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Goth!
Apr 22, 2015 4:58:25 GMT
Post by pulphack on Apr 22, 2015 4:58:25 GMT
Thing is, people look back at Goth who weren't around then and think it's all Sisters and Mission musically - not that I have anything against them, but Bauhaus were truly darker and stranger in their influences and the way they applied them. In Flat Field is a cracking album, and I also have a very soft spot for David J's single with Rene Halkett, the surrealist poet was must have been about eighty when it was recorded. I still have it, and it's one of the very few 45's I've clung onto over the years. If you haven't heard it, try to search it out (it must be on youtube?) - it's wonderful.
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Goth!
Apr 22, 2015 17:44:33 GMT
via mobile
Post by valdemar on Apr 22, 2015 17:44:33 GMT
I have the David J/Rene Halkett single, too, and it's great. There's a lyric/info sheet that explains that Halkett's vocals were recorded on a tape machine in Halkett's house, and the music added later. My favourite of the two tracks is 'Armour'. It is strangely moving, I have always found. Right from the start, when you hear Rene Halkett's elderly, fragile voice intone: "I am distressed..." An odd, extraordinary record.
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Goth!
Apr 23, 2015 4:59:24 GMT
Post by pulphack on Apr 23, 2015 4:59:24 GMT
Indeed, that slightly distant quality that his home recorded voice has - the tape hiss of the faraway - makes it seem like it comes from another time. It is a wonderful record - I dug it out and played it yesterday as a result of remembering. Much as Dali's Car and Tones On Rail were good, I always thought David J was the really interesting one in Bauhaus.
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Goth!
Aug 17, 2015 14:46:15 GMT
Post by franklinmarsh on Aug 17, 2015 14:46:15 GMT
Just to take this down a slightly different route - Browsing the hospital bookstall at the weekend, I picked up two books - The Penguin Book Of Short Stories (which includes Chas Dickens The Signalman and Angus Wislon's Raspberry Jam) and, from the children's section, a small book entitled Goth. Was slightly surprised to find that Goth was actually a Manga, and although printed in English, was intended to be read back-to-front, right-to-left. Was a bit perturbed later to find out that it carried an 18+ age warning (the back cover (in reality the front cover) depicted a rather abstract drawing of a naked young lady hung upside down).So much for whoever thought this was for children! (Presumably because it's a comic.) Apparently it's based on a Japanese novel (the novelist wrote the Manga) - and it's very good, albeit extremely morbid. Can't help wondering what might have happened if a small child had picked it up. There's one particularly ghastly image in it. A Goth in this instance is referred to as a miserable adolescent obsessed with serial killings, death etc. A boy and a girl link up because of their mutual interest in this sort of thing (the boy is outgoing, perpetually smiling, although otherwise a fairly unremarkable teen, the girl wears black clothes, is a loner and has scars on at least one of her wrists). Not read anything quite like it, certainly not in that format.
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Goth!
Aug 17, 2015 15:18:10 GMT
Post by Jojo Lapin X on Aug 17, 2015 15:18:10 GMT
GOTH does seem somewhat unsuitable for children.
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Goth!
Aug 18, 2015 4:59:23 GMT
Post by pulphack on Aug 18, 2015 4:59:23 GMT
There is a tendency in a lot of charity shops and their ilk to bung manga in the kids section. It's the British tendency to assume all comics are for kids. At least, I put it down to that. Does make you wonder what any 10 year old who got hold of it would think...
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Goth!
Aug 20, 2015 10:15:46 GMT
Post by valdemar on Aug 20, 2015 10:15:46 GMT
Manga, which I believe means 'Irresponsible Drawings', is an art form in it's own right - once one gets used to reading from back to front, the things get addictive. The only ones I have kept are the Manga versions of the original Star Wars trilogy, which are real works of art; insane levels of detail on hardware, and tremendous dynamism in the character design. Just beautiful. A branch of Manga is 'Hentai',meaning literally 'metamorphosis' but also 'perversion', and which are very often hard-core pornographic cartoons, and, being Japanese, it is very hard-core. And weird, too. I found half a dozen of these in a charity shop, several years back, the shop being run by a couple of charming old ladies. I bought them, thinking that deaths might occur if someone were to flick through them. I think I paid a couple of quid for them, and the old lady behind the counter said something to the effect of that I looked too old to be buying comics. If only she knew... I sold them [not immediately, of course, I had to make sure that they were not damaged],for considerably more than a couple of quid, to a friend who collected such literature. A very rough guide: If it looks Japanese, and there are big robots knocking seven bells out of each other, then it's probably Manga, and safe to read on the bus.If it looks Japanese, and there are big robots knocking seven bells out of each other, whilst young girls nearly wearing school uniform are being attacked by huge phallic tentacles, then it's probably Hentai, and not safe to read on the bus. Hope this helps.
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Post by ohthehorror on Aug 20, 2015 20:46:18 GMT
I've just discovered the joys of manga myself funnily enough and have been sampling the delights of 'Nana To Kaoru' which is about a couple of high school kids and their journey into bondage. The only other one I've really read anything of so far is called 'Monster Musume No Iru Nichijou' and is about a world where 'monsters' are being integrated into society. A young man takes in a half girl, half snake(Lamia) whereupon lots of shenanigans ensue, not least of which is sex (of course).
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Goth!
Jan 24, 2017 11:19:15 GMT
Post by franklinmarsh on Jan 24, 2017 11:19:15 GMT
It's taken me nearly a week but finally got to view the latest '83 vintage edition of TOTP on t'i-Player. The reason for my yearning was an apparent appearance by Bauhaus. Had to suffer non-pervs Richard Skinner (Mr Cellophane) and the monstrous Simon Beast (as Peel would say) and then sit through Level 42, The Belle Stars, Central Line, The Beatles?!?!! (20 year anniversary of Please Please Me) before some Goth magnificence. Was expecting either Ziggy or Spirit but had to punch the air when I sussed it was Lagartija Nick. Boffo!
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Goth!
Apr 23, 2024 11:58:39 GMT
Post by dem bones on Apr 23, 2024 11:58:39 GMT
Thanks to staff at Watney Market library for tracking a copy. Have read quite a few books devoted to Goth, and Mr. Robb (ex Membrane) is easily my favourite on the subject since Mick Mercer's opus. The footnotes are a bonus book in themselves. John Robb - The Artof Darkness: The History of Goth (Louder than War, 2023) Introduction: The Doors are Open...
1. Floorshow: A Night out 2. The Fall of Rome 3. Deep in the Forest: Europe's Gothic History 4, "Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know" : The Romantics and the Gothic Imagination 5. Euro Visions 6. The Devil Has All the Best Tunes 7. Paint it Black: The Dark Heart of the Psychedelic Sixties 8. All the Children are Insane, or People are Strange, the Unholy Trinity: The Doors/ Velvets/ Stooges 9. Wham Bam Thank You Glam: The Dark Side of Glam Rock 10. Proto-Post-Punk 11. The Punk Wars 12. "What was once unhealthily fresh is now a clean old hat": Post-Punk to a very Public Image 13. Spellbound: Siouxsie & the Banshees 14. Feel the Pain: The Damned 15. Ridicule is nothing to be scared of: Adam Ant 16. New Dawn Fades: Manchester & Joy Division 17. 'The Wreckers of Western Civilisation.....': Industrial Music 18. 'I must fight this sickness....... Find a Cure': The Cure 19. The Naughty North and the Sexy South 20. All we Ever Wanted was Everything: Bauhaus 21. Lords of Chaos. A Dark and Beautiful Playground – Killing Joke 22. Release the Bats! Nick Cave 23. 'I am not Avante-garde I am a Deserter' Blixa Bargeld, Einstürzende Neubauten & the Reinvention of Berlin 24. Voodoo Idols: The Ballad of Lux & Ivy 25. First, Last and Always: How Post-Punk Leeds created Goth & the Sisters of Mercy 26. Vagabonds Bradford: New Model Army & Joolz 27. Flowers in the Forest: Southern Death Cult 28. Wanted Dead or Alive: How Liverpool opened the doors to a new (North) West Coast Sounds 29. Do You Believe in the Westworld? Theatre of Hate 30. A New Form of Beauty: Virgin Prunes, Dublin. How Lipton Village Changed a Nation 31. 'Good Poetry can still resonate louder than a Thousand Guns.' Rammstein for Grown-ups - Laibach 32. At the Gates of Silent Memory: Fields of the Nephilim 33. Darklands: How the Dark Energy Infected Indie 34. 'We Sing to the Gods to be Free.' American Gothic & the Dark Art of the American Dream 35. Trans Europe Express 36. In the Flat Field: Suburbs and Satellite Towns - the Second Coming of Goth 37. Apocalypse Now! Goth's End Days
IndexBlurb: The Art of Darkness is the first major overview of goth music and culture, exploring both it’s legacy and influence. It’s a first-hand account of the post-punk era, the bands and clubs that defined the genre, plus interviews with many of the key players and stars.
It starts with the fall of Rome and concludes with the rise of Instagram, whilst also weaving in a list of characters and artistic movements. These include (George Gordon) Byron, the romantic poets, European folk tales, Gothic architecture, painters and the occult, as it explains the art of darkness that has captivated generations.
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