Hauntology

Yeah some great tips here. Check out Scarfolk Council for a humourous take on hauntology https://scarfolk.blogspot.co.uk

Will hauntology progress into 80s I wonder, or is synth/retrowave that era's iteration of it?

A book I've been meaning to read is Scarred for Life - basically a compendium of weirdness from the 1970s.

  Quote

Scarred For Life Volume One is an affectionate look at the darker side of pop culture in the 1970s. Public information films, scary kids' TV show, bleak adult dramas, dystopian sci-fi, savage horror films, violent comics, horror-themed toys and sweets and the huge boom in paranormal paraphernalia; all this and much more is covered in depth. Prepare to relive your childhood nightmares. The things that made us... Scarred For Life!

Not directly hauntology, but definitely of interest to anybody who's a fan of the whole era that inspired it.

Wyrd Britain is a good blog I currently follow

http://wyrdbritain.blogspot.de/

Mostly everything in this thread is not really 'Hauntology' as such. The problem is that the term itself has come to represent anything that was weird or off the beaten track and prevalent in the 1970's or early 1980s. Hauntology is not some music or film genre.

And I cannot believe Aickman has been mentioned here.

Hauntology is the feeling that comes from looking back at futures that didn't materialise.

You guys need to read that Mark Fisher book.

  On 5/1/2017 at 10:00 PM, fumi said:

Mostly everything in this thread is not really 'Hauntology' as such. The problem is that the term itself has come to represent anything that was weird or off the beaten track and prevalent in the 1970's or early 1980s. Hauntology is not some music or film genre.

 

And I cannot believe Aickman has been mentioned here.

 

Hauntology is the feeling that comes from looking back at futures that didn't materialise.

 

You guys need to read that Mark Fisher book.

hauntology has a strict philosophical definition which stems from derrida. it also has a newer cultural use from simon reynolds, who very specifically talks about it in terms of art, music genres, etc, and mark fisher, who uses it in similar ways. your definition is not exactly correct. hauntology in fisher's mind is politically charged and has nothing to do with nostalgia, it is rather an active attempt to get to the potential future we have lost in our postmodern world, a future which can be called up from sources in the past. both he and reynolds talk about "hauntological" art, so in many ways, it is a music genre, but in a philosophical sense. and i mentioned this in my post earlier in the thread. 

  On 4/30/2017 at 11:35 PM, westhead said:

Yeah some great tips here. Check out Scarfolk Council for a humourous take on hauntology https://scarfolk.blogspot.co.uk

 

Will hauntology progress into 80s I wonder, or is synth/retrowave that era's iteration of it?

yeah the Scarfolk stuff is quality lols

I'm still none the wiser what hauntology is.

  On 5/1/2017 at 10:00 PM, fumi said:

Mostly everything in this thread is not really 'Hauntology' as such

Maybe not, but it's mostly stuff that would appeal to someone interested in stuff mentioned in the opening post, which is the most important thing.

  On 5/2/2017 at 10:24 AM, westhead said:

I'm still none the wiser what hauntology is.

the suffix -logy means the study of ...

so the study of hauntings I suppose. I just call it RDM. 

as a landscape archaeologist, it can be slightly awkward witnessing musicians tap into vague folklore reference points, as these are often historical constructs & quarter-truths masking much older pagan traditions blended with Jungian archetypes/myths of place/location

its this kinda model which seems so prevalent currently, rightly or wrongly

if you see Hauntology as looking back at futures that didnt materialize, then literature offers so many dystopian visions, from the perspective of someone like Philip K Dick who appeared almost as a seer prefiguring such trends it grows in complexity. Equally Ithell Colquhoun's books on Cornwall and Ireland are genius at capturing the atmosphere of places where the past and past hope for better todays dissolves in unfathomable wonder at the experience of landscape atmospheres and the threats of technology hovering around the margins slowly devouring the past, present & future.

theres been a huge trend in musical reference points on something 'lore tapes, which is along way from Lovecraft, Aickman or Arthur Machen

i'd lob in Andrew Liles - Anhendonia as a more expansively sounding (ie better produced), more nuanced example of lost futures echoing from what may or may not be voices from the past....takes about 2/3rds of the tune for the lyrical content to bring it to fruition. but that tonal atmosphere escalating the juxtaposition of harmonics and suggested dread...........maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan.........

fkn edit fail, sorry marf your post popped up mid-edit, will give the track a listen promptly

Ghost Box seemed to have been a gateway label for a lot of people & its this kinda model which seems so prevalent currently, rightly or wrongly, with multiple copied adaptations

if you see Hauntology as looking back at futures that didnt materialize, then christ, even Infinite Jest touches on themes of the idealized American life morphing into something deeply skewiff, similarly with Cities of the Red Night by William Burroughs

Werent Throbbing Gristle focused on certain elements along these boundaries? A track like Hamburger Lady, with its trapped, traumatized burn victim decaying while the nursing staff plod around her, reeks of a personal future now lost and un-realizble due to the extent of her injuries. It personalized, contextualized through hospital ins

so Hauntology might not be a music genre, but it can still be music and Andrew Liles is better than most at channeling these kind of emotional fields, so buy the track rather than slsk it ;)

https://andrewliles.bandcamp.com/track/anhedonia

I see hauntology and vaporwave as two sides of the same coin; hauntology predominantly references the 60s and 70s, vaporwave loves the 80s and 90s. Both genres will burn themselves out or become passé eventually. Such are humans' cycles of interests. Then they'll resurface again, again as retro, or in other forms.

music is either great or crap. You can put whatever name you want to it, It doesnt matter..

I think one of the main attractions is a sense of familiarity - I agree with the comparisons to vaporwave/synthwave, they're a distorted alternative to something that already happened. I think Ghostbox crystallised this perfectly with their releases and whole aesthetic, but it goes back before then - to BoC/70s TV and even Beatles with Sgt Pepper referencing victorian brass bands.

May be of interest to hauntology fans - a couple of mates have tracks on the latest A year In The Country comp, which have been discussed in this 'folk horror' article on Bandcamp https://daily.bandcamp.com/2017/05/04/folk-horror-music-list 

Comus were a massive influence on Steven Stapleton

would highly recommend Colquhoun's "The Living Stones" plus her Irish focused "The Crying of the Wind"

she captures the subjective experience of landscapes, places slowly being eroded by technology, tourism & the encroachment of modern life on ancient sites, plus the whole spectrum of "vibe" diaries she recorded at certain stone circles, dolmens and the pagan heritage underpinning the Christianized places of special virtue

they're part travelog, part picaresque, part archaeology, part philosophy & part occult art exploration (the Cornish edition being particularly "out there") with Stewart Lee having done the new edition forewords too, which is nice

couple of other texts that are at the intersection of these themes are by Robert Graves, The White Goddess which is chronologically wonky archaeologically today but thematically staggering, on the fight for survival of indigenous British bardic, ovate & druidic traditions battling the forces of Anglo-Saxon invasions

language enchantment is focused on as their last hope/key to possibly unlocking the traps........The Battle of the Trees extrapolated is so eloquently interpreted, it just needs a 2nd edition revision print to update the dating, plus "Welsh Incident" which seems to lurk & breath a life of its own and echoes in Coil tracks like Sick Mirrors & Something/Higher Beings Command

This could fit in the COIL thread, but I thought it would go well here, to illustrate the band's connection to the occult and Paganism:

http://www.nachtkabarett.com/coil

I'm not exactly clear on what Hauntology is or isn't... but I love just about anything spooky vibed, (huh.. ghosty, who woulda thought?) and also a fan of all the stuff Rubin mentioned in the original post...

You guys would dig this,  just discovered this within the hour through a bandcamp article about what they're calling "haunted folk"...

Klaus Morlock - Bethany's Cradle (original soundtrack)
https://klausmorlock.bandcamp.com/album/bethanys-cradle-original-soundtrack

Soundtrack to an abandoned 70's horror film that production was never completed on...it's a free download. I'm currently listening and it's pretty great stuff.



 

and here's the full article for anyone interested, seems to be a bunch stuff worth checking out in it:
https://daily.bandcamp.com/2017/05/04/folk-horror-music-list/?utm_source=facebook

EDIT: damn didn't see the article was already mentioned... but yeah anyway this shit's good.

Thanks for the links, I have that Owl Service album and it's awesome

http://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/32864/1/how-the-power-of-witchcraft-gripped-70s-britain

Just picked up on the label Reverb Worship, who do limited CDr runs, some great stuff on here:

http://www.reverbworship.com/index.html

An excellent free mix featuring several Reverb Worship artists:

http://folkhorrorrevival.bandcamp.com/album/folk-horror-revival-the-melmoth-mix

Wyrd Daze Magazine, free download:

https://wyrddaze.wordpress.com/2016/01/29/wyrd-daze-lvl2-issue-5/

Classic

Matt Peach is trying to fund his next The Stone Tapes album on Kickstarter, not sure if he'll make it, but a vinyl copy would be sweet indeed.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/thestonetapesproject/the-stone-tapes-the-kingdom-of-mercia