Magic has been drained out of history by the historians. Gordon White

There has been a fundamental omission in the telling of the past not just our past history but also in the way that we understand music and it is the role of magic within that story. It is difficult for us to reconnect with the fundamental belief in magic that our predecessors had and that it was infused in everything that they did and by extension music and art was used to connect with this otherworldliness. I would say that today music that is disconnected from this otherness has no inner energy this is why root styles of music frequently have to come back into the popular music arena in order to re-energise even if those musical styles are disguised as punk or grunge there is something innately visceral and otherworldly about those sorts of animal.

One thing that could be said about modern pop music is there is nothing really animal about it. It is so computerised and quantised that any essence of energy has been removed and replaced by something sterile, however if the computer becomes the servant and not the master the essence of the DJ producer can be bound into the songs, dance is a good example of this. I think the deciding point here is, were any risks taken? Producing a song by a Rihanna or a Katy Perry maybe more a case of not getting it wrong because of the big budgets involved.

We find it very difficult to be able to think in a mediaeval style because we have been told that the many of the things that they believed in are rubbish but obviously they did not think that, however if you ask yourself a question why something like ritualistic behaviour and magic systems seem to have been unchanged over a period of 2000 years then you have to ask why did they keep doing something that did not work? The logical answer to that is it did work but is only us that have rid ourselves of one of those tools from the toolbox.

I am suggesting that by looking back at styles that may influence us musically and getting to the root of what it is that drives it we can reconnect with what the music is all about and derive something from it for ourselves, if only to reanimate the music that we play. You do not have to believe only suspend your disbelief to lock into something. I would suggest Blues or Flamenco or the English folk music tradition and see what sort of weirdness you can find in there; Mojo’s, Dances of the spider, impossible tasks asked of ex-lovers etc. pull on that tread a little and see where it takes you.

Vic

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