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Aliester Crowley: Black Magic
I lost a few good records when I broke up with my last long-term boyfriend. There are three that still haunt me, all these years later, and I’ve finally been able to add two of them back into my collection. I can’t remember if I was even the one to purchase them (probably not) but I was so excited to somewhat own them. I usually save my money for used records because I know Daniel and our customers always bring the heat and I have a hard time saying no but the past few weeks have tested my wallet with these new releases.
Any stoner with a feigning interest in metal/psych/desert rock should (and hopefully does) listen to Earthless. Their latest record came out a few weeks ago, but what I was MOST excited about are the reissues of their back catalog. My ex got From the Ages when we split and it’s been a bitch trying to secure a copy of my own. Thanks, Earthless, for the represses! Still on the hunt for Black Breath’s Sentenced to Life LP…
What I’m really here to write about is this Aliester Crowley record, though. I have no idea if this is the same thing as what my ex got at, where else but Graveface. We didn’t have a working record player until we were 20+ records deep into collecting, so I can’t recall what it sounded like or if we ever listened to it. We kept it hanging on the wall throughout every move, though. When I saw the familiar photo on the ‘coming soon’ section of one of our distributors, I immediately messaged Daniel so we could secure a copy for at least myself.
I’m glad he bought more than one because I’d feel a little guilty depriving anyone else of this rad release. I love Cleopatra Records and always look to them to release the weird shit. They got a bunch of electronic artists to create tracks with the famous recording of Crowley as ‘vocals’ for all the tracks. I’ve heard the recordings on YouTube but I did not know it was from an old wax cylinder from the early 1910s!! This compilation is really a great mix of dark ambient, beautiful instrumentals, and overall just some shit you wanna hear in a dark smoky goth club. Crowley’s voice doesn’t feel forced into the tracks- everything compliments each other. I thoroughly enjoyed the entire thing, so I thought it was fitting to share it with some people who (hopefully) will also like it.
The best part of this release isn’t the music, though that comes as a close second. The release has two LPs on a beautiful red vinyl and the second record is a newly remastered version of JUST the old wax cylinder recording. It sounds super crisp and I think I understood a lot more of it than when I’ve listened to poor quality youtube videos in the past.
If you like the occult or just like some good ol’ witch house/dark synth/ambient goth shit/whatever, you MUST listen to this. As I write this we still have two copies in store and on the website…