Spotlight on Pagan Music

A weekly feature highlighting the best music from Pagan, Pagan – influenced, and occult artists. You can hear many of these artists on my weekly radio show and podcast, or you can check out the annual “Darker Shade of Pagan” music special available for download online.

ABNEY PARK

Abney Park

Band Bio:
Abney Park is a Black Sheep of the Black Clad crowd…
Evocative of both old-world mystery and futuristic technology, Abney Park is a strong and original musical presence in a genre far too used to formula. Music & lyrics both dark and mystical, Abney Park creates an emotional and cerebral world unlike most anything found in the gothic genre today. Ghost stories & Nightmares, myths & magic float in and out of a music that bounces between industrial dance and symphonic epics ? from the dark western forests to the deserts of the far east.

Abney Park web site.
Abney Park MySpace page.

Song download:
“Stigmata Martyr” (Mp3 file)
“The Wrong Side” (Mp3 file)
“Breathe” (Mp3 file)

Abney Park’s song “Witch Cult/Sacrilege” appears on the 6th annual “Darker Shade of Pagan” special available for download, here.

Reviews:
“The delivery of Robert Brown tends to be conspiratorial. He sings of things suggestively with visuals stirring. Of escapes and pursuits, or perils and integrity, like Agent Mulder on Prozac.. I like that a lot. The fact the band have been compared to Garbage strikes me as somewhat lazy, for here the guitars, which all but hum by themselves, are totally controlled, and it’s an evocative feel which spreads and becomes resplendent. Yes, there’s Middle Eastern tangles (where isn?t there these days, it’s almost the new black?), and we get some floatiness, some emptiness, but mainly we get a superb voice beckoning us nearer but then keeping itself one step ahead as we lumber loyally behind it.” – Mick Mercer

“Those who think there’s nothing new, original or creative happening in the world of gothic rock haven’t heard the sounds of Abney Park. As showcased on From Dreams or Angels, their music definitely knows its roots, and can trace a clear line of descent back to the Sisters of Mercy or the Cure. But it’s not content to re-hash what other artists did decades ago; instead, it pushes into the future and creates something unique and new.” – Freak Nation

“As a whole, the band exhibits remarkable compositional and studio skills…New Wave saturates this album, but in a unique and unaffected way. Vocalist and songwriter Robert Brown, gives ABNEY PARK the Gothic feel – his commanding and mysterious vocal style and brooding lyrics keep the album from simply being a retro-80′s throwback…these guys are top-notch musicians creating a mutant variety of ’90′s new wave pop that is sure to catch on.” – EBM.gr

My Two Cents:
A fine darkwave band, Abney Park throws everything they like into the music. Witchcraft, steam-punk, horror, romance, sci-fi, world music, and of course that wonderful gothic/darkwave sound that influences everything else. It took me awhile to “get” them, but then I really started to enjoy what they do. I was especially fond of their short piece “Witch Cult” (which leads into the song “Sacrilege”) and used it to start off my latest Pagan special. A worthy band deserving a higher profile.

Further Reading:
Interview with Abney Park.

(Pagan) News of Note

My semi-regular round-up of articles, essays, and opinions of note for discerning Pagans and Heathens.

First off is some great news for Pagans and Heathens living in England. A recent judicial decision over an improper dismissal has granted official recognition to Odinism/Asatru.

“You will be interested in this ground-breaking judicial decision, giving legal recognition to the Odinist religion in English law, as more fully detailed in the attached Round Robin. For the first time ever, a judicial declaration has stipulated that a pagan religion, namely Odinism, is to be accorded recognition, as a religion, for legal purposes. The legal precedent, established by this case, will help to protect the rights, not only of Odinists, but of all pagans, in the workplace. The Odinist Fellowship is proud of having achieved this breakthrough for the wider pagan community. Thanks be to the gods and goddesses!”

Thanks to Sannion for the heads-up on the story.

The Scotsman.com profiles holistic therapist and organizer of Witchfest Scotland, Pauline Reid. The article seems a bit obsessed with making a linkage between modern Paganism and the goth subculture for some reason.

“But Reid’s Glasgow clients – familiar with seeing a gentle, dark-haired woman without make-up and dressed in clinical white – might be hard put to recognise her after-hours. “I suppose I do like to blow out and look a bit Goth when I’m relaxing with like-minded people,” she says. More than just Goth. Reid is a practising witch…Many embrace Celtic beliefs, some personify the gothic, others veer towards the more mythological interpretations of witchcraft.”

The Washington Blade profiles a new book about the spiritual lives of black gays and lesbians entitled “Spirited: Affirming the Soul and Black Gay/Lesbian Identity”. The book moves outside the traditional monotheist identities and looks at practitioners of modern Paganism as well.

“‘Born Baptist, I now identify myself as a witch and the child of the orishas,’ writes metro D.C. resident Monique Meadows. She describes Wicca as a path toward self-love and says it teaches her to revere and celebrate ‘the sanctity of nature, the mystery of the Earth and my body.’”

Looking to entertain your Druid friends at your next party? Marty Rosen may have found the recipe for you.

“Barry Brakeville of Lenexa, Kan., offers a whimsical dish called Twinkiehenge — a circle of Twinkies standing in a bowl of chocolate pudding. A perfect dessert when your Druid friends are coming by to celebrate the Summer Solstice.”

In a final note, we encounter a strange sort of blasphemy on Mount Everest of all places. It seems a Sherpa by the name of Lapka Tharke Sharpa agreed to pose for nude photographs at the peak of the mountain. This caused great shock for Ang Tshering Sherpa, president of the Nepal Mountaineering Association who thinks legal action should be taken against the young man.

“It’s very shocking news because Mount Everest is regarded as a divine Mother of the Earth to the Nepali people. If some of these people stand on the goddess mountain naked, then it’s not appropriate.”

So remember, never stand naked on the goddess (unless she asks you to), and try to avoid exposing your naked flesh to temperatures as low as minus 25C (-13F). On that chilly note, I end this post. Have a good day!

Two Spiritual Worlds

The Minneapolis/St. Paul City Pages compares and contrasts the spiritual worlds of two musical artists, Daniel Smith and David Tibet. Both artists embrace some form of Christian thought but there the two figures wildly diverge.

“Cults, by definition, need not just a charismatic and enigmatic figurehead, but also a devoted legion of believers. Persistence pays off in getting the message out there; just look how long it took Jesus…Daniel Smith, who records as the Danielson Famile, Tri-Danielson, and just Danielson, kicked off his own cultdom with a Rutgers senior project-turned-debut album, A Prayer for Every Hour…Smith’s cult status has grown, even while he himself remains childish when addressing his Christian faith.”

While Daniel Smith approaches Christianity with a simple almost childlike temperament, David Tibet, while also singing about Christianity, does so from a very different perspective. Tibet’s faith is obsessed with eschatology, and is influenced by mysticism (this includes a long-running interest in Aleister Crowley, and Tibetan Buddhism).

“The central voice, of course, is that of Tibet, a portentous and feral device falling somewhere between Johnny Rotten’s mewl and the projection of a bit player in Macbeth. Tibet too, deals with occult forces, this mortal coil, Lazarus, and other lost deities as his band plies a strange and moldered strain of folk much like what might emanate out of Stonehenge or a witch’s cove.”

While some might say that this shows the elasticity of the Christian faith, I instead think it shows a pre-modern/post-modern split in thinking about religion. Smith’s faith is simple, direct, and exists as a lone truth. Tibet’s view is pluralistic and inclusive, willing to take inspiration from outside spiritual and mystic traditions, and open to working with wildly variant faith practitioners. It is the world of one truth versus the world of many truths; one is open to a world where modern Paganism exists and one (despite how “liberal” it becomes) is not.

Is The Hype Good For Us?

Pagan author and activist Starhawk, writing for Beliefnet, ponders if the “Da Vinci” hype and popularity is good for modern Paganism.

“We would be more than human if we didn?t take some sly satisfaction in a movie where the bad guys are creepy priests and the Pagans, for once, get some good press. But we should resist gloating. For the movie certainly is not terribly good for the cause of interfaith understanding. In the long run, what?s really good for the Pagans is the work of our many allies in the Christian world and among people of other religions, who work for tolerance and connections among different faiths and beliefs.”

She also takes some time to clarify what the mysteries of the sacred feminine are (are are not).

“But the true mysteries of the Sacred Feminine are not about cryptic codes, secret messages, and hidden hoards of treasure. They are the most ordinary, everyday things of life, which we all experience: birth, growth, death, and regeneration. Not that a child survives from some hidden royal bloodline, but that the blood of life, waxing and waning like the moon, nurtures every child in the womb. Not that one man may have risen from the dead, but that every Spring, seeds buried in the earth?s dark tomb sprout and rise anew. The Holy Grail, from the Pagan perspective, is neither cup nor princess: It is the receptive consciousness, our awe and wonder and reverence for the real wellsprings of life. Only the worthy can find the Grail.”

It should be interesting to see more reactions to “Da Vinci” from different corners of the modern Pagan community. Will there be a general consensus on how “good” this all is for our faiths?