Current 93 "The Seahorse Rears To Oblivion"

The quintessential apocalyptic folk song. The obvious (easy) criticism of this is that it's just too morose, too downbeat, too melodramatic. But without having put too much thought into the subject, I still think it's beautiful. From so much of David Tibet's music you get the sense that he really feels it, he's earnestly, unpretentiously trying to paint his vision of a world of darkness, everything unknown, there is so much to be felt and seen that it is overwhelming to contemplate and maybe depressing to know how much will remain unseen after he dies. And the whole gnostic, early middle age kind of feel to his music is appropriate; it's a time that makes me think of dark forests illuminated by campfires, hushed songs through cracks in stone walls and night skies filled with heavenly strangers. A time when people realized again that they knew nothing? That might be an important thing to keep in mind.

This kind of music doesn't fit among other favorites of mine, like The Tough Alliance and jj, because its narrator maybe isn't someone I'd want to follow the example of. But that doesn't mean I don't totally feel what he's talking about. This essentially is only a poem set to music, but it's an amazing vocal performance. He sounds like he's choking back sobs. I'll always appreciate art that totally, sincerely tries (and succeeds) to embody some kind of aesthetic or period or whatever.

The painting is one of Louis Wain's latest, when his mental health was at its worst. It's a cat. David Tibet loves Louis Wain. Maybe David Tibet sympathizes with what he thinks is a familiar reaction: astral vertigo?