Catalogue entry for the Hard Shoulder "God Is Dead" EP.
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Retrospective: Richard Bolam at 50 God Is Dead, 2000 Five-track Audio CD with inkjet-printed cover god is dead god is dead god is dead I wish Iʼd called this collection of audio tracks “Is God Dead?” Itʼs not intended to be as nihilistic as it seems. I just liked the idea of thinking what famous biblical characters would do if God were dead, and what that might sound like. These days there is a very aggressive anti-religion movement, but although I am an atheist, I am not anti-religious, and Hard Shoulder just loves religious imagery and symbolism. Saint Sebastian, fetish of gay sado-masochism, and celebrated by Yukio Mishima in his infamous self-portrait. http://www.flickr.com/photos/xmentim/galleries/72157627900221440
Transcript
Retrospective: Richard Bolam at 50
God Is Dead, 2000Five-track Audio CD with inkjet-printed cover
I wish Iʼd called this collection of audio tracks “Is God Dead?” Itʼs not intended to be as nihilistic as it seems. I just liked the idea of thinking what famous biblical characters would do if God were dead, and what that might sound like.
These days there is a very aggressive anti-religion movement, but although I am an atheist, I am not anti-religious, and Hard Shoulder just loves religious imagery and symbolism.
Saint Sebastian, fetish of gay sado-masochism, and celebrated by Yukio Mishima in his infamous self-portrait.
Itʼs common knowledge that he was shot with arrows by Roman soldiers, but the detail that is less well known is that he survived and was later beaten to death after publicly denouncing Emperor Maximian.http://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=103
John The Baptist is the stand-out track in this collection and I still like it. Again, it was primarily a failed experiment with multiple hits of percussion samples, but came to life once I reduced the tempo radically.
Pope Joan is definitely the weakest, and is appropriate for the myth of the female pope. It was just an experiment using Music 2000 to see what effects I could create. I donʼt like it, but I like it to be part of the collection.
Jesus of Nazareth was an experiment using a single sample and manipulating in various ways to produce a range of sounds. The result is a bit harsh but I quite like it. At the time, my working title for the track was “Death Jazz”.
Through The Eye of a Needle was also a experiment to see just how dense I could make a track with Music 2000. It doesnʼt really compare with such things as I Broke My Robot or Aphex Twin.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7fR1htb2U0http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kL3qK9EVvU&feature=fvst
I think this collection is stronger conceptually than musically.
I donʼt even remember registering hardshoulder.com, and these days I use hardshoulder.net.
The cover image is a kind of symbolic disturbed infinity.
Richard Bolam, November 2012http://richardbolamat50.wordpress.comhttp://hardshoulder.net
