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Posted: 09-11-2001 18:31 Post subject: Fortean Muzak

I'd be interested in knowing if there are any bands out there who center their material around strange phenonema. I'm a pretty big Clutch fan, and their material covers aliens, conspiracies, rednecks, and other stuff that flies way over my head. Oh, and I'm not looking for Dead Kennedys/Rage/Amen/etc. anti-conformist (anti-EVERYTHING) stuff so much as bands that write about truely weird stuff. Thankya.

Posted: 12-11-2001 03:30 Post subject:

Well there's the ever-popular standby They Might Be Giants...

Some of the music from Rush might fit what you're looking for, their early stuff especially.

Some selections from Iron Maiden might fit the bill (I know they have two songs referencing the 60's TV series The Prisoner).

I'm afraid that's the best I can think of.

Posted: 14-11-2001 17:49 Post subject:

I SING IN A BAND CALLED SASQUATCH. AS WELL AS THE NAME OF THE BAND, PRETTY MUCH ALL THE LYRICAL CONTENT OF OUR MUSIC HAS A FORTEAN THEME. WE'RE PARTICULARLY INTERESTED IN EXTREMES. EVERYTHING I WRITE ABOUT HAS SOME BASIS IN (REPORTED) REALITY. WE'VE SONGS ABOUT A DOCTOR PERFROMING A SEX CHANGE ON HIMSELF,(AS REPORTED IN FT), SASQUATCH, POLTERGEISTS, MAN ON THE MOON CONSPRACY AND ON AND ON THE LIST GOES. IF ANYONE WANTS TO HEAR THIS GODAWFUL DIN WE'RE PLAYING AT THE NIGHT & DAY IN MANCHESTER ON 4TH DECEMBER. I CAN GUARANTEE IT'LL BE LIKE NOTHING YOU'VE EVER HEARD !

Posted: 14-11-2001 19:34 Post subject:

I've actually got Sigur Ros playing at this very moment. I have no idea what the lyrical content covers because it's in Icelandic but it's some of the most strange and beautiful music I've ever heard.

Posted: 14-11-2001 20:30 Post subject:

Is your name Earhorn connected with the fact you seem to need to SHOUT? Wink

Posted: 14-11-2001 21:48 Post subject:

How about Eno and Byrne's Jezebel Spirit from the My Life in the Bush of Ghosts album. (You could justify calling that one Fortean just for the title). Jezebel Spirit uses the recording of an actual exorcism as the basis for the track.

Posted: 14-11-2001 22:52 Post subject:

Ooh, you've got me started now. (Sorry some of these are individual tracks rather than bands so I’m not really answering your question but I’m enamoured enough of my own taste in music to tell you anyway).

Aim, Cold Water Music ninth track Demonique which uses part of the soundtrack to Halloween. At least I think it’s Halloween it’s so long since I saw it. Whatever, Donald Pleasance is in there along with a lot of spooky choral stuff.

Siouxsie and the Banshees were always inclined towards the strange. Overground is a great scary track influenced partly, I think, by Stravinsky’s Rites of Spring. And, most bizarrely, the B-side to one off their 80’s singles was based around the young Elizabeth Bathory’s (of Dracula fame) witnessing of a gypsy being stitched up in the stomach of a dead horse. Easy listening or what!

Robbie Robertson. Not a fan of his at all normally but he did an album with The Red Road Ensemble called Music for The Native Americans which has a couple of very atmospheric songs. The final song Twisted Hair is very eerie indeed.

Kate Bush. The Ninth Wave (flip side of The Hounds of Love album) has all sorts of references to old gods, witches and other folkloric motifs as well as a sample from The Night of the Demon and at least one other horror movie I’ve never been able to place.

Julian Cope, Jah Wobble, Jim White, Nick Cave - all live in peculiar universes.

Posted: 14-11-2001 22:52 Post subject:

I love Hawkwind's Space Ritual , with all that Dungeons & Dragons Science Fiction stuff. Robert Calvert's poetry between the songs is all totally bobbins and some of the titles (Orgone Accumulator, Master of the Universe, Sonic Attack) speak for themselves. Its as loud as a very loud thing too! Very Happy

Michael Moorcock wrote a book about them too, and can be heard reciting some of his poems on the Warrior at the Edge of Time album.

Best rumour I heard about them was that they were going to do the music for the Doctor Who story Battlefield, something that I reckon would've improved it no end...

Posted: 16-11-2001 11:22 Post subject:

Posted: 16-11-2001 22:50 Post subject:

Some of the super furry animals stuff is about strange happenings (chuppacabras etc).

Posted: 17-11-2001 00:35 Post subject:

"Subterranean Homesick Alien" by Radiohead (on OK Computer) is about being abducted by aliens "late at night/in a country lane", and is rather nice.

I agree about the Super Furry Animals: some of their music is specifically about strange things (Demons could be interpreted as some sort of Illuminati-type conspiracy story, Chupacabras is about, well, Chupacabras), and their album "Mwng", although not all about the supernatural, does have a very ethereal quality to it, especially the last track "Mawrth oer ar y blaned neifion" (A Cold Mars Over Neptune). I suppose if I could understand Welsh, it wouldn't be so eerie Smile

Posted: 18-11-2001 13:15 Post subject:

IF YOU'VE GOT A HEADACHE NOW YOU SHOULD HEAR THE GODAWFUL RACKET WE MAKE.

Posted: 18-11-2001 13:38 Post subject:

Inkubus Sukkubus deal with paganism/vampires/aliens/fairies

Posted: 18-11-2001 15:22 Post subject:

The psychedelic music of the 60s probably carved out a new field of Forteana for itself. Some say it was drug inspired, but with songs like "I am the Egg Man" and "(K)nights in white satin", who needed drugs?

Posted: 18-11-2001 17:33 Post subject:

Coil makes music that is heavily influenced by magical phenomena and mind-altering substances. If you can, by all means pick up a copy of "Horse Rotorvator".