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elcome to the Digital Meltd0wn Music Blog. The aim of this blog is to introduce the readers to music that is out of print, commercially unavailable, released under a creative commons license, or with approval by the featured artist. The majority of the music posted here would be considered underground. Don't let that fool you into thinking that the music featured here might be any less enjoyable than that of the mainstream artists you hear on the radio, as this couldn't be further from the truth. Please keep in mind that the majority of the artists that appear on this blog, along with their respective record labels, are not wealthy and need your support. If you enjoy the material that you find here, please support the artists/labels by purchasing their material afterwards. If you are an artist/label that would prefer to have your material removed from this blog, simply leave me a comment, and I would be more than happy to promptly remove the offending post. In addition to running this blog, I also work on a few other projects during my spare time. You can find links to those, as well as a few other important links associated with Digital Meltd0wn in the menu bar above.

Thursday, October 23, 2008

Aleister Crowley - The Great Beast Speaks

At the request of Han Cholo, I have re-uploaded this post. It is now in lossless audio, so the file is a bit larger. It is stored on MEGA so the decryption code is in the comments.


I thought it would be fitting to follow up Psyche Zenobia's post on Anton LaVey with one featuring Aleister Crowley. Like LaVey, whom Crowley indirectly influenced a great deal, Crowley thoroughly explored many aspects of spirituality, the occult, and the physical world during his lifetime. He gained a notorious reputation for his occult writings, drug use, and hedonism. However, unbeknownst to many people, he was also an accomplished mountaineer, poet, yogi, chess player, painter, and astrologer. Due to his notoriety the title of "The Wickedest Man in the World" was bestowed upon him by British tabloids, and even his own mother proclaimed him to be "The Beast", a nickname that he would eventually readily adopt.

"The Great Beast Speaks" collects early 20th century recordings of Aleister Crowley. The claim that this collection features every Crowley recording in existence is false. Though they are very few in number, there are Crowley recordings which aren't featured on this album. Opinions vary on the year that this was recorded, but most experts agree that it was recorded circa 1920, which would have made Crowley close to 45 years old at the time. These were originally recorded on wax cylinders, and later digitally transferred. The quality is still very poor despite the digital transfer, but if you want to hear Crowley this is the only option that you have.

Tracks two through thirteen are a mixture of Crowley reading incantations and poetry, while The last track is Crowley singing unintelligibly in French. You will notice that there are both English and "Enochian" versions of tracks two through five. The back cover states that the tracks marked 'Enochian Version' Are recited in the magical language discovered and used by 'John Dee', magician to The Court of queen Elizabeth. Enochian is not mere Gibberish; it is a real language with a grammar and syntax of its own. Perhaps it is, as more than one occultist has claimed, a degenerate form of drowned Atlantis. Someone was nice enough to create a page which gives a small explanation of each track, which can be found here here.

Track List:
1. Intro
2. The Call of the First Aethy (Enochian Version)
3. The Call of the First Aethy (English Version)
4. The Call of the Second Aethy (Enochian Version)
5. The Call of the Second Aethy (English Version)
6. La Gitana
7. The Pentagram
8. One Sovereign for the Woman
9. The Poet
10. At Sea
11. The Fingernails
12. The Titanic
13. Hymn to the American People
14. Excerts from the Gnostic Mass
15. Vive La French Republic

Download: Aleister Crowley - The Great Beast Speaks
Download Size: 97.5MB

20 comments:

AllyWonderland said...

Aww, memories from when I was in my "rebel" stage. :)

Anonymous said...

many thanks - have recently started reading Crowleys "autohagiography" [his own term for it] so a very opportune time. By the way he's featured on the cover of Sgt Pepper - next to Mae West if I remember correctly [I'm sure he appreciates that placing]

QEF

Anonymous said...

I can hardly understand what he's saying. Oh well, I read the Book of Lies and didn't understand much anyway.

Zer0_II said...

Adrian: I knew that some people might be turned off by the very muddy audio, which is why I mentioned that the audio quality is very poor.

I almost didn't post this album because of that, but I know that there are people who have an interest in Crowley who would appreciate this.

Psyche Zenobia said...

The audio quality is shitty because these recordings were originally made on wax cylinders way before mp3's. Still, it's a historical document of Crowley and amazing that it even exists. I have the double album version of this if anyone is interested. Been interested in his writing since I was a teenager. The "autohagiography" (meaning autobiography of a saint) is really good but not so much as an introduction. I think the Book of Lies is a great intro to his work, though just about all of it is going to include some stuff that's very hard to understand. Also, Magick In Theory And Practice is a good place to start.

Psyche Zenobia said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Psyche Zenobia said...

By the way, Michael, I was wondering if you (or I) could put a post here letting everyone know that I'm having a video contest over at Manson Music. For more info on it, check out my new post there.

Zer0_II said...

Brian: Feel free to post about the contest. I will copy it and repost it on the blogroll for you.

Anonymous said...

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate your efforts to get this (indeed) historical recording. The reason I didn't really understand much of the Book of Lies is because of how heavily encoded it is with symbolism that's beyond my comprehension.

Anonymous said...

A search of the 10 volumes of the Equinox, #1 will yield the complete "lyrics," if you will. The easiest way to do this would be to download the set on-line (it is out there) and then search all 10 pdf's for key words. I have found everything but the words to the song...
Nice cover scan, BTW.

Zer0_II said...

revrev: Thanks for the info. I wish that I could have included the pdf documents that you mentioned along with the audio files.

Anonymous said...

@PZ If it is not too much of an imposition, I would like to know what the difference is between these collected recordings and the double album you mention.

@zer0_ii, If you told me where to send it, I will gladly to send you a PDF with all the words to these cylinders. It is not formatted for a CD label, but any enterprising person can copy this into the right size.

Zer0_II said...

@revrev: That would be fantastic. Thank you for the offer. If you could bundle them in a .rar or .zip file, then upload the file to http://sharebee.com that would be great. You can post the download link as a comment or send it to me via e-mail at Shockw4ve_X at hotmail dot com. Thank you once again.

Anonymous said...

@zer0_ii. Just emailed the pdf; going around sharebee.
let me know when you get it.

roldo said...

Thanks for this. I'll download it but NO WAY am I gonna play the Enochian bits...might end up having to sell my house to Jimmy Page.

Dash_Z said...

A hagiography is the biography of a saint. Uncle Al decided that since he was a saint and that he was writing a biography about himself - he would call it an autohagiography.

Have you seen "The Stele of Revealing" btw - as narrated by Zehm Alohim (Dr. Christopher S. Hyatt's apprentice) and produced by Crag Jensen - a friend and co-author of Hyatt's?

It ends with several minutes of Aleister Crowley reciting The Stele... it is as haunting as it is hypnotic.

The Stele of Revealing

This particular video is an introduction to Thelema and the life and works of Aleister Crowley. Also - this video is kind of fun because I bring Aleister Crowley back to life at the end of the video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDf4ZvrT9qs

If you like this sort of thing then you might really enjoy this YouTube video.

Also - this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KD2pFVxiSmo

(The Good Doctor, the Demon & I)

this one has animations of the Great Beast Speaking as well.

flame93 said...

Always is great to hear Great beast speaking :)

This is also my blog about Crowley, Magick and much more: http://www.magick4life.com/aleister-crowley/

Han Cholo said...

any chance of a re-up on this one? mediafire has nuked the file.

great blog by the way. been compiling clips of dialog to sample and manipulate in experimental music, and you have some spoken word gems here.

said...

MEGA decryption code
QLOhoSCxAgHHQKvhSVlRb1uos4tg3W4slcBCjlWC3C8

Unknown said...

I own the English vinyl pressing of The Pentagram with the Thirty Aethys and believe me those how fear to listen to the Enochian incantations ,don't be, don't let Jimi Page spook you at every attempt, listen to the tracks there beautiful and haunting.