The Poisoned Chalice

A short post to really thank Gavin Semple for providing inspiration for the track Two Hundred And Forty Hours on our latest release. I read Gavin's excellent booklet on Robert Cochrane a few years back. It's called The Poisoned Chalice and is an incisive and well researched investigation into the end days of the Slough magister. Gavin's also been very helpful and supportive in discussion over this part of the project. Gavin recently pointed out a fascinating synchronicity in the death of Cochrane... Cochrane passed away on 3rd July 1966, after ten days in a coma. On 3rd July 1969 Brian Jones drowned and two years later on the same day, in 1971, Jim Morrison passed away in his bath tub. Of course the chalice in Tarot is synonymous with the cups and water. Perhaps this is the Poisoned Chalice. I made the allusion between Cochrane and Ian Curtis, but these synchronicities make it all the more "oo-ee-oo" to use Ed Sanders' phrase.

You can check out Gavin's blog, which includes a bibliography of his other work and news of a release from his sound project Spectral.

Cheers Gavin!

  
Two Hundred And Forty Hours from English Heretic on Vimeo.

"Anti-Heroes" CD and Book out now.

English Heretic present the results of a five year report, with a portmanteau of Black Plaque commemorations constellated in the suburbs West of London. “Anti-Heroes” excavates the intersection between the clinics of J.G. Ballard and the Hellfire Club's kitsch gnosticism, disinterring the suicide cult of Psychomania and celebrating the nihilism of George Sanders. Conjuring a host of clown demons congregated at the periphery of sanity’s goetic circle, necromancy and pop culture collide in the fast lane to create a casualty list of self-sacrificing warlocks and paranoid would be assassins. Unbuckle your seat belts and experience a near death trip along the luna corridors of Ballard’s Crash, accompanied by a litany of pathological spirits and pulp chimeras, remnants from a yellowing mashup of forensic fiction and cinema grimoires. Apprehend the aesthetic conspiracy of place as we unearth startling evidence of a May-Eve coven near Henley-on-Thames and realise the elements in your psyche that pertain to be poet or blood brother, mother, maid or pucelle.

Commemorating:
Dr Robert Vaughan - Hoodlum Scientist of JG Ballard's Crash
Angel Blake - Child coven leader in Blood On Satan's Claw
George Selwyn - Monk of Medmenham
Ian Ball - Dangerous working class dissenter of Uxbridge
Robert Cochrane - Suicidal witch-cult leader from Slough
George Sanders - Patron Saint of misanthropic cads



8 track CD of feel bad songs to accompany your eternal journey to Tartaus

60 page book, to while away time at the termini of life’s tragedy.

CD Track Listing

1: The Dangerous Gift
2: Hell's Angel Blake
3: Goetia AD 72
4. The Mall Timeslip
5. Heart Burial And Soul
6. Vaughan To Lose
7. Fungi From Suburbs
8. Two Hundred And Forty Hours 

Available at the shop

"Anti-Heroes" Chapters

A preview of the chapters in the "Anti-Heroes" booklet

1. Prologue
2. The Mangled Destinies Of Carriages And Men
3. Rex Mundi In Action: George Selwyn
4. Names That Widdershin Around The Mega Therion
5. Gnostic Doctors: Vaughan And Evans
6. Fungi From Suburbs
7. Northolt - World Heresy Site
8. The Luna Corridor
9. Constellation: Broadmoor with TRL Ascending
10. George Sanders: The Patron Saint of Misanthropic Cads
11. The Self Sacrificing Suburban Warlock: Robert Cochrane
12. Hell's Angel Blake: An Annotated Guide To A Coven Near Henley-On-Thames
13. Rituals In The Park
14. The Aisthesis Of Psychopathology

The Summer Feel Bad Album for 2013

Hey kids, The black sun is finally here - it's nearly time to unwind the roof of the convertible, head out to the Heathrow Flyer and traject your car at a coach party of holiday makers. "Anti-Heroes" is mixed and mastered, 8 summer feel band songs and a booklet packed full of psychopathological characters to compound your misery. Provisional release date 3rd July, anniversary of self-sacrificing warlock Robert Cochrane's endless sabbatical in Hades...

Artwork for the CD - featuring fantastic photo etching cover by Lisa Cradduck.

Documentary Evidence

Following the recent Weekend OtherWorld event with Goldsmiths, here are a few links offered by participants. Splendid contributions to enjoy.

Tristam Adams - As Sonorous Murmurs Rise
More background on the piece here


Dean Brannagan - Weekend OtherWorld Interlude

Weekend Other World by Antechamber on Mixcloud

John Cussans  and Roberto Peyre  - Ponto for Banbha Mooira

More background and research for the piece here


Dean Kenning - Prospects For Growth



 Nicola Woodham - The Gift Experience

More background on the piece here

May Activities

Grant and Machen At Treadwell's

I'll be talking on 9th May at Treadwell's on the magical geographies of these two mystics. More details over at Treadwell's - only a few places left. We had gorgeous time exploring Wentwood, climbing Grey Hill and visiting the stones that inspired The Novel Of The Black Seal. Returning home, I experienced some very weird hypnagogic images consisting of confabulations of some of the architecture we had seen. I had this once before after a day in Rome. I need to explore this more!

Night of Esoteric Music

English Heretic will be playing on a bill put together by Orryelle Defenestrate Bascule. This'll take place on Sunday 26th May at The Aces and Eights in Tufnell Park.

The blog has been a little sparse this year, mainly due to being ridiculously busy with work, events and my darling family. "Anti-Heroes" is coming close to conclusion. We showed a 30 min film recently which went down very well. CD and Booklet probably be out between July and September. Works already started on Wish You Were Heretic, Iam hoping we'll showcase the genesis of a track from there on 26th May  - imagine Fulcanelli's mystic cow and Pink Floyd's Atom Heart Mother floating over Sizewell B...

Living Stains - Magick Concrete Performance and talk

Mark and I will be performing and in discussion with Blue Firth and John Firth on Friday. It's our first performance as Magick Concrete. We've conducted a Tarotic tour of the vicinity of the RA. The piece will feature modular synthesised field recordings and a conspiratorial hermetic series of haiku texts backed with a triptych of slowly dissolving representations of the major arcana culled from our walk. It's been a very interesting Oulipo like exercise and Blue's stylish intervention at the RA well worth a visit. Details here.

The Heirophant V

Burroughs at  duke street
Hating the Moka cheesecake
cuts sound, closes down