For these men devoted to writing, the library was at once the celestial Jerusalem and an underground world on the border between terra incognita and Hades. They were dominated by the library, by its promises and by its prohibitions. They lived with it, for it, and perhaps against it, sinfully hoping one day to violate all its secrets.

The Name Of The Rose

The Tower Menagerie

“It may, however, be observed that in one point the disposition of the Tiger appears to be more cruel than that of the Lion; inasmuch as it is related, that he is not at all times satisfied with a single victim, but deals forth wholesale destruction, without mercy and without distinction, upon whatever may chance to be within the reach of his murderous talons.”

Growing – “Fancy Period”
Color Wheel

A departure from Growing’s usual deafening soundscapes, “Fancy Period” contains more movements than some of their entire albums… which isn’t saying much, but still. It’s a beautiful and hypnotic 12 minutes.

To see men wholly led by affection, admired and censured out of opinion without judgment: an inconsiderate multitude, like so many dogs in a village, if one bark, all bark without a cause: as fortune’s fan turns, if one man be in favour, or commended by some great one, all the world applauds him; if in disgrace, in an instant all hate him, and as at the sun when he is eclipsed, that erstwhile took no notice, now gaze and state upon him.

The Anatomy Of Melancholy

They are universally considered to be the finest ever bred in England, and are now in a most thriving condition.

The Tower Menagerie (Bengal Lion)

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Matmos – “Regicide”
The Civil War

Sonically disorientating and endlessly varied, The opening track of The Civil War is the whole album in miniature. Baffling instrumentation, punchy beats, and unforgiving noise crossed with delicate harmony, and that playful weirdness that seems to permeate every track Matmos has ever made. Must-listen.

Vocabulary: Gothic Gable Edition

enthymeme: an argument in which obvious or known premises are excluded for brevity
cenacle: an upper-floor dining room (esp. where the Last Supper took place)
finial: an ornamental flourish at the top of a spiral, gable, or italic letter
ogival: a diagonal rib of a pointed, Gothic arch (or the arch itself)
viscid: sticky, glutinous, or covered in substance of that kind
cognomen: the third, nick, or family name, originally Roman
crocket: a leaflike ornament found in Gothic architecture
posset: milk curdled with ale or wine, heated and spiced
hypotyposis: a lifelike description or depiction
cinereous: resembling or reduced to ashes
friable: easily crumbled or broken up
glabrous: unnaturally hairless
thurible: a variety of censer