Aleister Crowley, “Liber AL vel Legis” “Tanith” is an eerily empty solo piece by Gen, whose filtered bass solo sidles across a descending figure while vibes float serenely in and out of sight, with mysterious bubbles and boings occasionally punctuating the stillness. Filtered violin scrapes run up the scale, gain in intensity and then disappear. There is a slight distortion on the bass at its peak, a few tremoloed Canadian goose honks on the violin and the piece fades out of sight, stately and reticent. The overall feeling is one of enclosure in perfumed warmth. The song is named after Gen’s dog, a German Shepherd trained to attack if a specific code word was spoken, but it has a wider resonance. The name Tanith is the North African variant of Ashtoreth, the female consort and subordinate of Baal. Ashtoreth (also known as Astarte, Ishtar, Athtar and Nana, among other names) is an ancient Semitic mother-goddess whose cult was widespread across Phoenecia and its Mediterranean colonies, eventually spreading into Babylonia, Arabia and Abyssinia (“Ashtoreth,”
What do You think about Throbbing Gristle's Twenty Jazz Funk Greats (33 1/3)?
