Psychic TV

Calanda is a small remote village in the Teruel province (situated in the center of the region of Aragon) where once a year, one of the most beautiful pagan festivals in the western world is celebrated. Anyone can participate in "La Rompida De La Hora" in Calanda. The festival attracts thousands of people, the population of the village, and many hundreds of visitors from across Spain and the world. For the public to participate in the festival, they must wear ornamental purple robes and hoods. The robe and hood is similar in style to the Klu Klux Klan outfits that are worn by Klans-men in the southern states of America. Some participants to the festival have Carbine muskets attached to their persons, for show, not for use. Elderly and young men and woman and children of all ages interpret the different rhythms when beating the drums.The groups gather around the local church, take up their drums, form bands spontaneously, and start producing more or less arbitrary rhythms. This ritual jamming takes off at noon on Good Friday and ends exactly one day later on Easter Saturday. For twenty four hours and without pauses or orchestrated compositions, bands of drummers dwell through the streets of Calanda. When one band meets another band, they start dueling, until all drummers find themselves in agreement with a certain rhythm. After their encounter and mutual jamming, the bands move on and prepare themselves for the next battle. A masterful description of the deep experience of hearing and beating the drums at Calanda had been given by the film maker Luis Bunuel. "Toward noon on Good Friday the drummers gather in the main square opposite the church and wait there in total silence. When the first bell in the church tower begins to toll, a burst of sound, like a terrific thunderclap, electrifies the whole village. All the drums explode at the same instant. A sort of wild drunkenness breaks out among the players; they beat for two hours until the procession forms, then it leaves the square. When two groups beating two different tempos meet at one of the village crosses, they engage in a duel which may last as long as an hour - or until the weaker group relents and keep the victor's rhythm. By the early hours of Saturday morning, the skin of the drums is stained with blood, through the beating hands belonging to villagers, and visitors. As the bell tolls the noon hour, the drums suddenly fall silent, but even after the rhythms of the daily life have been re-established, some villagers still speak in an oddly halting manner, an involuntary echo of the beating drums..." Jordi Vall's World Satanic Network Systems have released other recordings on vinyl which are all extremely rare: I: VAGINA DENTATA ORGAN PRESENTS : MUSIC FOR THE HASHISHINS, IN MEMORIAM OF HASSAN-I-SABBAH. (TRAINED TO KILL/SEXUAL). All you hear on both sides of this album is the wild growl of a real dog trained to kill. It's violent and cruel. A passionate, and desperate appeal to murder. I call it poetry without rhetoric. In 1984, Spanish TV invited Derek Jarman, Psychic TV and Vagina Dentata Organ to perform on a live TV programme in Madrid called 'La Eldad De Oro'. We all had live interviews. Derek showed his short films, Psychic TV played a long live set together with monumental videos on magick occultism. At the end of the two hours I (Vagina Dentata Organ) closed the night performing 'Music For Hashishins', on an emulator, with sixteen real, very nervous Alsatian dogs tied on a leash to the stage. At the same time I destroyed three large paintings by Casademont - a well-known Catalan artist - with a market value of 6,000 pesos. I slashed the paintings with with two long iron scimitars with great effect, because hidden behind each canvas we hanged small plastic blood-bags that got splattered all over the place. Pandemonium broke loose. It was the end of this arts TV programme. Next day there was an outcry on the Spanish national press. We were accused of violence and obscenity. Right-wing politicians put pressure on the state run Spanish TV, and 'La Eldad De Oro' was closed down for ever. II: THE LAST SUPPER, THE REVEREND JIM JONES IN PERSON. I got the tapes through Monte Cazzaza in California, and Genesis P-Orridge in London. It's the live recordings of the last moments of life while they are drinking poison and dying at the Peoples Temple in Jonestown, Guyana. Over nine hundred men, women and children died. It's a picture-disc with graphic photos of dead bodies from the massacre. For sure, this is the greatest rock and roll record ever made. III: VAGINA DENTATA ORGAN WITH THE PAGAN DRUMS OF CALANDA. (THE TRIUMPH OF THE FLESH). We recorded the live sound and made this unique picture-disc. As a personal tribute to Calanda's blood scented nights. About thirty copies only of this picture disc album, contain encapsulated freeze-dried, sterilised human bloodstains, from my (Vagina Dentata Organ) ripped flesh.

• published: 09 May 2016
• views: 143