Album: Witchcraft and Black Magic in the United
Kingdom
Artist: Various
Label: Eighth Tower Records
Catalogue no: ETR022
Tracklist:
1. Grey
Frequency – Elegy for Vinegar Tom
2. Rapoon
– The Village
3. Howlround
– Crypt of St. John
4. Satori
– Hag of Hair
5. Daniel
Williams – Do you Believe in Witches
6. Michael
Bonaventure – Coronach
7. Sky
High Diamonds – The Discoverer
8. Howlround
– Peck in the Crown
9. Daniel
Williams – You can do Almost Anything you Want with Them
It’s now hard to imagine
that there was a time, about 350 years ago, when the fear of witches and
magicians was very real in Britain, reaching its apogee in the 17th
century when the likes of misogynist Witchfinder General Matthew Hopkins went
roaming across the land in search of ‘witches’ and securing their conviction,
mostly through highly dubious means. These victims of the witch hunts and
trials were all probably innocent, but in those highly-charged times, the
church had a much more pre-eminent role in the life of the populace (most of
whom were illiterate and ignorant). Those two terms, witchcraft and black
magic, were, in the minds of most people, interchangeable and even though we
are more enlightened these days, there are still those who believe that the two
practices are the same thing (in fact, the last woman convicted of witchcraft
was prosecuted during the last war, and the Witchcraft Act was only repealed in
1951 in the UK).
Raffaele Pezzella’s Eight
Tower Records here presents us with a set of nine pieces based around the
general theme of British witchcraft and black magic. And we get stuck right in
with Grey Frequency’s ‘Elegy for Vinegar Tom’; Vinegar Tom is the name of a 1976 play and also the name of a cat
familiar character within the play, and was written to explore the role unequal
gender politics played in both the 17th century trials and 20th
century women. It begins with supernatural howling and scratching, all the
while a ringing tone haunts the background. The atmosphere here is one of forbidden
rites performed in murky forests by the light of the moon, a classic image, a
rite of calling upon nature in service to man and woman. Gently it fades into
magnificent ambient pastoral tones, reminding us of witchcraft’s natural
connections.
Robin Storey’s Rapoon
bring us an uncharacteristically un-Rapoon-like track, distant church bells
into which a series of plucked string tones intercede. This apparently was
inspired by an incident in Story’s younger years, and judging by its haunting
overtones it must have affected him greatly. Its sheer simplicity is what makes
this so effective, aided and abetted by a stark cello figure, and I genuinely
felt shivers at its ghostly sparseness. It gets into your system and refuses to
let go, and one can only shiver at what the young Storey must have experienced
to produce such a wonderfully evocative track.
Howlround’s ‘Crypt of St.
John’ whistles in on cold winds that wrap themselves around your body, and grip
you with icy fingers. Creatures not of this world fly about your ears,
caterwauling and chirruping, with the intent of driving you mad with their
constant noise. Have you wronged someone lately? Or have you dared to accuse
someone of practising witchcraft? Perhaps you have now been caught in the web
of their curse…and the only way you’ll ever escape their malign intentions are
through either the bliss of madness or death.
‘Hag of Hair’ conjures up
the usual stereotypical depictions of witches, ugly of visage and demeanour,
living isolated lives in lonely stone cottages, furtively and secretively brewing
up potions, and casting spells for the lovelorn and curses upon enemies. The
point is that these images were malicious methods of controlling women: a good
Christian woman would be meek whilst a headstrong one would obviously be an
agent of the devil. Until fairly recently this was the sole archetype we
possessed of the witch in popular culture, the stuff of children’s nightmares. Satori’s
piece utilises low rumbles and engine whines to create an atmosphere that plays
on that propagandistic perception and how it purposefully demeaned women.
Daniel William’s ‘Do you
Believe in Witches?’ is next: a simple enough question – but, it has very
important consequences, not least the cognitive dissonance the traditional image of what a witch ‘is’
would elicit today. In former centuries there would have been no such
dissonance – witches and all their powers were real. The track begins with
glitchy looping before a voice asks “Do you burn them witches?”, after which
noisy swirls and ringing howls battle for supremacy, the latter winning out. It
drifts into slight atonality, suggesting that very cognitive dissonance we feel
at the mindset of our ancestors, and organ tones also suggest the part that the
church played in condemning thousands of innocent women to a brutal death.
Michael Bonaventure
continues the organ theme on ‘Coronach’, beginning with substantial bass drones
that resonate through the solar plexus, leading to sawing echoes and
reverberations. It builds into a lament of quiet power, a heartfelt dirge for
someone who was perhaps a much-loved member of a community, who was maliciously
accused of something they didn’t do, perhaps by a jealous neighbour or suitor.
(A coronach is a Scottish song of mourning for the dead, as in Sir Walter
Scott’s Legend of Montrose. This possesses
a real sense of death unlooked for, due to the executioner’s rope, and yet
another victim is mourned.) It’s hauntingly beautiful, a sad statement of the
terror of the supernatural and its agents, and the consequences of being
accused, whether rightly or wrongly.
‘The Discoverer’ is also
haunting, but for entirely different reasons. Here, Sky High Diamonds use the
accounts of ‘accusations’ against so-called witches, all of which beggar
belief, the voices set against sold winds and howls. We marvel at the
gullibility of these people, but simultaneously understand that in some cases
the accusations were deflections to lead suspicion away from the accuser and a
way of surviving.
Howlround make a second
appearance in the form of ‘Peck in the Crown’, a watery, bubbling, and
whispering track, perhaps the haunting voices of those drowned while being
ducked to see if they were witches – if they were witches they would float, but
if they drowned they were innocent. That was quite the logic eh?
Finally, Daniel Williams
also makes a return, with ‘You can do Almost anything you Want with Them’, a
chilling statement if ever there was one. This consists of hissy recordings of
two male voices having a discussion, before tinkling tones floating on a
whispering carpet of susurrating wind takes over along with guitar. Those winds
seem to carry the souls of the victims of a consensual madness into a brighter
tomorrow, assured that it was the insanity of men that caused their demise.
This is something of a
testament, to the delusion of crowds and to the madness of frightened men.
Women were seen as creatures to be controlled, chattels even, and any sign of
independence was seen as a sign of the Devil, and anathema to the will of God.
This is also a memorial, a remembrance to all those who were caught up in all
the insanity and came off on the losing side, no matter how abominable it
sounds to us now. A wonderful selection of piece, all united under a common
theme, with an aesthetic that flows like a river between them all. Even though
these acts were invited to participate and worked individually, they have
created a kind of magic of their own – a compilation that deserves a wide
audience and a place in everyone’s collection.
Available as a download
and a limited CD from the Eighth Tower Records Bandcamp site:
Psymon Marshall 2019.
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