Hammer - Chant No. 5 / The Valley of Unrest
Rainbow Arabia - Haunted Hall
The Owl Service - Night Falls on Summer's End
Broadcast & The Focus Group - A Seancing Song
The Hare & The Moon - Crazy Man Michael
Unto Ashes - The Drowning Man
Demonika & The Darklings - Everyday Is Halloween
The Cure - Fear of Ghosts
Hungry Lucy - Grave
Sharron Kraus & Friends - All Hallows
Playlist for 11/15/09
Lux Interna - Flowers Under Glass
Espers - Colony
Lisa Hammer - Mara
Aesma Daeva - O Death
Carol Tatum - Nag (The Serpent King)
Akrabu - Desert Song
Sharron Kraus - Brigid
Birch Book - Birch Leaves
Mary Epworth & The Jubilee Band - Black Doe
Claire Voyant - Lustre
Faith & The Muse - Battle Hymn
Playlist for 11/22/09
Faith & The Muse - The Woman of the Snow
Soriah with Ashkelon Sain - Yoallicuicatl
Cheb i Sabbah - Kinna Sahna
Fern Knight - Our Mountain the Mother
Atrium Animae - Lacrimosa Dies (Demo)
Ego Likeness - Sirens & Satellites
Peter Bjargo - A Wave of Bitterness
Aesma Daeva - Darkness (Stromkern Mix)
The Eden House - Fire For You
Sharron Kraus - Robin is Dead
Zoar - Winter Wind
Playlist for 11/29/09
The Moon & The Nightspirit - Alomido
Espers - Caroline
Silver Summit - Awaken
Faun - Prolog/Sigurlied
Faith & The Muse - The Red Crown
Collide - Nights in White Satin
Claire Voyant - Mercurial
The Dreamside - Somewhere Before
The Moors - Dea Noctu
SJ Tucker - Witches' Rune
Playlist for 12/06/09
Lisa Hammer - Yaksha
The Valerie Project - Fire Fountain
Faith & The Muse - When We Go Dark
The Dry Spells - Black Is the Color
Julianna Barwick - Sunlight, Heaven
Faun - Nathegal
Cindergarden - As Above, So Below
Florence & The Machine - Cosmic Love
Bat For Lashes - A Forest
Unto Ashes - Fly on the Windscreen/Blood of My Lady II
Fever Ray - If I Had a Heart
Svart1 & Daina Dieva - Incubi Succubi
Playlist for 12/13/09
ADSOP's Top Ten Albums of 2009
10. Soriah with Ashkelon Sain - "Atlan"
Tack played on the show: Yoallicuicatl
09. The Hare and the Moon - "The Hare and the Moon"
Tack played on the show: The Golden Bough
08. Various Artists - "Leaves of Life"
Tack played on the show: Arborea - Son of the Moon, Daughter of the
Sun
07. Eluveitie - "Evocation I: The Arcane Dimension"
Tack played on the show: Omnos
06. Lisa Hammer - "Dakini"
Tack played on the show: The Muses
05. The Moon & The Nightspirit - "Osforras"
Tack played on the show: Osforras
04. Bat For Lashes - "Two Suns"
Tack played on the show: Good Love
03. Faith & The Muse - "Ankoku Butoh"
Tack played on the show: Battle Hymn
02. Unto Ashes - "The Blood of My Lady"
Tack played on the show: The Blood of My Lady
01. Fever Ray - "Fever Ray"
Tack played on the show: Keep the Streets Empty For Me
Playlist for 12/20/09
2009 Winter Holiday Music Special!
Faith and the Muse - The Woman of the Snow
Sharron Kraus & Friends - To Shorten Winter's Sadness
Loreena McKennitt - Snow
Magicfolk - Shaman Spirit Reindeer of Siberia
The Knife - Christmas Reindeer
Rusalnaia - Winter
The Twilight Garden - The Ice King
Psicodreamics - Looking for the Spirit of Christmas
Dar Williams - The Christians & The Pagans
Fleet Foxes - White Winter Hymnal
The Mirror Reveals - Island of Misfit Toys
Arcanta - Carol of the Bells
Playlist for 01/03/09
Espers - That Which Darkly Thrives
The Dry Spells - Rhiannon
Faith & The Muse - She Waits By the Well
The Dreamside - Lunar Nature
Dario Marianelli - What Do the Skies See
The Twilight Garden - I Am Echo
Laura Gibson - Shadows on Parade
Mirabilis - World Indifferent
Taken By Trees - To Lose Someone
Trobar De Morte - No Return
Cheers,
Jason Pitzl-Waters
jpi...@wildhunt.org