“Was not their mistake once more bred of the life of slavery that they had been living?—a life which was always looking upon everything, except mankind, animate and inanimate—‘nature,’ as people used to call it—as one thing, and mankind as another, it was natural to people thinking in this way, that they should try to make ‘nature’ their slave, since they thought ‘nature’ was something outside them” — William Morris


Friday, September 5, 2014

Ulver

You know, respect to any band that tries to set Blake poems to music. It can work--Blake used to doodle on the piano to them himself.

And even more respect to a band that gives The Marriage of Heaven and Hell a go. In its entirety!

It's almost there! The black metal intensity and pomposity is at once demonic and hilarious.

Also--anyone who uses flange guitar is okay. Joy Division could definitely have done a few Blake songs.

This puts them well clear of Tangerine Dream, who once they were trying the same thing had forgotten about moogs and sequencers and had instead started with the wrong bit of the 80s which had to do with wearing slightly too white sneakers and playing fm synthesizers.

But...no one has yet gotten the eroticism. You lose it either in white sneaker world or in death growls.

The masculinity loses it on that score.

Blake songs are weird and mhh is the weirdest.

Jah Wobble almost gets it right but his ones can be a bit sincere.

Maybe that's the closest idea--sort of punk plus rasta.

Oh I don't know!

Vaughan Williams gets the pastoral part but it's a bit weedy. Britten gets the intensity but it's not funny enough.

Like I say anyone who even tries is being quite courageous. Maybe it would only be possible with several artists.




1 comment:

Nick Guetti said...

Don't hold back on this stuff, Tim: Romantic era rock is exactly what I want to figure out how to do!