A bumper crop of words harvested straight from the brain of Mr Greg! Personal zines can be a mixed bag, but this one works out just fine because Mr Greg has lots of things to say and is worked up about language enough to be able to say them in an interesting way.
The first issue takes on his feelings about death and how his partner's illness is affecting the pair of them, the 'underground' mentality, and his attitude towards the culture of Crowley. It also features his interviews with Robert Anton Wilson, DJ Calliope Marakasu (on Thailand, Florida and working for AOL) and David Wright, who does weird things to electronic toys.
Issue two includes some Mr Greg poetry (which is actually OK, and you should know by now that poetry is far from my thing) and cut-ups. There are also some great letters from Mr Greg to Brion Gysin ("Dear Brion, clearly you are long dead. Everyone knows that. Finally it seems that a few more people are actually paying attention to the value of your work, experiments and contributions to underground culture..."). There is also a Genesis P-Orridge bibliography which I assume is part of Mr Greg's larger work - a much anticipated full length GP-O biography. On the evidence of his work here, this will be a really worthwhile book.
Issue three is the best one so far and has all sorts of Crowleyan insights (that are actually interesting!), some occult homophobia quotes, a great industrial music piss take and a (autobiographical? mythopoetic?) picaresque entitled 'Jared Decline' which reads like a cross between a great diary and an occultural travel novella or something like that.
Aaaah - there isn't enough of this stuff around these days!
It's about $1US per issue in the USA, so send more if you want it sent anywhere else.
Gregory Zobel, 1430 Williamette #23, Eugene, Oregon 97401 USA
mrgreg23@<takethisbitout>yahoo.com
Holy shit. This is a mixtape from the man War Arrow. I have to admit I was expecting some kind of industrial folksy thing and was somewhat alarmed at the prospect. This continues WA's interest in Mexica-Aztec culture. The opener and closer are nice pieces of atmospherica from Mexico, and the rest is mostly... hip hop! Fuckin' excellent over the top funky low down and dirty hip hop at that! Blimey. While I have all the usual middle class whiteboy 'issues' with the gangsta-ho-pimpin lyrics, this is a pretty amazing selection with a great deal of humour and feeling expressed alongside the bravado. Nice one! Some top swearin' and killin' rhymes (and there's nowt wrong with that in my book) and the tracks are nicely broken up with the addition of some more eclectic selections from the likes of the Ruts and Severed Heads. This is definitely one of those compilation tapes you keep until the bastard wears out - my only criticism is that it isn't scratched and mixed - and that there isn't more of it. Full Marks.
available for a blank TDK or SONY C90 plus 50p worth of stamps (UK only)
I used to dread getting sent tapes. That generally meant a poorly photocopied cover with lots of badly reproduced skulls and factories and then and hour and half of tedious distortion and screaming which would inevitably get taped over with the sounds of one of the local pirates. I reckon War Arrow has had a similar experience, because he's clearly put a lot of time and effort into this. A nicely produced brown on brown cover and lyric sheet, commercially duped tape and a manifesto letting you know where he's coming from. Not a bad start, for sure.
The tracks are mostly on a dark ambient tip - some great evolving droney pieces that suck you in. A lot of creativity has gone into this . Checking out the sample credits is a real surprise - anyone who can manage to make a sample from Bryan Ferry or girl band Cleopatra fit into a track that is more reminiscent of Nocturnal Emissions than anything else is nigh on genius in this house. Other tracks feature lyrics from people as diverse as Tuxedo Moon and Funkmaster Flex! This is what you get when someone cares about themselves enough to stray out of genres, to explore apparently unrelated themes - and then draw them together, back into a single vision. Some of the tracks feel a bit rough and vocally discordant for my liking, but that is a small point when there are so many here that are so compelling. The highlight has to be 'New God' - an absolute gem which switches into a funky as fuck female vocal sample from Ultra Naté (?!). More please!
£3.00 (UK), £3.50 (Europe), £4.00 (Elsewhere) inc. postage
and packing
or send SAE for catalogue:
Ce Acatl, BM Indefinite, London WC1N 3XX
Wooo - more funky ass drum 'n' bass from our allies down under. This is their most polished effort yet, nicely presented mini-CD with 5 tracks that all flow along nice and funkily. The trademark Spinwarp "dark" vocal samples fitting nicely with the grooves...
I want this on vinyl, through a huge club soundsystem. I don't think I'll have long to wait, either - it's now a question of WHEN this will get a proper release rather than if... :-)
more info and mp3s to download at: http://spinwarp.com