This week I am a guest on Andy Last’s long-running podcast Beyond Synth. Behold, as my mysterious image is shattered by my terrible public speaking voice!

Here it is on Spotify, but you can find it anywhere you usually get your podcasts:

It was a fun time, I was chuffed to be invited, and we realised we’d both been doing our thing for about the same time (over a decade!) and to be honest I’ve never really chatted with anyone about my own work, looking back on it in that way. So it was nice. Andy was particularly pleased to find that I knew about classic Dr Who too. I had some difficult dealing with the label ‘nerd’ though! I am just a very serious man.

Other news:

• I think I’m going to move from Mixcloud mixes to Spotify playlists, but do let me know if you were actually waiting for me to upload new mixes there. I’ve created a page to list them all here, most are also featured as Artist Playlists on the Cosmic Angst Spotify page.

  • Here’s volume IV of the COSMIC series.

  • And another edition of BR△IN W△VES.

• Having made a new year’s resolution to drop all excessive side-hobbies and get on with making music, I have a big folder of ideas from the last few years that I am churning through, so I hope to have something for subscribers soon. Maybe even a ‘proper’ release later in the year.

  • If you’re interested in hearing what I’m working on and occasionally some exclusive music then sign up for a Bandcamp subscription. It’s £10 once a year, it’s not an income stream for me, it’s really just a way of you registering your interest.

• Work due to be released soon:

  • Someone actually managed to get me to do a BODY PARTY remix for their EP.

  • The track Preliminal will be on a compilation. I think the release of this is imminent.

• I am making tentative steps onto Bluesky. Really, just as a user of it, the experience of competely ad free social media is mind-blowing. Try it out. I’m at @mild-peril.bsky.social

Perhaps the most exciting bit of news for a while? The most unexpected at least, if you had told me this time last year....

An Evening of Dungeon Synth : 30.11.24 at the Exchange, Bristol

Head over to the Events page for event info, ticket links, etc.

Bristol-based dungeon synth artist, Flickers From The Fen, contacted me earlier in the year to invite me to perform live, and while it took me some time to figure out how this might be achieved, I have gladly accepted. The last time I performed was back at the beginning, over a decade ago!

I will be performing material from the two 'wizard disco' albums, Matter and Quest. I also intend to put some sort of release together, based on the rehearsal sessions, hopefully in time for the gig if, well, if time allows.

I will be supporting Flickers From The Fen (of course) and Landsraad, a Dune-inspired project which dovetails nicely with my other interests.

This of course opens the door to the possibility of other live performances. I am unsure about the logistics of shifting my gear outside of Bristol, but let's see...

• Tickets from Headfirst.

Other news:

I have made the decision to reintroduce the project name Cosmic Angst for three of my albums - Unknown Zones, Strata (originally titled Cosmic Angst) and Mytheme. You can see the change now on Bandcamp, while streaming services will be updated in due course.

Future work will therefore fall under different project names depending on the style, and if you check the recent Body Cosmic release you'll see the tracks there now divided between three projects.

I understand some people find these sorts of tweaks confusing, which put me off making the change, until I remembered this isn’t a business, or a ‘brand’, I’m just a bloke that makes music. So I apologise if it irks you, the music is unchanged, and at the end of the day it's all Mild Peril anyway.

I’m late doing this, but then I had a lot of Dungeons & Dragons prep to do, you know how it is.

A Spotify playlist of these here.

1. Rue Oberkampf : Deine Augen : [Single] (2024) : A perfect wave classic, mournful yet twee in the best possible way. I’m sure this band have many other top tunes but sometimes it’s nice just to hold on and relish one like this that surely captures everything they might be capable of.

2. Brìghde Chaimbeul : Crònan (i) : Carry Them With Us (2023) : Funnily enough I’d been just listening to this album when a friend suggested ‘bagpipe music’ as something that no one would listen to. You might think so too until you put on this dirge that marries the cosmic with the rustic. Beautiful video for a different track below.

3. Amiture : Say It Back : The Beach (2021) : More ‘darkwave’. Very cool bass line, very cool vocals, very cool chords that say ‘rain at night’ in that way Boy Harsher do sometimes. I listened to the album this month too and while there are some odd tracks that veer from this style it’s mostly top, and the production is very solid, sonically.

4. Daniel L. K. Caldwell : Prospect : Prospect (2018) : The main theme from this fine small scale science fiction film, I wrote a bit about it On Letterboxd.

5. Causeway : We Were Never Lost : After Dark 3 (2020) : At the end of the summer I heard this song, which sounds like the end of the summer.

6. A-Ha : Living A Boy’s Adventure Tale : Hunting High And Low (1985) : It’s very easy to forget to investigate the discographies of guys like this. No matter how hard you steel yourself, you will not be prepared for the falsetto in this.

7. Manufacture : Passion For The Future : As The End Draws Near 12” (1988) : It’s just the b-side to the Manufacture track posted last month but it’s a solid instrumental EBM number that I hadn’t heard before, which is a rarity.

8. Farah : Boyz R Bad : After Dark 3 (2020) : From the same compilation as Causeway. Farah always does the same thing and it’s always great.

9. Zeroset : Elegy X : Act & Monument (2021) : I’m really bad at listening to friends’ music. This is by my friend Jonas and the entire album is solid, every track sounds like the sort of thing Visage would put on a b-side as an instrumental, and that is intended as a compliment.

10. Tribal Ghost : The Message : The Official Techno Club Compilation Volume 2 (1991) : Oh dear I’ve discovered a fresh batch of old techno/EBM compilations to mine.

The Viewing: Panos Cosmatos (2022) ★★★★★

Part of the Mild Peril Video Club, 2nd degree

An hour long entry in Guillermo Del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities series for Netflix. Panos Cosmatos (I love saying his name, it’s like a mantra) once again gives us something that makes everything around it look like a pile of shit. Like what does anyone else even think they’re doing with a camera. Go back to bed. The style may not be to everyone’s taste (and the fact that the story perhaps doesn’t ‘do’ much is part of that style) but the power of this thing oozes out of the telly. At one point, almost literally. Stars the Peter Weller of Robocop / Buckaroo Banzai / Naked Lunch fame and soundtrack by Daniel Lopatin / Oneohtrix Point Never, as if you needed any more reason to watch this.

• On Letterboxd.

Poster art by Bob Peak. Perfectly captures the atmosphere of the film, I think. More below.

Excalibur: John Boorman (1981) ★★★★★

Part of the Mild Peril Video Club, 2nd degree.

On the surface, this is such a cheesy film. Sweaty, lusty, and over the top with its music, costumes and the frequent use of off-screen electric lights glinting off the armour and swords… all done with such po-faced seriousness. 

But whether the style of it is something you embrace or have to acclimatise to, once immersed, the film has the power to really floor you… depending, I suspect, on the degree to which you connect to the King Arthur legend. For me it’s pretty much a religion, so armour-clad sex scenes, actors constantly shouting their lines in each other’s faces, and other odd director choices aside, I’m usually a bit of a mess by the end of this.

It’s inaccurate to talk of there being an ‘original’ version of the Arthurian legend, as it has naturally evolved over the centuries, but nevertheless this is my preferred version of the story, on page or on screen. It’s easy to forget but the sword in the stone and Excalibur, the sword delivered by the Lady of the Lake, are not the same weapon - yet of course it makes sense to our modern expectations of a story to have them combined, as is done here. While it could have been more clearly played out with a longer run time, the way in which the metaphysical aspect of the grail quest is brought to the fore is excellent, this whole act of the film is really bizarre and dreamlike. The finding of the grail and the curing of restoring of Arthur/the realm really comes across as a spiritual solution rather than a magical (i.e. scientific) one, and also avoids the Christian finger-wagging that it tends to feel like in the original legends. Other original ideas like the use of ‘the dragon’ as a kind of nature spirit that entwines our lives is really inspiring. Like, this is deep, deep folklore shit here.

On a more down-to-earth level, the depiction of the knights as (in the main) brutes rather than noble heroes is great, and I don’t know whether it was intentional or not, but the clumsiness of the action scenes with everyone falling about in the mud in their hulking great suits of armour, really gives everything a weight and realism. Nicol Williamson as Merlin is phenomenal, such a weird character, unlike any other portrayal of a wizard - makes even Ian McKellen and Christopher Lee seem clichéd.

Ignore the voiceover and this is a bloody good trailer!

And yes it is fun to laugh at too, you can’t deny how silly it is in moments, and it really does remind you of Monty Python’s Holy Grail sometimes. (Although, if you’ve actually read Le Morte d'Arthur you’ll know that the experience of watching Holy Grail is only as odd as the experience of reading those books.) But neither is Excalibur totally serious, there are plenty of intentional comedy moments. You’ll find yourself laughing at it, then with it, then unashamedly cheering, despite yourself.

I casually put this on in the morning to check a plot point I had been talking with a friend about the day before (in the King Arthur pub in Glastonbury, naturally) - I didn’t even know if I’d watch all of it, and two hours later I was just blown away again, despite having seen it I don’t know how many times. Nothing like a good cry before breakfast!

• This review on Letterboxd.

• If you like Excalibur you should definitely check out Black Angel:

And as a bonus…

I found this while looking up Excalibur on Letterboxd. This is a music video for the song Excalibur by William Sheller, directed by cosmic-comics master Philippe Druillet.

In French, the music is not too my taste, but worth a watch, as is any rare instance of the Heavy Metal / Metal Hurlant stable of artists producing work on film. Reminds a bit of Jeunet and Caro's work, particularly the early short Bunker of the Last Gunshots, although I say that never having actually watched it. I think it was projected on the wall when I was out somewhere once long ago. (Okay, clearly I need to add that to the watchlist too!)

Recently Druillet directed a video in the exact same style for the band Zombie Zombie - this is 'Nusquam et Ubique' from the 2022 album 'Vae Vobis'.

My favourite discovered tracks for July…

Here’s a Spotify playlist of this list (only one track missing from Spotify this month)

1. Glass Beams : Black Sand : Mahal (2024) : This band is probably the best thing Instagram has ever advertised to me. This new EP very much in the same vein as the first, which is not a bad thing at all. An instrumental blend of psych rock and ‘eastern’ (for want of a better word) melodies, with a touch of a film soundtrack vibe too.

2. Do Piano : Again : Again 12” (1985) : As I’ve said before, there’s always one more amazing italo disco track you’ve not yet heard. Or Swiss disco in this case.

3. O Yuki Conjugate : Beyond Control 3 : Scene In Mirage (1984) : This is a long running post-industrial scene-adjacent group, and I’m going to be lazy and describe them as a kind of dark new age thing. But a million times better than that has made them sound. I had one album, their third I think from the late 80s, and decided to investigate further. This is from their first, where their connections to new-/no-/minimal-wave sound are clearer, with drum machines etc and almost a danceable track here.

4. Riki : Sonar : Gold (2021) : I loved her first album but totally bounced off this one when it came out. Her inclusion in Riddle Of Fire - a recent mainly dungeon synth-soundtracked film that I want to see, made me take the time to listen again and it is indeed good. This track probably sounds the most like the first album, which I still prefer. It has a kind of mythic tinge to it with that main lead bell sound.

5. Anything Box : Moment’s Shifting : Hope (1993) : Can’t tell you anything about this group. Sounds like it was probably some very unfashionable sounding synth pop at the time of release but 30 years later could be a lost gem.

6. Jeanne Mas : Toute Premiere Fois : Toute Premiere Fois 12” (1984) : Pablo Bozzi remixed this recently and I’d never heard it. French synth pop.

7. Steve Moore : Point Dune : Eye of Horus (2024) : I once read Steve Moore saying somewhere that he didn't listen to dance music. So when he writes material in this vein, particularly using the instrumentation he does here (e.g. drum machines without too much of a kick, even something like a CompuRhythm at one point) it comes across as what might have been retrospectively called 'proto techno' had it been released in the 70s-80s era that the sounds might suggest. I wrote more on that Musicboard site which I unfortunately haven’t got as into using as I had hoped, unlike Letterboxd which continues to be an essential part of my life these days.

8. VNV Nation : When Is The Future? : Noire (2018) : A few times this year I’ve got drunk and for some reason suddenly remembered VNV Nation and imagined through rose-tinted headphones that they were worth ‘rediscovering’. While all the songs I remember from Slimelight suffer from terrible 00s crunchy drum goth disco production, this one hits the spot and also sounds alright when you’re not drunk.

9. Discovery Zone : Dance II : Remote Control (2020) : An appropriately summer sounding album of outsider-synth pop by someone who sounds very much like Nite Jewel but isn’t.

10. Energy 52 : Cafe Del Mar (Orbital Mix) : Cafe Del Mar (Orbital Remix) (2024) : A hobby this year has been collecting and ranking eurodance/trance tracks from the 90s/00s, and I’ll post the results sometime soon. That and having checked out what Orbital were doing these days having seen them perform their first two albums live back in May is I assume why Spotify recommended me this and I dig it.

11. Manufacture : As The End Draws Near : As The End Draws Near 12” (1988) : EBMish synth pop with Sarah McLachlan.

12. Asa Moto : Cacao : Martino (2021) : Cool funny balearic summer slowdisco with a silly voice.

13. Absurd : Der Akt : Der Akt (1990) : Kraftwerk-sampling early German techno/electro banger.

14. Spike Hellis : Slices : Spike Hellis (2022) : What’s with this band and 2 minute songs?

15. Alen Skanner : Perfect Dark : New Flesh (2023) : Spot-on non-ironic cyberpunk club music.

16. Peter Godwin : Images Of Heaven (Dance Mix) : Images of Heaven 12” (1982) : Apparently we made synth pop here in Britain too I had no idea.

17. Tangerine Dream : Puer Natis Est Nobis (Gloria) : The Keep (1983) : Having rewatched The Keep this month, I looked up the first officially released version of this soundtrack from the recent massive Pilots of Purple Twilight boxed set. This is one of the few tracks that is also in the bootleg versions of the soundtrack which to be honest are better I think.

18. Rhythm On The Loose : Break Of Dawn : Break Of Dawn 12” (1991) :

• Spotify playlist again. I don’t actually use Spotify, other than to load it with playlists to prompt recommendations, which is working pretty well.

• Allen Skanner’s Perfect Dark on Murder Records’ Bandcamp:

On Friday I uploaded the second volume of Cosmic BBQ and ended up mixing the third one live, as it’s more of a beat-orientated affair, so I’ve uploaded that volume too today.

These two volumes now overtake the timeline as far as the main series is concerned, and the third mix takes us into 76 : 84 - the disco and new wave era, and home to what is more traditionally thought of as the cosmic / balearic sound. That genre-straddling off-kilter left-field not-disco vibe.

• The first Cosmic BBQ is here.

• The main Cosmic series starts here.

• More to come both on Mixcloud and with my Coil mixes hosted here on this site.

The hot weather prompted me to post the latest iteration of Cosmic BBQ on Mixcloud.

I’ve compiled several of these over the last few years but these ones are the definitive versions, two more to come after this. This one’s got the earliest stuff on it so it’s a bit exotica/easy listening going into psych rock and, er, Buddhist jazz.

• This new Cosmic mix series starts here. They’re chronological.

• My Coil mixes can’t be hosted on Mixcloud so they are here.

• More to come, I have the first volume of a Body Party mix almost ready…

Here’s a Spotify playlist of this list (two tracks are missing from Spotify, see below)

1. Ortrotasce : Lockout : War (2023)

2. John Rocca : I Want It To Be Real : I Want It To Be Real 12” (1983)

3. Sensations’ Fix : Fragments Of Light : Fragments of Light (1976)

4. Curses : Get Lost : Next Wave Acid Punks Deux - Secret Cuts [comp.] (2024)

5. Eurythmics : No Fear, No Hate, No Pain (No Broken Hearts) : Touch (1983)

6. Doris Norton : Personal Computer : Personal Computer (1984)

7. The Bionaut : Octopus : Everybody’s Kissing Everyone (1992)

8. Hällas : Stygian Depths : Isle Of Wisdom (2022)

9. Carl Orff : Bläserstücke : Schulwerk / Musica Poetica (1964?)

10. Anthony Rother : Biomechanik (Video Mix) : Biomechanik CDS (2001)

11. Donato Doxxy : Parola (Rework) : Variations 12” (2019)

12. Praga Khan : Injected With A Poison (Adam’s Power Mix) : Injected With A Poison (Digital Orgasm Remixes) 12” (1992)

13. PVA : Untethered : Blush (2022)

14. Robin Williamson : Usual Dream : The Dragon Has Two Tongues (1985)

15. Sextile : No Fun : Push (2023)

16. Ton Globiter : Yaze Gaze : Zur Xtasy (2024)

17. Notausgang : Kill Kill Business : New Flesh [comp.] (2023)

18. HTRK : Feels Like Love : Psychic 9-5 Club (2014)

19. Book Of Love : Tubular Bells : Pretty Boys And Pretty Girls / Tubular Bells 12” (1988)

20. Vatican Shadow : Take Vows : Media In The Service Of Terror (2016)

21. Kay Hoffman : Tempus Instant : Floret Silva (1985)

22. Mouissie : Callisto : Mirror Fantasy [comp.] (2020)

23. O Yuki Conjugate : Odomankoma : Scene In Mirage (1984)

24. Greg Foat : Artic Cavern : Psychosynthesis (2022)

25. Puppy Mountain : New Romance : [single] (2022)

• Spotify playlist (two tracks are missing from Spotify, see below)

• Doris Norton’s Personal Computer on Mannequin Records’ Bandcamp:

• Notausgang’s Kill Kill Business on the New Flesh compilation from Murder:

The Keep (1983) ★★★★☆

Part of the Mild Peril Video Club, 2nd degree.

This is the kind of film I live for. I had a period of discovering old films which I think is long past now, and this was like accidentally finding the holy grail or something. A housemate had it taped off the television, and I ended up forking out £25 quid for a VHS copy some time after.* Nazis in a castle having their souls sucked out by a floating brain that then turns into a kind of undead bodybuilder, filmed in the most 80s style that clashes with its period setting, starring Jürgen Prochnow, Gabriel Byrne and Ian McKellen, and with music by Tangerine Dream? Fuck off, as if that exists. And directed by Michael Mann of all people.

But I've made it sound as if the appeal is that it's cheesy. And okay yes it partly is that, but while it is doomed to fall apart before the last third, it just has such an atmosphere in it that just speaks to me, and that carries me far enough that I don't mind the ending. You can laugh at how silly it is to distract you from the sadness that the film was never properly finished, for various reasons you can read about elsewhere.

It's that same kind of feeling of having fallen into an alternate universe as when I discovered the vast amount of obscure old synth pop & disco there is out there. It's definitely partly attached to nostalgia, and to a kind of tongue in cheek attitude, like 'I love it because it's bad' but not really... I've always said that there's no such thing as cheese, if it's something you like. Calling something cheesy is a defence mechanism, and it's fine, sometimes you need armour that to break through your fear of ridicule, into a new realm of joy.

• I of course took the name of the monster in The Keep for my side project Molasar.

• This review on Letterboxd.

• The (New) Mild Peril Video Club, 2nd degree - a better version I’m currently working on.

*I can vouch for this DVD issue, by the way, the one by Via Vision. I'm not sure how official it is, and it's not been restored at all, but this is the only way you'll own it.

This trailer was put together by a particular cinema screening the film, but it showcases Tangerine Dream’s score nicely and is of better picture quality than the original trailer.

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]]>Mild Peril Video Club : The Keep (1983)film reviewsChris GilbertSat, 25 May 2024 07:15:00 +0000https://www.mild-peril.co.uk/the-zone/mpvc-madmax19796533b56531cb2861a80b45b4:663b2cdd1849ea70a5aef2c3:6684f41e4fb3fa7acb3ae217

Mad Max (1979) ★★★★★

Mild Peril Video Club, 2nd degree

In my mind this film is inseparable from my taste in music. In every way that it is lo fi, low budget, weird, cheesey, slightly naff but ultimately fucking cool, I love it. If Mad Max 2 is a visual touchpoint for later, heavier industrial music, then the original for me is aligned with the weirder, minimal, synth punk that I’ve always found more appealing. And the hospital scene always reminds me of Throbbing Gristle’s Hamburger Lady.

Mad Max 2 (1981) ★★★★☆

Mad Max: Fury Road (2014) ★★★★★

Mild Peril Video Club, 1st degree

Alas, the clunky synth score on this trailer is not the actual film score.

]]>Mild Peril Video Club : Mad Max (1979) (1981… 2014)film reviewsChris GilbertTue, 14 May 2024 07:04:00 +0000https://www.mild-peril.co.uk/the-zone/mild-peril-video-club-vigil-19846533b56531cb2861a80b45b4:663b2cdd1849ea70a5aef2c3:6687872c929d1b7840634d4c

Vigil (1984) ★★★★★

Part of the Mild Peril Video Club, 2nd degree

A brilliant film. Magical in the true sense. Reminds you that every event can and should be seen as a moment of magical significance. I think this is perhaps the definition of a child’s viewpoint in a film, even here where many scenes take place without the child present. It reminded me a little of The Falling, and I watched Monos the other day which put me in a similar mood but in a very different film. The setting kind of takes it out of time. Why does the girl never go to school? Doesn’t matter! Shot after shot could be framed. Just so great.

• To watch this (in the UK at least) you will need to either buy it on disc from Arrow, or stream it via the Arrow channel on Amazon.

• This review on Letterboxd.

• The (New) Mild Peril Video Club, 2nd degree - a better version I’m currently working on.

]]>Mild Peril Video Club : Vigil (1984)