What exactly is darkness? Is it a sensation, a color, or a feeling? It’s something I kept asking myself for my recent Halloween-inspired mix for LYL Radio. Why do certain tracks or artists fail to miss the mark on what I feel it is?
Exploring my Japanese crate I hit upon a certain thread central to various tracks that felt of that idea: of darkness. Chris Mosdell‘s “Psalm Of Motion” instantly spoke to it. It’s the idea of a descent into the uncontrollable, into the unpredictable. The scares come from what we don’t know is coming.
In the wild, as the animals we all are, the light of day always grants us a false sense of security. Nearly everything we can see in front of our eyes we can sort of gauge and prepare a logical answer for. However, as night descends, there are only so many tools in our feeble arsenal there to prepare us for those things we can’t see or unsee, for things better prepared than us, even more hidden in the shadows now. Just think, as we drive around at night, how many of those same streets and locales we pass everyday seem to gain a distinct personality in those darkened hours?
All the tracks below speak in their own way to a much more elemental fear that can be sussed out of quotidian life. Real dread, real fright. And would you believe it, its music that puts you in that storied atmosphere we prefer to experience piecemeal somewhere between barely opened fingers.
You may not always want to be here but man does it let you know you’re alive…
Psalm Of Motion
Tracklist:
Chris Mosdell – Psalm Of Motion
AQ! Ishii (石井明) + Hiroko Taniyama (中西浩子) – かくしんぼ
Fancy Dance (ファンシイダンス) – 間名謝滅之境
Nachiko (舘岡奈智子) – 水の炎
Open Sesame! – Scarab
Michiko Akao (赤尾三千子) – 般若波羅蜜多
Genji Sawai (沢井原兒) – Hikobae
Kenji Sawada (澤田 研二) – さすらって
Urban Dance (アーバン・ダンス) – Why
Miharu Koshi (コシミハル) – ラムール,あるいは黒のイロニー
Keishi Urata-Project (浦田恵司) – 砂