Mixtape Reflections: Tsovinar’s Fury ~ Ծովինարի Զայրույտը

 

The first video is just on the mix to be a cover image. Art by Andranik Asatryan.

I felt like sharing another of my mixes. Mixtapes continue to be one of my many creative outlets, and the one through which I chronicle my life. I made this as a YouTube playlist and not a mixtape because the tape deck on my boombox went rogue and started eating up my tapes (relatively rare two hour ones too, bah), despite my attempts to clean it and demagnetize it. Maybe it’s a belt problem, but I lack the time and expertise to fix that, so I will try to buy a new one of the same model while offsetting the expense by selling my old one. Anyway, I have a mighty need to make mixtapes, so until I get that new boombox I will keep making playlists to record to cassette later. I’m not sure if it will fit on a 90 minute tape, I still need to do the math, but if worse comes to worse I may have to cut some songs, leaving the playlist as the complete version (as long as videos don’t get taken down, a big reason I make physical copies of my playlists). The ones with lyrics that closely fit the theme of the mix are the safest. 

The mix is called Tsovinar’s Fury, or Ծովինարի Զայրույտը in Armenian. Tsovinar was the Armenian Goddess of the Sea, and of Violent Storms. The story behind this mix is that She has awakened Her wrath at humanity for harming the Earth, and is stirring up hurricanes to punish them. It’s a pagan interpretation of climate change. A few of the songs have an environmental message, notably “She Speaks” by Ceremonial Leather, and “No Tomorrow Only Today” by Mystic Priestess. Others are just there for the vibe, either the chaotic turmoil of a hurricane, or the gloomy inner-sadness that comes with living in a slowly collapsing dystopia on a dying planet and knowing that things are only going to get worse. In German they call this feeling weltschmerz, or “world pain”. 

I hope that my mix pleases Tsovinar. I don’t know if it will spare me from Her wrath, or if I even deserve to be spared just thanks to me being a human, but it’s worth a shot. I made this after being on the outer reaches of Hurricane Idalia and still being awestruck by the wind gusts and heavy rain, with the knowledge that the ocean is experiencing record heat, and this may only be the beginning of a disastrous hurricane season. I hope that She will instead direct Her energy and fury toward helping the people of Artsakh who are being blockaded and starved to death by Azerbaijan, which is something I personally can do little about save signing petitions, sharing Facebook posts and basically offering “thoughts and prayers” (to pagan Gods of course; maybe it won’t achieve anything but we know Yahweh isn’t going to lift a finger), so I sadly try not to think about it too much in order just to function. Some of those feelings found their way into the mix too.

Ծովինարի պառք:

Tsovinar’s Fury (click for the playlist)

Track Listing

1. Trade d’union - Marche Nocturne

2. Cashiari - La Joven con l Rostro de Marmel

3. Ceremonial Leather - She Speaks

4. Mystic Priestess - No Tomorrow, Only Today

5. Troll - Mirror

6. Exces Nocturne - L’echo des Lumiéres

7. Pillhs Castle - Repeat the Death

8. Vacios Cuerpos - Inevitable 

9. Damien Hearse - Easy Martyr

10. Alien Skin - The Beautiful Dead

11. Hante - Waiting for a Hurricane 

12. Jurimurmur - Ծովն Է Լիzoom

13. Simulacixn - La Todo Esta Muerto

14. Aux Animaux - Lost Souls

15. Harsh Symmetry - Pugilist 

16. Moonvampire- Vampire II

17. Dark Grey Houses - Drown You

18. The Lucy Show - The Price of Love

19. Antaios Nocturne - Don’t Forget to Smile

20. Saiph - Room of Fire

21. Cashiari - La Ultima Vez

22. Clustersun - Emotional Painkiller

23. A Transition - Strangers

24. Bax Taylor - Dukkha

Top 5 Songs of the Month ~ August 2023 ~ Allie Frost, Скубут, Moonvampire, Austin Spence

This blog is so late, but I wanted to at least get it out before August ends. I’ve had a very busy month, on top of working on my webcomic, my kid not being in school, and I have a new novel in the works, I’ve been doing it scene by scene rather than from beginning to end. It’s been a hard summer in general, and particularly hard to be a goth when the heat index outside is 115+ degrees Fahrenheit, but I’ve managed to survive when most of my clothes is black by trying not to be outside. My kid forces me to go outside though, and it burns. Must I become a victim of nature’s wrath while the people responsible for the rising temperatures are cozy in their mansions and yachts? I suppose the answer to that is yes. Even though all I did was have the misfortune of being born during this particularly difficult time in human history. I suppose I’m not completely guiltless, I’ve used plastic straws and such. I just hope my area doesn’t get hit with a bunch of hurricanes this year.

Anyway, here’s what I’ve been listening to, as of mid-August. If everything goes as it should I’ll do the next music blog in mid-September about three weeks from now, we shall see what life throws my way. And I listed what music I was into in past Augusts at the bottom as well.

Allie Frost ~ Abandoned Ghost

The voice clip at the beginning of this song is so profound, about how when you die you either walk into the light and become a part of it forever, or you might get lost on your way to the light and become a ghost. It’s just a whisper so you have to really pay attention to it, especially when the drums start to kick in before the clip is done. I’ve just been discovering Allie Frost and I like her singing a lot. Another track of hers I’m fond of right now is “Deadly Desert”. 

This song came out last November, and was released as a single including a remix and instrumental version. 

https://alliefrost.bandcamp.com/album/abandoned-ghost-maxi-single-release

Sin Razón Zoocial ~ Crucifixion

I’m a simple man, I see a video that says “post-punk Mexicano” on it, I click it. I know it will be good. Mexico has amazing goth music, and has for some time, as evidenced by this song from 1990. I uncovered a few new-to-me songs while remaking my “1990 in Music” mix CD, adding a lot more underground goth music that I’ve discovered since making the first mix CD probably 6 or 7 years ago. The vocals on this song are zany and outlandish, lots of guttural growls and shrieks. Toward the end of the song the singer makes me think of Judge Doom from Who Framed Roger Rabbit when he gets the Dip squirted at him and he melts. I love it though. I do not speak Spanish so I don’t know what he’s saying. But it doesn’t matter to me. 

This song is off the album Contracultura, and was a self-release. 

Скубут ~ Холод (Cold)

Skubut, in English letters, has been a mainstay on my lists for a couple of years now. They are an Austria-based Russian post-punk band in a similar vein to Molchat Doma, although they also remind me of like a Russian Slow Danse with the Dead. A new music video for this track just came out on the 11th of August, although the song is from 2022. It reminded me of this song again though and I developed a new appreciation for it. 

This is off their July 2022 album Безжизненный (Lifeless)

https://skubut.bandcamp.com/album/--6

Moonvampire ~ Night

This song is what people who don’t listen to goth music think goth music sounds like. Vampires are a classic topic in post-punk and deathrock going back to Bauhaus. A little stereotypical too, but I don’t mind. Seems to me they’re making a sly Lebanon Hanover reference with the line “Dance with me, it’s not Gallowdance”. The music video is fun, with clips from classic vampire movies. Moonvampire is a band to look out for, I’ve liked their recent release a lot. 

And despite the fact that it’s out and you can buy it now, the single officially releases September 23. Oooh, music from the future!

https://moonvampire.bandcamp.com/track/night

Austin Spence ~ Black Dress and a Backwards Cross

I mentioned Skubut sounds a little like Slow Danse with the Dead, but this sounds even more like that band. A dark minimalist track with droning vocals, it seems like it would fit into the “misery goth” subgenre pretty well, if not just Minimal Wave or Coldwave. I look forward to hearing more from Austin Spence. 

This was released as part of a demo album Sect of the Triple Six in July of this year.

https://austinspence.bandcamp.com/album/sect-of-the-triple-six-demo

TOP SONGS OF AUgust THROUGH THE YEARS

20 Years Ago ~ August 2003

It was either black metal or power metal in the summer of 2003 for me. And songs with “of Eternity” in the title. Cradle of Filth’s “Dawn of Eternity” was a favorite for its badass epic instrumental opening, I was still loving Kotipelto’s ancient Egypt-themed solo album, and I had just discovered Dornenreich, a very heavy German black metal band that still had moments of soothing melody in between the screams.

1. Cradle of Filth ~ Dawn of Eternity 

2. Kotipelto ~ Lord of Eternity

3. Dornenreich ~ Hasses Freigang

15 Years Ago ~ August 2008

My musical tastes were still rather directionless in 2008. I rediscovered the Depeche Mode track “Behind the Wheel”, which I first heard when I recorded it on a mixtape off the radio in around 2001 or so, not knowing who made the song. Mindless Faith was still soothing my dark side, and I still had a fascination with jazz and swing, thus the Squirrel Nut Zippers. The music video for the song had an entertaining Fleischer-esque 1930s animation style. 

1. Depeche Mode ~ Behind the Wheel

2. Mindless Faith ~ Canaan

3. Squirrel Nut Zippers ~ The Ghost of Stephen Foster

10 Years Ago ~ August 2013

Ayria’s “Box Under my Bed” was a very relevant track and still is, about keeping your memories in a box the same way I keep my memories on mixtapes, both good and bad. And One and Depeche Mode are very much the same genre really, synthpop was my vibe at the time. Depeche Mode had just come out with a new album “Delta Machine”, which I liked a few tracks off of.

1. Ayria ~ The Box Under my Bed

2. And One ~ Don’t Get Me Wrong

3. Depeche Mode ~ Secret to the End

5 Years Ago ~ August 2018

Daron Makakian’s “Lives” is a stirring anthem to the resilience of the Armenians, a people “kicked out of history”. Malakian is a member of System of a Down, so it has that same kind of sound to it. I had just discovered Lebanon Hanover, five years later than I could have but better late than never. And I was attracted to “Welcome to the Machine” by Pink Floyd because I was working a soul-crushing call center job while my wife was pregnant with my son, who I knew I was going to have to introduce to this awful system we live under one day.

1. Daron Malakian and Scars on Broadway ~ Lives

2. Lebanon Hanover ~ Gallowdance (as referenced in Moonvampire’s “Night” above, how ironic).

3. Pink Floyd ~ Welcome to the Machine