____twoism

eric_schafer wrote:I suspected it when I read the song titles. I watched the video for "Reach for the Dead" and felt justified in making the connection. After hearing the pre-release stream I thought it impossible to deny. And when I read the Guardian interview I felt it had been confirmed. BoC has created an album fully in line with the aim of an organization of which I have only recently become aware. They call themselves The Dark Mountain Project, a group chronicling the near-term descent of Western Civilization through their works of art.

wwbjd wrote:

eric_schafer wrote:I suspected it when I read the song titles. I watched the video for "Reach for the Dead" and felt justified in making the connection. After hearing the pre-release stream I thought it impossible to deny. And when I read the Guardian interview I felt it had been confirmed. BoC has created an album fully in line with the aim of an organization of which I have only recently become aware. They call themselves The Dark Mountain Project, a group chronicling the near-term descent of Western Civilization through their works of art.

New to me! Thanks for the link and info.

eric_schafer wrote:AB, thanks for your response. I agree that more and more people are waking up to the predicament we face. I was caught off guard by the theme of this album, as I had just begun to consider what "Dark Mountain" music would sound like. TH fits many of the concepts like a hand in a glove.

Annexe, I'm definitely familiar with some of that crew. They seem to have accelerated some problematic approaches humans have taken.

wwbjd and mechanismj, the pleasure is mine. Check out some of the other writing on that site some time; Paul Kingsnorth has a voice in his writing that really speaks to where I'm at.

I've also been reading John Michael Greer's work for a historical and philosophical take on collapse. I enjoy reading Dmitry Orlov as well, not the least for his very dry Russian wit. I'd love to hear about others who are exploring the concept of collapse and how their ideas relate to the ideas in this album. "Why The West Rules – For Now: The Patterns Of History And What They Reveal About The Future", the book BoC mentions in the interview, is new to me. Recommendations, anyone?

turquoise70 wrote:Sometimes I feel utterly alienated from Twoism for not being convinced that this 'collapse' is going to be anywhere near as dramatic as people are predicting. Can there even be room for me here, intellectually, if I don't subscribe to that especially dark vision of the future?

In_The_Annexe wrote:Boiled Frog Syndrome, ladies and gentleman.

turquoise70 wrote:Eh. Yeah. Not to derail the thread; obviously this thread got started based on some correlations that do exist between the whole idea of the Dark Mountain thingy and BoC's apparent future outlook.

I guess I just wanted to voice that a number of slow changes in the outlook of the average outspoken Twoismer have made me feel 'culturally estranged' from this place. Maybe I've changed. In fact I KNOW I've changed. I've gotten my life together and my neural problems under control in a way that I never had when I joined. My outlook on the future is actually really SUNNY nowadays. I think it's going to be pretty great. Civilization and all.

So... there ya go. I dunno, Twoism. It just feels like we're not looking at the same world anymore.

sleepysilverdoor wrote:

In_The_Annexe wrote:Boiled Frog Syndrome, ladies and gentleman.

Who are you referring to?

The Friendly Stranger wrote: Is this post basically you signing out? I don't think this massively bleak outlook is shared by the majority on this forum, or even by BOC to be honest, but I do think we have a tendency to look at the worst case scenario as an incentive to sort out our problems.

turquoise70 wrote: Nah, I'm not signing out. Just sort of ...voicing myself, I guess? Venting? I dunno.

eric_schafer wrote:I suspected it when I read the song titles. I watched the video for "Reach for the Dead" and felt justified in making the connection. After hearing the pre-release stream I thought it impossible to deny. And when I read the Guardian interview I felt it had been confirmed. BoC has created an album fully in line with the aim of an organization of which I have only recently become aware. They call themselves The Dark Mountain Project, a group chronicling the near-term descent of Western Civilization through their works of art.

People worldwide are waking up to the fact that the opportunity to meaningfully address climate change and resource depletion has been lost, stymied by business as usual and refusal to change to more sustainable lifestyles. The Dark Mountain Project seeks to document the emotional reality of collapse, thereby facilitating the grieving process sure to accompany the loss of civilization as we know it.

What is uncanny to me is how explicitly the music on the album addresses the issue. Employing their formidable sound design skills on songs with titles like "Collapse", "Seeds of the Dead", and "Sick Times", BoC seems to be delivering an emotional post card from the future. Woven among the ominous 80s horror soundtrack drones and relentless minor-key arpeggiations are the sounds of helicopters, broadcasts not quite received or comprehended, dystopian sonar pings, dust-bowl windstorms.

It's a future that does not derive from sudden catastrophe, however. As BoC is quoted in The Guardian interview, "It's not post-apocalyptic so much as it is about an inevitable stage that lies in front of us."

That stage is collapse.

The Dark Mountain manifesto states: "We believe that art must look over the edge, face the world that is coming with a steady eye, and rise to the challenge of ecocide with a challenge of its own: an artistic response to the crumbling of the empires of the mind." Could a more apt mission statement for this album be constructed?