P583 Willow's Song Swarm

This song is from the original Wicker Man movie and certainly had an eye catching scene to go with it.  Its dreamy trance inducing melody will certainly get stuck in your head.  Over the years I kept hearing this pop up in random places with different interpretations and covers, some good, some bad.  

Mushroom's Patience was what started me on collecting these tracks, after saying, "Huh, they covered that song?"

The odd mouth harp in Anna Oxygen's version kind of works for the style I guess.

The skittering light echo on the drum loop with Damh the Bard adds a modern twist to the classic folksy style.

Isobel Campbell doing what I'd hoped Belle & Sebastian would've done at some point, adding a little psyche folk to their soft pop style.

Sally Doherty and the Sumacs doing a fine rendition, I've always liked her voice and contributions to Sol Invictus.

Seafood adding a wonderful dark ominous drone and wood chimes adding to the eeriness of this song.

Sing-Sing is another surprise for me, though their version is a bit simple in my opinion.

The Mock Turtles male lead vocals is a nice change.

Kelli Ali, formerly of Sneaker Pimps, leaves trip-hop behind for her version.  The Sneaker Pimps version is also included though I've never really liked it.

Pulp is here only because they sampled the original for this track.  I've never been a fan of Pulp.

Someone else made this playlist, which has most but not all these versions. 

Also interesting that not everyone calls this song by the same title.

Anna Oxygen - Willow Song

Autour De Lucie - Island

Damh the Bard - Willow's Song

Doves - Willow's Song

Faith & The Muse - Willow's Song

Gwendolyn Snowdon - Willow's Song

Isobel Campbell - Willow's Song

Kelli Ali - Willow's Song

Lodestone - Willow's Theme

Mushroom's Patience - Willow's Song

Nature and Organization - Wicker Man Song

Paul Giovanni & Magnet - Willow's Song

Pulp - Wickerman

Rachel Verney - Willow's Song (vocal)

Rachel Verney - Willow's Song (film version)

Robert Reed - Willow's Song

Sally Doherty and the Sumacs - Wicker Man

Seafood - Willow's Song

Sing-Sing - Willow's Song

Sneaker Pimps - How Do

The Go! Team -  Willow's Song

The Mock Turtles - The Willow Song

Us & Them - Willow's Song

Download this song swarm (unmixed)

519 Sense and the Story's End

A little bit of what is making me smile lately.

00:00  Wolf Alice - Sense (King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard)

03:17  Sieben - Maldoror

07:26  Neither/Neither World - All I Ever Wanted (Bauhaus)

11:29  The Legendary Pink Dots - Our Dominion

17:18  His Name Is Alive - Young

20:53  Townes Van Zandt - Tecumseh Valley

25:36  Social Distortion - Alone and Forsaken (Hank Williams Sr.)

28:39  Violent Femmes - American Music (Alternative Mix)

32:13  Adam Green - Bleeding Heart

34:05  Kimya Dawson - Everything's Alright

36:35  Tiger Trap - Prettiest Boy

39:44  The Notwist - Neon Golden

45:36  Slowdive - Kisses (Electronic Version 3)

49:04  A Certain Ratio - Where You Coming From (Jane Weaver Rework)

53:00  Ben Hobbs - Here's Where The Story Ends (The Sundays)

57:27  Father John Misty - I Guess Time Just Makes Fools Of Us All

65:47  Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Baby

70:11  Heidi Berry - The Devil

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Spotify (13/18)

502 Am I still me when her eyes are closed?

00:00  Bill Wells Octet - Pink Kitty

04:16  Death In June - Leopard Flowers (Of Mix)

07:56  Mar-Vista - Her Eyes are Closed

11:58  Lard Free - In A Desert/Alambic

17:35  The Devil & The Universe - Crescent

21:02  Muslimgauze - Track 05 (un-used re-mixs)

31:20  Abu AMA - DecontamiNation (Stomp Dub)

33:31  Tristwch Y Fenywod - Llwydwyrdd

37:24  Genesis - The Waiting Room

42:14  The Legendary Pink Dots - I Dream of Jeannie

46:05  C-Tec - Lost

50:57  u-Ziq - Melancho

56:12  Laika - Thomas

59:37  Tujiko Noriko - Tokyo Tower

63:59  Colin Potter - Is It You, Is It Me?

65:28  Harmonia - Ahoi! (Herbert's Fall Dub)

72:05  s/t - Der Zwiebelfisch (Klangbad version)

77:25  Lustmord - Invocation of the Nameless One

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Spotify (15/18)

490 Shadows mix A

Ending 2024 with an appropriately somber and mellow couple of mixes. 

I've wanted to use this opening Piano Magic track for a long time, but never found the right place for it.  I finally thought, what about shadows... and by sheer luck, an episode of Kids in the Hall came on and the theme song is from Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet and I knew I had my theme.  Fortunately, Current 93 has plenty of songs with Shadow in the title so I was off to a great start.  Plus, I have been hanging on to this picture for a while.  Its a fan made comic strip using the lyrics from that opening track by Piano Magic.  Always thought this was pretty cool.

00:00  Piano Magic - I Came to Your Party Dressed as a Shadow

04:04  Yo La Tengo - Shadows

06:24  Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros - Long Shadow

09:53  Sam Prekop - The Shadow

14:31  Current 93 + Nurse With Wound - Walking Like Shadow II

17:14  Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio - Mary Dances in the Shadows/The Holiest of Harlots

21:22  Piano Magic - I Have Moved Into The Shadows

25:45  Material - Shadows of Paradise

35:18  Future Sound of London - Dirty Shadows

41:33  Death In June - A Sad Place to Make A Shadow

44:34  Current 93 - Chewing on Shadows

48:50  Current 93 - Where the Long Shadows Fall

54:51  Rapoon - The Shadows Approach

62:40  Nordvargr - The Shadows Are Bent By My Presence

66:27  Current 93 + Nick Cave - I Could Not Shift the Shadow

72:32  Grey Force Wakeford - Shadows in the Light

79:44  Rapoon - Sunday's Shadows

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Spotify (29/35)

449 Vinyl Rips - Mix 6 Something for Everyone

This one is all over the map.  Tracks left off previous mixes, and a reinvigorated sense of pride in my vinyl collection led me to convert even more to digital.  The rarest of rare Pearl Jam vinyl and an anniversary tour only 7" from the Pink Dots.  Several Earthmonkey tracks, he's a friend and I finally got around to ripping my vinyl to MP3.

00:00  Saturday Looks Good To Me - Alcohol

02:07  Amorphous Androgynous - 20 Years Behind Bars

04:40  The Olympians - Midnight Movement

08:02  The Budos Band - Long in the Tooth

11:48  Vanishing Twin - The Third Door

13:33  Earthmonkey - Spiral Unwinda

19:26  Pearl Jam - Let Me Sleep (It's Christmastime)

22:07  Myrkur - Bonden Og Kragen

24:33  Foresta Di Ferro - Fronte San Vittore (A Tutte Le Anime Criminali)

28:20  Earthmonkey - Angelmans Supernova

38:37  Pharmakon - Bang Bang (Sony Bono)

42:06  Nurse With Wound - Penis Fruit Loop (deambulation mix)

46:50  Novy Svet - B1 (Desde Infiernos De Flores)

48:20  The Legendary Pink Dots - Legacy 2006

54:58  Earthmonkey - Pea Pods Plasma Square

57:24  Jack Dangers - 8 Miniatures with Origins

63:36  Earthmonkey - Sundara Bukhara

71:28  Twilight Circus - Rocking Dub remix

75:30  The Olympians - Sirens of Jupiter

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345 Spells of The Old Ways

Witchcraft/Wicca and Pagan influenced music.  Included two radically different versions of Tam Lin and several, maybe too many, Wicker Man references.  The Andrew Liles track might have been included by mistake, I was compiling these tracks at the same time as my overview of his works, and pretty sure my drag and drop ended in the wrong folder.  Still it fits pretty well here.  All the Agalloch tracks are short edits where all I wanted to include were the samples.  Of course I had to start this off with the greatest Halloween themed breaks record ever from Tino Corp.  That is required listening every October.

00:00  Tino Corp - Spells

00:38  Current 93 feat Ian Reed - Benediction

02:26  Andrew Liles - An Unkempt Garden or the Cod Cape

06:05  Fairport Convention - Tam Lin

13:13  Glenda Jackson, Patrick Gowers & John Williams - Black March

16:12  Children of the Isle - We Carry Death Out Of The Village

16:25  Sol Invictus - Song of the Flower (edit)

21:10  The Heartwood Institute - The Old Ways

23:40  Les Joyaux De La Princesse - Wolf Rune 1

29:02  Agalloch - Sowilo Rune

29:35  Sol Invictus - Abattoirs Of Love (edit)

32:41  Walter Carr, Rachel Verney and Sally Presant - Maypole Song

34:46  Buffy Sainte-Marie - God is Alive, Magic is Afoot

39:32  Nilson - Down in the Garden

43:18  Midwinter - Sanctuary Stone

47:21  Sol Invictus - Raven Chorus

47:53  Agalloch - Summerisle Reprise

48:41  Current 93 - North

49:14  va - Main Title (Within the Woods)

50:37  Toadstone - Circle of Stones

54:10  Current 93 - Tamlin

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photo credit: https://aeon.co/essays/why-we-need-a-new-expression-of-the-sacred-a-pagan-theology

219 - Amen the Thunderbolt in The Dark Void

Dark folk with an air of mysticism.

00:00  Changes - Waiting for the Fall

02:20  :Of The Wand And The Moon: - Raven Chant

05:54  Toroidh - Testament I

09:55  The Moon Lay Hidden Beneath A Cloud - Rest On Your Arms Reversed #2

13:03  Death In June - But What Ends When The Symbols Shatter

16:15  Sonne Hagal - Memory, Hither Come

19:09  :Of The Wand And The Moon: - Hail Hail Hail II

21:22  Foresta Di Ferro - Seppelliscimi In Piedt

24:37  Unto Ashes - Ostia (The Death of Pasolini) (COIL)

30:25  Rose McDowall & Shawn Pinchbeck - Spirit Flesh

35:54  The Hare and The Moon - Crazy Man Michael

40:53  The Moon Lay Hidden Beneath A Cloud - #4

44:19  Death In June - Hullo Angel

45:52  :Of The Wand And The Moon: - Here's To Misery (A Toast)

49:29  Varunna - A Sa Brigada

55:35  The Moon Lay Hidden Beneath A Cloud - Rest On Your Arms Reversed #10

57:51  Toroidh - Hail Wermland

61:34  Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio - A World Not So Beautiful (A Song 4 The Emperor)

66:38  Strength Through Joy - A Grave For Burning Wings

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photo credit: Kim Larsen from :otwatm:

Episode 159 - Wyrd Folk

A mix culled from multiple compilations, but a heavy focus on the excellent series called "In The Lost Queen's Eyes" available at the blog Its Lost Its Found

00:00  Magnet - Willow's Song

04:36  Nico - Afraid

07:56  In Gowan Ring - The Rolling Of The Stones

13:46  Bridget Saint John - It Seems Very Strange

14:25  Oberon - Nottanum Town

18:05  Stone Angel - The Bells of Dunwich

23:36  Susan Christie - Rainy Day

26:31  Bridget Saint John - Back To Stay

31:09  Reet Hendrikson - Haanja Miis

34:26  Agincourt - When I Awoke

37:28  Selda - Gesi Baglari

40:44  Yoon Yoon Sun - Before You Go

43:47  unknown - Devotion

47:25  Saffron - Vision is a Lonely Word

50:35  Tim Buckley - Song To The Siren

53:58  Tony, Caro & John - Swirling Sphere

55:47  Malicorne - Le Luneux

60:31  Midwinter - Sanctuary Stone

64:33  Mark Fry - Dreaming With Alice

65:53  Ramases - Earth People

71:09  Trader Horne - Jenny May

photo credit: bark

Episode 93 - Threes and Nines

This is my favorite genre; occult, dark, almost sinister in its charming beauty.  I have spent so many years compiling and seeking out this style of music.  Its a longer mix for good reason, I just couldn't cut anything from this playlist.

00:00 Agalloch - Sowilo Rune

00:40 Current 93 - A Beginning

01:22 Magpiety - The Rolling of the Stones

03:23 Bitchin Bonnie Billy - Pretty Saro (Shirley Collins)

07:31 Current 93 featuring Shirley Collins - All The Pretty Horses

10:04 Spell - Rosemary's Baby (Lullaby Part 1)

12:32 Nature and Organization - Wicker Man Song

17:04 The Horses of the Gods - John Barleycorn

20:49 Moongazing Hare - Fall Apart (Death in June)

24:21 Current 93 - At Sunset

28:15 Of the Wand and the Moon - In A Robe of Fire (New Version)

32:07 Rosa Mundi - The Snow Man

34:55 Buffy Sainte-Marie - God Is Alive, Magic Is Afoot

39:31 Trees - track 2

41:30 John Contreras and Rose McDowall - Afraid (Nico)

44:27 Current 93 featuring Shirley Collins - Idumaea

47:00 Richard M & Robert B. Sherman - Hushabye Mountain

48:42 In Gowan Ring - Dandelion Wine

50:45 Agalloch - Summerisle Reprise

51:31 Current 93 - North

52:05 Changes - Summer

54:44 Nick Castro - Sun Song

58:46 Nature and Organization - Bloodstreamruns

63:20 Current 93 - Hourglass (for Diana)

70:00 Moon Lay Hidden Beneath A Cloud - Untitled 7

70:11 Current 93 - Benediction

72:04 Current 93 - The Dilly Song

72:57 The Kings Singers - The Oak and The Ash

75:58 Sol Invictus - Raven Chorus

76:34 Of the Wand and the Moon - Hail Hail Hail

79:20 Moon Lay Hidden Beneath A Cloud - untitled 16

photo credit: a beautiful beast 

Episode 64 - Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt

Dark indie folk, to some gothic alternative rock, and ending with a bit of gospel.  I like this dark vibe for October, even though I made this mix sometime early 2017.  Love the Unto Ashes track, from the fan tribute to Coil "Loved Stolen and Deconstructed."  I almost contributed a track when they solicited from the email distro, but was not confident in my music skills at the time.  I had to throw in a track from locals Orbit Service, with a nod that Randall is now a touring member of Legendary Pink Dots.  

00:00 Pascal Comelade/Pierre Bastien/Jac Berrocal/Jaki Liebezeit - Rock'n'Roll Station

05:00 Angels of Light - Sunset Park

10:48 Unto Ashes - Ostia The Death of Passolini (Coil)

16:35 Nina Simone - I Put a Spell On You

19:06 mewithoutYou - Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt

23:51 The Cranes - Eg Shining

27:30 Larsen - Mentre

30:04 Marissa Nadler - Wedding

33:44 Orbit Service - Dark Orange Sunset

40:26 This Immortal Coil - Tattoed Man (3EF remix)(Coil)

45:45 Piano Magic - I am the Sub-Librarian

50:05 Julee Cruise - Falling

55:06 The Staple Singers - This May Be The Last Time

57:10 Washington Phillips - Mother's Last Word to Her Son

photo credit: Kurt Vonnegut "Slaughterhouse Five" illustration