Take Me to the Farm

I'm very excited about this most recent podcast. It was a kind of round table discussion with Frank Zero and Jeremy Knight of ZeroKnight and the great Christopher Knowles of The Secret Sun. Frank and Jeremy are of course collaborating with me on my forth coming book while Chris is a legend who has been an enormous influence and inspiration for my own research. Needless to say, I was uber excited for this podcast, as I'm sure my nerves at the onset (and five or so cups of coffee I had had previously) will attest too.

We managed to cover a host of topics in a chat that went just a little over an hour. They included D-Wave, Gordie Rose, Elon Musk, and how credible some of the claims surrounding these entities truly are; cybernetics and its ties to behavior modification experiments; Nick Land, the Cybernetics Culture Research Unit (CCRU), "accelerationism" and the remarkable decree of influence these things have had; Jack Kirby and the potentially arcane influences of his comics; the black oil trope in fiction; Kenneth Grant, his potential ties to Peter Tompkins, and the vast influence he has had on the likes of Peter Levenda and Colonel Michael Aquino; the specter of the mysterious Sovereign Order of Saint John (SOSJ) lurking behind Tompkins and Levenda; SOSJ "interrogation specialists" Cleve Backster; other curious SOSJ knights such as Philip J. Corso, Carl Maria Stanley and fellow travelers such as arch child rapist David Ferrie; fiction depictions of ARTICHOKE and MK-ULTRA.; contemporary paganism; Colonia Dignidad; Epstein; Le Cercle; and so much more.

The podcast can be found here. A YouTube version with a slideshow can also be found here.

More information on the topics discussed, check some of the following:

The JFK Assassination: A Strange and Terrible Journey series
Bavaria, the Thule Society, the SOSJ, and the Making of a Revolutionary Faith series
The Office of Security: A Tale of Sex, Drugs, and High Weirdness
The Office of Security Meet the Nine Parts One and Two
Fringe: The Strange and Terrible History of the Far Right and High Weirdness series
The Lovecraftian Enlightenment
The Dark Enlightenment and More Mellon Madness

Well, that should be enough to keep those of you just joining the party preoccupied for the time being. Again, I would like to give a big thank you to Frank, Jeremy, and Chris for making this happen. It was great fun and hopefully we'll be able get together for another round table discussion in the near future. I hope everyone enjoys this one as much as I enjoyed recording it. Until next time dear readers, stay tuned.

Recluse on Forbidden Knowledge

Chris at Forbidden Knowledge News was kind enough to have me on a few days ago. We tackled a host of topics. At the forefront was Epstein and his links to various black projects as well as the sinister implications underlining his dabblings in genetic modifications. We also had a wide ranging discussion on ARTICHOKE and MK-ULTRA, including the history of both programs, common misconceptions, the successor programs, the extreme high weirdness associated with both and, most importantly, there actual purpose. Hint: It went well beyond mere mind control. We also found time to discuss how the methods of ARTICHOKE and MK-ULTRA may have been applied psychological warfare on a mass scale.

Also discussed are the modern history of honey trapping in the US and its origins with the British security services that gave birth to the Office of Strategic Services. Incidentally, this also ties into the origins of occult pursuits within the Anglo-American intelligence services as well. Finally, there's a little reflection on the recent UFO "disclosures"; Twin Peaks: The Return; the upcoming elections; the different factions within the American deep state; whether they will plunge these United States into a civil war and what would come afterwards; if there's an opportunity to change things; my upcoming book with Frank Zero and Jeremy Knight of ZeroKnight and other projects we have in store, which will be rolling out soon; the Epstein book I'm working on as well as another work I've been researching for a number of years now.

The podcast can be found here.

For more information, check the following:

Epstein is addressed in the following blogs:
Maxwell's Silver Hammer
Epstein's Little Black Book
Epstein Dies: Long Live the New Mexico Connection

A potential end game for the research Epstein was funding:
The Lovecraftian Enlightenment

UFOs and psychedelics:
Contact

The Office of Security, high weirdness, and Project ARTICHOKE:
The Office of Security: A Tale of Sex, Drugs, and High Weirdness series
The Office of Security Meet the Nine Part I
The Office of Security Meet the Nine Part II

As always dear readers, I hope that everyone enjoys. Stay tuned until next time.

The Lovecraftian Enlightenment?

"... these things we’re summoning into the world right now…are more like the Lovecraftian The Great Old Ones, they’re entities that are not necessarily going to be aligned with what we want..."

-AI expert Geordie Rose

Its no secret that H.P. Lovecraft is more popular than ever as the second decade of the twenty-first century fast comes to a close. During his lifetime (1890-1937), Lovecraft's famed "weird tales" were confined to pulp magazines, ensuring a limited audience for his works. In this day and age, eighty plus years after HPL shed his mortal coil, probably even fewer people have actually read his at-times copious prose. But those who did over the years took it to heart, and expanded upon his mythos and made it more commercially viable. As such, the mythos he allegedly created wholesale (which is highly debatable) have had a vast influence on popular culture. Indeed, it would be almost impossible to imagine the modern horror genre without Lovecraft.

The mainstreaming of Lovecraft really began in earnest during the first decade of this particular century and it coincided with the general rise of nerd culture. Nerds in turn have largely become the engine of popular culture over the past two decades thanks to the broader rise of Silicon Valley and the tech industry in general. Techies and nerds the are often one in the same and the innovations of the former made it increasingly possible to craft the aspirations of the latter via CGIs, increasingly elaborate video game platforms and so forth. And of course, there was the whole rise of the Internet, which made it easier for nerds to forge communities and spread their obsessions.

One was of course H.P. Lovecraft, whose mythos represent one of the darker corners of geekdom. But Lovecraft was only one such corner. On the whole, there are even more sinister undercurrents to geekdom.  

Of late, I've become fascinated (and more than a little disturbed) by a particularly bizarre branch of the "alt-right" sometimes referred to as the Dark Enlightenment, or simply NRx (neo-reactionary). Incidentally (or not), this curious ideology together brings Silicon Valley, the dark side of geekdom and of course Lovecraft in what might be one of the most dystopian of imagined futures.

The Dark Enlightenment and/or NRx can mean different things to different people, but certain characteristics seem to be reoccurring amongst the various ideologues: contempt for democracy, an obsession with technology and capitalism in equal measures, libertarian ethos taken to their logical extreme, a thinly veiled approval for eugenics, and a sense that the darkest of imagined cyberpunk futures is something to aspire towards. It is generally agreed that the two principal visionaries behind this particular ideology are Curtis Yarvin (aka Mencius Moldbug) and Nick Land.

Mr. Moldburg and the Eye of Thiel

Geekdom and Lovecraft in particular weigh heavily on both men, while Yarvin is very much a creation of Silicon Valley. Before becoming a neo-reactionary blogger, Yarvin was a computer scientist with degrees from John Hopkins, Brown, and UC Berkeley. Naturally, he was based out of San Francisco. Despite the ultra-liberal image of the tech heartlands, there are indications that the Valley has a small but influential alt right underground.

Yarvin routinely incorporates elements of geekdom into his writings. Lovecraft made an appearance early, in the first part of Yarvin's A gentle introduction to Unqualified Reservations. There, Yarvin riffs on the introduction Darren Staloff’s The Making of an American Thinking Class by quoting the professor's prose while replacing several phrases with references to Miskatonic University, Cryptomenysis Patefacta, Unaussprechlichen Kulten, and the "mad Arab Abdul Alhazred."

Inevitably, Cthulhu would turn up in Yarvin's writings. A gentle introduction... names drops him no less than ten times. Amusingly, Yarvin likens the high priest of the Great Old Ones to his concept of "The Cathedral." The Cathedral in turn can be defined loosely as a consensus of progressive opinion outlined by the universities, the media, and the civil service. It is given a religious description because it has become a kind of theology. In 2019, a planet destroying alien high priest is as apt a description for the mainstream consensus as one is apt to find.

Yarvin clearly knows his geekdom, which has led some to question the seriousness of his ideology. To be sure, there is an air of a LARP lark about Mr. Moldburg.

Yarvin

Which is why it is important to remember that Yarvin has received support from none other than Peter Thiel, who is a major investor in Yarvin's startup, Urbit. Nor is Yarvin the only neo-reactionary ideologue that Thiel has sponsored. He is also a major backer of the Seasteading Institute, founded by would-be neo-reactionary Patri Friedman (who is also the grandson of Noble Prize winning economist Milton). Elsewhere, Thiel was also a backer of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute, which neo-reactionary blogger Michael Anissimov had previously worked at as a media director.

Patri Friedman (top) and Michael Anissimov (bottom)

But beyond sponsoring the Dark Enlightenment, Thiel himself is also a major ideological influence. Both Yarvin and Nick Land have cited a 2009 essay by Thiel for Cato Unbound in which the billionaire famously declared "I no longer believe that freedom and democracy are compatible" as a major inspiration. The influence may swing both ways as well, for it has been argued that a 2012 lecture at Stanford by Thiel displayed traces of Yarvin's themes.

Is Thiel's sponsorship for neo-reactionary ideologues and influence on the movement evidence that it is a kind of vehicle for his own personal beliefs? Certainly, this is not beyond the realm of extreme possibility, and that is a terrifying prospect. As I noted recently, Thiel is at the absolute vanguard of the far right, along with the Mercer and DeVos-Prince families. What's more, Thiel and the after-mentioned families appear to be major players in a vast private intelligence network behind both Trump and Brexit.

In the above-linked blog, I detailed the ties between the Mercer family and the SCL Group/Cambridge Analytica, which could be likened to a private, digitalized Psychological Warfare Executive. Growing evidence has emerged that Thiel's Palantir Technologies collaborated with this network.

Naturally, Palantir takes its name from from a communications devise depicted in the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Given that these devices were later taken over by Sauron, the name is rather apt. Palantir is a big data analytics outfit that is known to work closely with the Department of Defense and US intelligence community. Of late it has gained much controversy over its collaboration with ICE, but its mining of data as a means of surveillance has been ongoing for years now.

Nor is Palantir the only defense-related company Thiel has ties too. Another curious entity is Carbyne, an Israeli company which officially provides high tech solutions to emergency centers fielding 911 calls and such like. In carrying out these duties Carbyne is given access to a caller's GPS, camera and other private information, which critics have alleged creates a high potential for abuse. These claims are further substantiated by the presence of numerous former Israeli intelligence officers among the shareholders and employees. Company director Pinchas Berkus, for instance, is the former head of the elite 8200 Unit.

The Israelis aren't the only ones with intelligence ties linked to Carbyne either. Present on the company's advisory board is Michael Chertoff, a former director of the Department of Homeland Security and co-author of the Patriot Act. After leaving government with the Bush II regime, Chertoff went into the private defense industry, starting his own "risk management" group with a former CIA officer and became the chairman of the mega British defense contractor BAE Systems.

Else, a co-founder and shareholder of Carbyne is another former Israeli intelligence officer, Lital Leshem. Leshem is also an executive director at Frontier Resources Group, a subsidiary of Frontier Services Group. FSG was of course founded by Erik Prince, whose FSG concern also appears in the SCL/Cambridge Analytica network.

And then there's former Israeli prime minister and highly decorated general Ehud Barak. Barak was also a major investor in the company, bu with a curious source for his funding: Jeffrey Epstein. In 2015, Barak formed a startup company called Sum for the sole purpose of investing in what became Carbyne. Reportedly, much of the capital for Sum was provided to Barak by Epstein.

Ehud Barak

This certainly puts Thiel in some curious company. Thiel is not only an investor in Carbyne, but also has a Palantir co-founder, Trae Stephens, on the company's advisory board.

Clearly, Thiel is well represented in the private intelligence racket. But under Trump, he has begun to make inroads with the official US intel community as well. Reportedly, Thiel himself was offered a leadership role on the influential President's Intelligence Advisory Board, but turned it down. He did, however, land former employee and reputed acolyte Kevin Harrington on the National Security Council. Harrington occupied a senior post from the get go and was reportedly bumped up further in recent days.

Kevin Harrington

Thiel has clearly emerged as a major player, with extensive ties to both the US intelligence community and the president himself. Indeed, he was likely at the forefront of the private initiatives to get Trump into the White House. And of course, there is the curious fact that he was a major investor in the Israeli firm Carbyne, along with Jeffrey Epstein. This is more tangible evidence that Epstein's network was part of the broader effort to put Trump into power. Thiel appears to have been at the center of these efforts.

And this is the man who is a crucial backer of the founder of the Dark Enlightenment and other major proponents. Of course, Thiel himself was clearly a major ideological influence as well, which at a minimum contributed to his support for the ideology. Even more sinister is the prospect that Thiel himself was the engine behind the Dark Enlightenment, with Yarvin and others simply being used to put things out there that Thiel himself did not wish to be directly associated with. It would certainly be interesting to know how far back Yarvin's relationship with Thiel goes.

A Land Darkly

My concern with this piece, however, is with Lovecraft's influence on the Dark Enlightenment, and that is nowhere more evident that with the movement's other founder, former Warwick University professor Nick Land. While Yarvin may have been the originator of NRx, it was Land who elevated it to the level of a true philosophy. This is hardly surprising, given Land's background as a philosophy professor.

During his time at Warwick, Land became involved with a student-run research group dubbed the "Cybernetic Culture Research Unit" (Ccru). This peculiar group was established in October of 1995, when self-described "cyberfeminist" Sadie Plant joined the faculty at Warwick. Land co-founded the Ccru with Plant and several others. Its relationship with Warwick was always rather ambiguous, however. It was active on the campus between 1995 and 1997, but was officially shuttered after Plant resigned her post in '97. At the time, some school officials claimed the Ccru never even existed.

Sadie Plant

It continued on, in some form or another, for at least six additional years. Land had resigned from Warwick himself by '98, and would continue the group in a room above the Leamington Spa Body Shop for a few more years. Drugs had always been a major influence on the group, but by this point in time they had become epidemic. As such, the post-Warwick Ccru has been described as "quasi-cultish, quasi-religious."

This is hardly surprising, given its pursuits. The Ccru's purpose was to study a host of arcane topics --French philosophy (especially of the Deleuzian school), jungle music, science fiction (unsurprisingly, cyberpunk was a huge influence, especially Gibson's Neuromancer), cryptography, the occult (the group was especially fond of the kabbalah and Crowley, who was born in the same city that Warwick University is located in), rave culture, cybernetics, and, of course, Lovecraft. From this heady brew emerged a cyber-age version of "Accelerationism."

an emblem designed by the Ccru

First conceived of by French philosophers in the wake of May of '68, the Ccru laid the foundation for the popularization of this particular philosophy in the English speaking world during the twenty-first century. The Ccru's version of accelerationism essentially called for the rapid speeding up of capitalism and technology in equal measures. In theory, this would lead humanity towards some type of techno-utopia resembling notions of the Singularity. By unleashing capital, silly relics of the past such as national borders could be dissolved. This would, in theory, release human potential and speed up technological advances. Ominously, some proponents believed that this would eventually liberate human potential from the human form all together.

Land certainly subscribed to these beliefs. As I noted before here, Land had happened upon the notion during his Ccru days that capitalism was the creation of an artificial intelligence from the future, which in turn had used the market to gradually assemble itself over the centuries. This would end with the glorious usurpation of humanity by this new intelligence. And Land apparently believed that we should be doing everything within out collective power to speed up this copious process. Whether this is still the case is unknown to this researcher, but he is still insisting on the similarities between capitalism and AI.

This was not the only strangest notion Land happened upon during this era either. At the height of the Ccru days, Land began heavily abusing "the sacred substance amphetamine" and subsisting on little to no sleep. During his final days at Warwick, he became known for amphetamine-addled lectures, which at times Land delivered while laying on the floor and accompanied by a jungle soundtrack. Eventually, he came to believe that he was being inhabited by various entities, which he dubbed "Cur," "Vauung," and "Can Sah."

Predictably, Land had a breakdown by the early part of millennium. He disappeared from public life all together for a time, and relocated to Shanghai. Nor was he the only Ccru that danced to close to the flame. Many members would struggle with depression for years afterwards. One of the most prominent members, Mark Fisher, eventually committed suicide in 2017, reportedly over concerns that Britain had entered into "stasis."

Mark Fisher

Throughout all of this, Lovecraft weighed heavily on Land and has continued to do so. Together with the Ccru troop, Land developed the notion of "hyperstition." Combining superstition with hyper, this concept is difficult to define. It has been described as that which is "equipoised between fiction and technology." In a sense, this is simply describing science fiction in its earliest incarnations. At least one former Ccru affiliate described Land's hyperstition as "quasi-Lovecraftian mythologies." Reportedly, Land came to believe that the Necronomicon itself was being sent back in time from the future, piece by piece, beginning with its appearances in Lovecraft's fiction.

Another concept that Land and his Ccru cohorts became obsessed with was the notion of "theory-fiction." In essence, it help that the writing of theory could fictionalize and produce reality. Such a notion would have had quite an appeal in the '90s, when imagined cyberpunk futures were beginning to become the reality. Now, we're effectively living in a cyberpunk novel. William Gibson, in essence, took scientific theory concerning future technologies, fictionalized it, and provided a template for our present reality.

The same could be said of Lovecraft, who was clearly more knowledgeable concerning the occult than scholars would have you believe. His fictionalized mythos, in turn, arguably did as much to mainstream the occult in popular culture as anyone, with the possible exception of Crowley. And Crowley himself frequently resorted to fiction to expand upon his theories.

Crowley

Naturally, Land himself has written horror fiction as well, and it is firmly in the Lovecraftian camp. He seems to have first taken up this interest during the late '90s, when he wrote The Origins of the Cthulhu Club. This work was allegedly the first time he rolled out the hyperstititon concept. His Lovecraft obsession has continued in recent works such as 2014's short story Phyl-Undhu and 2015 novella Chasm. Indeed, it would seem that when Land isn't championing the Dark Enlightenment, he is crafting neo-Lovecraftian weird fiction.

Conclusions

Let us then return to the quote that opens this piece, which concerns emerging AI as being something akin to the Great Old Ones of Lovecraft's fiction. This is a notion that Nick Land has been prophesying about since roughly the mid-1990s. But is this something that we should really be concerned about? After all, Land is still largely a fringe figure. 

Peter Thiel, however, is not. And while Thiel has never been directly linked to Land, he has certainly supported other such fellow travelers, as was noted above. And this raises some truly disturbing prospects. 

The scientific community is often seen as progressive and forward looking. This is especially true of the tech sector. And yet William Shockley, the alleged inventor of the transistor (which essentially laid the foundation for the modern computer revolution), dedicated much of his later life to the rehabilitation of eugenics (noted before here). Thiel himself made his fortune investing in tech companies such as PayPal and Facebook. He is now one of the principal patrons of the alt-right, along with hedge fund manager Robert Mercer. Before delving into finance, Mercer was a computer scientist who worked for IBM for decades. As I noted before here, he contributed to the development of AI in this capacity.

Robert Mercer

These men are a far cry from the Christian fundamentalists who are often associated with the far right, and arguably far more unsettling. After all, men like Thiel and Mercer have the resources and potentially the inclination to bring about the post-human future envisioned by men like Land. This is precisely why I find many of the scientific-related revelations concerning Epstein so unsettling. 

In many ways, Jeffrey Epstein was already practicing what many of the NRx ideologues had been advocating. One such instance is the whole "seasteading" movement which Thiel has become a principal patron of. As I noted before here, one of its leading proponents was the above-mentioned Patri Friedman. Seasteading proposes building floating, sovereign city city-states in the ocean. These entities would be beyond the reach of the United States government, or any other for that matter. A return to the model of the city-state, a small entity more easily manageable than a chaotic nation-state, has long appealed to neo-reactionaries.

Of course, Jeffrey Epstein had been using his own private island, Little Saint James, as a lawless playground for millionaires and billionaires alike for years. While he surely wasn't the originator of such a notion, the possibility is strong that Epstein's efforts inspired the seasteading community in some capacity. Patri Friedman was involved in a transhumanist foundation supported by Epstein, after all.

Jeffrey Epstein

There are even far more ominous overlaps, most notably via the scientific community. Of course, many neo-reactionaries are obsessed with AI and related notions such as transhumanism/human augmentation, and the Singularity. This is hardly surprising, given the background that many of the proponents have in tech and Silicon Valley in particular.

Epstein clearly had a keen interest in these things as well. He was a major backer of pioneering AI researcher Marvin Minsky, who was also a crucial scientific adviser to Epstein. It was Minsky who put Epstein into contact with another young and upcoming AI researcher, Joscha Bach. Bach had been involved in the transhumanist outfit, humanity +, that also featured budding neo-reactionary Patri Friedman and funding from Epstein himself. Epstein also funded Ben Goertzel, the former chairman of Humanity +, the founder and CEO of SingularityNET, and a prominent AI researcher. Epstein also funded Goertzel's open source AI project OpenCog as well. Goertzel had also been the research director at the Machine Intelligence Research Institute, which received funding from Thiel and produced neo-reactionary blogger Michael Anissimov, a former media director there.

Ben Goertzel

Of course, Epstein was also an investor in the above-mentioned Carbyne, along with Thiel. As such, this whole network seems rather incestuous. What's more, the NRx crowd would surely approve of the motives behind Epstein's philanthropy. He had alleged that mainstream foundations were failing science because they had become too "politically correct." Epstein was quick to point out that he supported diversity, but of ideas, and not people.

Besides AI and some of the fringe ideologies surrounding it, Epstein had another clear scientific passion: genetics. I've already dealt with this topic a bit before here, but even more information has come out since that post. In point of fact, Epstein spent much of this decade investing in genetic research. Specifically, Epstein sought to analyse and sequence human DNA. In time, this would be used to build a database. In theory, this database would have been sold to drug companies for a tidy profit, but given the man's apparent interest in eugenics, one has to wonder.

And that brings me to one of Land's darkest visions. In the final section of his landmark Dark Enlightenment essay, Land singles out University of California biologist John H. Campbell, whom he hails as a "prophet of monstrosity." This is as apt a description as any for a man who may have given away the endgame of the elite Epstein represented. His notions have been described as thus:

"Reasoning that the majority of humankind will not voluntarily accept qualitative population-management policies, Campbell points out that any attempt to raise the IQ of the whole human race would be tediously slow. He further points out that the general thrust of early eugenics was not so much species improvement as the prevention of decline. Campbell’s eugenics, therefore, advocates the abandonment of Homo sapiens as a 'relic' or 'living fossil' and the application of genetic technologies to intrude upon the genome, probably writing novel genes from scratch using a DNA synthesizer. Such eugenics would be practiced by elite groups, whose achievements would so quickly and radically outdistance the usual tempo of evolution that within ten generation the new groups will have advanced beyond our current form to the same degree that we transcend apes."

Was Epstein's venture into human DNA studies such a foray? Were the proceeds of his child sex trafficking being used to bring about a godlike elite that would fundamentally cease being human? The great Christopher Knowles has been warning against such developments on The Secret Sun for years. The Epstein revelations should make it clear that Mr. Knowles' warnings are no longer mere speculation, but are presently ongoing amongst the darkest corners of the deep private. Much of it is happening openly among prestigious scientific institutes, but I suspect a man like Epstein would be needed to further the more sinister aspects.

Land himself is coy about how he perceives these developments, but he clearly seems to believe that what is emerging will resemble something out of Lovecraft. He remarks: "For racial nationalists, concerned that their grandchildren should look like them, Campbell is the abyss. Miscegenation doesn’t get close to the issue. Think face tentacles."

Nick Land

Land has speculated about both an AI and the Necronomicon from the future meddling in our current world. But this researcher can't help but think of a more chilling scenario: What if it is the Great Old Ones themselves who are melding in the present from the future. And what if accelerationism and the Dark Enlightenment are one such bid to harness capitalism and technology towards one obvious end: their own creation and a distinctly post-human future. Are Lovecraft's demonic space gods then our own future when a tendril-faced elite final sever all ties to humanity and Earth as a whole? Certainly, I suspect such a notion has passed through Land's mind. And he may well be okay with such an outcome.

But the real question is, are men like Epstein and Thiel concerned with such an endgame? Based on circumstantial evidence, such a possibility can not be dismissed. And that is something that is truly horrifying to contemplate. This is why, as I've suggested before, that Epstein's child sex trafficking is not the darkest abyss. Rather, it is what the funds from this endeavor were being used to sponsor. And that may well be the birth of the Great Old Ones.

        

The Stoner Rock Mysteries: Top 13 of '14

And so another year has mercifully come to a conclusion. 2014 proved to be a most trying time for your humble author --easily the most difficult one he has had since the maelstrom that was 2002. Setbacks and death were especially prevalent and both came together on one especially horrific date that was naturally littered with numerical significance --both on a personal and metaphysical level.

But by and large nothing good comes from dwelling on the negative turns one's life can take from time to time and it is thus especially fitting that this blog's particular year end wrap-up should concern the one glowing positive of my 2014: blessed music.

As I noted at the onset of the year, I was planning on making an effort into getting back to what has long been one of the great passions of my life: rock 'n roll shows. I will be eternally grateful to Christopher Knowles for his Secret History of Rock 'N' Roll, which helped me to finally understand such endeavors have typically presented me with an experience that at times was borderline mystical. This article and virtually all the pieces on this blog written in the last few years concerning rock 'n roll have been heavily influenced by Mr. Knowles' conception of the modern day rock scene as an unconscious (or in at least one case, conscious) revival of the Ancient Mysteries.

In this context, rock concerts bring some of the awe and terror that the festivals of the Ancient Mysteries as well as the practices of shamans the world over inspire. I'm pleased to say that I followed through on my above stated objective and took in at least ten concerts this year. Things got off to a smashing start when I saw Clutch this past January and tonight I shall once again start off a new year with a Clutch concert, this time featuring the great Torche as support.

But so much about my life. Let us move on to the matter at hand, namely the top stoner rock albums of 2014. As long time readers of this blog are aware, I have something of a fondness for this gerne (which, for the uninitiated, is something of a catch all term for a variety of styles including sludge and doom metal, post-metal, retro heavy and/or occult rock, drone, heavy psych, desert rock, fuzz rock and on and on) in no small part due to its frequently twilight language-laden visual and lyrical bent. While such a gerne would naturally feature a fondness for drugs, especially psychedelics, and has attempted in a multitude of ways to musically recreate the experience, stoner rock has become increasingly fixated upon mythology, Lovercraftian mythos, superheros, archetypes, the occult and the like in recent years as well. Thus, it has become quite fertile ground for both conscious and unconscious explorations of many things arcane and delightfully weird. With this in mind, let us move along to the count down.

13

Black Power Flower --Brant Bjork and the Low Desert Punks

Brant Bjork is one of the pioneers of what is now referred to as stoner rock. He got his start as the drummer of desert rock trail blazers Kyuss in the 1990s and helped establish the now semi-legendary Palm Desert scene and its glorious "generator parties" --truly a spontaneous modern day Bacchanalia if ever there was one. From there Brant would go onto drum for the great Fu Manchu during some of their peak years before departing in 2002. More recently he once again stepped back behind the drum kit for Vista Chino --effectively a Kyuss reunion sans Josh Homme. This group has yielded one excellent album thus far that made last year's top 13 list. 

Beginning in the late 1990s, however, Bjork would begin to focus on his solo career. He has taken essentially two different approaches to this: albums, such as his classic debut Jalamanta, in which he played virtually all the instruments; and various full band projects such as Che, the Bros and now the Low Desert Punks in which he is the chief songwriter and visionary. As a general rule of thumb the former albums have been more mellow and even experimental affairs (he's even released two albums, Local Angel and Tres Dias, that were almost entirely acoustic) while the full band works have been more conventional desert rock albums.

Bjork

Black Power Flower is true to form and is easily the heaviest thing BB has released as a solo artist up to this point. That being said, this is still much more a hard rock than heavy metal album and has the same 70s vibe throughout all of BB's solo works possess. It does, however, featuring a delightfully dirty guitar tone as well --one of which listeners of Vista Chino's debut will immediately see a familiarity with.  

BB is certainly not the world's most esoteric artist, though he is capable of surprisingly potent (if simple) political statements at times. Little of that is present in this outing, however. Rather, BB seems chiefly concerned with kicking out the jams and in that he succeeds in spades. "Buddha Times (Everything is Fine)" rides a steady groove while "That's a Fact, Jack" is wah-wah city. "Hustler's Blues" points towards Brant's more psychedelic side and takes the listener places during its closing jam. "Where You From, Man", the album closer, is even more tripped out but on the whole this is an idea one to listen to in the car while rolling through the country side once spring sets in. And like all the best desert rock, it maintains a delightfully hypnotic atmosphere throughout.

12

Refractory Obdurate --Wovenhand

Here's your esoterica --dark Americana littered with a conspiratorial world view. Wovenhand is generally described as either an alternative country, neo-folk or post-punk outfit, though in recent years they've taken on a more metallic edge that has drawn the attention of a certain type of metalhead. I'm not familiar with this group's work prior to this outing, so I don't have a point of reference to fall back on but this album could best be described as 80s Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds with more fuzzed out guitars. And there's nothing wrong with that folks.

Like Cave, Wovenhand founder, chief songwriter, vocalist and guitarist David Eugene Edwards heavily incorporates Biblical imagery into his lyrics, giving the preceding ample hell fire and brimstone. But whereas Cave frequently adopted the persona of the figures he sang of, Edwards is apparently quite serious in his world view. He has repeatedly described himself as a deeply Christian individual and frequently posts Biblical passages on the group's Facebook page. But based upon a recent interview with the man, one does not get the sense he has much use for fundamentalists.

Edwards

But regardless, faith weighs heavily upon Refractory Obdurate. Tracks such as "Masonic Youth" and "The Refractory" will no doubt speak to conspiracy buffs though they seem to have a personal meaning. "Hiss", possibly the heaviest track on here, was described by Edwards as "basically just Isaiah 5 just set to music" while haunting closer "El-Bow" is an ode to Nimrod and the Tower of Babal (or perhaps the whole album is meant as a loose concept album concerning such things?). "Good Shepherd" is everything the title indicates set to an almost Echo and the Bunnymen-like central riff.

It probably goes without saying, the spirit of the ongoing American apocalypse is certainly captured within this recording.

11

Clearing the Path to Ascend --Yob

Cosmic doom titans Yob return with their seventh study album, the follow up to 2011's Atma and also their first outing since singer/guitarist/founder Mike Scheidt's 2012 solo outing Stay Awake. Yob have long been one of the most metaphysically inclined bands linked to the stoner rock community, having practically pioneered the whole concept of "cosmic doom" in the first place. Their songs are frequently epic-length, routinely gong over the ten minute mark and rarely finishing up in under six. A typical Yob album only possess four or five tracks but usually lasts for around an hour.

Yob can certainly bring the heavy with Scheidt's crushing riffs and guttural vocals, but they're also capable of introspective and even psychedelic atmospheres (though less so as far as the latter is concerned in recent years). Their lyrical content is always littered with esteroica and ... Ascend (as the title makes clear) is no exception.

Scheidt

The album seems to be a kind of concept album revolving around the process of initiation. The opening track, "In Our Blood" (which opens with a sample of a voice proclaiming "Time to wake up") seems to be a reflection upon such things after the process is completed. The second track, "Nothing to Win", is driven by a Neurosis-like tribal assault from drummer Travis Foster in which the horrors of the modern world call out for a kind of spiritual release. "Unmask the Spectre", with its cries of "Arise Rigpa!" chronicles the onset of illumination while everything comes together on the epic (what else?) closer "Marrow".  

While ... Ascend is certainly a compelling outing it is easy to overlook as Scheidt and company have churned out so much quality work for so long now. Lesser acts would kill for an album like this, but for Yob this is an almost workman-like production.

10

Milking the Stars --Monster Magnet

Of all the albums listed here I find this one the hardest to rank. I've probably listened to it much more than many of the albums that will follow but as the title implies, this record is little more than a reworking of tracks from last year's The Last Patrol from these stoner rock pioneers. Patrol, which came in at number two in last year's list, was easily the strongest album Monster Magnet had produced since their 90s space rock heyday and its easy to see why frontman Dave Wyndorf was tempted to get as much mileage out of these songs as he possibly could. 

Essentially this album reworks eight of Patrol's nine tracks (only the Donovan cover "Three Kingfishers" is excluded) while adding an instrumental called "Goliath Returns" and the haunting title track, apparently a leftover from the Patrol sessions. The reworkings are a bit of a mixed bag --Patrol's title track, for instance, is galaxies better than the instrumental version known as "Let the Circus Burn" that appears here. "Stay Tuned (Even Sadder)" is surprisingly more potent, however, than the version that appears on Patrol while the "Hallelujah (Fuzz and Swamp)" is transformed into a truly acid-ified gospel stomp. 

So while this album may be a bit superfluous it none the less captures the spirit of modern America on the brink as well as anything that has come out this year. And certainly makes for a fabulous companion piece to Refractory Obdulate.

9

Darkness Died Today --Sigiriya

This album marks the second outing for the Welsh four piece. Within the stoner rock community this band gained some buzz when it first formed back in 2009 due in no small part to the fact that the original four members had been fourths/fifths of the legendary Acrimony, whose 1997's Tumuli Shroomaroom is considered a classic, though your humble reviewer has yet to partake of it. My understanding is that Sigiriya, whose name derive from one of the holiest spots in Sri Lanka, is much more rocking than the oh-so-tripped-out Acrimony. Certainly the sound present on Darkness Died to Day is more in line with some of the poppier sludge metal that has come out of the Georgia scene in recent years while new vocalist Matt Williams (who was not a part of Acrimony) and his style echo early 1990s grunge, most notably Soundgarden. But don't let the latter scare you off. 

While this album is suitably crunchy and rocking it none the less manages to be surprisingly catchy and anthemic. Tracks like "Tribe of the Old Oak" and "Obelisk" are pagan delights while "Guided by Mountains" almost brings chills with the refrain of "I get blown away by the face in a mushroom cloud." Fans of the gerne will find nothing here especially surprising, but the craftsmanship behind this record is both first rate and instantly familiar. 

8

Commune --Goat

This Swedish outfit is a retro folk/worldbeat/heavy psych type outfit with a highly ritualistic live show featuring striking masks. So they naturally belong somewhere on here. Really, I would almost have to include them for their alleged back story alone. The Quietus reports:

"As back stories go, it's an absolute corker. Goat are a mysterious band from the tiny village of Korpilombolo in northern Sweden. According to legend, Korpilombolo has a long history of voodoo worship, after a travelling witch doctor settled there several centuries ago. When Christian crusaders invaded and destroyed the village, the surviving townsfolk placed a curse on Korpilombolo as they fled. It's said that the effect of the curse is still felt today, and informs the highly rhythmic and trance-like music played by generations of villagers, which, in turn, has shaped Goat's extraordinary debut album, World Music."

Goat

The Quietus goes on to make the startling revelation that this story is "not entirely rooted in reality." Regardless it is a fact that Commune, Goat's second outing, is a stark improvement over their perfectly enjoyable but oh-so-over-hyped debut. While World Music at times seemed more like a collection of compelling song ideas than the genuine article, Commune makes for a more natural fusion of the contrasting styles.

Opener "Talk to God" sets the tone with its driving afrobeat and acoustic guitars paired with spiritual musings delivered in an almost-chant like faction by a female vocalist (I wish I could be a bit more specific, but names of the band members are a bit hard to come by). Unfortunately I can not make out the lyrics well enough to discern whether the group is in fact serious or very dedicated pranksters, but can you go wrong with how the moody instrumental "To Travel the Path Unknown" (which opens with a spoken word bit musing on "the positive force of the constant creation of evolution" and such like) bleeds into the wah-soaked acid rock guitars of "Goatchild"; or the samples of Floyd Red Crow Westerman (whom X-Files fans are well acquainted with) that introduce the glorious "Goatslaves"? Certainly this album is a trip into something.

7

Pagan Fruit --Dwellers

The Dwellers have their origins in heavy space rock mavens Iota, who's 2008 Tales has become something of a cult classic within the community. That grouped petered out toward the end of the last decade, spurring singer/guitarist Joey Toscano to focus on this power trio, fleshed out by two former members of the occult doom band Subrosa as the rhythm section. But while Iota was both heavier and more grandiose (with more than a few of their songs going over ten minutes), the Dwellers approach to heavy psych has been a bit more classical in terms of both influences and song structures. While they certainly have their jammier moments, the Dwellers use early acid rock trios such as the Jimi Hendrix Experience and especially Cream as a template to build upon.

Frequently their is a bluesy touch to Toscano's playing, which only heightens the classic feel and his vocals are more upfront and smooth than in Iota as well. But Dwellers are not a full on retro rock outfit and there are plenty of modern day heavy psych and grunge influences present as well. Opener "Creature Comfort" sets the tone with its bluesy and lazy leads set to slow groove as Toscano muses about selling his hair to a witch. Vibraphones are incorporated into the stately "Return to the Sky" while a classic Rhodes piano graces "Son of Raven". 

Despite the album name and some of the song titles, the lyrics seem to be chiefly personal and introspective. But sometimes a hazy atmosphere such as the one found in "The Rare Eagle" can convey things that words simply can't do justice to. This album has a truly unique vibe to it and probably would have been ranked higher a few months ago as it is the perfect soundtrack to a lazy summer day.

6

 The Conjuring --Wo Fat

If nothing else, this album would certainly be high in the rankings for the best cover art of the year. Fortunately, Wo Fat's fifth studio album more than delivers. Hailing from Texas, Wo Fat is another power trio that fuses elements of the old and new. While ZZ Top, Captain Beyond and Hendrix all weigh heavy on their sound, Wo Fat brings shades of the fuzzed out riffs of desert rock staples such as Kyuss and Fu Manchu as well as the oh-so druggy doom of Sleep. Throw in a frequently swampy atmosphere and you have a group that is both infinitely familiar, but also with their own peculiar niche.

The Conjuring is probably Wo Fat's heaviest outing up to this point, with their Sleep influence being especially evident throughout (epic closer "Dreamwalker" even references the stoner rock pioneers a time or two). The almost ten-minute long title track opens the proceedings with a sample from the 1957 Curse of the Demon over the back of an effects-laden bass and swirls of guitar feedback. From there the song slowly builds until the band locks into a solid groove around the two minute mark over which swampy riffs and druggy leads make their presence known. Coupled with vocalist/guitarist Ken Stump's Southern-fried musing on a magical working gone wrong and you certainly have a most foreboding atmosphere. 

The band is able to maintain it throughout the first half. "Read the Omens", possibly the catchiest and certainly the fastest track here, adds some 80s metal flourishes to the stew while the slow, bluesy "Pale Rider From the Ice" (which inspired the album's cover art) is truly haunting the way the best mythology can be. From there though Wo Fat lose the path a bit. 

The bluesy stomp of "Beggar's Bargain" is compelling in and of itself but rather out of place when compared to the far darker tracks the preceded it. And while closer "Dreamwalker" has many breathtaking moments, it is also seems a bit inconsistent with the first half atmosphere-wise and at over seventeen minutes becomes a bit redundant before its close. Still, the strength of the first half of this album cannot be denied and the flow of it would no doubt be less jarring when listened to on vinyl (the medium for which the tracks were surely arranged for).

5

Monsoon Season --Biblical

Hailing from Toronto, Canada, this four piece is headed by an individual known as Nick Sewell. Sewell is both the son of former Toronto major John Sewell and the former frontman for a band called the Illuminati. And now he returns with a group called Biblical, the name of which apparently being taken from a line uttered by Bill Murray in the first Ghostbusters movie (which, if "Simon" is to believed, was partly inspired by his discovery of the Necronomicon). Surely these things alone are enough to spur David McGowan and/or Jan Irving to link Sewell to the behavior modification programs of the CIA. 

There does not, however, seem to be an especially conspiratorial bent to Monsoon Season, Biblical's debut album. It more than makes up for it with a spacey atmosphere throughout, however. I've seen this band inexplicably compared to Motorhead a time or two online, and while their may be the occasional similarity between Sewell's vocals and those used by Lemmy, Monsoon Season is certainly far more Space Ritual than No Sleep 'til Hammersmith. Opener "Second Sight" is easily the most rocking thing on here, with things quickly settling into a lysergic haze in its wake. "The Quiet Crooks" is down right Pink Floyd-ian while the cover of "Married Man" rides the back of a spaghetti western-style guitar riff. The ten minute-plus closing title track completes the journey into the stratosphere. 

4

Stranded in Arcadia --Mars Red Sky

The sophomore outing for this French heavy psych trio. While the group's 2011 self-titled debut certainly showed promise, it is with this album that they have come into their own. Originally the trio had planned on recording it in Southern California so as to soak up the atmosphere of desert rock's birth place after playing a week of shows in South America. But due to issues with the group's visas they were denied entrance into these United States and ended up recording this album in Rio de Janeiro. Hence the title. 

This album certainly has a sunny vibe that runs throughout. Opener and longest track "The Light Beyond" begins with some distant guitar plucking and otherworldly vocals followed by some doomy riffing before settling into its main groove. It also features the first of what will be a series o increasingly catchy choruses throughout the album's first side. "Hovering Satellites" maintains that same sunny and hazy vibe while adding some double bass punch to the precedings. Both "Holy Mondays" and "Join the Race" are insanely catchy, with bassist Jimmy Kinast joining guitarist and chief singer Julien Pras on vocals for the latter. Either of these tracks come off as really, really heavy takes on the Beatles psychedelic pop phase. 

Unfortunately, the album loses a bit of steam in the second half. It is bookended by two instrumentals, "Arcadia" and "Beyond the Light" (an instrumental reprise of the opener) and is thus heavy on atmosphere. But try as "Seen a Ghost" might, the second half can't quite keep up with the jovial first half. Again, this likely wouldn't have been as big an issue when listening to this album on vinyl, but when listened to all the way through one can't help but feel the second half loses a little something. Still, "Holy Mondays" alone is reason enough to check out this album. 

3

Empress Rising --Monolords

The debut for this Swedish trio. Fellow cosmic doomers Yob and Sleep were surely heavy influences on this group. But Monolords immediately establish their own character, one that is not quite as heavy as Yob and certainly more serious than Sleep. While I've found no indications whatever that this group has a serious interest in the occult this album is as fine an ode to Hekate or any of the other archetypal death goddesses as one is likely to encounter. This album is akin to a nightmare trip of the apocalypse as overseen by some primordial crone.

Things get off to a striking beginning with the open title track, which builds from some druggy guitar runs into a truly pummeling groove. "Harbinger of Death" works another crushing groove while "Icon" even incorporates some tribal flairs. On the whole the album is heavy as a brick yet maintains an ethereal air throughout. Likely will appeal to fans of psychedelia and doom in equal measures.

2

Universe --Truckfighters

Swedish fuzz rockers Truckfighers return with their fourth studio album. Like many of the Nordic fuzz bands (i.e. Dozer, Lowrider, Brain Police, etc), the Truckfighters started outing aping Kyuss/Queens of the Stone Age-style desert rock, but gradually added more prog elements over the years, giving them a rather novel sound by this point. 

While Universe does not mark much of a progress in sound from their last outing, 2009's Mania, it may well be the strongest batch of songs the group has offered up since their debut. And I do wish I could make out the lyrics to this outing as the art work and song titles such as "Mind Control" strongly indicate that this album had some type of conspiratorial theme throughout. But even without such clarity this album makes for a great rock record that still manages to be insanely catchy and even epic. Probably the album's strongest song (and possibly the best one ever written by the band) is "Get Lifted", almost eight minutes of pure bliss that builds from an airy guitar line and almost robotic groove into a finish that is both soaring and heavy in equal measures. 

Closer "Mastodont" (supposedly a tribute to Georgia sludge metal outfit Mastodon) covers multiple sections over its nearly 14 minutes before fading into a gorgeous acoustic guitar bit that closes out the album. And what about "The Chairman", which was released as a single last year? If nothing else it proved to be a perfect glimpse of the robot grooves, fuzz guitars and epic bent of this album. Highly recommended.

1

Samsara --The Well

The debut album for this Houston, Texas-based occult/doom/garage/heavy psych outfit. At times this album seems like the soundtrack to my research with its Sabbath-y guitars, psychedelic explorations and occult-soaked lyrics and imagery. Opener "Mortal Bones" begins with a sample of Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling discussing a temple dedicated to Amun-Ra that was no doubt lifted from one of the numerous educational documentaries to which he provided voice over narration in the 1970s. From there the band launches into a classic groove punctuated by vocalist/guitarist Ian Grahan's musings on ancient astronauts from Mars kneeling before Isis. 

This is about as fitting an introduction as the Well could have managed. The ancient astronaut theme is continued with "Refuge" where Graham is joined by bassist Lisa Alley on vocals. They make for a nice pairing and effectively work the dirty bluesy, Sabbathy groove they conjure for all its worth. "Eternal Well" is even more epic and drugged out. Closer "I Bring the Light" is the most rocking track here and possibly the song of the year. And how can any synchro-mystical blogger not dig on the opening verse of:

"My father as a prophet

A diviner and a thief

He taught me all his secrets

And the wisdom of the east

My mother was a maenad

Bleeding magic from the moon

And fed me on the power

That led to her doom"

the Well

If that's not enough, the album even features a Pink Floyd cover from the Syd Barrett era no less: "Lucifer Sam". Fun fact: Years ago when Recluse worked at 7-Eleven, he wore a name tag with the name Lucifer Sam upon it. So yes, if you're a fan of this blog, you owe it to yourself to track this stunning debut down.

And so concludes a list which I hope will give the naysayers who insist that there's no good music being made anymore pause. As a bonus, here are a few honorable mentions:

Old World New Wave --Ides of Gemini

II --Mothership

Spirit Knife --Jeremy Irons and the Ratgang Malibu

Lurar Ut Dig Pa Prarien -Salem's Pot

Trails and Passes --Greenleaf

self-titled --The Socks

Beyond Thule --Blue Snaggletooth

On the whole it was an especially impressive year for the legendary Small Stone Records as well as the upstart Riding Easy Records. Small Stone placed two releases, The Conjuring and Pagan Fruit, in the top 13 while issuing the above mentioned records from Jeremy Irons and the Ratgang Malibu, the Socks and Greenleaf. These are just the latest of many fine releases the label has bequeathed to humanity over the years.

Riding Easy's showing is even more impressive, however. They issued the albums by Monolords and The Well which came in at three and one in the top 13 respectively. The also released the debut by Salem's Pot, which got an honorable mention. The debut album by Electric Citizen, Sateen, was also compelling and probably would have made the cut had I not only just got around to listening to it a few days days ago. I've also heard wonderful things about Hornss' No Blood No Sympathy, another debut album issued this year by Riding Easy, but I've yet to pick that one. On the whole the label is quickly establishing a niche for itself with these glorious and at times sleazy doom and psychedelia records. Hopefully this is only the beginning.

While we're on the subject out shout outs I would also like to give a big thank you to the Obelisk and Fast 'n' Bulbous for their tireless effort to chronicle the heavy underground. If you've enjoyed this list then one is strongly advised to check out the year end lists posted by those two blogs, which can be found here and here.

And with that I shall wrap things up for now. Until next time dear readers and the best to all of you in this new year and increasingly unstable world.